you must be joking those does look good, but i doubt it sounds as good as it looks.

i couldn't agree on that, i brought cable for their characteristic and sound and not look. Ya networking might teach u how to spot a bad cable, but it doesn't teach you how to spot a good or bad sounded cable. It's your ear which can decide that.

Since you care about the look of the cable rather than listen to them, then i don't suppose your ear can make much decision. Hope you enjoy looking at your system

i couldn't agree more, DIY is definitely a starting point. It does beat the crap out of any other cable if you do it correctly.

I started off with DIY also, as your components get better, you will realised that the DIY cable is no longer good enough and reach a point where there is no better way to improve on the cable.

Then come the commercial cable for your solution. Try them out, if you hear improvement, oh that is when the poison comes in, you'll keep thinking of it

then it boils down to how u define 'hand terminate' and the tools they use. I can't elaborate more as i have never seen them soldering. It is the material of the lead, the connector, the cable and the soldering 'technique' that made the difference. Not sure wat technique, but i think it does matter.

empire23: try google on OCC copper (http://www.vhaudio.com/images/occ.jpg)
and Cryogenic Treatment (http://www.vhaudio.com/cryo.html)

do u think your high end belden will bother doing that on the cable?

i believe there are more treatments and the processes available of how the cable is made being kept secret by cable maker. That's why they don't bother explaining why their 99.99999% silver cable is different from others. They'll prefer your ears to do the judgement. Of course in your case, it doesn't matter cause mathematically and physically, to you they are the same. As long as you put some exotic shoe lace to beautify it, it's great to you

eventually i have tried the DIY cat5 with some cheapo made in china OFC cat5 cable, and it sucks the sound is bright, and edgy. I won't bother trying it with belden.

Again, theory and science doesn't you how to make thing sounds nice. That is why there is no such software which can evaluate whether a music sound nice or not. Why don't u try explaining with maths and physics how to make audio sounds good without listening to it how to tell if Emi Fujita's voice is better or Cai Qin without listening to it

tachi: ya those are the KNOWN technology, i believe there are more techniques that are NOT KNOWN to the public.

The fact is you can't prove these cables are of equal purity