Hi grannyring,
I have a question for you about your post.
I have been enjoying my Western Electric NOS wire greatly. I use 10 gauge for both speaker and power cables.
Me too. I am currently using two twisted-pair runs
(7awg per pole)
to bi-wire each speaker. I have considered double quads (which would be 4awg per pole!) but since I am only using 1M lengths to connect my monoblocks to my speakers, I suspect that anything over the 7awg I am using now would be overkill. Also, I like that the NOS WE 10awg wire came in pairs and is machine-twisted so the twist is very consistent and probably better than can be done DIY by hand.
I am however using twisted quad runs as power cords for my 300wpc Class A amplifiers. The ground is also a pair of 10 awg wires so the total power cord consists of 6 of the 10 awg runs. No current limitations here and they sound better than anything else I have tried.
I tried the new Duelund match of the 16 gauge WE stranded/tinned wire and am very impressed. They better the Belden ic's pretty easily really.
Not surprised since I never really liked the sound of the Belden ICs. I am using a whole different thing here made from multiple small gauge solid core wires of exceptional purity and the Belden wire ICs didn't even compete, they comparitively dulled the sound.
They better the 16 gauge WE wire also. Best ic's I have ever built. Great wire for unshielded ic's!
I assume you are talking about ICs made from the 16 gauge NOS WE wire? I never tried making those but based on what everybody is saying about the Duelund wire, I may consider a couple of sets of ICs made from that wire. Thing is, I have tons of the NOS WE wire here but none of the Duelund wire. However, it appears Partsconnexion does indeed have that wire back in stock so it is available.
My question is, how close is the sound of the Duelund wire ICs to that of the NOS WE 16 awg wire ICs? If they are close, I will likely use the WE wire I have to make a set but if the difference is quite noticeable, then I will probably just go ahead and splurge for the Duelund wire. I know how these things go and sometimes people like something "new" simply because it is new. Even though the WE wire has a plastic coating, I believe it is special and very good sounding.
Another consideration for me is that Jupiter has made an 18 awg tinned stranded copper in cotton hook-up wire for years. I wonder why that wire hasn't caught on more since I would suspect 18 awg may actually be a bit better for ICs than 16 awg. I haven't tried the Jupiter tinned/stranded wire either although I have successfully used their other copper or silver in cotton wires and have found their stuff to be very good. It is half the price of the Duelund wire (although one gauge smaller).
