Topic: CAT-5 speaker cable DIY page

[Nick's Picks]

interesting design.
A LOT less work than the link I posted.

i'm scrapping the project as my cable designer is making me some new ones.
Which will free up an 8' pair of single ended cables.  ( I need a 10' pair)

My guy is named Gregg Stralley.
The cable is custom made, and looks like red licorice.  The sound is VERY high end.  Now, i've never heard $1500 speaker cables, but he has...and he and his Chicago audiophile group (they get together and listen to each others systems) all agree that the licorice sounds every bit as good as any cable up to that price point, and then you have to start picking hairs to find a better one.
His designs were mapleshade influenced...but best those cables too.  I tell you what, (hank hill), I fully believe him w/o doubt.
Realisticly, alll I know for sure is that there was no comparring them against the MIT term 2s 3s and 4s that i've had.  It was like cleaning my ears when I introduced them into my system.

I'm fluffing a bit here so that someone can go to him for some cables.  Not sure what he charges...and maybe i'll get a chance to loan out my extras before he takes them back.  He is cheap, considering.  I think maybe under two hundred.

I've got a pair of ICs if anyone wants to try them.  I"ve put them up against a bunch of cables and they smoke. 
All of his stuff is cryo'd.  They bested my favorite IC, which was the Boulder Cable M-80 w/custom bullet ends and also cryo'd.

[spott]

I made these in 98 "sans" bannana clips at the end on some B&W 600 series speakers and people told me I was crazy, but they sounded damn good.  Alas considering the price for a box of cat5, you could get some Audio Magic type 4 non-terminated that should produce the same / similar results.

[jpschust]

cat 5 is so cheap right now since everyone is moving to wireless.  compgeeks had a great deal on it a while ago- like 50 bucks for a box and crimper.

[Daryan]

<<
i'm really happy with mine, i think they sound great.  i've had a chance to compare them with a pair of mit terminators (thanks trey) and they were significantly better in every respect, the bass was extended a bit and more refined, the midrange was a bit clearer and the highs seemed less bright and more natural.  they were definately worth all the time i put into making them.>>

I just plugged these in as I finished them late last night, and I completely agree with this right out of the box.  The brittle harshness I had gotten used to in the high end is history...and they are silky smooth!  I am using a modified panasonic xr-45 (really modified!), and a pair of jonny's old swan diva 4.1's fwiw!

Highly reccomended, but they took forever!

Daryan

[jpschust]

biamping those divas sounds unreal.  even just biwiring.

[Daryan]

I think I am going to order some more cat 5 and make some a bi wire pair...or else just take the banana's off and redo the ends for bi wire...I haven't decided yet.  I will probably just make some new ones.  Living in a state all alone sucks but this gives me something to stay occupied at least. 

[jpschust]

i thought you and justine lived together?

[Daryan]

Long story short...she found a great opportunity for a job in Colorado, and I was NOT leaving the situation I am in prefessionally at the moment.  If I play my cards right, and that meaned staying here unfortunately, I will be at a 6 figure income within 3 years.  I am currently an associate agent for State Farm, and should be an Agency intern within 365 days.  I was just named top producing associate in the heartland zone, which is a huge deal to say the least.  However, Justine was not happy in her job here, and I actually encouraged her to go as it was the right thing to do, whatever makes her happy.  Thus, our relationship is on a huge hold, as I have tried the ld thing and it doesn't work at all...meaning I am living alone, 600 miles from her, and 1000 miles from home, and I don't really know anyone here.  Dammit!

[Daryan]

Jonny,

Whe you say bi-amping, can you explain further.  I am assuming this means two seperate amps, and with the price of the digital amps these days, I can see this as a real possibility.  If I were to boa-mp using two seperate amps, how would this be set-up?    How would I feed the same digital signal to both amps at the same time...splitter?

Jonny, thanks for all of the help!

Daryan

[jpschust]

well there is bi amping and bi wiring.

bi amping means 2 amps.  if you are using one of the sony didi amps this is going to be difficult because you would have to send a digi signal to one sony amp and an anakog signal to the other amp (i presume you dont want to use two digi amps).  Bi wiring means that you aare running from one set of speaker outs into both ins on the speaker- 2 plugs on one end, 4 on the other

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

More than you ever wanted to know about bi-amping:

http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm

[Daryan]

This may be a dumb question, but how does one physically do this crossover thing they speak of for bi-amping?  Second question, then it's time to do some work...would it be possible to run digitally into both units using a splitter and still bi-amp?

Daryan

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

You use an analog crossover between the preamp and amps.  It's a device designed to pass/block frequencies.   Your speakers have a passive crossover inside to send highs, mids, and lows to their respective drivers. To do a bi-amp setup you need bi-wireable speakers that allow you to bypass the cross over on the lower range and send low frequency power to the woofers directly.   Many highend biamping systems use an active crossover.

You can split the coax signal into two digital amps, but I'm not sure that you will get a benefit.  The benefit of the bi amp setup is achieved by segregating the upper and lower frquencies before the amplifiers.  I think that site I referenced touches on this aspect and why it is desirable.  If you split the digital signal and send it to two digital amps, each amp is still producing power output for the entire spectrum, so the benefit of the above is not there.  If you were to do this, you would have to perform signal processing on the digital signal to split the frequency bands.  That is not trivial and I'm not sure that digital amps would benefit in the same way as an analog amp. 


Google is your friend.

[scervin]

Long story short...she found a great opportunity for a job in Colorado, and I was NOT leaving the situation I am in prefessionally at the moment.  If I play my cards right, and that meaned staying here unfortunately, I will be at a 6 figure income within 3 years.  I am currently an associate agent for State Farm, and should be an Agency intern within 365 days.  I was just named top producing associate in the heartland zone, which is a huge deal to say the least.  However, Justine was not happy in her job here, and I actually encouraged her to go as it was the right thing to do, whatever makes her happy.  Thus, our relationship is on a huge hold, as I have tried the ld thing and it doesn't work at all...meaning I am living alone, 600 miles from her, and 1000 miles from home, and I don't really know anyone here.  Dammit!

Looks like I'm gonna quit my engr job at GM and go sell insurance!!!

[jpschust]

slingin insurance, esp whole life insurance ain't all it's cracked up to be.

whole life insurance= quite often the biggest rip off ever.