Duleland break in time

Excellent points by @grannyring 

Break will never go from very poor to the best I ever heard to be frank. System synergy and personal preference are very important considerations here.  Nordost is very different sounding vs Duelund.

I agree wholeheartedly with the first sentence.  If you don't like the cables early on, you will probably never like the cables.  However, I use a Cable Cooker for the sole reason of removing doubts about how they will ultimately sound, so my experiences regarding burn-in, would be of no help to you.   I do use Ayre's disc for touch-ups sometimes so if you don't want to bear the cost of a burn-in device I agree with the use of a burn-in track as offered on discs by both Ayre and Stereophile.

I thought of one thing that might be relevant to your comparison with Nordost. I have some nice Furutech FP-Alpha speaker cables here.  Even though I have several other good cables, those Furutech cables and the cables from Duelund or WE wire are the one's I keep going back to.  The OCC alpha-treated Furutech cables are mostly neutral with a slight midrange focus and a touch of bloom.  They do nothing wrong and seem better than average across the board.  When I replace the tinned copper Duelund or WE cables with the Furutechs, I usually think wow, these sound really good and have even better high end extension.  However, over the long term, when I go back to the Duelund or WE speaker cables, I enjoy the increased midrange bloom and fuller, slightly more impactful bass and find those attributes to be even more musical.  In the end, the musicality wins out.  The main thing I view a little differently than @grannyring is that I have not yet developed a clear preference for the Duelund cables over cables made from WE10ga wire.  I am in the process of making another pair of Duelund cables and continuing my comparison between the two types of wire. 

Had a four-cable shoot-out here last weekend and then just finished cooking my bi-wire, single run Duelund speaker cables this week and put them in yesterday.

The five cables currently under consideration are all external bi-wire - in other words all the cables have two separate runs with a single wire going to each the MF/HF and LF posts.  The aggregate wire size to each speaker is double the gauge listed below for each individual wire within the cable, except the star-quad configured #4 that has two wires (i.e, 9 awg) to each post.  Each of the cables are about one-meter long.

1. Furutech FP-Alpha,  13 awg, stranded OCC in foamed PE 
2. Harmonic Technology Pro 9+, 9 awg, multiple, individually insulated solid core OCC wires in foamed PE
3. WE vintage WE 10 awg, soft annealed, tinned, stranded copper in thin plastic and cotton
4. Duelund star quad 2x12 awg, tinned copper in oiled cotton
5. Duelund single runs 12 awg tinned copper in oiled cotton

All of the above are terminated with Furutech gold-plated, solid copper spades that are crimped, except #5, which has the Furutech spades both crimped and soldered. 

Results:
Last weekend, when I compared Nos. 1-4, I found each of them to allow the basic sound of my system to come through and they all sounded pretty good, but slightly different.  I have previously used both #1 and #2 in my various systems for extended periods.  However, in comparison, I fairly quickly, and surprisingly, ruled out #2 as being less lively and less fun-sounding than the others.  #1 may have been technically the most accurate throughout the entire frequency range and was probably/arguably the most extended and energized (while still sounding realistic and smooth) in the high frequencies, but it did not quite display the midrange body of the tinned copper wire cables. 

The tinned and stranded copper conductors of cables #3 and #4 displayed the most body, fullness, and rich tone compared to the others.  Those two (#3 and #4) were simply more enjoyable to listen to and between them, it seemed the #4 star quad wire displayed both more energy in the high frequencies and also "plumper" low frequencies but with slightly less midrange richness/body compared to #3.  There was something very satisfying and simply right-sounding about the #3 vintage WE wire particularly in the midrange.  I have listened to a lot of the WE wire and I suspect the tonal quality has less to do with the cotton over plastic dielectric and more to do with the soft annealing process, but I am just speculating.  Based on my listening, I left the vintage WE wire in place for the week.

I just completed constructing my bi-wire, single run, Duelund 2x12 awg cable (i.e., #5) and burning it in on my Audiodharma Cable Cooker for several days this week.  I installed it and it does indeed sound very nice.  It seems to remove a touch of the plumpness from the bass that I hear with the doubled-up star-quad version but it still displays a touch of upper frequency energy that very slightly detracts from the overall sound, but only in comparison to the vintage WE wire.  We are really down to a trade-off between the very natural sounding midrange of the vintage WE wire and the slightly more extended and energized upper frequencies of the Duelund wire, at least that is how I hear it.  Bass between those two is a toss-up.

Although I have clearly narrowed things down to the stranded, tinned, copper wire, I plan to throw one more set of cables in the mix that I have listed as #6 below and then listen some more and decide what sounds best to me.  I will primarily be switching between cables Nos. 3-6 and will report back after listening more.

Another consideration is that what sounds best on my system may not sound best in another system, in other words YMMV.  My Class A amplifiers and powered subs bring their own unique sonic signatures that will be different from Class AB or tube powered gear, and speakers with out subs will IME not have the same level of bass impact.  

Adding this cable;
6.  WE vintage soft annealed, tinned, stranded copper in thin plastic and cotton configured in two star-quad runs with two 16 awg wires (13 awg aggregate) going to each MF/HF post and two 14 awg wires (11 awg aggregate) going to each LF post.  These are terminated with Cardas GRS rhodium over solid copper spades - soldiered.

