New WIREWORLD Eclipse 8 series FULL REVIEW

Excellent design and very natural very balanced audio cables. The new 
Eclipse 8  now use 50% more OCC-0 Crystal copper 
and several other innovations no cables I have heard are anywhere  as refined and balanced at their price point.

While the Wireworld Eclipse Silver cables feature the patented Octo DNA Helix design with OCC-7N silver-clad copper conductors, the addition of this silver-cladding on the ‘basic’ Eclipse 8 improves on the ‘sound definition and resolution; thereby making them sound closer to the solid silver Gold Eclipse 8.

I am skeptical of any company that touts silver clad copper. Well-designed cables imho ought to be all copper or all silver. Silver clad copper causes problems. I don’t recall the specific engineering explanation but my take was that the very thin coating of silver only causes problems and no benefits. Pairing dissimilar metals seems to always cause problems in any application whether it be mechanical or electrical.
Note that the entire Cardas line-up is all copper. I have had great results using Analysis Plus' all silver Silver Apex for interconnects. 

I tried an entire loom of WireWorld Eclipse8 plus Electra7 pcs.Not a good match for my system. The noise filtering design of those cables caused the music to sound dull to me. I never tried the Platinum. Some find them just perfect for their systems though.

"I didnot use their power cords I used the Eclipse 8Loudspeaker cable 
which is very well balanced ,I thought the reviews on them were very accurate 
I tried the interconnects , my Yamaha 2100 mosfet  integrated sounds very respectable and very dynamic I wanted to give its perspective mores Row 8 then say a row 4 ,perspective ,theCardas clear reflection  interconnect ,a perfect balance both cables complemented each other the latestwire world Eclipse 8 
now a awg9  cable using the worlds best 48 individual OCC- 7-9s Copper 
their top Opto meometry and obsilix-3 dielectric which is actually better then Teflon ,the interconnect was also respectable  I didnot find anything dull in my system ,ifyou wanted more detail the goldEclipse 8 excellent .
myself wanting very good detail but want a bit of added warmth , the clear reflection does both well , the clear reflection speaker cable excellent but $1k 
more then the Wireworld and very detailed and balanced blends well with most interconnects . Their power cords not as good as their audio cables IMO.

My interconnects and speaker cables are WW series 7 and 8. I was using Eclipse 7 PCs, probably very good at their price point, but my system sounds a lot more natural with other PCs, though I have not tried WW higher range PCs

I recently bought the WW Eclipse 8 xlr interconnects vs my Cardas clear reflection the reflection warmer this new 8 series cables are dramatically better the very respectable 7 series,across the board.

Interesting sentence. I can’t tell if you actually preferred Eclipse 8 over Cardas Clear Reflection. Also, have you tried regular Cardas Clear?

Well— I will be reviewing Wireworld Eclipse 8 Silvers in a few weeks, having just installed the interconnects replacing Basic Eclipse 8.
Assuming your loudspeakers have NO ... uptilted upper mid- treble response; you will be in for a SHOCK!!
Otherwise, we have decided on our product of the year for 2020– ( products WE have reviewed, of course) 
https://www.thesoundadvocate.com/2020/11/sound-advocate-product-of-the-year-2020/

Has anyone compared the series 8 to other popular cables? I’d be curious if anyone has tried these against Silversmith, Cerious, Audio Envy, Nordost etc

There's another thread on a nearly identical topic that ideally would be merged with this one.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/wireworld-eclipse-8-compared-to-analysis-plus-solo-crystal/post?highlight=wireworld%2Beclipse%2B8&postid=2058395#2058395

The series 7 cables also are excellent and can be had at reduced prices.  I am using a Gold Starlight 7 digital cable with solid silver conductors and it sounds great to me. 

Hone of that highfalutin one one-upmanship for me. Sweet spot performance and sweet spot cost is the way to go.

Custom length QED Revelation with Nakamichi 10mm locking banana plugs is about right.

Anything more is overkill.

Yes the QED Revelation has been around for sometime, but the dog just can't catch its tail, so don't even bother trying.

For about the same amount of money you can get a set of Darwin speaker cables. Lowest capacitance on the market-7.2pf/ft. Not designed to be tone controls. Just gets out of the way of the music.

All the best,
Nonoise

I’d recommend you include a couple of Silver Electra’s when you audition. 

Another +vote for WW Silver Electra7 series. Especially, the power cord.

Happy Listening!

@nonoise
Are you implying that WW are tone controls?

Assuming WireWorld has continued to refine their decades old goal of maximum possible neutrality, if their cables do not work out in a system, a logical conclusion would be that the problem is something other than the wire. Rather than an expensive bandaid ("warmer", in other words, distortion generation that appear as "warmth"), fix the problem elsewhere in the system.

