Granny ring, Jetrexpro, all


Are any of you building power cords with the Western Electric WE16ga? I see that a bunch of fellas on the Jeff Day Blog are making them with very good success. Day has also made some and it seems he may install on his
Mac MC30s. How about it? Any updates? Best, Rob
mikirob
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.
    
I use the 10ga WE for my power cords replacing $1200-$1500 PCs from Kimber. They will stay for good at the low price I paid to build them. Just fantastic. 

Hi Bill, 
Are your PCs unshielded? Did you choose a synthetic  (teflon) or a natural fiber material for your dielectric?  
Thanks, 
Charles, 
Unshielded Charles using the NOS Western Electric 10 gauge stranded and tinned wire in cloth. I purchased some nice Neotech connectors on closeout at Sonic Craft and I am happy with the result. 
Hi Bill,
I appreciate your response. My Ocellia Silver Reference cables (IC&SC) are unshielded and use a natural material  (paper )dielectric  and I really like them.  I suspect that your power cables are very good sounding. I'm using the original Coincident power cables not their latest Statement power cable.
Charles, 
Hi Bill,
Can I ask did you use 2 or 4 of the WE10awg wires for your power cords?   If you used 4 wires per cord (2 for pos and 2 for neg), did you twist or braid them?

TWL braids 4 of the WE10awg wires for their highly-thought-of Seven Plus American Series power cable.

I went with the old VH Audio flavor-style of construction, by twisting four WE10awg wires and then cross-connecting two wires for positive and the other two for negative to reduce inductance (a good thing in speaker cables and in power cables).  I then counter-spiraled a THHN ground wire outside of the four conductors. The total aggregate wire size per pole is 7awg.  I used Furutech's  FI-11 (Cu) connectors, as does TWL, and I am quite happy with the result, particularly on my high-powered amplifiers.

If I were to make cords for my front-end components, I would probably start with a single twisted pair of the WE 10awg wires, include a tinned copper braid shield and then the ground wire counter-spiraled outside of the shield.

This wire is pretty good stuff both for power cables and speaker cables.  For speaker cables, I have heard better in the high frequencies but it certainly nails the midrange and I also like the bass where there is detail, richness and depth but less tendency toward boominess than I hear with some cables.
Hi Grannyring, Charles, Mitch2,
Charles, the several pair of WE10ga that Grannyring made for me are stellar. Also agree with Mitch2 perception. I've been listening with my Coincident Dynamo/DeVore Orangutan 0/96 (on loan from my brother while he is overseas for some months). Wow!!! Match made in Heaven. Best, Rob

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)?
Hi Rob, how do you like the Devore 0/96? Must be very nice!

jazzonthehudson, very interesting idea. So you added a single strand of 16g copper and a single strand of 16g silver to the we16ga interconnects? You described it as faster and more open. Did anything change in the mid range and low end? Thanks jet.
Hi Rob,
In an ideal world I'd love to hear the W.E. Coincident Statement, Cerious Audio Graphene  and the Synergistic Research Black power cables in my system.  My belief is that all four of them would be very good. 

Congratulations Rob, 
I'd love to hear your Dynamo and Orangutan O96 pairing,  no doubt that it sounds wonderful. 
Charles, 
From what I can see of TWL 7+ pictures, the pairs seems just twisted.
Hi Jazz, If you read some of the reviews of the TWL 7+, they discuss how the 7+ PCs are Litz braided.  I surmised they are using WE wire based on the comments about the wire in the reviews (see below) and reading the strand counts of their various products on their website.  Their cords also have some other things going on such as deep cryo treatment and something they call "passive ground plane technology."   I  have no idea what that is but it could be as simple as a shield connected at one end and spiraling the ground wire outside the shield, or maybe something more innovative.

