User Feedback on the OCCC Wire – Chimera Laboratories

Bill Saimond: The first two cables I made sound great; a lot more midrange detail and quicker bass. The first thing I noticed was the increase in the gain at the same volume level I normally use for listening to CD's. I had to turn the volume down. Amazing!           

Paul Stangeland: I just wanted to tell you that I finally got the DIY Advantage II interconnects in my system, and I couldn’t be more pleased.  So natural, and so clean!  The HT cable they replaced was pretty good, I thought.  Remarkable.

Christoph, Arbelos Elektroakustik: They sound superb, and bested any wire at a half-way comparable price, though they are not exactly cheap either. You obviously wind them very carefully on these cardboard tubes. All the best!

Bill Capolongo: I built the speaker cable and broke it in for about 25 hours so far. It sounds excellent, definitely a nice step up from the Cardas 29 gauge single strand magnet wire I was using previously. Thanks!

Marcial Bacani: Yes, I had been using your wire for my projects. One of them was a kit preamp from Welborne Labs. I wired one of the inputs with 26ga. silver and the others with the OCCC wire. The OCCC wire had more body and seemed more alive. The silver also sounded thin by comparison.

Robert Rossi: I’ve been listening to your cables for over a week now, they are fantastic. Everything I read on your website but had to hear for myself. Nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said. Just add my name to the list of believers. Speaker cables and additional ICs next...BTW, nicely assembled kit and easy to follow instructions.

John Chapman, Bent Audio: Just wanted to send a thanks for the wire and solder. They have worked out really well and I now use them in all the NOH pre-amps and step-up transformers we ship. I have also started using your wire as transformer leadout wires. The wire is as good as I have found and very reasonable - a rare combination in the audio wire business!

Michel van Meersbergen: Okay, changed some small lengths (to and from vol. pot) now 'playing' for an hour of four. I think it's wonderful, already blowing away Van Den Hull MC20 silver wire in regions of detail and harmony across the complete bandwidth (not to mention the extension of it!). Still got some bleached notes, used silver solder... On the whole I think I can only confirm what others told about the wire...

Mark Malboeuf:I have been a professional video and audio producer and engineer (as well as musician) for the past 16 years. I have had a multitrack recording studio for much of that time and have recorded commercially released albums, scored and recorded television commercials. I am a voting member of NARAS, the Grammy organization. More recently I have added CEDIA Installer certification to my resume, as I have gotten into surround, home theater and home wiring. I've been crawling around on my hands and knees wiring stuff together for as long as I care to remember. I am, as you might expect, a music and stereo "nut".

My current stereo consists of a Rega Planar with Audio Note cartridge, Rega Jupiter CD, VTL tube pre loaded with Mullards and Telefunkens, a Krell KAV-150 powering modified Dahlquist DQ-28 three-ways. While this is far from the cost-no-object systems we read about, it is squarely in the "respectable" category (as long as we don't argue about the mixing of tubes and sand). Once I had, over time, assembled most of this system, I reached a point a couple of years ago where I was satisfied with the components and figured the best bang for the buck was likely to be found in putting better "hose" between the components. The math on expensive cabling gets easier when it's going to cost in the thousands to get an incrementally better component.

I got a pair of Nordost silver-on-copper interconnects, which led to getting their speaker bi-wires. I was quite frankly amazed by the amount of detail and subtlety that was sitting there unheard on my favorite CDs, and this convinced me of the validity of (some of) the claims of wiring manufacturers. I assumed that silver was the best material for speaker and IC wire - the experts' testimony and my own experience seemed to bear that out. Over time, though, I found myself listening almost exclusively to the SOUND of things; the wires, components, specific recording qualities, etc. and not the MUSIC.

The information "revealed" by these wires launched me into a lengthy period of doubting various components, swapping them out, trying different drivers in the speakers. I couldn't see how the increase in information could be a bad thing. It isn't, in and of itself, but I couldn't get around a general feeling of irritation, and couldn't understand why I sat there like an insomniac TV watcher, flipping from tune to tune, unable to sit still for an entire side. A good setup has the downside of clearly representing the bad as well as the good, which can paradoxically make it more difficult to achieve satisfying sound reproduction. I'm jealous of those who have yet to go out and get some decent speakers for the first time and realize that massive improvement in their listening experience.

