I have lived with the WE power and speaker cables for awhile now, including switching them in and out of my system and comparing with various other cables I have, so I will share some observations. On the face of things, I wouldn't have expected the WE wires to sound as good as they do, particularly for speaker cables. In general, I do not care for the sound of plated wires, whether silver-plated or tinned, as with the WE wire, and I most often like solid-core wire over stranded. Although they are cotton-covered, the dielectric is some sort of plastic that is under the cotton. I believe the sonic advantage of the WE wires likely has to do with soft-annealing of the copper.
I like the power cords so far. The only configuration I am using is an unshielded 7awg twisted quad of the 10awg wires, cross-connected. This is similar to the highly regarded TWL PC, which is a braided quad of the same wire. A next project may be to make shielded PCs for my front end gear using the same WE 10awg wire, which comes as a twisted pair. For that I will simply use the 10awg twisted pair as-is, with a shield and spaced away ground wire. So far, I have used Furutech FI-11 copper plugs/iecs but I may reconsider and try FI-32(G) connectors for front end gear.
I also like the speaker cable. I have tried the three main wire gauges, WE 10awg, 14awg and 16awg with my two different high'ish powered amplifiers I have (300 and 350wpc). A bi-wire, double quad run with a quad of 16awg wires for MF/HF and a quad of 14awg wires for LF sounds quite good and IMO as good as a bi-wired (i.e., two runs) of the (two-wires twisted) 10awg wires. Another project I am planning is to make a bi-wire set using a twisted pair of the 10awg wires for the MF/HF and a quad of the 10awg wires (aggregate 7awg) to the LF. I may rethink and use a double quad of the 10awg wires, which would be 7awg to both the MF/HF terminals and to the LF terminals.
Regarding the sound of the WE wire used for speaker cables, even after significant burn-in, both in my system and on an Audiodharma Cable Cooker, I would say they are lacking just touch of refinement, compared to some other cables. This is a small nuance and not necessarily a bad thing, considering some cables sort of unnaturally smooth things over. I also find that they have a touch of midrange prominence although, overall, they are fairly even-handed across the board, with the exception of that small midrange focus. So, IMO, the strengths are an even-handed presentation with a slight midrange focus that seems to enhance vocals and an overall natural/organic sound which is quite enjoyable. In general, I find the larger the gauge, the better for high powered amplifiers but I am also not surprised a simple pair of the 16 awg size is reported as working well for the SET group.
The wires that I keep going back to over here are another set of DIY cables made from raw wire, using the Jupiter copper in cotton wire. I am using a braided biwire set with multiple (8-each) 16awg wires for the LF and multiple
(8-each)
18awg wires for the MF/HF. This gives aggregate sizes of 10awg for the LF and 12awg for MF/HF. Those Jupiter-wire cables seem to offer the same level of naturalness as the WE wire but with additional clarity, more bass punch and a very nice tonal quality. They do not have the midrange focus that I hear with the WE wire but the mids are in no way recessed. Overall, in my system, I think they are overall better than the WE wires, although the WE wires are fun to put back in occasionally. They also beat several well-regarded manufactured wires I have here.
