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Anticables speaker wire have no plastic jacket/insulation?

Yesterday I received in the mail a pair of Anticables "Level 3 Reference Series Speaker Wires". I bought them because I had heard good reviews about them and relative to other speaker wire they are inexpensive so I thought I would give them a try. I read the reviews of these wires several years ago so I forgot that one of their selling points is that they have no insulation. They are, as far as I can tell, red-painted (anodized?) bare wire. The second thing that was immediately obvious that I did not know before I bought them is that they are very stiff. Almost as stiff as a metal-wire coat hanger. 

My question is, if these are bare wire, are they unsafe to touch while the amplifier that is driving them is powered on? I'm not an electrical engineer, but I would think yes. If that is not the case, I'd like to know why. If they are unsafe to touch these wires could be a hazard to children and pets (at the very least), which I do not have but some people might take that into consideration. 

At this time the wires are still in "break in" period. Anticables recommends 100 hours. I will wait at least that long before judging them. Afterwords I will post my impressions of them, detail the equipment I'm using and compare them to my current speaker cables which are also inexpensive but good. 
e91811
bcowen
68 posts
 
The enamel coating on the wire IS the insulation.  You'll notice the positive and negative wires are weaved together -- if there was no insulation you'd short out your amplifier. 

I guess it's a little odd that you would purchase, install, and power up your equipment and THEN ask this question...
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,842 posts
 
Mapleshade has been making a similar product long before Anti-Cables offered theirs. Same principle: enamel coating of the wire but they only come with silver coated bare ends.  I believe Pierre Sprey got the idea when working in England on some military project that employed a similar style wire to great effect.

All the best,
Nonoise
biketech60
51 posts
 
Anticables speaker wire is 12 gauge as are many other brands , but are stiffer because they are single-conductor rather than twisted or woven from many strands of smaller wire to equal 12 gauge . Those others are more flexible due to the smaller diameter of the individual wires . Enamel insulation is typically good up to 600 volts, ac or dc , but so thin it can easily be scraped off . Check if your amplifier case is connected to power supply ground, and if so make sure the cables can't scrape against a sharp metal edge . This happened to me with another make of enamelled wire and I shorted out one of my monoblocks . The manufacturer was understanding and repaired it . Now using their Level 3 myself , with 4" of techflex protecting the amplifier end .
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,468 posts
 
Anticables was magnet wire wire many years ago....no longer.  No, they are not coat hangers. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't talk.
sonicjoy
146 posts
 
I have been using them for close to ten years now and they still work fine and sound great. The idea behind the minimal insulation thickness is almost zero capacitance. They are so simple and so basic, just a solid copper conductor. Nothing to get in the way of the signal. I am not one to use cables as tone control devices and these fit that bill nicely. I use two twisted pairs separated by a few inches in a bi wire configuration (to prevent induction cross feeding of the the bass cable into the high frequency cable) feeding Vandersteen 3a signatures. The Anti Cables provide a very clean and clear sound.
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