Are DIY Cables Worth It?

Whether your asking from a performance or enjoyment standpoint only you can decide if it's worth your time. Are you considering it so you can save money and time or because they could sound like $2000 cables?

I built one Chris Ven Haus's Flavor 4 power cords because I wanted to learn, I thought it would be fun, and wanted to see how $180 in parts would sound compared to some of the other PCs I had at the time.

Before undertaking it, I thought the project would be worth it because I thought it would be fun. And it was.

Oh, I definitely think it would be fun as a project, but I also don't want to spend $100 on materials and 4 hours of time to get cables that sound as good as something I could have paid $20 for at Circuit City.

Here's the thing, I would like to have good quality cables, and I also think there would be added enjoyment from saying that I MADE those cables. I'm just wondering if from the technical specs on the web page they list you can tell whether I'll be making good cables that are worth my time or crappy ones.

Look up Jon Risch's posts on Audio Asylum DIY forum. There are some good examples. I've built some of the simple ones and they sound great. The thing is, you CAN go to bestbuy (not circuit city) and still get the AR blue cables that Sam Tellig raved about some time ago. And they ARE around 20 bucks a pair, all finished and ready to go. The satisfaction of making something yourself is something it's hard to put a price on. As is the satisfaction of finding something good, already made and cheaply priced. Anyway those are my experiences. Good luck!

It looks like the answer to my original question is no.

I assembled a pair of the VH Audio Chela speaker cables you are mentioning. I spent some extra on nice WBT spade terminations with it.

It took me half an evening to put together due to the many wires to strip.

The sound is to my ears very neutral, and they replaced a pair of Acoustic Zen Satori cables, which are somewhat warmer sounding but the Chela cables sound more detailed and airy with more spacious sound.

I haven't auditioned any $2000 speaker cables but I can't imagine taking the Chela cables out of my system, they are I believe to be that good. I have a pretty resolving system with Yamamoto 45 SET amp and single driver Omega speakers and a Transporter music server.