Concurrently with this stereo issue, I had gotten into wiring my own home and other's, CEDIA, and deeper into the world of wire in general. In the course of installing clients' home theaters I was amazed by the number of connectors, made by the most popular "premium" wire manufacturer, that simply CAME APART in my hands, contrary to their "tough" reputation/hype. I own lots of these cables, like most people. I opened them up and found cold solder joints on expensive interconnects. Their S-video cables had failed on me during video shoots. I began to question the value (and cost) to the END USER of the marketing, slick packaging, and most of all, the big fat jacket and big shiny but inexpensive plated brass connectors hiding the inexpensive wire and mass-production construction. The business end of a cable is the center conductor. The rest of it is shielding, the quantity of which may or may not be necessary depending on where you live and how you route your cables. It's hard to get past this feeling, but a big, fat cable just makes me think I'm getting more of my money's worth. Unfortunately, sonically, it's just not the case. Look under the hood (or just read the jacket) of your "premium" cables. Most all of them have a bundle of very fine wire adding up to a 24 AWG center conductor. Chimera's cable has two solid 25.5 AWG wires carrying the positive signal, which adds up to better than a 20 AWG. It's not a skinny cable where it counts.

I couldn't bear to pay more for wires than I already had with the Nordosts, and having ordered lots of nice coaxial cable for home wiring, started making my own interconnects. For about five bucks I can make cables that compete with what you pay fifty for at Best Buy, but these just don't get it in a good stereo. Eventually I found Dennis' site, found his theory intriguing and ordered some wire, solder and RCAs. My old soldering iron wasn't quite hot enough for the big plugs and copper solder, so I didn't expect much when I put together the first pair. They looked awful. I expected to lose some of the high-end information the silver had brought, but was prepared to do so, as I had come to feel that they tilted the signal too much toward the treble end. A "softer" sound would be a small price to pay if the mysterious, fatiguing, "irritating" quality would go away.

First let me say that when you have spent a lot of hours listening to real voices and instruments through good microphones and preamps directly to good monitors, you get spoiled. There is a quality of direct, high-quality sound reproduction that I like to call "rightness". Much of this quality is not as instantly perceivable as a change in EQ or volume - it is learned (such as correctness of phase) and "felt" over time. The processes and conduits involved in getting music from that relatively pure original state to your ears via CD or LP can, if they handle the signal poorly, suck the life out of a good recording. Probably the most common "weak link" in the chain, assuming an otherwise good reproduction system, are interconnects and speaker wire.

The first surprise upon installing the Litz OCCC ICs was that the high end was all there, all the detail and subtlety that had attracted me to silver in the first place - but smooth and even from top to bottom. Then there was cleaner, tighter bass. Most importantly, the overall rightness of the sound was there - voices sound like human voices and acoustic instruments like acoustic instruments playing in air - subtle qualities, I am now convinced from further experimentation, that are squashed by braided coaxial shielding and multistranded center conductors. The sounds image from their proper positions in the mix, from the air between the speakers rather than from the speakers themselves. Whatever it was that was "wrong" with my stereo was gone.

The most significant thing to me though, and perhaps the highest praise I can give these wires was that, after the first few minutes of attempted objective evaluation, I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE SOUND for the first time in about two years of searching, and in what seemed like a very short time, the entire CD had played. I don't think I had had that experience since the days before I knew anything about the "high end". The days when I listened to music for the music alone. While the effect of these wires is considerably more subtle than a change of speaker, I was shocked that these seemingly "skinny" wires could do what they do. It is subtle in the grand scheme of things, yet profound in a good system.

Subsequent attempts have improved my construction technique, with commensurate improvement in the sound. But, unless you already own the proper equipment and have the skills to make these yourself, leave the construction to the professional. You'll come out ahead.

This is not some whiz-bang new untried technology - Litz braiding has been around for better than a half-century. The design shields itself. Continuous cast copper is newer technology, but is the best sounding conductor available. Period. Dennis' attention to detail, quality of components, and the hand-made labor-intensive nature of their construction make his products the highest value for the money of any cables out there. Highest recommendation.

