/Grannyring: thanks for the info. I tried the NC P311 before, prefer the more solid construction of the Furutech F11 but with the current P302/P311 RH variants discounted ($35 at PartsConnexion) it is hard to pass up on them. BTW the original purple P302/P311 run at about the same price at SonicCraft. |
Second that! I have learnt a ton from knowledgeable folks who don't mind to share their experience. The (high end) audio industry has been associated too long with snobs / old farts (which includes me) until the barrage of new headphones gave it some live back recently. Bringing down the entry level with this type of "game changer" cabling and great value for money devices such as the iFi microDSD could bring quality music back to the average Joe. |
As for ICs, I have using Mogami 2549 terminated with Canare F10 plugs for my Home Theater setup except the L / R channels, where the (too) expensive HFC CT1Us reside. Would be very grateful if anyone can share his/her experiments with magnets. Will report back if the Belden 8402 is a better fit than the Mogami 2549. |
For my home theater, like Brownsfan, I need long, continuous runs and TeresaJacobs on Ebay has sold out all the long runs. I would like to hear comments regarding the manufacturing year of the WE cables. Some sellers, like “soundofthetheater” on Ebay have WE14ga made in 1999, a couple years before American Insulated Wire went out of business. Is this kind of “late vintage” wire as good as the older ones? They should be at least similar based on specs but maybe not sonic wise. So far, the most impressive types has been the WE16ga for interconnect with Canara F10 and the WE10ga for power cords with Furutech FI-28. The Belden 8402 sounds good but IME is not on the same league as, e.g. Jupiter’s Cotton 6N Copper. Maybe I need more burn in with the 8402. FYI I have the following power cords variants with WE10ga ready for testing which may take a very long time as I don’t have a cable cooker: 1a. Unshielded, dual wire twisted, no sleeve (like Jeff Day) All cords are 6ft long and terminated with Furutech FI-11 (cu) which is pretty good and affordable for such a test. Will report back after the long test. mitch2: how does the double wired WE10ga power cord sound vs the single runs and how do you connect the culminated 7ga on an AC plug or IEC a they are made mostly up to 8ga max. |
Bill, happy to hear that!
Which connectors did you use? Many manufacturers braid the power cords like LossLess and I find this, so far, better than the non or twisted versions. I will stick to WE10ga for power, although the version 4 I made with 16ga and a double run of just the hot in a thin plastic tube (it should be called version 4a) sounds nice with my DAC. I can well image if the WE16ga is stripped and put in the tube with cotton it will even sound nicer. A 1,000ft roll of WE 14ga (late vintage 1999) is heading my place - Ho ho ho! - for my home theater, nice project replacing the very long runs of in-wall speaker wires during the break. |
Bill, thanks for your tip, I ordered a while ago the same stuff through PartsConnexion as the Neotech were also discounted there as I stocked up on my favorite Furutech F11 during PC annual 25% end of year discount. I will also have the cheap SonicCraft rhodium and red copper plugs to compare. Just used the downtime during these days to replace my HT surround and back speaker cables with the WE14ga and they made a positive difference compared to the Audioquest FLX14/4 in-wall speaker cables, even w/o burn in. The most difficult part was not threading the new wire but to twist them (reducing inductance, less prone to EMI); it is super easy for a 10ft length -using the drill- but requires a different approach doing a 60ft stretch. As for interconnects, I haven’t heard any decent one that is not shielded. I guess those at Jeff Day’s forum tend to cling nostalgically to the "vintage" sound and gear. Nothing wrong as such, some vintage gear still sound great. I remembered when I built my first tube amp some forty years ago, I wasn’t sure if it included a tiny radio that remained invisible in the schematics... |
Thanks for the update Tim! I was planning to try the multi-stranded 24awg speaker cable but now can easily add the bi-wiring to my existing WE10 ones. Unfortunately, the HFC SC is still better in terms of speed, dynamics and detail. As for PC, my test is still not over but so far I like my variant 3a (unshielded, 3 braided WE10ga) best, the variant 3b (same, but shielded) in one particular application (my CDP). I haven't started testing variant 4 which is what manufacturers like Audience (only for the AU24 series) and probably Craig Hampel are deploying. Just started putting different plugs on the variant 3a, I think I prefer the rhodium ones (Furutech FI28) over copper (FI11). Hopefully the SonarQuest rhodium version, that comes at a fraction of the FI28, would be a close one. |
slowikpl, building PC and speaker cables are well outlined on Chris VenHaus website, as well as on DIYaudio. Like Grannyring, my best experience is to twist all three wires together (LessLoss is one example of PC manufacturer that does it too) with no shielding for most applications. Re ground wire, as a general rule, I always use the same type for all three. |
Any updates? Any comparison with mid level PCs? Lately, I have A/B'ed my DIY PC (Type 3a: twisted, unshielded) with Furutech FI-28 plugs against a Synergistic Research Atmosphere Level 4 with the blue tuning module: there is some difference but not a great lot. The SR Atmosphere L4 has more air and space/better separation of instruments, better micro-dynamics,.. but in the midrange the SR was a lesser bethren compared to the WE 10GA DIY. |
Anyone tried to insert a silver strand in the IC or SC ? For fun and because all my systems are far from bright (tube mono blocks, NAD and Aragon amps), I added one 7N copper+pure silver 16ga in the signal path of an interconnect which is terminated with WBT Nextgen 110 cu. That IC yielded a more open, faster sound and, my goal, extended highs. Thanks mitch2 for reminding me to make 7ga PC, so far, I contended with just one single twisted pair + ground counter spiraled or all braided. From what I can see of TWL 7+ pictures, the pairs seems just twisted. Lastly, anyone A/B'ed the WE against the graphene variants (SR Black, Cerious Technology Graphene Extreme)? |
Jet, I added one silver plated 7N copper to the positive. The mid shifted just a bit up and the bass was more extended so overall IME a net positive result. mitch2, thanks for the additional info. Indeed any reference to theater amps 300B and Altec rings a very familiar bell. After looking more closely at the pictures, yes, they seem to be Litz braided (one image I had showed a relatively long segment of the hot wire, leading me to question it in the first place). I guess one need to buy one to know more about the passive ground plane. The strip-tease of the AQ Vodka Cat7 cable http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/gallery-we-tear-apart-a-340-audiophile-ethernet-cable-and-loo... showed the use of a combination of copper strands in the middle and the full outer shield. His Statement series PC (Furutech FI-50 plugs) have "20% overall larger diameter conductors than the High Power “Digital American” and the “Seven Plus” series." I guess he founded spools of WE 9ga (I spotted them on Ebay Hong Kong a couple months ago). Nonoise, great that Pete added another one in the "reasonably priced cable" category which will hopefully benefit many. Now there’s little excuse to try cables out w/o taking out a second mortgage. My DIY IC, SC and PC are install and forget in my home theater system, lest something dramatically better shows up just for a couple Benjamins. |
