Equipment Review No. 3   May 2002

DeCorp DeWire Flat Wire with DeConnect Connectors
12 DePWR $4.99/ ft
16 DePWR $3.49/ ft
DeConnect 2pr $19.99

DeCorp
P.O. Box 1173
Hendersonville, TN 37077-1173
http://www.decorp.com
866 412- 9901 (voice)


Basic Description

A flat speaker wire that is designed to be hidden underneath wallpaper or paint. The 12 DePWR wire is .012” in thickness and 1.797” wide. The 16 DePWR is .008” thick and also 1.797” in width. The 12 and 16 refer to gauge. Connector is 3” in length total, the plastic part is 13/16” long, and the pin is 3/8” long and 1/16” in diameter.


Equipment

Meridian 568 Preamplifier, Krell KST-100, Revel F30 speakers, PS Audio P300, Audioquest, Discovery, cabling with MIT speaker wire for comparison.


Background

DeCorp is a relatively new company to come into the wire scene. Right now, the only product that they offer is the speaker wire. They have two different series with different configurations—the FLT and the DePWR. Both of these come in varying gauges. The FLT wiring utilizes two thin strips of flat wire that are side by side. The DePWR wire is a bit wider, but the + and – leads are right on top of each other.

Eventually, the company plans to offer voice/data wire, cable TV wire, and even flat electrical cable! The website gives complete installation instructions including pictures, and even offers some of the products (like mesh tape), to aid in the install. I was sent a sample piece of drywall that shows the initial layout to the final result when covering the wire. When properly installed, the wire is truly invisible.

Installation wise it is necessary to be fairly exact about where the speakers will be positioned. If you are too short, you can’t exactly pull more wire out of the wall. If you are too long, though, you can always cut it down. If you had to move equipment or speakers, I’m not quite sure what you would do—you can’t exactly twist more wire together to make it longer. You could possibly use one of the connectors and lay the two connecting pieces together and insert them into the connector.


Setup

I was sent 2 20’ long pair of cable—one of the 12 guage and one of the 16 guage DePWR wires with the DeConnect connectors on the ends. I took one off just to see how easy they are to put on, and all that is required is to thread the thin, exposed copper wire through a slit in the thicker section of the pin. Then you wrap in around to cover as much of the surface area as is possible. After it is wrapped around, it is slid right into the plastic housing and you are done. It all took a matter of seconds.

The pin connectors are somewhat malleable, which is good for a couple of reasons. Firstly, one was bent in shipping, and secondly, in some installations it might be necessary to bend them to fit into the back of a speaker or amplifier. If they are too long, you can always cut them down to size. Pins are not my favorite sorts of connector, because both banana and spade connections have higher contact area inside the speaker and amplifier posts. If you happen to have speakers with screw terminals, no hole in the posts (like my Martin Logan SL3’s), or speakers that only accept banana plugs (like Vandersteen’s), then you will have to get some sort of adaptor.

I connected the DePWR 12 cables up to my amplifier and played music through them for a few days. Later I did the same with the DePWR 16.


Listening

Aside from my normal use watching DVDs or listening to music around the house, I did some critical listening and comparison with an older MIT Music Hose speaker cable, originally valued at about $1500. By comparison, the DeCorp wire was only about $220 for the pair. It is a full range pair running about 18” in length. At first I went back and forth between the DePWR 12 and the MIT wire.

I began the listening with track 4, “Forgotten Years,” off Midnight Oil’s Blue Sky Mining CD. The MIT wire added more midrange on the kick drum and with the voice. The DeWire had more on the top end with a lighter sound. There was more clarity in the voice with the DeCorp wire.

Next, I put on “Autumn In New York,” track 4, from Kenny Burrell’s Blue Lights Volume 2. The sound was great with both cables, but the DeCorp seemed to have just a tad more extension on top and bottom, or maybe it was that the MIT had a tad more middle. On this cut it was very difficult to hear any difference.

With track 3, “Destiny,” from Zero 7’s Simple Things album, I felt the MIT cable had a thicker/richer quality on both the guitar and the voice. It sounded additive, so I can’t really call it an improvement, and in terms of neutrality I believe the DeCorp wire was more on the mark.

I intended to bi-wire the 16 and 12 gauge cables, but when I connected the system, I was getting some strange sort of feedback (hum) from my amp and it sounded as if it were starting to oscillate. I quickly removed the cables, and reverted back to a full-range setup. At first, I thought one of the cables might be at fault, but I tested them all individually and they were fine. I didn’t want to risk damage to the amplifier, so I gave up on this configuration. I’m not sure why this occurred.

Lastly, I put on track 1, the Allegro, from Bruno Walter conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra playing Brahms Sypmphony No. 1, Op. 68. This track really allowed the DeCorp wire to shine—it was clearly better sounding. I heard more definition, better dynamics, the sound was sweeter, and there was greater delicacy on strings.


Conclusion

If you have brick or concrete walls, or just do not want to install the wire in the wall, then DeCorp has your answer. But if you can fish wire through the walls then it seems like just as much work to tape over the flat wire, patch, and then paint as it would to just patch and paint a couple small areas. And in some installations where there is attic or basement space, then even that might be unnecessary. Now, if all you wanted to do was wallpaper, then the DeWire certainly makes sense, and is much less invasive.

Aside from the installation aspects and the ungainly appearance of the wide flat wire, the DeCorp wire was excellent. The MIT wire that I normally use is going into the garage and I will be using the DeCorp wire as long as they leave it with me. It just interfered less with the sound.

- Brian Bloom


big_brian_b@hotmail.com

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