Good quality, Unfancy Speaker Cable ?

prime minister

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I'd like to replace the speaker cable in my system, but while I want something of good quality, I'm not looking to support the manufacturers marketing department too.

So I'm looking for some really high quality copper cable, that isn't too think. Probably need about 16 feet total.

Any thoughts?
 
I am rockin' a pair of DIY (though not by me) cables (terminations and cable pants, you know?) made with Canare 4S8 Star Quad cable.

I like it. That's about all I can say. It's reasonably priced (very reasonably priced) by the foot.
 
I also highly recommend the Duelund but am also curious about the mil-spec silver plated wire. Which I’ve heard is a low cost alternative.
 
I will have to do a thread on Mil Spec m22759/11. It is about 50 cents a foot in 12 AWG if you are patient and low ball eBay sellers.

I really wonder, how would m22759/11 12 compare with Duelund DCA 12 AWG which is $19.99 a meter ??? Both are well made, one is copper stranded tin plated, and the other is nicely silver plated, copper stranded ?

The price difference per foot is 50 cents versus $ 19.99 / meter divided by 3.28 feet, or $6.08 a foot. Duelund is 12.16 times more expensive.

My question is this : if the costs were the same, which would sound better ??

Its time for some to experiment....... and listen some !!

Busy with other things at the moment. Regards, best wishes.

Dowto1000
 
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OK -- in re Duelund... exactly what stuff are all y'all talkin' about?
The discussion I've seen is too arcane for my little brain to suss out. The buzz on this stuff is so positive, my curiosity is piqued -- but I don't know exactly what it is I want. :(

Any of these?

http://www.partsconnexion.com/wire_hookup_duel_dca16.html

Thanks!!!
That's the stuff, Mark. And more specifically, the top three on that page (the bottom one is 26ga solid core). It's Duelund's modern-day interpretation of the Western Electric classic; tinned-copper, multistranded wire in a cotton sheath.

I kind of pooh-poohed the stuff for a while. Jeff Day gets a little overenthusiastic about some of his pet projects, and he's been obnoxiously rapturous about this... but he's not wrong about the Duelund wire. I'm using the DCA16GA as speaker cables and have swapped out all my interconnects for DCA20GA. It's really excellent for the (current) price, and I think it's particularly simpatico with flea watts and efficient speakers.
 
I'd like to replace the speaker cable in my system, but while I want something of good quality, I'm not looking to support the manufacturers marketing department too.

So I'm looking for some really high quality copper cable, that isn't too think. Probably need about 16 feet total.

Any thoughts?

Pick me, pick me! www.unityaudio.ca
Sorry, I don't offer anything boring, or pretentious.
 
I really wonder, how would m22759/11 12 compare with Duelund DCA 12 AWG which is $19.99 a meter ??? Both are well made, one is copper stranded tin plated, and the other is nicely silver plated, copper stranded ?

The price difference per foot is 50 cents versus $ 19.99 / meter divided by 3.28 feet, or $6.08 a foot. Duelund is 12.16 times more expensive.

My question is this : if the costs were the same, which would sound better ??
Jeff, they're very different wires regardless of the cost differential.

I haven't used yours but I have experimented with similar wire (silver-plated, stranded copper in PTFE jacket) and I didn't like it much. It was bright and a bit edgy in my system. Your favorite might not be, but on the surface of things it looks like the same kind of stuff and I am not keen to buy any more, even if it's inexpensive. That's my personal opinion and YMMV and all that, of course.

I've used other nice wire, some of it expensive and some very much not so (doorbell wire!) and I determined that I generally don't like silver-plated wire. Silver by itself - very high purity silver - is something different, though; I really like that in many cases.

Teflon has been hit or miss for me too, and I think it has something to do with how it's used as a dielectric. PTFE-sheathed cable I don't like, but solid core wire (silver or copper) in PTFE spaghetti tubing is nice - I think that's actually an air dielectric.

And speaking of wire dielectric (sheath), I think I've fully succumbed to the brainwashings of the ACA (Audiophile Church of the Arcane) -- natural is better. Give me cotton or silk, please! I can't begin to explain why, or use any fancier language to persuade you, but cotton and silk sound more... natural to me than plastics.

Tinned-copper wire was a real surprise to me. Tin seems so... pedestrian that I didn't want to like it. But darn if it ain't really really nice stuff! The Duelund wire is sheathed in church-approved black cotton and oil dielectricum -- it's sexy and it smells kinda funny too, which is cool.
 
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Pick me, pick me! www.unityaudio.ca
Sorry, I don't offer anything boring, or pretentious.

I did. I Still have yours and love them, and would switch. However, they are too thick with the covering on them for the location I need use them in right now. Nor will I remove the lovely covering that is on them, because they will go into use at the next location.

BTW, to clarify, I've had these cables for more then 10 years now, and they are the only ones that have gone with me from system to system, location to location. They are fantastic.
 
I did. I Still have yours and love them, and would switch. However, they are too thick with the covering on them for the location I need use them in right now. Nor will I remove the lovely covering that is on them, because they will go into use at the next location.

BTW, to clarify, I've had these cables for more then 10 years now, and they are the only ones that have gone with me from system to system, location to location. They are fantastic.

Now you need that matching power cable ;)
 
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