Western Electric Cloth/silk insulated wires

A lot of these cables are originating from china. Western Electric must have had a huge stash of these hidden away in the far east and waiting to be re-discovered 40 years later, ready for modern audiophiles to enjoy their benefits.

Firstly, cotton does not make a good insulator. As I understand it, the WE wire being sold on ebay has a silver plated copper screen inside a teflon sleeve so the the cotton is on the outside for "decorative purposes" one would imagine.

Secondly, copper wire is still copper wire, be it Western Electric or anyone else's. I suppose we could assume though that copper wire was more plentiful years ago and had less impurities than now when freshly mined and not tainted by recycled copper which has all sorts of crap in it these days.

Great way to add "value" to a plain copper wire with a faux provenance.
The British take on cables:
http://cablejunction.boards.net/

RE: Western Electric Cloth/silk insulated wires, posted on September 28, 2014 at 10:39:23
Mossback Audiophile Posts: 1871 Location: Washington, the State Joined: November 17, 2001	Western Electric anything is highly respected by many in Asia. That it comes from China could mean it is fake or real or both. God only knows. There are many great audio DIY enthusiasts over there now. My feeling is more of a bragging rights kinda deal. Quality metallurgy today is in some cases light years ahead of what was 50 years ago.

RE: Western Electric Cloth/silk insulated wires, posted on September 28, 2014 at 17:34:39

ianm0
Audiophile

Posts: 306
Location: AU
Joined: June 1, 2006

"Quality metallurgy today is in some cases light years ahead of what was 50 years ago. "
I totally agree.

"That it comes from China could mean it is fake or real or both. "
All ebayers are in the US and that had me scratching my head. Many years ago, I learned that there were a lot of WE wires which came from dismantling of telephone exchanges. Have they been "returned" to the US for audiophile consumption?

These wires may be good as hook up wires at a fraction of the cost of quality hook up wires today. That's why I am inquiring hoping others have experience with them will come forward.

Cable Asylum

Western Electric Cloth/silk insulated wires

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