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Final Report, Canare 4S11 Speaker Cable

I posted this in the original thread yesterday, but it is so buried that unless you were following it, you would never see it.  At the end I will add a few more comments.   

This is the final report on the Canare 4S11 cables.  I let the 25 foot pair break in on my secondary system for almost 19 days 24/7.  At the 445 hour mark, I reinserted them into my main system.  I first removed the $1500.00 Groneberg Quattro Reference speaker cables and coiled them up under the floor in case I decided to go back to them. After my son helped me install the Canare cables (I had to make larger holes in the floor for the banana plugs to fit) and routing them perfectly, I am happy to say my system now sounds much better.  I no longer have the softness in highs I had with the Groneberg cable and the bass is tighter and deeper.  I was always under the impression that the higher the price, the better the cable.  The fact that a $130.00 pair of speaker cables bested a $1500.00 pair should be a lesson for everyone regarding price VS performance.    Now I have the Canare in both of my systems and I am one happy audiophile. 

A few more thoughts:    The cables sounded good when brand new with a slightly ragged treble and loose bass. I was told it could take up to 500 hours to fully break in.  For myself, I did not hear any changes after the 300 hour mark.  I let the cables cook longer than planned because I needed help from my son as i had to drill larger holes in the floor to account for the locking banana plugs.  My son lives in another state so I had to wait for him. The construction of the terminated cables is as good as many of the more costly brands.  I purchased 2 pairs of these cables in 15 foot and 25 foot pairs.    My secondary system now has the 15 foot cables back and I am continuing to break them in as I removed them from the system at the 250 hour mark.   A lot of people bash McIntosh but my McIntosh MA6600 integrated amp and McIntosh tuner never failed in 19 continuous days of 24/7 service.   The heat sinks were never more than slightly warm to the touch.    
That’s all folks.    
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jaytor's avatar
jaytor
765 posts
 
I think the Canare cable is a good budget priced cable, and in some situations might be a better choice than "higher end" cables. I used to have a pair of Magnepan 3.5r speakers driven by a Krell FPB-300 and was using older Nordost Red Dawn cable. I switched to the Canare and found the sound much fuller and smoother. 

I'm currently using this cable in my home theater where I have moderately long runs to seven speakers and couldn't really justify anything more expensive. It works well for movies and TV. 

But in my two channel system, I found this cable to be kind of dull sounding and lacking image detail compared to other speaker cables I've tried. I'm currently using a DIY cable similar to Kimber 12TC (woven multi-gauge OFC copper with PTFE insulation). My cables are only about 3ft long since I use monoblocks that sit directly behind the speakers, but this cable sounds much more open and lively than the Canare cable. 
tetablanco's avatar
tetablanco
4 posts
 
I read somewhere that the optimum length for speaker cables is between 2.5 to 4 meters long.  That's about 8 to 13 feet.  Perhaps, your cables' short 3-foot length may partly account for what you heard.

adg101
1,062 posts
 
jaytor

If you’re comparing a really long run of Canare to a 3ft pair of Kimber 12TC that’s not a fair comparison. Any long run of cable is going to lose. Never owned 12TC but I had the older blue and black 4TC and the current 8TC. I have owned Kimber speaker, interconnects and power cords and I enjoyed them for years. Stumbled on to Clear Days and that was all it took and I sold the Kimbers. Probably purchased my first set of Kimbers in the late 80’s from Ray directly... nice guy.


I do find the Canare, and speaking across the line including interconnects and digital cables, to be a little on the warmer side but they’re damn good wire for the money. Hopefully you had a Canare set under 6ft to compare to your 12TC and not something over 12ft or more. Is your 12TC a biwire set and if so, curious when you tried the Canare on your mono amps did you have to use the stock speaker binding straps? I find the Canare more neutral than the TC series overall but it ultimately comes down to system synergy and ones preference.

For the fun of it, have you experimented running cotton rope down the center of your 12TC to open/spread the conductors a little from each other? Easier to fish a wire or electrical fish tape to pull the rope through. You might want want to try it as it’s a cheap tweak. I found it took the slight edge off the 4 and 8TC. I think I used 1/4” rope or a little bigger but nothing too fat.
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
543 posts
 
I find the canare 4s8 actually better than the 4s11, better clarity and neutral.
mrklas
441 posts
 
I was very pleased with the Canare 4S11 and tried the Kimber Kables Bifocal XL

I preferred the Kimbers significantly...and until they the Kimbers out performed the my previous AudioQuest Rocket 44s.

So I recommend Canare 4S11 as a great budget wire - I'm sending my to my brother.

And if you have a higher end system, I suggest you experiment if you are curious on the impact of cables.
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