Looking for really fine cables at really low price

Rob,
Have you formed any listening impressions with your modified Dynamo amplifier as of yet? How much of a difference have you heard with the Arizona capacitors?
Charles,

Has anyone compared the WE 16 ga wire with the Belden 9497 wire as speaker cable? Apparently the Belden is used by Shindo as internal speaker wire. Like Western Electric wire it has a cult following in Japan. The Belden is a tightly twisted 16 ga stranded (19x29) tinned copper conductors with PVC insulation. Curious as there are similarities regarding wire gauge, stranded tinned copper, etc. with the difference being the insulation and twist construction.

Rbrowne,

I'm also interested in WE16GA vs Belden 9497.

Dr. John at CheapTubeAudio has some short articles about the Belden speaker wire:

http://cheaptubeaudio.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-belden-9497.html
http://cheaptubeaudio.blogspot.com/2012/02/pic-from-second-japanese-article.html
http://cheaptubeaudio.blogspot.com/2014/04/l-497mkii-r-9497-click-pic-to-enlarge.html

I gotta agree with Steakster, I like the WE speaker cables but I am not thrilled with the Belden 8402 ICs so will be trying to sell mine. I found the Belden ICs to be a bit raggedy in the upper frequencies and dark/dull overall.

The WE speaker cables are a different story. I am currently running two pairs of 10awg WE speaker cables (1M long) directly from the amplifier board of each of my Acoustic Imagery Atsah monoblocks (so, no binding posts at the amp end) and they sound outstanding. There is clarity overall, smooth highs, and a perfect balance of depth, drive, fullness and control in the bass. The wire has excellent tonal qualities and the midrange has a nice touch of projection and warmth. There don't seem to be any issues that detract from the musicality of these cables but, if pressed, I would say the high frequencies are slightly less excellent than the remaining aspects of the WE wire...and that's the worst I can say. Overall, they come closer to my ideal than anything I have tried.

After trying the 16, 14 and 10 gauge WE wires, it is my opinion they are cut from the same sonic cloth, as I would expect since they are made from the very same 30awg tinned copper strands encased in thermoplastic then covered with cloth. The only difference is the number of strands used to make the various gauge wires. I suspect the 16awg is plenty big when used with low-powered tube amplifiers while my 400 wpc SS amps really benefit from 2-runs of 10awg wire (7 awg aggregate per amp). I am glad to have stocked up on this wire so I can try some future projects.