This is the seller you want. He is the real deal and who we use. http://www.ebay.com/itm/per-foot-Western-Electric-AIW-10ga-STRANDED-cloth-covered-gray-PAIR-/2316636... |
Also avoid binding posts. I mod my amp and speakers to only use binding posts as clamps, never to conduct signal. They also degrade sound in very obvious ways once you learn how to bypass them. Bare wire to bare wire is so much better sounding. Output wires from the amp are clamped to my speaker wire directly. Same thing on the speaker end. Just think about that mass of brass covered in a thin coating etc... Avoid those binding posts! Even the best connectors and posts are bottlenecks. The improvement is shocking folks. Best mod I do and have done. Since the Duelund wire is tinned it will not oxidaize etc... I use it in my speaker crossovers and amp also. |
I have terminated many of the WE wires (same tinned copper type wire) and prefer soldered connections for the tinned wire because the tinned coating melts resulting in a more direct contact with the underlying copper. Although some prefer no connectors, I am skeptical that the absence of connectors can be easily heard given that the speaker cables typically connect to two binding posts and the signal travels through a bunch of other solder joints in typical amplifiers and speaker cross-overs. I prefer connectors for convenience. I like the Cardas GRS copper spades but couldn't find them in a search of vendors this morning. Another good option is to use the Cardas copper jumpers and cut off the link section resulting in two spades that you can solder directly to. Use some thick, adhesive-lined heat shrink for a stiff and well-protected connection/termination. |
I have 12 awg as speaker cables, but bare cable connections to the Analysis Audio Epsilon speakers that are 4 ohms and not very sensitives. In my system they are keepers. The music is more authoritative and builds on a better foundation. Same density of sound that seems so characteristic of these cables. Burn in can be a bit longer than 16 awg. |
I like the Duelund better than the WE10 now with my current system changes. The Duelund was too bright before, but now perfect with my slight system changes. It is all system compatibility and dependent and our preferences can change as our systems change slightly. I have found cotton sounds better...more open in every situation I have compared, thus my Supra comment. But I like openness and that is a subjective thing... Right now I use the WE10 on my bass crossover board and Duelund 10ga on the mids and highs. Nice combo! I have also owned a vast array of high end speaker cables with my current combo as good as any and better than most😁 |
I too like the WE10ga as speaker cable and use double runs to bi-wire my speakers. I cancelled an order of the Duelund wire in the 12 awg size a month or so ago because I am perfectly happy with the WE10ga and simply had to tap out at some point. I am certainly curious based on some of the testimonials but I take those with a grain of salt since my equipment is significantly different from what some of those reviewers use, so what works for them may not work best for me and vise versa. |
grannyring, I am a big fan of the WE/Dueland speaker cables, but they are not better than the Supra 3.4s, very similar in fact. At least in my system. I have the WE10GA, WE14GA, and the Duelunds. So I have a lot of experience comparing. Of those cables, I like the WE10GA the best, I liked that they were thick sounding and smooth. The Duelunds were just a tad bright in my system, but still really good. The Supra is a good compromise between them all, but I would have to say they are more extended. I am a speaker cable junkie. In addition to the cables above, I have the Vertere Pulse X, Clear Day Double shotgun, JPS Labs Superconductor Vs, and the Power House Tellurium Q Silver Diamonds all in house. As you can see, I have affordable to very expensive. So needless to say I have done a lot of comparisons. What is better just depends on the type of music, the gear, and sometimes what I am in the mood for. |
Hi there, I've got DCA16GA for over a month now, and I think I can reliably recommend it as a universal speaker cable with no genre preferences. I was amazed to find that it is as good and in some respects better than my venerable Nordost Heimdall II. I use it in my main system which consists of Oppo BDP105D, NAD M51, Manley 300B Classic Preamp, modified Linear Tube Audio ZOTL10, and Audio Note AN-E SPe/HE. The cable is very musical and involving, its tone colorful and pleasantly saturated. The usual audiophile attributes like transparency, staging, dynamics are present but not blindingly impressive. They are more or less on par with my Nordost. However, you don't buy this cable for audiophilia nervosa, quite on the contrary, its musicality makes you forget about most of these properties. But they are good enough to not feel lacking at all. I can get a tiny bit higher transparency with other cables - Its like removing my 300B preamp from the system - I get a bit more transparency but much less musical fun. So it stays. I can live with other cables, but this brings more enjoyment. Besides, it is very cheap. I have yet to compare the cable to my other reference, Kimber 4AG, but I’m sure that Duelund will put up a good fight. I am now thinking about ordering DCA20GA to try it as IC and compare it to my Audio Note AN-Vx, Kimber KCAG, and various silver Audioquests. I am particularly grateful to Jeff from jeffplace.me - if it were not for his review, I would never have thought of DCA16GA (I used to despise all things tin-plated before, using silver everywhere I could). Now I am a convert))) Regards, Vlad |
