It's always an exciting day here at Jeff's Place when something arrives from Frederik Carøe at Duelund Coherent Audio in Denmark, and in today's case it is the arrival of the hotly anticipated Duelund Coherent Audio DCA20GA tinned-copper tone-wire!

The new Duelund Coherent Audio DCA20GA tinned-copper tone-wire!

For those of you who haven't been following the developing story of tinned-copper tone-wire, let me fill you in on some of the history that led up to the new Duelund DCA20GA wire.

Way back in April of 2015 I reported to you that Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki of SPEC Corporation had recommended vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire and nuevo-vintage Belden 8402 microphone cable to me for its excellent tonal properties, as speaker cables and interconnects, respectively.

It turned out that Yazaki-san's recommendation of the vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire and the nuevo-vintage Belden 8402 microphone cable was a magic combination musically & sonically in my various hi-fi systems here at Jeff's Place, and they soon became a sensation for audio enthusiasts around the world as word got out about their combination of superb performance and affordable cost.

In a moment of serendipity I realized that not only did us audio enthusiasts think that the tinned-copper conductors of the Western Electric & Belden cables have wonderful tonal properties, but in the parallel universe of the electric guitar musician community the special tonal qualities of the tinned-copper wire used in vintage electric guitars was also revered, and they rewired their current production electric guitars with tinned-copper wire to make them sound more musically sophisticated like vintage electric guitars like Eric Clapton's Blackie did.

Eric and Blackie in 1978. Public domain photograph.

It turns out that tinned-copper wire has unique musical & sonic properties compared to copper, silver, or gold wire, whether it is used in audio speaker cables or interconnects, or in vintage electric guitars, vintage guitar amplifiers, or vintage audio gear.

Part of the reason that so many enthusiasts think that vintage electric guitars, vintage guitar amplifiers, and vintage audio electronics sound so good has to do with the particular combination of tonal traits associated with the tinned-copper wire they were wired with.

In the electric guitar communities the signature tonal qualities of tinned-copper wire were recognized to be vivid tone color, superb dynamic response, melodic sophistication, harmonic complexity, musical expressivity, which gave a high level of emotional wallop when playing music.

Add to those tinned-copper signature tonal qualities recognized by guitarists, the spooky imaging presence, natural live-like resolution, generous portrayal of soundstage & soundspace, and a presentation of a live-like timbral complexity that were recognized by us audio nuts, and you have something very special going on musically & sonically with tinned-copper tone wire.

It turns out those signature tonal qualities really resonated with a lot people in the audio community, enough so that the vintage Western Electric WE16GA wire went extinct in the wild to the extent that people were even selling fakes of it on eBay in an attempt to capitalize on its popularity.

It turned out that Frederik Carøe at Duelund Coherent Audio had been quietly observing the audio community's reaction to the WE16GA's considerable tonal charms, and their (and my) dismay at having it become extinct.

Frederik became intrigued with the idea of producing a contemporary Duelund Coherent Audio version of the vintage Western Electric WE16GA, but going the Western Electric one better by utilizing Mr. Steen Duelund's axiom of a natural materials philosophy for the dielectric, to produce an even better sounding version of that venerable classic.

Duelund DCA16GA tinned-copper tone wire.

That led to the development of the Duelund Coherent Audio DCA16GA wire that has the same count & diameter of the vintage Western Electric's twenty-six strands of 0.25mm tinned-copper wire conductors, but wrapped up in a more purist and better sounding dielectric of black cotton that was impregnated in oil and then baked.

The Duelund Coherent Audio DCA16GA tinned-copper tone wire was a huge hit for Frederik, and the production runs sold out as soon as they became available for sale, and the DCA16GA quickly became the heir apparent to the revered vintage Western Electric WE16GA.

You can read all the details about the Duelund DCA16GA tinned-copper tone wire in the article I wrote about it for Positive Feedback in Issue 88.

Intoxicated with the musicality of the Duelund DCA16GA, quite a number of people began requesting that Frederik make the Duelund tinned-copper wire in other gauge sizes for other applications.

The tinned-copper wire for the Duelund DCA20GA cable.

