Cable Asylum: Re: CC89259 and 89259 in general by Jon Risch

[ Belden 89259 due to it's stranded nature and rather oxidised copper (the heat from teflon application) also tends to be rather tizzy and bright. ]

I have found that SOME cables can get oxidized or corroded, but not ALL 89259 is this way. The FEP teflon is NOT extruded hot enough to corrode the copper (that occurs with TFE teflon, and is why it's use mandates a silver or nickel plating), if you have 89259 that is black, dark, or some other color than a nice shinny copper color, then it was stored somewhere that had a corrosive atmosphere. Usually cutting a few feet off the end will get rid of the worst of this problem which is NOT specific to 89259, but can happen to ANY cable.

I posted about this at:
http://www.AudioAsylum.com/audio/cables/messages/45162.html
and some of the reasons that the stranding in the 89259 is not as much of an issue as it might be for other stranded wires/cables.

Thorsten and I have agreed to disagree about 89259 in the past, see the following past posts:

http://www.AudioAsylum.com/audio/cables/messages/17504.html
and related responses.

AND
http://www.AudioAsylum.com/audio/cables/messages/27135.html
and
http://www.AudioAsylum.com/audio/cables/messages/27156.html

Basically, one must keep Thorsten's comments in perspective, and realize that what he calls tizzy and bright, most people can not hear, and will never hear. Based on this level of sonic description, ordinary zip cord would have one's ear's bleeding from the 1000% distortion.

Newbies and neophytes who have not heard any 89259 cables, or are not familiar with Thorsten's comments, need to keep things in relative perspective, and realize that while 89259 based DIY cables are not necessarily the ultimate way to DIY, they are still pretty good performers, and are hard to beat with retail and commercial cables until you get into a fairly expensive price range. They are also hard to beat for the cost and time/labor involved, and it takes either more costly materials, and/or a lot more time to make DIY cables that are clearly and unequivocally that much better.

Just my two cents and a half.

Jon Risch