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An Informal Assessment of Anti Cables

My experience with Anti Cable speaker cables surprised me and I though others may want to read about what I found to be a very good speaker cable.

I will do this somewhat briefly and forego the typical audiophile jargon. The Anti Cables are better than what I was using, which were custom shotgun runs of Kimber 4TC (four sets of 4TC cables per speaker; one double shotgun pair for the top and another double shotgun pair on for the bottom; each shotgun pair were twisted together – three twists per foot, and the two shotgun pairs were then twisted together – three twists per foot, to complete one set).

I always found the Kimber setup to be very pleasing, but here’s what I heard with the Anti Cables in place: a very noticeable increase in upper-mid-range and upper frequency resolution (“clarity” if you will). Here is a “tangible” example of what I heard: on the excellent Blue Coast Records’ live acoustic recording by Keith Greeniger (the song titled “Three Little Birds” – an old Bob Marley tune) the recording captures a conversation between Keith and another musician prior to the beginning of the song, in which that other musician yells to Cookie Marenco, the producer. “Are you ready Cookie?” Until I installed the Anti Cables, I was not aware that Cookie is a woman. With the Kimber in place, I could barely hear a response (and only when I really cranked the volume). What I could barely hear was completely inaudible (buried way in the background). With the Anti Cables in place, I could clearly hear Cookie’s response and by golly, Cookie is a woman!

If you have this recording and you can clearly hear (Ms) Marenco respond, then you already have a pretty revealing system (how’s that for science!). For me, this was really cool, because it was “clearly” measurable; it was instantly “tangible.” Now, I was somewhat excited, so I delved into a whole slew of my favorite recordings. The increased clarity and resolution in the mid-range and upper-frequencies made my music sound…well, clearer and more resolved (how else can I say it).

There is a noticeable decrease in what I would deem bass energy, which at first concerned me. Upon further listening, I feel that the bass is simply more refined (tighter if you will). I will experiment with the setup to determine whether, or not, I am utilizing the best termination solution.

Paul sent me what he considers to be his best method, which he calls a set of shotgun parallel bi-wired cables. If you read my other thread about parallel bi-wiring, you know that I was not only confused, but concerned that Paul had sent me the wrong setup. What I have now is two sets of Anti Cables per speaker, but they’re setup differently from what I consider a typical “bi-wired” run. Here, both sets of cables are twisted together (the single run, which comprises two cables, is twisted – three turns per foot; and then each of the twisted pairs are twisted together – three turns per foot – very similar to what I had arranged with the Kimber). This double shotgun run terminates at the speaker end in just one set of spades, which I have hooked to each speaker’s upper frequency binding posts; a set of Anti Cable jumpers are then used to “jump” the low frequency binding posts.

My experiment will be to go directly to the low frequency posts and then jump to the upper frequency posts. Anyway, the point is that I can really hear a significant improvement in clarity and resolution, which is exactly what my speakers needed. I was ready to get rid of my Resolution II’s in favor of the new Maggie 1.7s, but now I might just have to rethink that move.

Thought this might be helpful to those who have ever wondered about Anti cables…
2chnlben
2chnlben OP
595 posts
 
Hi Al,

No, I did not use a set of jumpers with the Kinber set up. My current setup requires ten feet of cables.

What may account for the "closed in" sound as mentioned by Stringreen when he twisted his bi-wire runs? Also, what may account for the increased depth of soundstage in my current setup (which to me makes the central image - primarily vocals - appear a bit too far into the background)? Similarly, what may account for the increased clarity (resolution)? Can these (are these) results attributed to capacitance, inductance, resistance, etc
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Hi Ben,

