It's always a treat to hear from Jim Smith, and as many of you know, I have the greatest respect for Jim and his many contributions to the worlds of music & audio, and am just generally a big fan of Jim's!

Jim's demos at CES over the years have always been impressive, and you have to really know your stuff to get those kind of results at CES!

Jim has been awesome in teaching others about his methods as well, which you can learn more about at his Get Better Sound website. If you haven't had a chance to read Jim's books and watch his DVD's about room and system setup, it could be one of the most import things you can do for your audio experience.

But I digress, as what I really wanted to tell you about was Jim's email to me today about his experiences with the Duelund DCA20GA tinned-copper interconnects he had Chris at Parts ConneXion make for him:

Hi Jeff,

I wanted to send along this brief report regarding the Duelund DCA20GA when used as single-ended interconnects, unshielded.

First, I have been using the Belden 8402 for some time now.  I thought it very musically engaging. I had switched speaker cables from WE to Duelund DCA16GA and appreciated the improvement, though in my system, it wasn’t as huge as I had hoped.

Recently, I wanted to see what the DCA20GA would do, especially at its very affordable price. Chris Johnson & Co. at Parts ConneXion were amazingly prompt, as my assembled 2M IC cables arrived from Canada in about three days from placing the order!

Lacking the patience to wait on burning the cable in on my Audiodharma cable cooker, I simply inserted the new cables into the system, removing the Belden (which was constructed exactly as suggested by Yazaki-san).  My system only uses one pair of ICs, so this was too simple to wait … 🙂

This time, going to a Duelund cable was not somewhat better - as it had been when changing speakers cables from the WE.  It was tremendously better!  Better bass, mids & trebles, but especially noticeable were the improvements in Presence & Tone!  Unexpectedly - but most welcome - dynamic contrasts stood out in greater relief.

The sound was simply more alive, more immersive, more engaging.  The difference was amazing, even before considering the price/performance ratio!

I used the Duelund rca connectors, instead of the Switchcraft that I used on the Belden.  I thought I would try the Switchcraft afterwards, but if it ain’t broke… 🙂

All of the usual audiophile-approved descriptions apply in this report.  But I’ll just say this - In my audio career, I have never heard such a musically engaging improvement from simply swapping out a pair of ICs.  And this is pre-burn-in ...

Thanks to you for telling us about them, to Chris at Parts ConneXion for being so helpful, and especially to Frederik Carøe at Duelund.

Wishing You All the Best in Music & Sound,

Jim Smith

As you can imagine, I found it really gratifying to read Jim's email, and I'm sure Frederik will be thrilled at the response his DCA20GA is receiving.

I'm using the Duelund DCA20GA interconnects (above) in my main music system from my vintage McIntosh MX110Z preamp to my vintage McIntosh MC30 monaural amplifiers, and as high-frequency speaker cables from my MC30's to my Westminsters' Duelund CAST crossovers, with excellent results.

Next I want to make a shielded pair of Duelund DCA20GA interconnects to use for my SUT to preamp connection, as well as rewiring the high-frequency sections of my Duelund CAST crossovers with DCA20GA.

I also want to make another unshielded pair of Duelund DCA20GA's for my Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre system ... I just have a hunch it would be superb.

A huge thank-you to Jim Smith for his update on the performance of the Duelund DCA20GA in his system, and for allowing me to share it with you all. Thanks, Jim!

There will be lots more Duelund DCA20GA adventures coming, so stay tuned, and as always, thanks for stopping by!