The Quality of DIY..
Jun 28, 2005 at 6:52 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 60
-Paolo-

-Paolo-

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I'm beginning to look into DIY Projects. More of the CMoy amps and cables.

I was wondering what the quality was of these projects, especially the cables...

I'm trying to convice my dad for a soldering kit and any equiment I need for these projects, but I'm still curious about the quality of the sound the Cables would produce...

Thanks in advance.
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 7:51 PM Post #3 of 60
You can make very high quality cables when soldering. The quality of the cable you build depends on what material you are going to use. I'm sure you can build a high quality cable for less that it would cost to buy one. But if you count the cost of the tools you need to get started with DIY, just building your cable isn't that cheap. But on the other hand it is nice to have a soldering kit, so that you never have to worry about cables going bad again. Just open them up and fix the joints!

DIY is fun and addictive. If you ever start building amps chances are you're going to want to build alot more... First maybe a Cmoy, then a mint, then a pimeta (you can see where I'm going with this)

I just finished my first amp and It feels nice to be able to build something that sounds so good on your own
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 8:05 PM Post #4 of 60
Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01
The sound quality of DIY cables is negligible if any different, but the build will be better than a cable that comes with a DVD player.


Any you base you statement on what exactly?

If you use nice expensive materials and know what your doing how is the sound quality of the cable going to be negligible?

-Alex-
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 8:30 PM Post #5 of 60
Quote:

Originally Posted by l_simon_l
You can make very high quality cables when soldering. The quality of the cable you build depends on what material you are going to use. I'm sure you can build a high quality cable for less that it would cost to buy one. But if you count the cost of the tools you need to get started with DIY, just building your cable isn't that cheap. But on the other hand it is nice to have a soldering kit, so that you never have to worry about cables going bad again. Just open them up and fix the joints!

DIY is fun and addictive. If you ever start building amps chances are you're going to want to build alot more... First maybe a Cmoy, then a mint, then a pimeta (you can see where I'm going with this)

I just finished my first amp and It feels nice to be able to build something that sounds so good on your own
smily_headphones1.gif



Plus the equipment wasn't as expensive as I thought it was...

Are they any hazards I should know of?
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 8:41 PM Post #9 of 60
Quote:

Originally Posted by [AK]Zip
Any you base you statement on what exactly?

If you use nice expensive materials and know what your doing how is the sound quality of the cable going to be negligible?

-Alex-


it's subjective isnt it? some people have the opinion that they can hear a larger difference in cables then others. i know i can hear the difference between rubbish and "ok". i dont think i could confidently say i can tell the difference between "ok" and "good" in purely objective listening tests. i can say though that i've thought i was listening to a nice "well specced" cable, when it turned out i was listening to the sort of cable that comes in the bottom of the box of a $30 dvd player.

what's a lot more important for me is quality, weight/size, tactility, strength, of my connectors and cables.
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 8:54 PM Post #11 of 60
Quote:

Originally Posted by [AK]Zip
Any you base you statement on what exactly?

If you use nice expensive materials and know what your doing how is the sound quality of the cable going to be negligible?

-Alex-


How much better does a cable make a component sound? .001% .5%, 1% maybe? You can't polish a turd. You can use the best materials and know what you are doing and it will only sound as good as the source or amp. Are you telling me a good cable can make everything sound 25-50% better? By negligible, I mean it will not do wonders to a system.

edit: I wasn't even getting into the fact that cable differences are subjective, which is true IMO.
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 8:57 PM Post #12 of 60
Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01
You can't polish a turd.


but what if you silver coat it and litz braid it?
orphsmile.gif
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 9:16 PM Post #13 of 60
Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01
How much better does a cable make a component sound? .001% .5%, 1% maybe? You can't polish a turd. You can use the best materials and know what you are doing and it will only sound as good as the source or amp. Are you telling me a good cable can make everything sound 25-50% better? By negligible, I mean it will not do wonders to a system.

edit: I wasn't even getting into the fact that cable differences are subjective, which is true IMO.


It is all subjective I completly agree. I just don't agree with you saying it makes little to no difference. If you have a really nice source/amp/headphones, but you cables are crap you will hear the difference. I won't put the difference in a % format because people have different level of hearing. To me it makes a big difference to others it may not but then again we aren't using the same cable / setup. But all in all to me the source and amp is much much more inportant.

-Alex-
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 9:37 PM Post #14 of 60
Quote:

Originally Posted by -Paolo-
Plus the equipment wasn't as expensive as I thought it was...

Are they any hazards I should know of?


Well, if you are goint to build amps, troubleshooting is a pain in the butt, but you will learn from every error, and this forum is great for asking questions.

If you are interested in getting into DIY, get the equipment and you won't regret it.
 
Jun 28, 2005 at 10:06 PM Post #15 of 60
Ble0t, great link, great reading it all, I'm going to school for electromechanical engineering and all that he said sounds accurate. Cheers
 
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