home made speaker cable vs. the big boys

Trelja,you are so darn right about the scam the wire companies have committed to our hobby.TARA LABS can write all the white papers they want.They lead with one of the major scams of all time.The isolated shield matrix.What a load of crap.This is a statement from one of their adds.HIT "PAUSE" AND TURN THE VOLUME UP... HEAR IT? THATS THE NOISE FLOOR,CAUSED BY RADIO FREQUENCY INTERFERENCE IN YOUR AUDIO SIGNAL. IF YOU HAD TARA LABS ISM CABLES WITH THE ISOLATED FLOATING SHIELD ALL YOU'D HEAR IS ... NOTHING. WELL I DONT HAVE TARA LABS AND GUESS WHAT WHEN I HIT PAUSE I HEAR NOTHING.I HAVE A BELDEN 89259 CONNECTED WITH WBT LOOK ALIKE RCA AND NOTHIN I HEAR NOTHING.COST OF BUILDING THIS CABLE ABOUT 50.00.NO NOISE NOTHING.I USE THESE MOSTLY IN MY HT SYSTEM.IN MY 2 CHANNEL SET UP I USE COINCIDENT SPEAKER TECH 1 M RCA.299 US LIST.THEY ARE THE BEST I HAVE EVER HEARD.AND GUESS WHAT THEY DONT MAKE ANY NOISE EITHER.I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST ANYONE MAKING MONEY.BUT WHEN YOU RUN A SCAM THAT IS MORE PROFITABLE THAN TRAFICKING IN ILEGAL DRUGS I HAVE A PROBLEM.AND THE AUDIO PRESS IS AS MUCH TO BLAME.ITS GREAT TO SEE THE HOMEGROWN AUDIO,COINCIDENT,AND SO MANY OF THE OTHER PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO ARE SAYING.i CAN SELL YOU A CABLE FOR 300.00 AND MAKE A VERY NICE LIVING.THERE IS NO NEED TO RIP PEOPLE OFF AND CHARGE 3000.00 FOR A CABLE THAT IS NO BETTER THAN THE 299.00 OR 499.00 OR 75.00 DIY.THE ONLY REASON IS GREED.THIS HOBBY DOES BRING OUT THE GREED AND THE AUDIO MAGS WOULD DIE ON THE VINE IF THEY LOST THE ADD MONEY FROM THE CABLE COMPANIES.BRING YOUR 100.00 CABLE WITH YOU TRY IT OUT AGAINT THE 2000.00 IF THE DEALER WILL LET YOU.

Trelja/SDCampbell - I also purchased a pair of the Homegrown Audio Silver interconnects. I only got them this weekend, and haven't had much chance to listen to my system. How long would you say these cables took to "burn in"? Right out of the box, I thought the top end was a bit bright compared to the AQ Emeralds I was using. Then again, it could be the AQ's were defficient in this area. These being the only tow cbales I've used in my system, I do not have an "absolute reference". BTW, I am using these with a BAT VK5SE and Aronov monoblocks driving Sf Guarneri speakers.

Prehaps this is getting off track but I have to agree with the people saying cable prices are clearly robbing people. I worked for a (non audio) producing cable company and we sold Aero-Spec spec'd (teflon) cables to end users at about $3.00 dollars a foot. Now that was list price. Some supplier bought much cheaper. Teflon is not cheap and it's also tough to work with. Now here is the kicker for non teflon cables using PVC, PolyPro, jackets or conductor insulation we sold cable at for CENTS ON THE DOLLAR, 50,000 ft runs mins. Now can you make better I'm not sure, but if I was looking for a deal I would call company's like AIW, BIW, Carol, Belden, Triangle, Rockbestos, ect. someone has to make cables for these Audio companies and they just have it private labled. Find the company and work a deal to get there over runs.

Alexc, they maybe MORE forward than AudioQuest cables. Both are solid core construction, with smaller diameter conductors, to minimize "skin effect". AudioQuest cables, to me, are dead in the middle cables. MIT(not good with tubes, IMO), on the easy side, Kimber and WireWorld on the forward side. HomeGrown do not exhibit the harshness of Kimber. You should give the cables a few weeks of listening. You may wake up one day next month and say, "Wow! These cables are great. Everything is there". Actually, your AQ are quite good. To me, as good as most of the exotic stuff. Just doesn't have the "newness" of the new megabuck cables. By the way, what type of tubes do you have in your power amps? You may be able to smooth things out via pre and/or power amp tubes.

I've made Homegrown Audio solid silver cables from their $39.00 kit. Used high content silver solder and, except for some slight lack of bass in a direct comparison to AQ Quartz, they were just as good if not better through the rest of the range. I just turned up the subwoofers a bit and compensated. They are a great bargain. Had them for over two months so I have a good feel for what they can do. The kits even come braided now. Their burn in wasn't really that long - I think they peaked after about 20 hours or so. I used Atma-Sphere MP1 and Golden Tube SEP1 preamps with Atma-Sphere MA2 MKII rev 2 monoblocks. Both CD and vinyl comparisons. I also tried them on my turntable with less success. During a conversation with Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere I asked him what the factory uses for their "reference" speaker wire. Answer was Belden copper microphone wire. The reason the cable companies get away with legal robbery is because YOU (meaning all of us in this hobby me included) let them get away with it. Do any of us really think that they would continue to try to traffic, er market, $1K+ interconnects or $10K+ speaker wires if nobody would buy them - especially when they literally cost pennies on the dollar to produce at the high volume levels they turn out? Their marketing and advertising budgets are enormous and they drive the amrket. You can get pure silver three braided strand cable for $25/meter right now from Thailand. The company's only caveat is that they don't recommend lengths over 5 meters. Just terminate and have at it. And they're making a profit. Every cable has some effect - its own sonic signature (or lack thereof?). But every totally blind test done (very few people will ever take part in these type of tests, especially if they are in the industry) yields surprising results. Yes, you can hear subtle differences between speaker cables or interconnects, but the "high priced spread" doesn't necessarily come out on top. I would not bet against a really good home made interconnect or speaker wire. You'll NEVER hear hundreds or even THOUSANDS of dollars of difference and just as often as not you will think more in terms of relative equivalency while noting that some cables have cleaner treble while others offer more bass extension. Once you've been burned in one of these comparisons you'll know why the "pros" at the magazines never take part in them. Besides the loss in advertising revenue..............