Robert Rossi: I’ve been listening to your cables for over a week now, they are fantastic. Everything I read on your website but had to hear for myself. Nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said. Just add my name to the list of believers.

Speaker cables and additional ICs next...BTW, nicely assembled kit and easy to follow instructions.

Lee Sai Choo:
Just completed a pair of interconnects. Used between CD player (Rega Jupiter modified with audiocom clock)) and pre-amp (electrocompaniet 4.5). There is barely 2 hrs on the cable. It betters the Transparent Ultra (no XL). I had this verified by two other audionuts. In short I am pleased with the outcome. I expect further improvements once the cable is properly run-in. Thanks again. I compared your cables to another cable I made with Vampire OCCC 23 awg cable - 3 braid - the sound was thicker and there was a distinct slowness.

PS. other components: Martin Logan Aeon I, Mark Levinson 331, transparent ref cable (no XL) between preamp and power amp, transparent ref speaker cables on and transparent super with xl spk cables, transparent power box, and several bybees.

John Hanan:
I have much enjoyed the tubes and wire I've bought from you, and I've learned much from the answers you've been kind enough to offer to my questions. You're an asset to the valve community. Long may you "glow."

I've run through the hundreds of feet of that “cryo” CCC wire I bought from you and will need to buy some more soon. A set of speaker cables I just made is burning in nicely, as has yet another set of interconnects. I always panic at first because they sound so "muted" before they've had a chance to mature. After burn-in, they are rich and punchy, but also detailed. I've ditched a multi-hundred dollar set of cables I had been using (from Audio Research) because your recipes are much better. Tremendous bang for the buck. Many thanks.

Periklis Gourdouparis:
As of the sound of the OCCC wire, it simply doesn't exist. Though it is hard to braid I have made many interconnects of different geometry, balanced, unbalanced, balanced to unbalanced, phono cable, internal wiring, etc.

The OCCC wire is very neutral sounding and well extended from low to high frequencies, it is the cheapest high quality interconnect I have try so long, it fairly compares with Audio-note silver and Audio Quest silver cables. I like it very much and where I use it I know that it is not the cable if something goes wrong.

Steve Harrison: Audio System: AKSA 55 Nirvana monoblock amplifiers, BAT VK 30SE preamp, BAT VKD5SE CD player, Marantz 8260 SACD player, self designed 2.5 way speakers using Seas W18E woofers and Hiquphon OW1 tweeter.

This past June I purchased an interconnect cable kit from Chimera Labs. At the time I was perfectly happy with the cables in my audio system, Coincident CST and Cardas Hexlink Golden 5-C. However, I had been involved in DIY audio projects for the previous year, and cables were the next areas of my involvement.

I was attracted to the Chimera cable from research on several audio forums, as well as the information on the Chimera Labs website. Simplicity and cost were two leading considerations that rated highly with me. Performance of the cables was said to equal or surpass many of the high priced cables available on the market.

I purchased a kit as it contained all of the necessary items for cable construction. Dennis emailed me detailed information and instructions at the time of purchase before the parts arrived. This gave me needed time to study the construction techniques that would be required for cable construction.

Once the parts kit arrived I was able to construct the cables on a Saturday afternoon and evening. These are braided cables, and it took some time to be comfortable with the braiding that was required. Termination and finishing also took a bit of “practice”.
Once constructed, the true test of course was to plug the interconnect into the audio system and listen. I used this cable between my CD player and preamp. Both components are from BAT and are fully balanced with balanced cabling. Thus I was able to compare the balanced Coincident cable with the Single Ended Chimera cable in an A/B comparison with adjusted volume on the preamp inputs. The cables were comparable in sound from the first moment. There was a small difference in presentation due to the difference between balanced transmission and single ended transmission. But overall, I found the two cables to be equal.

I was quite pleased with this cable. In fact, I was so pleased that within a short period of time I purchased additional parts from Chimera to make more cables and to fully use Chimera cable as interconnects in my entire audio system. Within this same time I also commenced construction of a pair of monoblock amplifiers, and I decided to use the Chimera cable for all signal wires in these amplifiers.

Once this was accomplished, I felt confident enough in braiding technique to take on the task of constructing speaker cables. The speaker cables consisted of 16 braids of wire, (8+ and 8-), and not a simple task for a beginner. These speaker cables replaced Coincident CST-1’s with equal musical transmission from the very beginning.

