Looking for really fine cables at really low price

Further comments on IC's with my WE speaker wires. I tried a pair of ancient van den Hul D300S from my Luminescence preamp to the NAD C272 amp, into Magnepan MMGs.

Initial impression was one of detail and "lightness". After a few days, overall sound became a bit harsher. I liked the "airiness" but not the harshness. This morning I dug out another ancient IC, Monster Cable M1000 MKII, which yielded quite a different result. Fuller, better bass, but still good detail. More pleasant than the van den Hul. I'll give this combo a few days for break-in and to get a better sense of other qualities, such as sound stage. So far I like it.

Meanwhile I'll order some Belden wire and make a pair of IC's to compare. According to the rest of you guys, the Belden is THE one. :)

What a fun and inexpensive experiment/journey this little project is.

Rob, agreed that it is difficult to record strings and not get a muddled mess unless the engineer knows what they are doing and are recording in a great hall. I'm going to continue to use the Belden and spend plenty of time enjoying the music flowing into my living room. Many recordings sound great so I am not too concerned for now. It is looking likely that I will not buy the Kondo IC. The WE/Belden combo makes flesh and blood music and Kondo is a very lovely sounding cable but it does not make flesh and blood music like the Belden. For now I am pitching my tent in Belden/WE country to see if these will be my long term IC.

Jetrexpro,
As Grannyring has stated, be patient, about 100 hrs, everything keeps improving. Best, Rob

Rob/Grannyring, After Six days the extra warmth has gone away. These Belden ICs are sounding great. Suprising that it took this long since before putting them in they spent a full 100 hours burning in in the back room.

Jet,
Really happy they finally got burned in. For some reason my wire took less time.