First off I want to give a shout out to one of my audio heroes, Jim Smith, who gave Jeff's Place and Duelund DCA16GA a mention on his blog, Get Better Sound, is this issue of his Quarter Notes news letter:
"Jeff Day is a trouble-maker! He keeps finding things that I have to try. I loved the Western Electric 16 GA speaker cable that he recommended. Then he announced that the Duelund 16 GA is even better!
So I had to try it. The good news is that both cables are very inexpensive. In fact, my 10’ bi-wire runs to each channel of my Duelund outboard crossovers (that’s 40’ of wire plus wire for the crossovers and the leads into the Tannoys), plus the interconnects cost me under $300 TOTAL! Was it worth doing?
I’d say with complete confidence that it is the most musically engaging sound I have ever heard. The caveat may be that this is only because I have 96dB efficient loudspeakers. Jeff’s are even more efficient. So I cannot say with any certainty that they will be as good with low efficiency loudspeakers.
On the other hand, it’s not too costly to give them a try…
BTW – trouble maker or not, Jeff’s blog is always a source of useful info, and always from a musical involvement standpoint."
Duelund DCA16GA tinned-copper wire.
It's a true honor to get such a nice mention from someone as esteemed in the audio community as Jim Smith! Thanks for the mention, Jim, very much appreciated!
Shielded Duelund DCA16GA interconnects in Yazaki-san style with the shield connected to ground at both ends.
Also, I have been thinking of making up a pair of shielded DCA20GA interconnects to compare to my shielded DCA16GA interconnects that I use in my SUT to preamp connection.
I asked Chris at Parts ConneXion if he could recommend to me a parts list for making up some shielded Duelund DCA20GA interconnects, and here's Chris' recommendation for making up a pair of 1-meter DCA20GA interconnects:
4 meters of Duelund DCA20GA ($6.75 USD/meter)
7 feet of TCBRAID-70765 1/4" Tinned Copper Braided Sleeving ($1.25 USD/per foot)
6.5 feet of X COTTUBE-72532 OD:11mm, Non-dye Natural Color Cotton Tubing, 100% Cotton ($1.30 USD/per foot)
2 pairs of DUELUND-81404 Duelund RCA Plug, Direct GOLD-Plated ($55.95 USD/pair), or for a budget approach use 2 pairs of Switchcraft 3502AAU RCA's ($3.99 USD/each, not listed in the directory yet, but search on "Switchcraft" and you can find it).
0.25 feet of HSHRINK-64093 3/8" Black - Polyolefin 2:1 Shrink Ratio, Flexible Heat Shrink Tubing ($0.75 USD/per foot)
0.25 feet of HSHRINK-77264 3/8" Red - Polyolefin 2:1 Shrink Ratio, Flexible Heat Shrink Tubing ($2.56 USD/per foot)
It takes Parts ConneXion approximately 2 hours of labor to put together a pair of shielded interconnects, and if you don't feel comfortable making up your own, Chris will make up custom pairs for you if you contact him.
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
