kclone, The Mamba V2 beats my Nanotec across the board and is cheaper. Here's where you can buy a completed PC: https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/chuya-online/item/92479/ Wig |
Just finished a mini shoot-out comparing 3.5M long balanced (XLR) ICs made from Duelund 20 ga wire with ICs of the same length and construction method but made with WE 16 ga wire. The ICs connect my Metrum Pavane Level 3 DAC with my SMc preamp. The construction consists of twisted pair conductors covered with a low-noise spacer layer then a tinned copper braid-shield connected at the source end only and a counter-spiraled ground wire of a larger gauge than the signal wires and connected at both ends. Clean-cut TechFlex covers the whole assembly. Connectors are the Furutech FP-601/602 (G). A third, control IC that I am very familiar with consisted of Furutech's highly rated U-p2.1 balanced interconnect that uses 19 awg stranded Alpha-PCOCC conductors in special foamed PE insulation. In end, the DIY ICs made from the Duelund 20 ga wire were preferred. It was sort of a Goldilocks type of thing where the WE 16 ga wire was just a little too rich-sounding and midrange-centric, while the Furutech wire was nicely extended but didn't quite have the warmth and glowing tonal presentation of the two DIY ICs that both use tinned copper wire. The 20 ga Duelund wire was "just right" with a very nice blend of richness, warmth, detail, and extension, as well as that great tonal quality that folks like about the tinned copper Duelund and WE wire. All three sets of ICs had been conditioned for days on my Audiodharma Cable Cooker and all three sets sounded very nice - I could live with any of them. Unfortunately, my shoot-out still does not answer questions regarding Duelund vs. WE wire since the both of those had similar characteristics and I cannot say for sure whether the differences I heard were due to the differences in the wire and dielectric materials between Duelund and WE, or simply due to the difference between the gauge of the two wires (i.e., 20 awg Duelund wire vs. 16 awg WE wire). |
