Canare 4S11G OFC Speaker Cables, An Incredible Audio Bargain

I've been using Canare 4S11 speaker cable for years with the intent of upgrading someday. Your findings are very interesting.

What terminations are you using?

I had a set for about 2 hours. For $125.00 cable they were ok, but they didn't have the details of my Madison audio cables. They were dull and flat.

Canare cables require a long break-in period. After receiving my pair I put about 100 hours on them. The result was putting them in my closet and buying a pair of Purist. When I changed my system, I decided to try the Canare again. This time I ran them for at least 200 hours and they opened up nicely. Still using them with yet another upgraded system.

I made a lengthy post a few years ago regarding the Canare 4 S11 speaker cables.  The cables take 400 hours to totally burn in and the changes are in my review.   I had RAM Electronics build my 2 pairs of cables, one pair for each system.  The result is I stopped looking for speaker cables and they work very well within my 2 systems.  Best bang for the buck out there.  Incidentally, I replaced speaker cables in excess of 2K for the Canare.  Best decision I ever made. 
 

To other poster who only had them in his system for 2 hours and didn’t like them, you never gave them a chance!

@lowrider57 I used Audioquest Beryllium copper BFA banana plugs.  But the ones from Viborg or Audiocrast work quite well too (on Amazon) around $10.

@wkass 

Well done. I like BFA connectors and beryllium copper is a good conductor.

@stereo5 

+1. After a proper break-in, the Canare replaced a $2500 pair of Purist Audio cables; more transparent and a truer transfer from the source.

Have you ever heard the Canare "G" cables?

@lowrider57, no I have not.  I’m sure they sound good but I don’t want to go through that lengthy break in again.  In my living room, the wires are under the floor and in a crawl space.  At my age, it is not doable.  

I think a keypoint that has gotten lost in this conversation is that the break-in period for the 4S11G does not seem to be as long as the original 4S11.  After about 50 hours of use, the sound really open up and sounded excellent.  No need to burn in for 400 hours.

@wkass I am strongly considering trying my hand at building a set.  Do you have any suggestions for step guides where for creating a bi-wire set (4 plugs to speaker x 2 amp)?  If you have any pics of what you made that would be appreciated.  Did you end up doing the whole cable pants thing?

My mid-fi set-up synopsis below.  Thanks,

Gb

System

Integrated Amp:  Hegel 590

Speakers: Monitor Audio Silver 500 7generation

Cables: Pine Tree Audio Iso-Quad Bi-Wire with Nakamichi banana (*!!! See note below)

Headphone Amp: Schiit Magni 3

Vinyl: Dual 1214

Streaming Spotify (weak-link) to Hegel 

@gill_benedek There are a couple of excellent videos on 

YouTube from Tharbamar and Matt Coykendall that show 

you how to build 4S11 speaker cables, step by step. You do 

not need soldering skills. Any novice can do it.

With this cable it is very easy to do internal biwire.  On the amp

side you would group two pairs of wires together for + and -. Then on 

the speaker end, you would separate each of the four wires, 

two for + (high and low) and two for - (high and low). So you would use

12 bananas or spades all together.

I used shrink tubing instead of boots to conceal the

twisted wires. 

Now try Canare L-4E6S microphone cables for interconnect. I use Eichmann or WBT RCA’s or Neutrik XLR, but L-4E6S is a bear to terminate. Works for me - in a higher end system. YMMV.

@terry9 A great recommendation.  In fact, one of the great attributes of this speaker cable is that it matches well with just about any good quality interconnects.  In fact, I also built interconnects using Canare GS-6 and Mogami W2497.  And these are also excellent matches to the 4S11G speaker cables.  Very organic and smooth sounding with deep soundstage.