Looking for really fine cables at really low price

Maxima9, I agree. I plan on building a shielded version. Currently I am running unshielded. WE16ga is so interesting sounding to me that I want to learn as much as possible before drawing any firm conclusions. Incidentally I don't necessarily agree that Belden sound forgiving at least I don't hear them that way in my system. But the WE16 IC never sounded polite to me and before they were broken in there was times that they sounded aggressive. WE16 IC are so far musical force and very expressive in my system.

I would also add that I don't want my system to sound forgiving. Once again a listener preference.

Jet, look at Jeff Day's blog/thread on the WE IC's as there is a link to "Take Five Audio" for Belden braided tube shielding. They offer various sizes. I used 1/4-1/3 inch as 1/2 inch would be too big. It does expand a little. Hard to work with this stuff. I soldered a 14 gauge solid core copper wire to the tip of the twisted runs and carefully pulled the twisted cable through the braided tubing. Only way to really do it.

I then covered the braid with heat shrink tubing as the braid is conductive as you know. I then covered the braid with cloth.

This was somewhat difficult and time consuming for me.

Yes, the shieded WE version is in between the nude WE cable and Belden in terms of sonic personality. I found it not quite as forgiving as the Belden and not quite as "bright" as the nude. Good middle ground for me anyway.

Thanks Grannyring.

Jet, look at the barrel that fits over the cable on the Switchcraft connector. The far end, end opposite the RCA, this will show you how wide you can go on the shield. You would never slide this barrel over 1/2 inch braiding. It was hard for me to slide, but I got it done even with a layer of heat shrink over the braid. I was an effort!

You could skip the barrels and just use a nice and thick heavy duty glue lined heat shrink for a collar. I did that on my digital cable as they were made with two runs per pole and the barrel would not fit over it. Once the glue sets and dries you have a very strong and safe cable! No,I won't mod these ever again after this.