Cat 5 cables, your experience

I tried a friends in my setup (the full blown CAT 5's) and $3/ft Kimber Kable 4VS sounded quite a bit better as far as balance and general musical enjoyment goes. The 5's exhibited a compressed, uneven quality (lot's of bass, but also lacking detail in this area), somewhat recessed mids, blurred transients on piano and percussive instruments and generally raspy HF's compared to the Kimber Kable (which is no jewel in this area either). This was in an Audion 300B SET tube based system with Reynaud Twin's and a CAL/Bel Canto 1.0 DAC combo for the source. Perhaps this was system related or due to poor construction, but all that I can say based on these auditions is that the designs are not my cup of tea. On the other hand many people seem to love them in their setups, so go figure.

Dekay, you bring up a good point. When you start getting into DIY cables like Chris' CAT 5 design, you are not only comparing the design of that cable but the overall construction and quality of parts used.

I purchased both sets of these that i have from different individuals. Not only do they have different brands of connectors on them, they look different in terms of braiding and measure differently in terms of impedance. As such, this could account for much of the variances in system compatability and personal preference that one reads about with these cables. Sean
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I braded up a short section to use on my Center. Set it up as a bi-wire. Sound improvement is there, but minimal.

Truth:

Maybe try some solid core Magnet Wire (from Radio Shack) on the short/front speaker runs (26 guage is my favorite and it comes with three guages on a roll for $3.99)? You could try the larger guage as well (some like it). If you do this I find it to work better in single runs (don't twist it as in other designs, to start - you can always try this later). There is more info on Magnet Wire in the Audioasylum.com Cable Forum. If it does work in your setup there is high quality Magnet Wire from other sources (such as Michael Percy) and it is still inexpensive.