Anticables speaker wire have no plastic jacket/insulation?


Yesterday I received in the mail a pair of Anticables "Level 3 Reference Series Speaker Wires". I bought them because I had heard good reviews about them and relative to other speaker wire they are inexpensive so I thought I would give them a try. I read the reviews of these wires several years ago so I forgot that one of their selling points is that they have no insulation. They are, as far as I can tell, red-painted (anodized?) bare wire. The second thing that was immediately obvious that I did not know before I bought them is that they are very stiff. Almost as stiff as a metal-wire coat hanger. 

My question is, if these are bare wire, are they unsafe to touch while the amplifier that is driving them is powered on? I'm not an electrical engineer, but I would think yes. If that is not the case, I'd like to know why. If they are unsafe to touch these wires could be a hazard to children and pets (at the very least), which I do not have but some people might take that into consideration. 

At this time the wires are still in "break in" period. Anticables recommends 100 hours. I will wait at least that long before judging them. Afterwords I will post my impressions of them, detail the equipment I'm using and compare them to my current speaker cables which are also inexpensive but good. 
e91811
ZeroBias....Picky, picky, picky....actually speaker cable differences are enormous...at least on MY system....actually transformative. 
buellrider97, Thanks for contributing a more comprehensive reasoning as to why /how  you've come to your own conclusion.

While the OP did not seem to be "up" on the construction of Anti-cables, there is another contributing factor regarding Anti-cable vs. Mapleshade. While they seem to be similar, the purity of the cooper and how it's processed are not the same.

I don't find it constructive or informative to just give an up or down like or dislike. It doesn't serve anyone unless there is more detail of the system in which one found/made their decision!

Cheers!
stringreen
3,878 posts
08-06-2016 7:30pm
ZeroBias....Picky, picky, picky....actually speaker cable differences are enormous...at least on MY system....actually transformative.
Wat he said

Post removed 
Years ago when I was selling speaker wire for 40 cents a foot some thought it way too much and got lamp cord  instead. I bought Anticable and would rather have had the lamp cord!