Once this was accomplished I commenced rewiring the insides of my speakers with the same wire configuration as had been used for the speaker cables. The wire leads from the high pass filter to the tweeter were reduced to 4+ and 4-.

Now the entire audio system was fully wired with the Chimera Labs wire, from CD player output to driver terminals. System synergy was fully implemented!

I completed this entire task in mid September. As this all had transpired over the course of the summer, I then just listened to the system for quite awhile to let all cables fully adjust to the audio system. Dennis had informed me that about 50 hours of cable run in time was needed for the cables to be fully acclimated to the system.

I actually found the cables to be superb from the very beginning. Any improvement that may have occurred during the time of system operation has been extremely subtle to me.
This cable is extremely true to the musical signal that it is asked to transmit. It is an extremely neutral sounding cable, with no colorations or added effects to the music.
One striking feature of this cable is the skinny look. All cables, even the 16 braid speaker cables are enclosed in _” tech-flex. There is no metallic shielding or other dielectric materials to be encased, thus the skinny cables. The wire braiding eliminates any extraneous noises that may attempt to enter the cable. I find this design to be fully successful.

The wire itself in fully enamel coated. This coating fully insulates the wire strands very successfully. One does however have to remove this coating for termination purposes.
The easiest way to do this is with a solder pot. However, this is a bit of an expense, and unless one wishes to make cables for all of ones audiophile friends and acquaintances, it is not all that cost effective to purchase a solder pot. I found it a bit time consuming to remove the enamel coating, flashing off with a small flame and light sandpapering, but it worked well.

As for the wire braiding technique, I highly recommend beginning with a simple interconnect as even 4 braids can take some time to master for a beginner. However, the braiding technique is exactly the same with a larger number of wire braids. It does take some practice to really get comfortable with the braiding techniques that are required. Dennis does supply very excellent instructions and helpful hints to help one along.

I used mostly Vampire OFC connectors as terminations for my cables. These are among the finest available. These are the ones Dennis uses in his finished products, and the ones that he supplies with his kits. I did make one interconnect with Eichmann Bullet Plug connectors, another highly rated RCA connector.

In conclusion, I have to say that I am very, very pleased with my audio cables that I constructed from Chimera Labs. I would not really want any other cable in my audio system.

Walter Lo:
The OCCC wire is fantastic. It is the best upgrade I have done. Thank you and have a nice weekend

Scott Steininger:
I have wanted to let you know how things turned out with my cable projects. I have now converted all of my interconnects and speaker cable over to your cryo treated OCCC wire and used your braiding technique. As I may have told you, I began this phase of cable changes on a lark with some of the non-cryo treated 21 ga. OCCC wire in a simple twisted pr. Interconnect with cheap RCA connectors. The next attempt was with your 25.5 ga. cryo treated OCCC wire in a 4 conductor braid per your recommendations. When put between my amp and preamp and to my CD player, this brought my system to a new level. Transparency improved markedly, background noise was diminished greatly, instrument impact was much more realistic and image improved.

These interconnects so out classed my old interconnects that I was able to sell all of them and had money to put towards a new audio project. I had always loved the Magnan VI and thought that it never had the following it deserved with its smooth yet detailed and delicate presentation. The CCC interconnect does have a little bit more of that up front quality as compared to more distant quality of other cables and I realize that some may prefer the latter. I much prefer the cryo treated OCCC interconnect with its realistic impact and transparency.

Next, I decided to tackle a braided set of speaker cables. It took some practice and I initially thought that I would biwire with 18.5 ga. equivalent going to the midrange and tweeter and 16 ga. to the woofers. The 18.5 ga. was my first attempt with the greater number of conductors over a longer distance and I learned a lot about the braiding technique. I came upon a variation to your multi conductor braiding technique where I taped the pre-cut conductors to a wall (I taped at the top and in the middle) and worked with the bottom half first and then reversed the cable for the other half. After I completed this set I was experienced enough to braid the larger 16 ga. cable. I never biwired my speakers because I found that I didn’t need to and incidentally when I compared the 16 ga. Set to the 18.5 ga. set the differences were small with a slight preference for the 16 ga. pr. When I first put the speaker cables in the system, I noticed many of the same qualities that I noticed before, but they didn’t seem as significant as compared to my XLO Type 5 speaker cables. After living with the cryo treated OCCC speaker cables in the system for a while I made one more change back to the XLO cable and this time it was obvious that the OCCC cable was much faster and again enhanced the transparency and dynamic impact qualities of my system. The XLO cables have now been sold.

