https://www.psaudio.com/blogs/how-to/how-to-make-a-50-pair-of-high-end-xlr-cables?_pos=1&_sid=64203f5ff&_ss=r
I feel your pain. I have purchased Morrow, and Audioquest XLR interconnects at what I consider a tidy sum- over $1000 for 1 meter of the aforementioned. For me this took the fun out of it. It’s copper wire for pete’s sake. When I elected to tri-amp my Bryston model Ts I wanted the woofer amps close to the towers. That meant one interconnect needed to be 20’ long and the other 5’ long. I began to shop new and used - with great frustration and overwhelming costs.
I trust PS Audio and gambled that I could follow their DiY cable instructions and see for myself whether I had blown $300 for nothing or not.
I compared the DiY set I built myself with the Audioquest and Morrows I already owned- swapping L&R and lengths, isolation and careful listening. My conclusion is this: If I had Elon’s money I’d blow 10k on cables and the beautiful wood presentation boxes. Since I’m a poor Surgery guy I actually have to make and follow a budget. My tests concluded thusly: My 61 year old ears (which I have had tested) could not tell a difference between my Morrow, Audioquest and DiY cables.
The next obvious question is what did I connect? My source is a PS Audio Direct Stream Mk I DAC/Streamer into an Audio Research SP15 to an Audio Research VT 130 tube amp driving the mids and tweeters and 2 Bryston 7BSST 700w monoblocks driving the 6 woofers in my Bryston Model Ts. This is a decent rig in my price range that “plays well together”. Maybe for an additional $100k in gear I could discern the difference in cables- but for now I have $300 in 2 pairs of XLRs that Morrow wanted almost $2000 for. Good enough for me!