In many cases, the problem is the speaker. No surprise as most buy speakers based on reviews and good deals, not an audition in their home with their equipment. Now begin the endless cycle of upstream gear changes and tweaks to try and change the basic character of the speaker, again euphonic distortion generating bandaids. Of course, assuming the listening and speaker positions have been dialed in exactly; another unlikely event for most system owners. Without this hopeless cycle, most audio dealerships would close.

To those who claim that silver coated copper (or tin for that matter like the very well regarded Duelund wire) can't possibly sound good, I very much doubt they have actually auditioned the Wireworld Sliver Eclipse 8 products in their system.

Why do most dealers carry many cable lines if one brand is the most neutral? My guess; easy money. An honest dealer would only sell the most neutral and if there is an issue, help their customer identify what is wrong elsewhere in their system. Good luck finding one.

I'm not interesting in debating this. Just my opinion, take it or leave it.

And, then you also have the, "my brand is the most neutral" response. Very much doubt these guys have auditioned the Wireworld cables being discussed in their system much less the 100s of other brands on the market.

Of course, the million dollar question is, why are there 100s of cable brands on the market???

You guessed it; easy money.

@tweak1 , No, just that most speaker cables are.

ww eclipse 8 sadly did not work out for me. chain, a node n130 usb out to holo audio may kte, ww e8 xlr out to benchmark hpa4, ww e8 xlr out to benchmark ahb2 powering perlisten s7t. top end and mids were warm but veiled, felt like lots of detail was missing, little air at all, tight soundstage, imaging felt off, vocals, especially female vocals were dull, bass was loose and bloated. it honestly kills me to say it as i researched a TON and had a lot of faith and excitement for these cables. i tried to blame other parts of my chain but as soon as i swapped out ww for worlds best cable (canare / neutrik) my soundstage tripled in size, the veil was lifted, air was back, detail returned, the bass had bite and sharp resolution. it was a VAST difference. only complaint w wbc is maybe a little too bright and forward. on hunt now for something like the wbc only a little less emphasis on top end. i love the added detail in mid and top but the brightness is fatiguing. goes to show how synergy always trumps dollars when adding to your chain. 100% agree w posts stressing get a bunch of cables to evaluate. and for cable doubters, if you have not tried playing w swapping out a few cables, you might be surprised. i certainly was!

I'm currently running in WW Eclipse 8 rca's between my Marantz 30n sacd and Musical Fidelity Ms8 preamp and after about 200hrs I ordered the XLR's to go between the preamp and Halo JC5, the xlr's arrived yesterday and are currently running in. The cables I'm testing them against are Morrow MA4 rca's which the Pure Harmony plugs and the MA xlr's for the amp. Between the Marantz and preamp convinced me to get the xlr's due to the top to bottom coherence tonal balance and just flat out musicality. Nothing missing that the Morrow's had but and overall increase instrument placement ,air midrange articulation and taunt bass. I'm extremely impressed with Eclipse 8's in that application and hope a further increase in fidelity is to had with the xlr's or is just the balance and or synergy between the MA5 xlr's and the Eclipse 8 rca's ? 

@jgladden36 

You may want to Morrow Audio a shot as what you describe what your looking for they may just be what your looking for.

I am currently listening to a brand new pair of Wireworld Silver Eclipse 8 XLR in my system. Does anyone know the burn-in period for this Wireworld cable before it will sound good? 100 hours? 200 hours?

The clarity and detail appear to be better than my current Acrolink but the dynamics are not there yet. Has anyone compared the a Gold Eclipse 8 to Silver Eclipse 8? The Platinum 8 is too costly for me.

 

@jgladden36 What did you end up going with?
I had the exact same experience as you with the WW Eclipse 8 compared to Canare 4s11g based cables. Much wider/deeper soundstage but suddenly the top end became dull and recessed. Significantly.

Was thinking of trying the WW Silver Eclipse for added brightness.
Maybe it’s that the WBC are really bright and in comparison the WW Eclipse 8 felt really laid back and veiled. Not sure. I am reading that the Silver Eclipse are brighter than the normal Eclipse 8 which sounds like what I am missing.

Like you I feel the WBC are good but a bit too forward/edgy sometimes.
But the WW Eclipse 8 are the complete opposite in my system, extremely dark and veiled in the top end.

To provide some context
My system is
Anthem AVM90 --> Silver Eclipse 8 XLR --> Parasound JC1+ --> WBC (canare 4s11) ---> Sonus Faber Sonetto G2 Viii

ryder

after 200 hours the WW cables will open up nicely. What cables/cords are you currently enjoying ?

 

Happy Listening!