Looking for really fine cables at really low price

John421, if you go with something like I have (Supra 3.4W speaker cables), make sure you give them a good 100 hours to break in. Mine were great at 20, even better at 50 and so much better at 100. This applies to all cables (IMHO).

I saw an ad here recently for a pair of Supra 3.4S with only 50 hours on them and if the seller only knew what was in store for him, he would have kept them and then decided if he wanted to keep them or not.

From what I gather here on this thread, it's the formulae of tinned copper stranded wire that works so well, regardless of whether it's NOS or some current brand. As long as it's high quality copper, it shouldn't matter. The technical differences will arise in strand count, gauge, and amp to speaker pairing (that's another whole can of worms). :-)

All the best,
Nonoise

07-19-15: Tbg
John421, all copper cables would be more conductive, especially if the ends are not soldered on.

It is true that the conductivity of tin is roughly about 6 or 7 times lower than the conductivity of copper. However, to provide a quantitative perspective on that difference in the context of the WE speaker wire, and assuming (as I suspect) that the layer of tin comprises just a small fraction of the cross-sectional area of each strand of the wire, consider that the difference in conductivity and hence resistance between that wire and a hypothetical similar wire made of all copper would be vastly overshadowed if the copper/tin combo were simply made one gauge size larger.

And in many cases the conductivity and resistance of a speaker cable of reasonable gauge won't matter anyway, especially if speaker impedance is not particularly low and cable length is not particularly long.

07-19-15: John421
Would todays tin/copper cables have the same affect as the Western Electric style cables?

Sorry, but I have no idea. And I doubt that anyone else can say with any kind of certainty, unless they have compared the WE with a variety of modern tin/copper cables, and with a variety of speakers and amplifiers.

Regards,
-- Al

Crimson audio out of Austin Texas
Incredible sonics

Creston Funk and his son Creston
Great stuff. Great value

Check out Stereo-Lux interconnects from Germany. They are highly regarded among the industry insiders.

A few questions before I jump in. If I understand correctly, the WE 16ga speaker wire tends to get more lively (brighter ?) as it burns in. But, that might be cured by doubling the run. What about the Belden 8402 IC? Does it also become brighter also as it burns in. My preference is to keep body to the music. Thx!