Add Oil Baby! Duelund DCA20GA XLR Interconnects

I have long admired boutique products from Mundorf & Duelund. Today we talk about Duelund DCA20GA interconnect cables. This are DIY cables that one need to buy the required cable length,  x 2 if RCA and x 3 if XLR. In my case, since I only use XLR cables, it's 3 meters of cable stock to make 1 meter of the finished XLR cable. Then you need to buy some soldering wires, sleeve, some heat shrink jacket for cable dressing and also 2 pairs of required XLR or RCA plugs. Once all the materials are in hand, then one must DIY to put it all together. In this case, it was my good buddy Julien Lee who did all the hard work! Nice work man.........

A very excited Julien came to my place with a finished Duelund DCA20GA cable with Neutrik XLR plugs & WBT silver solder. He said "you gotta try this, it's tin copper but soaked in oil!" I was like "Ooo, soaked in oil? I likey.... already". I remembered the sonic effect of those silver in oil Mundorf caps gave me when I was playing with them.

I used Neutrik XLR plugs to go with the Duelund DCA20GA cables, because the Neutriks are industry standards and priced reasonably. there are better options out there to be considered at multiplied cost factor of x 5 or more, but considering the actual Duelund cable cost, I choose to stay with Neutrik just to make it rather affordable(that's a relative term, ani't it?). 

Here goes, after plug in, replacing my long serving Cardas Golden Reference XLR interconnect. We were immediately impressed with how organic and unforced the Duelund cable sounds.  Vocals have chest in their delivery, not just the head, and that very smooth highs, if a little rolled off. Bass delivery was totally rich, full, solid yet remained agile. In comparison, while the Cardas also had that rich, full, solid bass, it always sounded just a tad flabby. Notice I said we?

That's when both Julien and myself were there in my man cave for more than an hour! Then Julien said, "I have a better idea, you keep this pair running in, while I make another pair using Oyaide silver solder! Let's see what sonic changes we get" And then he left me to do 100 hours or so of running in. He came back a few weeks later with the 2nd cable. 

As soon as we plug in the Oyaide soldered cable, the first thing we noticed was that slightly rolled off highs were gone, replaced with an airy, finely extended smoothness. The vocals still had the pizzas, when listening to Barry White, his signature baritone voice was all there! Tsai Ching never sound more seductive & mellow. This kind of mid range can make many audiophiles go crazy & just say, "go on, just take my money!" I have not experience this kind of  magical mid range delivery, not since those heavenly Skorgarnd cables about 10 years ago. 

With the Oyaide silver solder, something had to give, right? Remember in every audio change, up grade or down grade regardless, one rule always applies, you win some, you lose some. Just hope when you upgrade, you win more then you lose. The thing about the Oyaide silver solder, the bass lost that richness, but still remaining solid and agile. So for my bi-amped system the solution was simple, I use that first WBT silver soldered Duelund interconnect5 for my bass channels, and use that Oyaide silver soldered Duelund cable for my mid & treble channels! And so like a true blue audiophile, I told Julien "go on, take my money please, and leave those 2 XLR Duelund interconnects here!" 

If you're not bi-amping unfortunately, then you'll have to choose the lesser of the 2 evils. With both Duelund cables in my system, it's almost like having the Skorgrand cables in my system, at a small fraction of the asking price! Now I start to believe in saving for the last, and the almighty has a path for you.  So don't be sad if you didn't get what you wished for! 

Dual DCA20GA has an extra oil cotton(black) jacket wrap over which gives further damping and resistance to oxidation. When used as interconnect, use an extra cable jacket or sleeve to give it further protection & professional look. The other function of the extra sleeve is to prevent your hands from getting oily while handling the finished interconnect.

 

With what was written above, I must caveat that the result was with my use of Audioquest Sky silver interconnects from source to pre-amp is what brings out the details in the music, then using the Duelund in the pre-amp to power amp stage to give music it's  rich tonality, that magical golden mid range, and truly kick ass bass quality. If you're using some copper cables further up stream, then your results may be somewhat invariably different. I guess it all depends on system synergy and cable matching as well, as in all things hifi. However there's no running away from one thing, if you love those paper in oil or silver in oil, or anything in oil sound character for the matter, this Dueland DCA20GA cables, is surely right up your alley, your must try product. That's all I am saying!

Did you also noticed I didn't mentioned price? For me at least, it worth every penny of Julien's asking price. Leave a PM comment if you want to give Julien some $$$!