[whubbard]

Time for some testing trials of my DIY cables. (I refuse to mention cables/powercables in the title)
I've recently purchased a Morrow Audio MAP2 and I'm going to be comparing it to my DIY Ven Haus 4 cables.

Note the size difference 

Before I go on, I would like to say that the only purpose of these tests is to see if my DIY cables stand up to other well known cables. I really don't want to argue as to wether or not cables make a real difference in a system. Also, I do not believe in cable break in. I will let the MAP2 'break-in', but I don't personally think this matters, nor do I believe I will be able to tell the difference after 100 hours, so I won't try to.

Construction:
Well the first thing to note is that both the cables use the same wattgate connectors.
The MAP2 is 3 braided sets of 3 small cables as best I can tell.
My DIY cable (Ven Haus 4) is Canare Star Quad, surrounded by a garden hose, with a 10ga ground wire wrapped around it.

Onto testing...
The first test was to see if the MAP2 lowered the noise floor. So, SPL meter in hand, I cranked the volume to full. measured, then swapped cables, measured. I repeated this a few times and the measurements were the same. Meter was a Galaxy CM-140. Okay, this doesn't say much, but is nice to know.

More listening tests to come latter...

-West

[schastleevo]

Now that you've spent some more time with the compairison have you come to any conclusions. I've been searching for some power cords for my system, & was interested in your results.

[whubbard]

Just stumbled across this old thread of mine and realized I never properly updated it.

I could notice no difference between the two two cables. My Ven Haus 4 Cables are huge and certainly uglier; but performed excellently. The MAP2 was easier to work with, but also more expensive. The MAP2 cables went back to Morrow Audio and the DIY cables are still in my system to this day.

-West

[JohnR]

Nice to hear from you, West. Did you make your ICs and speaker cables too?

[schastleevo]

Nice to hear your conclusions, it's been a while & I forgot about this thread. I decided to go with the Morrow MAP3 cables in my system. It was very close to the Harmonic Technology PRO-AC11 cables. But since the Morrow's were at half price, just about where the PRO-AC11s were; & the theory that the Morrows would improve with time/breakin I decided to go with them. If the Morrow's weren't on sale then I would have gone with the Harmonic Tech cables, it was very close.

Now I'm on to upgrading the speaker, & interconnect cables. Once the second Bryston 4BST arrives I can use this in my system for biamplification.

[whubbard]

John,

Yes I did. My speaker wires are twisted cross-connected (I believe that's the right term) Belden 89259 with Cardas spade lugs, and my interconnects are Belden 89259 with Eichmann bullet plugs. I haven't tried any other speaker wires as mine are hard wired to my Orions and there's six of them; but my Belden 89259 interconnects are the best I've tried.

Also, Schastleevo, I must say it's pretty odd Morrow Audio is always on a 50% off sale (I think he's dropped it to 35% now), but if it lasts for 2 years, its not seriously a sale, just the list price. He's a very nice man to deal with, just odd marketing.