No waiting, it is available now. http://www.partsconnexion.com/Duelund-DCA12GA-20awg-Tin-Plated-Stranded-CU-Wire_moreinfo.html I just cancelled my order this week and will stick with double runs of the WE10ga. Also have a star-quad run of WE16ga for the HF and WE14ga for the LF, so 13/11 awg aggregate to each speaker. Those sound pretty darn good too. Dug up some old literature on the WE wire earlier in the week and doubt it is anything special, just good quality tin-plated, stranded copper wire, with a thin'ish pvc coating under cotton. I think the attraction must be attributable to the dead soft annealing, absence of too much dielectric, and maybe the stranding and pvc adding a full, dense sound, particularly in the midrange. I find that after burning them in on my Cable Cooker and having the wire in my system for months, it does pretty much everything I need. I liked that the bass is solid but not overblown and that I can hear real-sounding high frequencies without heat or tizz, and of course the midrange is the best part. Even without the Duelund wire for comparison, I have compared it with high quality OCC stranded wire, high quality OCC individually insulated multi-strand solid core wire, and solid core, individually insulated, multi-strand silver wire here but still like the WE wire best for SCs. It makes great PCs too. I guess I have reached a point where going after the next best thing usually ends up being different, but not particularly better. New speaker project is almost to fruition and then gotta be done. |
Interesting on how system synergy is everything. I changed my USB cable from the very good DH Labs Silversonic Mirage to the Curious USB cable. They are both very good USB cables. The Curious is warmer and a tad more rounded and full bodied. The DH Labs has more air and perhaps a tad more detail. Bottom line is I now prefer the Duelund 16ga driving my speakers mids and highs. The only thing that changed was the USB cable. It is all about total system synergy. What sounds great or best in one system may not in another no matter how " good" the wire. |
Thus far I prefer the Western Electric 10 gauge wire over the Duelund 16 ga for speaker wire. The WE is far more full bodied and easy sounding. The Duelund is just a tad to thin sounding and too alive for my system. This is after 20 hours of burn in on the Duelund however. I just don’t think it will change enough however to compete with what I like about the WE 10 gauge wire. |
My Duelund 20ga (un-shielded) is now being terminated by a local tech who is also a manufacturer of boutique electronics. My pair is being terminated with Switch Craft RCA's. If I like this interconnect, I may do the same, but this time shielded. So far I have been very impressed with the Duelund 16ga as speaker cable, but on a second system with a digital source. grannyring- interesting observation. Sounds as if it's quite neutral, and it's exposing less than perfect recordings for what they are. I listen to my share of not so great recordings, so that may not be a good thing. I also plan to try the 16ga from my Jagusch crossovers to my Altec Valencia's. This will take the place of Belden 9497 for comparison sake. |
I am using the Duelund 16ga on the high pass portion of my AZ Crescendo speakers. I was using the WE 10 ga as my sole cable on my biwire speakers. I kept the WE10 on the bass and now have the Duelund 16ga on the highs. Much more detail for sure. Not sure if it is too aggressive however? Only 12 hours of burn in however? Not sure if it smooths out over more hours. We will see. A little too much of a good thing thus far in my system and to my ears. On great recordings I love the Duelund, but on less than great it is a little harsh for me. I forgot got to mention I also used the Duelund 16 as jumpers up to my highs. I liked it better than the WE 10ga alone. Thus far it is smoother than the Duelund 16ga run from my amp to the highs. I hope the Duelund wire mellows out with break in. If it does, it will be perfect. |
I have Duelund 16 GA as speaker cables for my Analysis Audio Epsilon and Air Tight ATM3. (1,5m) DCA16 GA inter connect between Pre and amps 2.0 m) DCA 20 GA interconnects between pre and DAC (2.0 m) DCA 20 GA betwenn Step up and pre (1.0m) shielded by Chris at Paers Connexion. It has been longer to burn in to and take some relative brilliance off. Next step is to intervert 16 GA for the 20 in the pre to amp circuit. I Pre ordered the 12 from Part Connexion for the speakers as I am curious. I will see what it brings to the table. When I am sure of all that I think my quest for cables will be over. |