I feel that my system now sounds much more like some of the ultra high priced systems. As a point of reference, my system consist of a Berning ZH 270, CAT Reference preamp, VPI HW 19 Mk. III w/Syrinx PU3 tonearm (rewired for now with VandenHul silver though this may change), recently re-done Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge, DIY speakers with Scan 8” and 3 _ “ Kevlar units along with an Accuton tweeter, and a cheap CD player. I feel that my system sounds better than many higher priced systems including one I am familiar with which includes much of the top Jadis components and Wilson Watt/Puppy speakers. I have not listened to one of the high efficiency systems like the one you have, but I am planning on a new speaker project (money left after selling my old cables) with an Accuton C2-12, C2-88 and Lambda SBP 10 woofers with a series crossover. I will use cryo treated OCCC braided cable for the internal wiring of course.

Thanks again for your help in the past and thanks for making my audio listening experiences so much more enjoyable.

Steven Harrison:
Just letting you know that I got all my cables constructed this weekend. I made a second set of RCA's with some Eichmann bullet plug's that I had. The design of the bullet plugs is a real good idea, but the Teflon shells are too lightweight and look too much like cheap plastic. The vampire 800 plugs are the nicest, to be sure. I am really please to have come across your products Dennis. Your cables are the equals to any. I've been running Coincident and Cardas cables. And as with all new cables, after some time one notices how the music just takes on a bit of magic. I've just started that with the first cable. Now have some new ones to run-in.

Got the second cable done yesterday. Am spending today just listening. I have to say that it is all very nice. Next project will be to rewire one of my speakers and see how much wire that will take. I likely don't have enough left over 45ft. or so, to do both speakers with 8 strand. Now that I have the 8 strand from amp output spade all the way to speaker binding post it only makes sense to continue it on, although I wired up my speakers with Cardas 15.5 ga.

Your wire has retired the following: Cardas Hexlink Golden IC, Coincident CST-1 IC, and Coincident CST-1 speaker cable.

I can't praise your wire highly enough. And one also gets the satisfaction of putting it all together. I'll let you know how the speaker comes out when I get it done. I'll likely have to order some more wire then as well.

Bob Wheeler:

I just want to give you a little feed back on your wire. I’ve done an awful lot of tweaking in the past 10 years, and I have to tell you, this wire is the best tweak i have ever heard. The noise floor is so much lower. You hear a lot more detail, better separation, etc, etc, etc. I was using a RG62AU wire ,which consist of a 20 AWG center wire encased in Teflon, with a copper shield encased in a Teflon jacket. I could not believe how much information I was missing. I have even tried cat 5, doesn’t even compare. I tried some $400 cables, still not as good. It’s like listening to a whole new system. Very well done. The only bad thing is now I have to rewire EVERYTHING! - Bob Wheeler

Charles Miller:
The OCCC Wire and the copper content solder you included arrived here yesterday, and I already used about four feet of it to wire from the RCA input jacks on the back of my NAD 1300 preamp over to the input stage. WOW...MAN...NICE ! I recently paid $97 for a half meter pair of JPS Ultraconductor interconnects to go between my SACD / DVD-A player and the preamp, but replacing the original internal stranded hook up cable with two twisted pairs of OCCC Wire made at least as much improvement as the JPS interconnects did. I will be trying out OCCC Wire in some other locations soon, and I will report my impressions back to you.

