Speaker wire... Diy?

@ddjr ...

Romex you say? What gauge?

!4 or 12 - your choice - but I stress - Romex is just for prototyping - DO NOT use romex wire for long term power cables - it will break if flexed continuously and does not clamp very well in the plugs


Have fun :-)


@lalitk - take a look at this link - these cables are extremely good
http://image99.net/blog/files/category-002ahelix-speaker-cable.html

@musicloveraudio RE:

I love it that people think they can equal at home what takes engineers with decades of experience and 10s of thousands of dollars in testing equipment. If they could only listen to Gen 5 Transparent Audio Reference cable, they would cry.

Yep - at $17000 for speaker cables - it’s the price that made me cry - not the sound quality. But I do agree that TA cables are excellent.

I am not claiming that my Helix cables are as good as Transparent Audio cables - but for the BUDGET CONSIOUS DIYer’s among us, they come a lot closer than many other commercial brands of cables that I have tried. Most of the DIYer’s that have tried them replaced some very highly regarded commercial brands, including Nordost, Cardas, Audioquest, Kimber Kable and a couple of esoteric brand silver cables.

I have spent the last 4-5 years developing the Helix cables and trying different wires, so I agree - it can take a while and a lot of $$$ in wasted wire.

Unfortunately, I do not have the expensive equipment - just my ears AND the ears of those people that decided to take a leap of faith and try the Helix cables and provided feedback pertaining to the different wire types/gauges they had tried.

They have been used on various systems ranging from a $350 mini system, to systems in excess of $70k and in each case I’m told they made a significant improvement.

I have tried all of the wire types listed on the web site. The more expensive wire from Mundorf offers exceptional details, but that is only slightly more detailed than the Duelund wire, which again is only slightly more detailed than the Silver plated Mil-spec wire. It really depends on how crazy you want to get chasing audio nirvana.

DIY is not for everyone - but for those of you that are up for the challenge, Helix cables will offer exceptional performance.

If anyone has any questions just ask - Steve

williewonka writes:

for the BUDGET CONSIOUS

Scroll up and read my post. Pay special attention to how cheap the professionally built cable was. Pay super special attention to how hard this guy worked only to fail at even that low bar.

DIY’ers in other words have it completely backwards. In trying to get more for less they actually get less for more.

I understand Williewonka...you enjoy the challenge.  The issue is that many high end cable companies have offerings that are exceptionally good these days at DIY prices.  My long history with extreme high end gear and cables has given me a bit of perspective regarding this crazy hobby.  You don’t have to spend a fortune to get great sound, but you do need certain items.  Transparent really does address the biggest problems associated with transferring a musical signal.  Their cable Geometry and Network technology actually improves signal transmission and reduces noise.  Most cables do not address these issues or do so ineffectively.  They are one of the few companies that were founded by music loving musicians that put their resources into equipment and research that improves the enjoyment of listening!  They support local symphonies and actually listen to their prototypes on extremely high end Reference equipment.  The best news is that the entry level tiers of Transparent cable outperform most other cables in terms of sheer musicality and naturalness.    

Where's @grannyring when you need him??

Cables interact with the system. There is no guaranteed better. All the various geometries are tone controls. They may sound well in one system/room, no different in another and terrible in a third.

A large reason for the lunacy of the audiophile world is ill educated consumers taking recommendations from ill educated sales persons. Many people have no idea how to assemble a system. That includes most dealers.

NEVER take any recommendation from anyone, anywhere that does not have an identical system, room and TASTE to yours. Only make cable purchases that have OHPNQAMBG - One Hundred Percent No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee.

For examples of how the same cable reacts with different loads and how different cable reacts with the same load see http://ielogical.com/Audio/CableSnakeOil.php. Be sure to read Garen Galeis papers.