After some consideration Frederik settled on a 20-gauge tinned-copper wire to be the second in the series of Duelund tinned-copper tone wires, and which incidentally has the same count & diameter of  twenty-six strands of 0.15mm diameter tinned-copper conductors that the Belden 8402 does, but instead of using the shielding, heaving casing, filler, and synthetic dielectric the Belden does, Frederik wrapped his DCA20GA in the lithe & natural oil-soaked & baked cotton dielectric of the DCA16GA.

The new Duelund DCA20GA going through the oil impregnation process.

As Frederik said in an earlier post about the DCA20GA, “Following a lot of interest – we have today started production of a new DCA20GA wire. Made in the same way as the renowned DCA16GA wire – featuring tinned/copper multi-strand conductors in cotton and oil. The wire will have less metal than the 16GA and thus a higher AWG. It will be ideally suited for interconnects and smaller signals."

WE16GA (left), DCA16GA (middle), and DCA20GA (right).

So, as you might imagine, I'm really looking forward to making some interconnects using the DCA20GA tinned-copper tone wire and comparing it the Belden 8402 (and DCA16GA) interconnects I've already made.

I ran out of RCA's so have placed an order for more, and they should be here in the next day or two, so stay tuned for my developing DCA20GA interconnect adventure.

I should have more to share with you very soon, about DCA20GA interconnects, and some other ideas I have for the DCA20GA.

Frederik told me that the DCA20GA will ship in the next week or two to Parts ConneXion for North American audio enthusiasts, and to Hifi Collective in the UK for UK & EU audio enthusiasts, which will be the first dealers to carry stock of the DCA20GA.

Update: DCA20GA availability and pricing at Parts ConneXion.

I just got an update from Chris Johnson at Parts ConneXion that they will have the Duelund DCA20GA tinned-copper tone-wire in stock next week on January 27th.

Chris says you can pre-order it now on their website here, and they won't charge for it until it ships (it's the second item down on the list of Duelund wire).

Chris says they will be offering the Duelund DCA20GA at an introductory price of $6.75 at meter, which is even more affordable pricing than the very fair pricing of the DCA16GA at $9.99 a meter.

A big thank you to both Chris and Frederik for offering such great wire products like the DCA20GA and DCA16GA at such accessible pricing!

DCA20GA and Switchcraft 3502AAU RCA's.

The Path Forward

My shipment of my favorite affordable RCA's just arrived from Mouser Electronics as well, the Switchcraft 3502AAU RCA's, so I'll definitely be able to get some interconnects built up over the weekend.

I've got a couple of initial ideas to try for the DCA20GA over the weekend, the first idea being a pair of 2-meter interconnects just like I did with DCA16GA, with single runs of Duelund wire pin-to-pin and ground-to-ground.

The second idea is to build another pair of 2-meter DCA20GA interconnects with single runs of Duelund DCA20GA wire pin-to-pin, and two runs of DCA20GA ground-to-ground, in attempt to mimic what happens when you connect shielding at both ends with the Belden 8402 microphone cable, which essentially puts the tinned-copper shielding in the return as additional conductor.

(Update: It turns out that combining two 20 gauge wires results in a wire gauge equivalent of 17 gauge, courtesy of the combined wire gauge calculator. After doing that calculation I realized it might make more sense to make the return a DCA16GA).

Finally, I plan to build pairs of shielded 1-meter & 2-meter interconnects with DCA20GA to compare to the shielded DCA16GA interconnects I'm using now on my SUT, and to the shielded Belden 8402 microphone cable interconnects. The shielded DCA20GA interconnects will take me a little longer to get to as I'll need to get some shielding, casing, and shrink-wrap supplies ordered from Chris at Parts ConneXion.

That'll allow me to compare the interconnects I built with Duelund DCA16GA and Belden 8402 microphone cable to the DCA20GA directly.

What I'll probably do is build the first few pairs of DCA20GA interconnects, then give them each a quick listen for first impressions of what they sound like raw off the roll, then condition them for a few days on my audiodharma Cable Cooker, and then give them another listen.

The Duelund DCA20GA adventure is getting under way, and I'll keep you posted on my impressions as I go!

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!