Looking for really fine cables at really low price

Mitch

All this wire talk got me to test my Duelund 2.0 vs. standard 12 ga Linn wire.

The shelved down talk is about right.

The harmonic structure is MUCH better preserved with the Duelund. Which I always attributed to stranded copper chopping up the sound. Duelund solid silver does not.

But WE is stranded although only 25 strands (for 16ga)

Mikirob

The question is why?

I can not say for sure why my Duelund Silver 2.0 sounds good. I can speculate.

Stranded wire sounds all chopped up. The high freq suffers the least. So one might think stranded wire has more "air"

The harmonic structure is very well preserved in solid silver. (better than WE?)

No idea!

The question is why is WE wire so good? The tin? If so you have opened a can of worms? 25 strands? Much less strands than standard tiny stranded wire.

If less strands is better why not one solid? (copper or silver)

Volleyguy1
Do yourself a favor and go to Jeff Day Blog at jeffsplace.me and read his change in his Dueland Cast to the Western Electric 16ga to his Tannoy Westminster Royals...read the rest of his material WE wire his Macs, Garrard 301, and his other stuff. Extremely informative. In case you don't know Jeff formerly reviewed for 6 Moons and currently for Positive Feedback. Most important read all about Shirokazu Yazaki-san, the designer of the SS SPEC Real Sound amplifier reviewed in Positive Feedback by Jeff Day. Yazaki-San was gracious enough to turn all of us on to the WE 16ga speaker cable and Belden 8402 interconnect; Yazaki-San is a master 300B builder/designer with vast knowledge. He was kind to share his information and has made many folks happy by turning us on to these wires. Many of us have dumped multiple thousan dollar speaker cables and interconnect for the WE and Belden and are ecstatic that we did. Best, Rob

There is certainly something about this wire since so many like it. However, those of us with resolving systems mostly find that, when compared to other good wire, the WE wire doesn't offer the same level of resolution. This doesn't surprise me since we are comparing stranded, tinned, TPC to OCC, silver ribbon (in the case of Dueland) and other well-designed wire. I am surprised it is good enough to consider allowing it to remain in our systems. I have to admit, the midrange has very good timbre and depth and the bass is better than with my reference wire, because the WE provides full-bodied, powerful bass (like my reference) but with out the excessive bloom that can lead to boominess on some material.

I am not a cable fanatic, and the 1% difference in conductivity between TPC and OCC is not likely enough to be audible, but I am surprised how listenable this tinned and stranded wire with plastic dielectric sounds in my system. I suspect there is a combination of things going on and, in this case, maybe two wrongs end up making things sound right.

I am going to construct the Belden ICs, and then another set of speaker cables using the WE 10awg wire I am going to receive this week, and then I am going to go back to my original project and construct another set of speaker cables using Jupiter copper in cotton wire. I have one set of the Jupiter SCs that sound great but they were constructed for my NC1200 monos that I finally decided to sell, so I need a longer set for my stereo amp that I plan on keeping. I am glad I will be able to choose from several offerings that all sound good but none of which cost a ridiculous amount of money.

I know this is all about the WE 16ga wire but I've added to the conversation about the Supra Ply 3.4W speaker wire (which is also tinned stranded copper) and I'm experiencing nothing of the sort being described here as to the too dense midrange and rolled off or shelved highs.

What highs I do have are no longer piercing or etched and lack the air that I thought was natural but now feel is much more accurate. They are articulate and go on in the realm of decay and ambience but no longer shine and shimmer at the expense of body and weight.

As good as the WE 16ga wire is, maybe the Supra is better as it simply gets out of the way of the music and seems, to my ears, to leave no fingerprints.

All the best,
Nonoise