West Penn wire

[Laudanum]

Browsing the forums and different sites, I cant recall ever reading much of anything regarding the West Penn wire for audio use. 
Im wondering if anyone has tried the West Penn wire/cable.  Specifically the D25291.  It's plenum rated twisted pair.  22 AWG stranded, Teflon insulated, tinned copper conductors.  100% foil shield with stranded drain wire.  It's a 55 ohm cable.  Overall diameter is .120 so it's small and a good candidate for internal wiring in that regard.  And being stranded rather than solid, maybe a good candidate for interconnects.  It's not as flexible as Canare (which I often use for my budget interconnects) or Mogami but with the small diameter, it's not overly stiff.  It does look like decent cable in terms of construction.

I made a recent purchase for my usual Canare twisted pair to make some interconnects.  I also picked up some of the Belden 8450 to have some extra for internal wiring just in case.  But I came across the West Penn wire which seems like it would be worth a try for either internal wiring or interconnects.  I like the Belden solid conductor wire for internal wiring, easy to work with and there must be a good reason why Bottlehead chooses it.  But was curious about this West Penn wire.  Only 22 cents per foot so I picked some up to take a look.  So now Im wondering if anyone has any experience with it and their impressions.

For anyone curious, here is a link to the spec sheet (PDF).  http://www.westpenn-wpw.com/pdfs/data_grade_pdf/D25291.pdf

Thanks.

 

[Grainger49]

I have not heard it, nor heard of it.  It looks like a good wire for heaters and audio signals, both channels in this case.

 

[lth1]

I have never cared for the sound of tinned coated wire, yes one can hear the difference between tin, silver, or no coating wire in the signal path.  Tinned wire has a "harsh" sound similiar to chalk on a blackboard, it makes the hair on ones neck stand up, not a good thing for wire in the signal path, OK everywhere else though.

The one area that these old ears have a hard time hearing is the difference between regular CU, OFC, and OCC. 

And of course there are as many different opinions on this subject as there are "audiophiles".

 

[JC]

This is "architectural" cable, I suspect, meaning that it is designed for installation in buildings.  Conduits, raceways, plenums. etc.  As such, it may be more stiff or inflexible, and prone to holding its shape as opposed to the shape you would like it to assume.  In my experience, the Teflon-jacketed architectural cable can be very obstinate about its shape!

Other than that, though, West Penn is a good, old manufacturer of wire and cable, and has been doing the Teflon stuff for at least three decades that I know about.  In fact, I would be very surprised if you hadn't actually heard a mic signal running through this very cable in an auditorium somewhere, if it had to run outside of a conduit at any point.

 

[Laudanum]

West Penn lists it as a data grade cable for control, signal, electronics and microprocessor.  But I figured that doesnt mean all that much because people use all types of cables for all types of different things audio.  It's actually not all that stiff.  Belden 89259 coax is stiff,  this stuff isnt anywhere near that stiff.  It isnt as flexible as Canare twisted pair or quad mic cable but would be usable for interconnects without much issue at all.  As far as it being tinned and tinned wire sounding bad, I guess Im in trouble because I built the Crack with the included tinned single conductor wire and will use the included wire with the Seduction and FPIII as well.  The Seduction includes a Belden shielded TP with tinned, soild conductors and I think the same wire is in the FPIII kit as well, both used in the signal path.  To be quite honest, I just dont hear much difference in cables/wires aside from shielding/noise rejection.  But I'll probably use this West Penn cable for some interconnects and see if I can hear any difference there.  I figured it would be worth picking up 20 feet for all of $4 and change just to check it out.

Thanks all.