cjwebber, thanks for sharing. I did not like the Belden IC's (dull, dark and uninspiring in my system) and I suspected the 20ga Duelund would be the best of that bunch for interconnects. I am not surprised that shielded cables worked best because it is my experience is that shielding is typically better for noise reduction purposes. I am glad it is working out for you. I have a lot of WE16, 14 and 10ga wire here but will be trying the 12ga Duelund wire for speaker cables using two star-quad runs per speaker in a bi-wired configuration and comparing that to two twisted pairs of WE10ga wire per speaker. I am hoping the Duelund will be better than a push since I am spending the money for the Duelund wire. |
I’ve been comparing WE16GA, DCA16GA, DCA20GA, and Belden 8402 as interconnects for the past 6 months in my setup (Dynaco ST-35, Jolida Glass-FX DAC III, Hagerman Bugle 2, and JBL C-38s (130a + 175 + 2405). I started off by making a complete set of interconnects using Belden 8402. The difference between these any my audioquest, crimson, and monster interconnects was astounding. I have never experienced such a magical 3D soundstage from my JBLs. I have loved my JBLs because of their warm, life-like midrange - but had not experienced a soundstage like that before. I was able to get my hands on some WE16GA and made a few interconnects. I really appreciated the balanced nature of the WE16GA - the Belden 8402 tended to bit a bit darker in the midrange, where as the WE16GA was a little more flat across the frequency spectrum. The dimension wasn’t quite as amazing - but there was still a heightened sense of dimension with the WE16GA compared to past interconnects I’ve used. I then picked up some DCA16GA - because…why not! My experience with the DCA16GA was very similar to the WE16GA - but with a bit more midrange detail than the Belden or WE16GA. For my system, the DCA16GA has performed very well - it brings in some detail to my already warm tube/horn system. After reading about the DCA20GA I decided to pick that up as well. After about 2 months of listening - I think I’m beginning to settle in on a favorite. Initially I built a few unshielded cables to test out. The unshielded seemed to have a really nice tonal balance with very nice image-depth. I especially enjoyed the upper range detail it has brought out. Two of my favorite live records: We Get Requests by The Oscar Peterson Trio and Waltz for Debbie by Bill Evans have become especially enjoyable - I *love* hearing the depth and space of the lounges and the details that surround the audience. My latest excitement is with Shielded DCA20GA interconnects. All of the previous interconnects mentioned needed a considerable amount of burn in time until they hit their stride. For whatever reason, the Shielded Version of the DCA20GA stood out immediately - in a *great* way. The midrange has thickened up. I’m not sure how to describe it, other than the music is dense, pleasurable, and excitingly spatial. One last bit of info: I have also been experimenting with mix and matching all these different cables - trying to find the best placement for the cables in my system (i.e. what cable works best between different devices in my signal chain). I have found that it is really interesting how important synergy is - especially with these tinned copper cables. It is a fun and worthwhile journey - at a very low cost. what more can I say - I am *enjoying* the music. cheers! |
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There is now a 20 awg Duelund available. It's the Tin-plated copper, just like the 16awg being spoken about here. I have an order in to get some of the 16awg, and will be using this for speaker cable. My plan was to try the 20awg, and have this terminated for interconnects. Long story, SHORT.... It was suggested to me it would better to use a 24 gauge for regular interconnects, and actually go up to 30 gauge if I was going to use it as a phono cable, from table > SUT or phono section. Thoughts ? (-: |
Jetter, I read about the 12 g somewhere. I thought it was on Jeff Day's blog, but I can't find the reference anywhere. When I needed some longer runs, I considered buying enough Duelund 16 g to double up. Then I saw the comment about the 12 g in development and decided to wait. That is all I can tell you. |
mac, I have been using the Belden 8402 along with the WE 16ga for the past 6 months. Have them with a Truth line stage BEL 1001 SS amp, and Spendor SP-1 speakers. They replaced Kimber KCAG and Anti-Cable speaker wire. I do not find any of the harshness that you expressed and they clearly outclassed my previous cable combination instantly. As a caveat, I have not cable experimented extensively in a very long time. The Duelunds appear to be a superior design, and being so reasonable I will probably experiment with them in the near future. However, I could stay with the Belden, WE combination for a long time. In my system I find them to be open, airy, tonally accurate with a deep quality soundstage. |
Thanks geoch, I'll give the Belden 1800F's a try. At their price how can I not do so? I'm using a Decware Torii mk IV tube amp which is a great amp but I hope to get the Coincident Frankenstein.....an 8 watt SET amp, might that be what you're using? The original WE wire was manufactured back in the glory days of tubes so mayb thats why this type of wire seems to work well with them. I'd be interested in hearing from those with SS amps using it. |
