2017 Honest Cabling that doesn’t promote bankruptcy

What covers the oil impregnated cotton to make it safe to use as a conductor?

Jim, I would not use the Duelund wire to make power cords but the cotton covering should be fine when using the wire as ICs or SCs.

The Western Electric wire was designed as a speaker wire but has been used by several cable manufacturers to make power cords. From the WE website;

KS-13385 is our premium Hi-Fi audio wire. It features a soft drawn copper with a tinned coating and a cotton braided jacket. 

KS-13385 Wire features a laquered cotton brain jacket with PVC insulation. Sizes range from 24 AWG to 2AWG.

The construction of the wire and cable is in accordance with Underwriters' Laboratories Appliance Wiring Material (AWM) Style 1491.

KS-13385 WIRE

This hookup wire is designed for use at operating voltages of 600 volts rms or less and temperatures not exceeding 185F.

Conductors

Stranded or solid, tin-coated copper conforming to ASTM B-33 and B-174 or B-173.

Conductors

85°C rated Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) conforming to Underwriters' Laboratories AWM Style 1491 and CSA C22.2 No.210.2 requirements.

Optional Cabling/Shielding

2, 3 or 4 conductors may be twisted together when requested. A braided shield may be applied over 1, 2, 3 or 4 conductors with an overall lacquered cotton braid.

Covering

On all sizes, a lacquered cotton braid conforming to UL requirements is applied over the insulation. The colors shall be specified on order.

Type

UL Listed AWM Style 1491 90°C, 600 Volts VW-1, CSA listed AWM 1 A/B 90°C, 300 Volts FT-1. RoHS Compliant and Lead-Free.

Good point on the Duelund wire. I assumed the question was for speaker and IC cable only. Yes I used the WE10 to make many nice sounding power cords over the past two years.

Grannyring > I like the Duelund and love the Western Electric NOS wire which the Duelund wire was fashioned after.

Blindjim > very cool. THX. Given the costs, It’s a no brainer to at least try this stuff.

mitch2 > Jim, I would not use the Duelund wire to make power cords but the cotton covering should be fine when using the wire as ICs or SCs.

Blindjim > huge THX!
yeah. I was a bit confused on that ‘in oil’ part. Both sides of my brain were about to walk off ten paces at dawn and …. Then I suddenly remembered I’ve gotta buy the ‘spensive power cords.
I’m pretty sure it’s the law.

I think I’ve seen these same wires in some military tube based PA systems and later on in the commercial electrical field within older house wirings.

It would be cool too to have spkr wires in my fav color.

I wonder if they would do some in paisley?

I’ve archived these last few notes so maybe I’ll make some progress. At least obtain a base line for further comparisons.

I will indeed flip out if these things out run my Synergistic active spkr bi wires.

Audio Sensibility makes excellent cables at an affordable price. If you read their history they are one of the few companies that can source high end OCC copper/silver.  I added a tonearm cable last year and a few cables recently and all are high quality making an improvement.  I recently bought their USB cable that uses 100% OCC silver conductors for half price as the AQ coffee cable it replaces and the sound is much better.  

The audio sensibility speaker cables have to be pretty good.  The cable dielectric, geometry and gauge are the same as canare 4s11.