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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.    
128x128stereo5
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.
12blistn
35 posts
 
After seeing some good reviews of the Canare 4S11, I decided to give it a try.  I also compared Monoprice 4C 12AWG in a 9AWG config, Mogami 3404 in star quad 9AWG  config, and KnuKonceptz Krux Kable 8AWG 16C a Kimber style braid with 8C per side.  The cables were all about 6 feet long  hand terminated with pistol style locking banana plugs.  I let all the wires run in the system for a couple of weeks or so (maybe 4 0r 5 hrs./day) before evaluating.  I realize after reading some of the comments that this might not been long enough for a fair evaluation.  The Krux Kable, which I ended up liking better, has stayed in the system longer so maybe it has an unfair advantage.

Anyway, the Canare at twice the cost of the Monoprice, I thought was a little better.  The Monoprice is rated at CL2 which I'm not sure about the Canare.  The Mogami at three times the cost of the Canare I thought was a just little better than the Canare.  The Krux Kable at about the same cost as the Mogami seemed the best of all, maybe sounding a little smoother as best as I can explain it.

I was wondering has anybody had similar results with the KnuKonceptz cable?  I have no connection with the company other than being a customer.

I did my comparisons using SACDs in an Oppo 205, XLRs to a Parasound JC2BP, XLRs to JC1s to GE TRs.  I was using Canare L-4E6S XLRs.  I've since switched to some silver plated copper XLRs which really changed/improved the sound.  I will have to do another comparison when I give the Canare a little more burn in time.
stereo5's avatar
stereo5 OP
6,384 posts
 
If you didn't run the Canare 4S11 in for 400 hours, it isn't a valid comparison.  They NEED that much to sound their best.  This is from the manufacturer themselves.
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