Who has bought esoteric wire for behind the wall

[Kingrex]

I am curious how many people have purchased some of the supposed higher quality wires that are installed inside your walls to feed 120 volt power to your audio system. Particularly in the US and Canada.

I ask because I have looked and looked, and what do you know, a plant stepped forth and said they can make me a batch of Ono Cast 10 awg wire that is twisted and jacketed with a UL stamp. This would be the real deal. An extremely low crystal count high purity.copper wire. No bull crap or fancy treatment. Just an excellent piece of wire that is legal anywhere in the USA and Canada.

The kicker is, I have to purchase a 30,000 foot spool. Do the math. Yes, its about a million dollar investment. But 30,000/100 which is an average use of wire on a project is maybe 300 jobs. That doea not sound crazy. But are peope actually using it? Do people really spend $60 a foot for Oyaide, JPSLabs or Audience.

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...I spent 20 bucks/ft. for some UL approved #6 w/ground, purported to be "good" copper, but surely not Ohno. FWIW, I would not spend more. Well, maybe for a short run, but not for 100 feet. Not even for 50 feet.

 

[RnRmf]

I bought the Audience Hidden Treasure and had my electrician run 4 20 amp dedicated lines to my listening area. It was a fairly short run of maybe 25 feet for each one so it wasn't a big investment. I'm very happy with it but who knows if a generic 10 gauge wire would have been just as good.

 

[Kingrex]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Bruce B]

Do people really spend $60 a foot for Oyaide, JPSLabs or Audience.

I have about a 1000' of JPS behind my walls/under the floors.

 

[Lee]

I have not but I did rewire with a heavy gauge Rolex on my last listening room. Made a nice difference!

I probably would have gone for JPS had I had the funds at the time.

 

[mtemur]

I installed 25mt. OYAIDE EE / F-S2.6 102 SSC Copper cable from meter to the back of the system. It is totally rewarding.

 

[sbnx]

I have 3 25’ runs if JPS. I would like to replace them with 10 Ga copper. But I can’t seem to get a reply fron the guy.

 

[SCAudiophile]

I have not gone with esoteric $200-300 per meter wire due to the lengths involved in my past homes. It is cost prohibitive for something that is not practical to remove if a house is sold and for which multiple long runs must be considered.

This is not a value judgement, there are several manufacturers out there I would have loved to use their product.

If the price for good, grain-oriented OCC or suitable wire could be made more reasonable, I would definitely reconsider buying for this and a future house in advance.

 

[Kingrex]

JPS labs is copper. Its tin coated. It does not have any aluminum in it.

If I got good wire, It would have to be about $60 a foot.

I have not gone with esoteric $200-300 per meter wire due to the lengths involved in my past homes. It is cost prohibitive for something that is not practical to remove if a house is sold and for which multiple long runs must be considered.

Thats a good point Mark. If I were to put a wire that expnesive into my house, I would sleeve it through ENT (smirf tube). Then its easy to yard out and take with you. Any, you can always change up what you have if your using a pipe.

 

[Ron Resnick]

JPS labs is copper. Its tin coated. It does not have any aluminum in it.

Are you sure? When they say "copper alloy," I'm pretty sure they mean aluminum is mixed in there.

 

[Kingrex]

Are you sure? When they say "copper alloy," I'm pretty sure they mean aluminum is mixed in there.

Some year back when I was first getting started, I had a long conversation with the distributor of JPS Labs. I don't know for sure what the wire really is, or where its sourced. My understanding is its a fine stranded copper with a tin coating. There is no aluminum in it. Its probably decent wire and will last a lifetime with little degradation in conductivity over time. I just decided it was not for me to pursure as a product to carry.
Send me a small snip of scrap from your project. Let me look at it.

For a while I was seeing some copper coated aluminum being run on jobsites where the wire as feeding something like a 5000A switchboard. Maybe a 1200 sub distribution board. Big fat wire. Think 500 MCM. Single wires as big around as 3 or 4 of your fingers. Its not going to end up in a 10 awg branch wire. Aluminum as a branch was done for a short while in the 70s and everyone saw the disaster immediatly and it not legal anymore. They may still do it in large feeder/service runs where cost is a factor.

 

[Superdad]

When I built my listening studio/office nearly two decades ago I wired it with all home runs of Hovland (my old company) MainLine AC cable. It, along with the heavy duty sub-panel and all the outlets were cryogenically treated (sent to a firm with a special process—they also treated cymbal and drum heads).