Steven Hum: I got your shipment a few weeks ago... and WOW! Just as hookup wire and internal signal wire on the Audio Note DAC was phenomenal. It was as if the unit was constrained until I inserted my handmade Litz wire. Great stuff! Now I'm going to try some IC recipes... Actually find Litz braiding sort of fun to boot! What more can a diyer ask for?
Chip Montgomery - I finally made those speaker wires about 5 weeks ago. I braided them with the number of strands you recommended. The first song sounded not so good (the high end was gone). The second song sounded much better. After about 5 hours things sounded pretty good. I must have at least 30 hours on them now and they are the best thing I’ve heard. They are so much better than the Nordost cable I was using for wires. Now I can play all the music that before I thought was either a bad recording or a bad transfer to the digital format. Everything is as advertised with your wire. Thanks for everything.

Matthew Allen:
Hooked up the cable at the weekend to some phono plugs I had in. Left the cable hooked up to the outputs on the back of the tuner and left it on all Saturday with a 22K resistor between both pairs of conductors. Hoped this would speed up the break in process. On Sunday quickly soldered the cable up the tone arm plug (didn’t feed it through the chassis etc) yet as I wanted a quick listen. Very good. Very even balance, Very musical with a complete lack of harshness. As I listened more to the cable the level of detail seemed to increase but in a different manner to usual break in. Things simply became more real. Early days yet and already it sounds spot on!

Geoffrey Clark:
Geoff is a senior lecturer in communications at the Blackpool and Fylde College. He has perfect pitch and plays piano to concert standard. System - Alphason Sonata turntable with HR 100 MCS arm, Marantz CD player(rarely used), Blackcat Electronics phono preamp, Blackcat Electronics 2A3 SE amp. Blackcat Electronics Speakers.

“ As you are aware I have had a lot of experience trying a range of interconnects over a broad price range. As a result became increasingly convinced by the qualities of high purity silver as the material which proved to have the most effective characteristics in retaining musical information. However one does not progress by having a closed mind and so when you suggested trying a copper based wire you’d found I was happy to agree.
I am writing to you because this wire has forced me to re-evaluate my conclusions about silver. The effects of this material were apparent even in the early stages of insertion. The wire does, as with all others benefit from burning in, but does in fact seem to produce more audible gains further into the process than previously experienced. The main effects were.

Noise - The noise floor dropped, revealing more retrieval of complex harmonic structure. This also had an added impact on micro dynamics so that musical interpretation was easier to understand. Such was the importance of this aspect, recordings I had previously felt were dull and pedestrian in interpretation took on a new and more engaging aspect.
Harmonics - The lower mid and bass areas now have a much cleaner quality, with the harmonics in this area of the fundamental reproduced in such a manner, that timing and the sense of musicians working with each other is greatly enhanced.

Dynamics - The effect here is a new one to me. Large scale dynamics were reproduced with such accurate contrasts, that I found myself lowering the overall level at which the music was played, whilst increasing the musical excitement of the performance. It was as if I had a considerably more powerful amplification, more in reserve.
In conclusion this material has made me review my feelings about the current applications of silver and the underpinning science. This is without doubt a step forward in the reproduction of a musical performance.”

Robert Hoekstra:
Bob is the designer of the Axiom 300B amplifier. He teaches at a University in Florida, teaching engineering students how to build racing engines. Some of you may have heard about the “Hoekstra Engines” used by NASCAR and other Racing Teams. The Axiom Amp design reflects the same exacting methodical approach Bob takes with his engines. In this case, the “engine” is tuned by ear. System – Sony DVP S-7700 CD player, Axiom 300B Amps, Hedlund Horn Speakers with Lowther DX-3 drivers.

“ I put the continuous cast wire in the signal path on one side...from the input to the 6J5 and from the plate of the 6J5 to the grid of the 6Y6 and from the 6Y6 to the 300B....what a difference. The low level detail is incredible....guess I’m going to have to do a lot of re-wiring.

My 17yr old daughter showed me how to Litz braid...I knew summer camp taught her something. I braided a pair of interconnects last night...probably didn't do it exactly right...looking forward to the samples. The difference is amazing. The high end "sparkle" that was missing is there. The out of phase bass now sounds out of phase(maybe that's not a good thing). Of course that will be fixed with the new chokes. The cables made a bigger change than anything else done up to this point. When you said I was in for a treat you were right.