So I was able to try more cable comparisons this weekend.  I limited the comparisons to the tinned, stranded, copper Duelund and Western Electric (i.e., WE) wires....Nos. 3,4,5, and 6 on my list three posts down.

No. 6 was very nice, as I remember it but simply a slightly less "big-sounding" version of the 10 awg WE wire ( No. 3).  

I hammered No. 4 (the star-quad Duelund wire) on the Cable Cooker for two more days (it had previously been thoroughly conditioned back when I made them months ago) and then played some music.  The No. 4 cable did everything the twisted pair of Duelund wire (No. 5) did, only on steroids.  I really like the sound of this cable (No. 4) with my big amps and low'ish efficiency speakers.  Although both were cut from the same cloth, the sound of the larger No. 4 was much fuller and displayed more body than the single-wire version (No. 5) and the bass of No. 4 was powerful and detailed. 

There is not too much difference in the gauge of the star-quad Duelund cables (i.e., 9 awg) and the single-run 10 awg WE cables but IMO in the bass, the larger Duelund wires sounded just a touch bigger and fuller, with a slight bit more impact.  These are not big differences but subtle.  From the mid-bass through the upper midrange I hear the WE wire exhibiting a touch more warmth and body while the Duelund wire sounds very slightly more extended in the upper frequencies.

I would be very happy with any of the stranded, tinned copper cables used in my comparisons.  Since I have options, the two best tinned and stranded speaker cables I have tried so far, in my system, and to my ears are the star-quad Duelund cables (No. 4) and the 10 awg WE cables (No. 3).  The differences are so subtle it could come down to liking whichever is hooked up at the time.

I would like to try one additional set of cables and since I have a bunch of vintage WE wire, I will be making a bi-wire pair using two star-quad runs per speaker of the 10 awg WE wire - for an aggregate 7 awg to each binding post or 4 awg per channel.  I believe I can maybe just fit the 7 awg aggregate wire size into Furutech's FP-201 spades but this may also be an excellent time to give the KLEI™Harmony Banana connectors a try.  The KLEI™ Bananas are supposed to accommodate wire size up to 6 awg, so they may be perfect for this very large cable.  I will let you all know how those turn out.

@grannyring Thanks for the recommendations. 

I own some of the Furez connectors and they do accommodate really big wire.  They are said to be pure copper and would work for the two 10 awg WE wires, but for some reason I like the sound of Furutech's copper better, at least when comparing spades between the two companies. 

The attractive thing about KLEI is that the conductor is supposed to be solid copper while most bananas are made from an alloy.  I am disappointed to hear they do not accommodate larger wire sizes.  I have linked their "brochure" below which indicates they will take large wire as quoted below from the brochure;

"Cable Conductor OD sizes up to 4mm (6awg)"

KLEI Brochure:
https://www.partsconnexion.com/media/pdfs/KLEI-83432.pdf

Assuming I am willing to live with "non-magnetic phosphor bronze" connectors these bananas linked below from Furutech look interesting and are supposed to accommodate a wire diameter of 5mm (which corresponds to somewhere between about 4-5 awg.  They allow a set screw connection, same as the FP-201 spades that I like to use.  The only reason I have not tried the Furutech bananas before is that I typically use pure copper connectors.
https://www.partsconnexion.com/FTECH-71115.html

Thanks for the tips grannyring.  After considering, I plan to make two separate star-quad sets so I will not need to terminate 4x10 awg wires together at the amp end.  One set will need to stack so at least one set will need bananas at the amp end.  KLEI says 6 awg will fit but I will ask the folks at Partsconnexion.  Not sure what else I can get 7 awg into.  If the FP-201s or KLEIs don’t work, then I suppose I could twist the two 10 awg wires together, tin them, and then soldier them to Cardas GRS spades.  Thanks again for your insight on the KLEI bananas.

@twoleftears Partsconnexion's ad says they are made from "Gold-Plated Copper" but without specifics it is not clear whether this is actual copper or an alloy containing copper.  I could not find out any more on their website but the items in their line-up appear to be of a high quality.

Interestingly, I looked up several of the other banana connectors listed and found a wide range of conductivity based on the metal used.  Bananas typically use an alloy of copper to improve ductility and durability over that of pure copper.  KLEI is an exception since they use pure copper plated with silver.  Below are some others and the associated conductivity relative to the International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS);

-Furez Tensioned Split Tube Banana Plug, C14500 Tellurium Copper - 93% IACS 
-Mundorf BFA Beryllium Copper Banana Plug - 60-63% IACS
- ConneX Connector Banana Plug, Brass - 28% IACS
- Furutech FP-200B(G) Banana Connector, Phosphor Bronze - (? see below)% IACS
(Phosphor Bronze is typically rated from about 15-20% IACS but apparently there is an "E" version ( 1.25% Phos. Grade E) that is rated up to 50% IACS.....I have no idea which Phosphor Bronze is used for the Furutech bananas)

I already own some of the Furez bananas so will use them if I need bananas.