Below is an excerpt from the PFO review of TWL PCs.  Does the description of their wire source remind you of any companies being discussed in this thread?
Peter Grzybowski, President of Triode Wire Labs, found a highly annealed, durable wire that sounded extremely musical and better than anything they had experimented with prior. The wire happened to be designed by a corporation that was dedicated to the propagation of sound quality, at one time employing 10,000 scientists and engineers! This corporation held a tremendous amount of innovations in audio equipment and devices, such as triode tubes, recording, and acoustics, including the patent for Oxygen Free Copper. From further research, the wire used in Triode Wire Labs products was specified for use in the construction of theater amplifiers (including the 300B) as well as recording equipment (Westrex), with ties to Ampex and Altec as well.

Not being as handy as everyone here I got two of Pete's Digital-American series PCs and I must say, these TWL PCs are simply amazing.
If you can build something like his cables, my hat's off to you but I'm sure there's more going on with his technique than what can be duplicated.

All the best,
Nonoise

If you can DIY, for $90 you get a least 85% of the sound folks. These 10ga DIY Western Electric power cords are just fantastic. 
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.

Now running dual pairs (in bi-wire) of WE 10awg for an aggregate of 7 awg to each speaker.  The resulting sound is excellent.  My next project is going to be a star-quad twist of WE 10awg, with two runs in bi-wire to each speaker for 7awg to both HF/MF and LF, or an aggregate of 4awg per speaker!  The main problem is terminating four runs together per pole at the amp end.  I may need to use to separate runs one with spades plus the other with bananas so I can easily terminate them at a single pair of binding posts.  This stuff is really good and, for the price, almost unbelievable.
anyone try the WE 10 GA for speaker cables?   I might experiment with it on my brothers stereo. 
I believe grannyring is using WE10ga as speaker cable and loves them best of all...perhaps he will see this post and respond. Best, Rob

Charles1Dad, Jetrexpro,
I bought the upgraded Coincident Dynamo Mark II, replaced the capacitors with Arizona Green, Ohmite Brown Devils, and some internal Western Electric 16ga. I also substituted the stock rectifier for ancient Mullard CV378, NOS GEC tubes...with the DeVore 0/96, mind blowing excellent in my 18x24x10 new listening room. Best, Rob
Rob, love your post and am happy for you! Nice mod choices for sure. Yes, I use the WE 10g for my speaker cables and power cords. Best I have heard in my system. 


Hi Rob,
Congratulations on getting the Dynamo MK II and upgrading it further with your modifications. I have no doubt that this amplifier driving the Devore O /96 is fabulous! The bigger and better output transformers of the Mark II  surely improved an already very good amplifier. 
Charles, 
Rob - I am loving to hear about the amp upgrades and how much you are enjoying the sound of your system. I've heard the 0/96s several times and was amazed by the texture of the music coming from them. I always felt like they need a a large room to breathe and for the sound to come together and I am guessing in your large listening room they would make addicting music. What kind of speaker cables are you using? WE16 or WE 10 gauge?
Jetrexpro, all...
I'm still using the WE16ga as speaker cables, WE10ga power on everything except DAC which is WE14ga. I bought additional WE10ga and will in near term test them out ala grannyring. 

I also want you to let you know that the owner of Dueland, after conversations with Jeff Day has been convinced to manufacture a near duplicate of WE tinned copper wire in various gage, 10, 14, 16. Minor mod eliminating the plastic on the inner sleeve, you can read about it on Day's blog, jeffsplace.me.com. Price slightly higher than from Jacobs, but still extremely reasonable. Coming to market through Parts Connection soon. Best, Rob
Charles1Dad...all
Prior to the mods, after break-in the Dynamo was slightly less sweet than the original, Tim Smith, does an excellent review once again on 6moons.com outlining the differences. With mods the Dynamo keeps all the plus quality of larger transformers and power supply with a more organic and natural sound. With the DeVore great tone, texture, bass for me is exactly as I like/want it. Transparency, resolution is there in spades, yet presented in a "real sound" musical manner. Another tip of the hat to Yazaki-san for all his valuable input. Best, Rob