home made speaker cable vs. the big boys

Sdcampbell, how are you? You've now had the HomeGrown Audio silver interconnects for about a month now? What are your impressions? Are you using tube gear? I have found the cable to be stellar with tube equipment. Extended, clear, open, yet liquid. But the solid core silver prevents it from being bright(at the expense of flexibility). For those of you who don't know about this product, it is a teflon insulated, 22 ga. solid silver interconnect. It is a copy of Kimber KCAG, using solid silver conductors(instead of Kimber stranded). And, it is sold for $70 for a 1 m terminated cable! You can also braid & and solder it yourself for $40. Hopefully, we will one day see a wire revolution. But, it cannot happen without our realization of the scam the wire companies have committed on our hobby.

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.