That would no doubt be the better solution for these types of objects Randy...

with splines you can position them close together, and/or further apart depending, to gain the effect that the cord is bunched up at certain points, as well stretched out a certain points, like a real world cord often is, and moving around points on a spline for the deform, is a much more intuitive method to achieve most any shape...

However, you are right in that this is a fairly expensive plugin for this type of object... ikes..

note... Webtricity 2 contains Simply 3D, Picture Publisher 8, some pretty decent textures etc... all for 10 bucks on ebay just a thought