home made speaker cable vs. the big boys

I made all my own power cables, interconnects, and speaker wire. It all cost me about $200 and destroyed my $5000 worth of MIT stuff. I use all solid core wire from home depot but use high quality ends. Yeah some people give me this snotty how can that work attitude. But they shut up real fast when they hear my system and it devistates systems that cost twice as much. And just think how much better it will sound when I put the money I saved into a new front end. No after market wire will sound better then the difference that that high of a jump in digital gear will make! But you have to experiment with gauge size so don't give up.

You can make cable equal to ANY manufacturer. Two others to try are HomeGrown Audio or Orca Design. From HomeGrown you can buy copper wire for $0.39/ft or siver wire for 2.80(or $1.80 for 50+ ft)/ft. Both copper and silver are 22 gauge solid core, 99.999% pure, and teflon insulated. Basically, Kimber's copper or silver wire; only solid core(sounds MUCH better), rather than stranded. However, the improvement in sound in going from stranded to solid comes at a price, it is more difficult to braid(but the results are more than worth it). Orca Design is the importer for Axon wire. They also supply some of the highest of high end companies with speaker components(in case you're scared of their unknown name). Components such as Focal drivers, Solen and SCR capacitors, etc. I believe they are the same company that makes JMLabs speakers. You can buy a product which is basically Audioquest Indigo or Midnight(depending on the gauge you buy), for $1/ft for the thicker one(11 ga.). You can also buy the single conductor insulated wire used in this cable, and roll your own. Axon also sells connectors that are better than you find on a lot of wire(gold plated copper, not gold plated brass), for $1 - 2! In fact, they carry locking RCA connectors that seem identical to WBT for $4.64! And if, you want to copy someone else's that's easy too. You can buy Axon, or even MIT's wire(among other companies - available, believe it or not) and make your own cable. Of course, you will save a truckload of money.

JMLabs makes their own speakers, and are the parent company of Focal (not that Focal are the "best"). My MIT stuff destroyed your power cord, Kacz, no offense. I already have two frontends better than yours, and my system will destroy yours with 14 inch cannons, blah blah blah...this is fun...

Here is another link to cables. http://marc.stager.com/silver/

Thanks for the clarification, Carl! I haven't followed the whole corporate relationship as closely as I should have. My interest was always on the hobbyist end of their business, not the finished speakers. In the past, I have built speakers using Solen, SCR, Axon, and Focal components. I found some of the Focal drivers not the best to my ears(generally the tweeters). I am not saying they are not first quality, or the equal to anyone else's, just not right for me/my tastes. SCR caps were the best when a high capacitor value was needed. I preferred the sound of SCR to Solen in direct comparison. SCR used a 7 micron film, Solen used a 5 micron film(not that that is the reason I preferred SCR). For lower value capacitors( < 20 microfarad), as well as inductors and resistors, I preferred products from other companies. Back to the topic at hand, I adamantly feel we can equal the big guys' cables. The finest materials must be used, not Home Depot "electrical grade" copper. At least as important as the materials is the geometry of the wire - all of which is easy to reproduce, in most cases. Wire geometry is often what distinguishes one company's wire from another. And the determining factor in why a cable sounds great in one system, poor in another. The markup(from raw material acquisition all the way to customer purchase) is as obscene as anything in this field. If this was in a typical industry(i.e. one driven by economics, rather than status and emotions - or even mass or mid grade electronics), first grade copper interconnect would be less than $30/m, silver less than $100/m(both with typical generous industrial markup). We have even heard manufacturers claim their $1000 cable could be easily marketed for $100, but it would never be able to viewed of having the same "sound" as the other $1000 cables by the "audiophile community". Good Luck to all of us DIYers!!!