Looking for really fine cables at really low price

Grannyring, Great to hear that you are having success with the WE 6ga interconnects and digital cable. I cant wait to hear more about your journey as you put more hours on these WE cables.

With about 200 hours my WE16ga Interconnects are regaining that hi frequency clarity that I heard at 150 hours. I have also been trying the belden again and are liking their sound as well. They both have good synergy with the 16ga WE speaker cable. Not going to draw any firm conclusions about any of this at this point since the WE IC's could still be changing.

Salectric, thanks for sending that article. I understand the conclusion he draws. Last night I tried returning the Kondo IC's to its rightful owner but he said just hold on to them...this is great news since they do offer a reference point for a very balanced sonic perspective.

Jet, I can relate to your experience with the Kondo interconnect. In my case, my normal cable for phono-to-linestage is an Ocellia Silver Reference. I have compared it many times to several cables that use Belsen 8402 that are wired up with all sorts of RCA plugs some with the ground shield connected and some not. The Ocellia is superior in many ways including inner detail, smoothness in tonal balance, extension in the frequency extremes, and size of soundstage. BUT the best of the Beldens has such a lively, dynamic sound that it ends up being more fun to listen to. I would not want to be without either one since I can swap one or the other in depending on my mood.

I am withholding comments on the WE 16g wires since my wires were not fully broken in when I tried them a while back. I have a set of WE 16g wires breaking in on my video system so I should be able to try them again soon. I am hoping they may find a home as the internal wiring for my high-efficiency speakers, but in order to do that they will need to displace the 12g silver-coated copper Mil-Spec wires that I am using now. The 12g Mil-Spec has beaten all others so far including Neotech silver and Neotech copper.

It is so annoying that a week ago Phduncanson and I were so taken with the amazing sound of my WE16 interconnects. The mids and lows were so rich clean and involving and then soon after they retreat into a shell and are at this point refusing to come back out. This is a journey indeed. I'm not a happy camper. I have some of that 22gauge solid core WE wire coming from tajacobs...just to complicate matters :)

Good review. As I read it, I thought of the analogy with video. I have movies that I have watched dozens of times, but not one of those has any special effects. They are great stories with great acting. Special effects are nice for a one off watch.

With audio, and you see this through so many posts, many of us are trying to get to the heart and soul of the music. What real benefit is imaging that goes way beyond anything I hear in live music? No, its about timbre and PRAT for me.

My living room has a very lively acoustic. If the WEs have a bit of a rolled off top end, it is not manifesting itself in this room. As for low frequency, well, I'm using monitors anyway, so no wire is going to deliver a 25 Hz C. The belden IC went in yesterday. Once all of this settles in and gets a couple weeks of playing time, I will bring a decent source downstairs and see what I really have.

Wonder if some of the uber expensive cable makers are getting a little nervous?

In many respects I agree with the Positive Feedback Review by Wojciech Pacuła of the WE16ga and Belden 8402. The important part for me was this thought: "And again—when I asked the right question it didn't take me long to find an answer. Both cables offered amazingly rich, "mature" midrange—so incredibly good that the only comparison I could think of were the best amplifiers with Western Electric 300B triodes on board. Please notice—it is not about THE BEST SOUND in general, but THE BEST SOUND OF THAT KIND. The one that many of us could live with happily ever after. Sound is remarkably palpable, it is presented close to the listener, it is immersively rich. It's been a while since I heard such an incredibly rich sound here. Mr Yazaki wrote about how "organic" his system sounded like with these cables and now I knew what he meant—it was absolutely remarkable. These cables offer a wonderfully coherent presentation with properly balanced proportion between basic sound and harmonics. They are also phase coherent which results in fantastic spacing effects. Both IC and speaker cable are remarkable, not the best ones there are, but the only ones of their kind."

Then I paused, laughed my evil laugh, couldn't stop for several minutes. When I came to my senses I was struck with this thought: this article sums up perfectly, in my opinion, precisely where the audiophile world has gone off the rails. The descriptors of Yazaki-san style of listening is my own, Jeff Day fellow Positive Feedback Reviewer, describe it as "Timbral Listening", his preferred listening style as well; and I would propose that this style of listening is legion, but not well served by the Audiophile world that places undo emphasis on "sound" rather than serving the "music." The further emphasis on "extended" highs to the ninth degree, or "bass" as described by Audiophile Reviewers is not real bass to me and I am a bass player (much too little space or time here to fully expound my view on this matter).

Then I laugh some more at audiophile values, geez: "I compared them to my reference cables: Siltech Royal Signature Series Double Crown Empress IC and Tara Labs Omega Onyx speaker cable." Holy cow, sound I do not prefer, that cost multiple thousands up against a type of sound that I prefer (300B), that cost less than Two Hundred Dollars for the "BEST SOUND OF THAT KIND." More brick and mortar audio stores would still exist if there was more "best sound of that kind" at WE/Belden cost. It would be "back to the future" where nearly every home had a decent audio system, students would still have those nice dorm-room smaller system with good music/sound. Best, Rob