The speaker wire I started braiding is finished...I hooked it up last night. Let me begin by saying I'm a good scientific skeptic. I really believed that the speaker wire hype that I've read in the magazines was well crafted marketing verbiage with little or no support...well to a large extent I still believe that but what a difference with the continuous cast wire.
When we first turned the system on the difference was dramatic...and bad. The sound from the CC speaker was sharp and irritating. (We were running the system in mono so we could compare. After a short time the sound started changing...after a half hour the irritating sharpness was gone...but the detail was unbelievable. The problem now is that I have a very unbalanced system...looks like I need to do some more braiding(did I mention that I hate braiding). Now all I have to do is decide if I can live with the differences while I braid the cable or if I should put the old wire back in and lose the detail on the one side.”

Larry Mucklow:
Larry has been modifying vintage tube amplifiers and experimenting with making his own interconnects and cables.
“ You sent me a sample of the OCCC wire and solder. Just finished soldering it up last week. Best sounding cable I've made so far. More dynamics and more air than any of the silver wire cables I've made.”

Hiroshi Ito:
Hiroshi Ito lives in Hawaii and distributes the very nice DACT Stepped Attenuators.
“ BTW, your wire is excellent, very smooth and liquid. I've been thinking about making a cable based on a geometry that seems to work well for me. It would be very interesting in comparing the conductor quality.”

Hiroshi Yagi: Hiroshi Yagi runs Human Gear in Tokyo, Japan. He is very interested in vintage Western Electric wire for audio and guitar amp applications.

“ Order CC solder, 10pces., Sound very wonderful. Best Regards.”


Graham Ingle, Black Cat Electronics, UK: Graham builds some very nice tube gear, knows more about turntables than anyone else I have ever talked to. He now uses the OCCC Wire and CC solder in his products and sells it to his customers.

“First a few words from where I'm coming from with respect to wire. I like Silver, I have been using Silver for the last nine or ten years. I have a vested interest in keeping Silver to the front. I sell Silver wire! From the cartridge tags to the speaker drive units...in all permutations, round, flat, stranded, it's ALL Silver even the mains leads. Fine soft annealed Silver everywhere.

And then Dennis Boyle sends me some of his Cast Copper wire and asks me to try it. Yes, okay I'll try it. Won't be any good at all, can't be, it's not Silver, but...So I read the notes and then make up some interconnects to between pre and power. I give it the recommended time to "bed" in. It goes from being plain awful to just okay. Good, I know what I'm talking about after all.

So I give it a little longer, maybe ten hours or so. It's not okay anymore it's starting to be very good indeed, things are happening within the music that have never been there with Silver. It has become apparently "dull", but it's that right dullness that's there when listening to live music.

Yes, the high frequency is all there, and the mid and bass hasn't become bloated. It's just more "RIGHT". The more I listen the better it becomes. There is a quietness a sense of ease. Back to Silver...there's the "glare", that sort of "glare" that made me go to Silver in the first place ???

Coming Christmas and no time to play, so the bit of wire goes to a friend’s house. Very similar system to mine, Loesch type pre, 417 IT 2A3 our speakers 98dB 2 ways, every thing silver, well I built it. He even has more Silver wire then I do! Now this gentleman plays piano, he also has perfect pitch and only listens to "real" music unlike the rubbish I listen to. His interpretation of what's happening only builds on mine, in fact expands enormously.
But, best of all, he HAS the time to play...the arm and cartridge are re-adjusted with quite staggering results. Going back to Silver is now not an option, the arm/ cartridge are put back to where they were and he gets the best out of the Silver again, but it's not as good as the OCCC wire with non-optimized front end. Never mind what has just been heard after some adjustments !

So, what is happening? I really don't know, this wire has done some wonderful things in two systems. Music is more enjoyable with out doubt, it certainly isn't in the most critical of positions in a system, and I don't like mixing types of wire. But at the end of the day what I hear is what matters. I like it. Yes the OCCC is "better" than silver...but it has to go further than that. It has meant a total re-evaluation of the system. VTA, rectifiers all had a profound effect. So just an interconnect in a silver based system is better than the silver, but with other changes it is wonderful.”

Larry Mucklow: Larry has been modifying vintage tube amplifiers and experimenting with making his own interconnects and cables.

“You sent me a sample of the OCCC wire and solder. Just finished soldering it up last week. Best sounding cable I've made so far. More dynamics and more air than any of the silver wire cables I've made.”

 

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