Duelund 16g Speaker Wire Question

From my experience with speaker wire, NO!

Try doubling it up and see for yourself.  That's the only way to know.

I found the Duelund wire fairly overrated, and in my personal opinion, it wouldn't be a desirable match for the Harbeth 40.1.  I find that Harbeths, with their mid-centric BBC sound signature, often benefit from a good silver interconnect and SS electronics.  The Duelund is kind of a warmer, muddier sounding cable which probably isn't the right direction to tweak those Harbeths unless you're dealing with a fairly bright or edgy source chain.

The Duelund hook up cables are nice and for the money it's hard to beat.  I personally prefer the 12ga in my set up.  The 16ga is nice but less of a fulller sound, the 12ga give you a meatier well rounded.  

I read somewhere that its not recommended to double it up. Im Bi-amping so its a little different  running two seperate 16AWG wires. I really like the sound . Very detailed and lots of bass. My speakers are easy to run. I can see going with 12AWG  for more demanding speakers.

@snackeyp,  what is the length of the speaker cables?

You purchased: 16 awg, Tin-Plated Stranded Copper & Cotton / Oil (DCA16GA), hook-up wire?

Twist every 1.5-2 inches. Bare wire hook up on both ends?
 
I have been told by knowledgeable audiophiles that any length over 12' should be 12 gauge.

I also know from experience that the Duelund wire needs 100 hours to fully sound its best.

Length is 3 meters, so around 10 feet per.  

Yes I'm using the 16g tin plated wire you listed.  
I wondered about twisting them so I'll try that.

From my experience with speaker wire, YES!

From my experience with speaker wire, NO!

From my experience with speaker wire, YES!

I have had more positive experiences with doubling (shotgunning) speaker cable than negative, but it does not always work.  IMHO, it depends on the amp(s) and speakers..

I bought the same wire a few months back after using Monster 2.4s (I think that's the callout) for a dozen years.  The Monster has hunkin' momma wire size.  Looks like #8 or so.  I had no issues with it, but as you know we all want to spend some more cash on our system every so often.  The Dueland is great on the high end.  And I think light on the bass.  I actually started a thread about wire size a couple weeks back to feel how others felt about wire gage and speaker size.  I'm gonna re-hook up the Monster on the low side (speakers are bi-wireable) and see if it gives them more of the great bass they originally had.  Speakers are Infinity Ren 90's powered by a Krell FPB300cx.  Then I may try the Dueland 12 gage.  I just feel the 16 gage can't handle the power requirements.  I relate it to trying to run a skill saw using a lamp extension cord.  It'll go round and round, but if you want to cut some serious wood, you'll want a good #10 extension cord. 
-John

Great analogy.

I agree. I always over-do it on cables. I run 12 gauge wires to my woofers and 14 to my mids and tweeters. Before I biwired, I used 10 gauge. But I also use speakers with side firing 12"s, so they like current. In general, for me, it’s usually not that much more to go up in diameter when building cables, so I do.

@snackeyp I twisted the 16 gauge Duelund wire every 1.5" to 2" and then every 8" to 10" I used a 1/4" piece of shrink wrap to hold the twists and wires together. I also used bare wires on the amp terminals and bare wire on the speaker terminals. Because the speaker terminals (Montana EPX speakers) were provided one set for bass and the second set for mids and highs, I extended the same single one-piece wire from the bass terminal to the mid and high terminals.
If that 16 gauge wire doesn't provide enough bass for you try the 12 gauge wire.

Thanks lak for the tip!

Also, just wondering if doubling a 16g wire would effectively result in an 8g?  As you can tell this is new territory for me.

Peter

Doubling 16 gauge wire gets you a 13 gauge rating.

Sweet little calculator:

https://www.wirebarn.com/combined-wire-gauge-calculator_ep_42.html

I love the wirebarn combined gauge calculator. Good share!

Yeah, thanks for the link.  Very cool!

As an electrician I am a long-time skeptic of this magic wire hunt. I still remember when one of the stereo magazines had the courage to try a Home Depot extension cord and were surprised at how good it sounded. As far as I know, the Amazing Randi's million dollar challenge remains unanswered. I have been using ten gauge stranded as speaker wire for years. I have tested it against various alternatives and always end up coming back to it. I have rebuilt AR3s as my main speakers, which being 4 ohm are a different breed of cat than most of the current stuff. There are other simple electrical tweaks you can make like using hospital grade outlets (those expensive outlets are merely hospital outlets with a little snake oil added). That being said, all this is in the ears of the beholder, so whatever sounds good to you with your setup is what you should use. The bottom line is to enjoy the music.