With the jumpers being present with the Anti-Cables, but not having been present with the Kimber's, unfortunately I'd have to say that it all amounts to an apples to oranges comparison, with two major variables having been changed at once (the cable type and the wiring configuration). So I don't think it's possible to say at this point what differences are attributable just to changing from the Kimber's to the Anti-Cables.
What may account for the "closed in" sound as mentioned by Stringreen when he twisted his bi-wire runs? Also, what may account for the increased depth of soundstage in my current setup (which to me makes the central image - primarily vocals - appear a bit too far into the background)? Similarly, what may account for the increased clarity (resolution)? Can these (are these) results attributed to capacitance, inductance, resistance, etc
Not sure if Stringreen was referring to just twisting the + and - conductors of the high frequency cables together with each other, and twisting the + and - conductors of the low frequency cables together, or if he was referring to doing that and also twisting the high and low frequency pairs of conductors together.

In the first case, the result would be substantially lower inductance, resulting in greater extension at very high frequencies. Not sure why that would correlate with the subjective perception of a closed in sound; I would expect it to do the opposite.

If he was referring to a comparison between having none of the four conductors twisted together and having all of them twisted together, there would also be a reduction in inductance, and similar comments would apply except to a different degree.

If he was referring to having + and - twisted together in both of the cases being compared, and comparing having the high and low frequency cables twisted with each other vs. not twisted with each other, there would be effects on inductance, and perhaps even to capacitance to a marginally significant degree, but frankly I'm not sure how to quantify that, much less correlate it with subjective perceptions.

Re the increases in soundstage depth and resolution that you noted, given the reasonable parameters of all of the cables that you used, and the moderate length, I don't know how to explain those findings. But my instinct would be that the insertion of the jumper may have been a more significant factor than the change of cable types.

Best regards,
-- Al
cyclonicman
693 posts
 
I have an almost similar setup with my Anticables. I purchased two sets and I also followed the same method of twisting the cables etc, etc, but at the speaker end I have 4 spades per channel, two reds, two blacks. One black and red to the upper frequency posts and the other black and red to the lower frequency posts. The amplifier end also has 4 spades for each channel, so I placed two reds on the positive post and two blacks on the negative post of each channel. It seems to work fine and my understanding is that biwiring eliminates the need for a set of jumpers, so your setup seems to be more complicated.
daveyf's avatar
daveyf
2,979 posts
 
2chnlben, I think if you look at my system pictures you will see what true
bi-wiring looks like... two(2) cables per channel and from an amp that has
two(2) parallel outputs per channel to a speaker that has the ability to
accept a bi-wire input. Having one cable with a bi-wire end at the speaker
side and single ends at the amp isn't a true bi-wire config IMHO.
eniac26
97 posts
 
Hopefully you don't take my post as being a thread jack but I though I would post my recent experiences with these cables also. I figured it would make more sense to add to this thread then start another one of a similar purpose. If you disagree please feel free to move/remove this to post..Thanks

So far my first impression of these cables and Jumpers has not been very good. I am not using a Bi-Wire configuration in my system as a point of note. My cable run is just the run of the mill 15' to each speaker terminated with the Anti-Cable Spades. Every effort was made to keep the cables off the ground and the Left & Right channels are separated by several feel as suggested in the paperwork I received with my purchase.

Please understand that this is not an attempt to bash this product and I have full intentions to give them their recommended burn-in time before making a final judgment

On to my findings:

I first installed the cables and the Jumpers at the same time and have since removed the Jumpers after realizing that it wasn't a very good method of assessing a the Pros and Cons of a cable swap.

During my time with the Jumpers and Anti-Cables in place the treble regions sounded very harsh and overly amplified. I listened to them together for several days and wasn't very happy with what I heard. For now, the Jumpers have been placed in the drawer until the Cables themselves are fully burnt-in.

On to the Anti-Cable by themselves.

The Anti-Cables by themselves sounded much better in my system by themselves then they did teamed with the Jumpers but so far I'm still not very happy with the outcome. The only thing that has kept me from removing these and returning to my old cables are the many accounts of people saying the cables require 200-300+ Hours of burn-in time before opening up.

I have experienced similar effect to what the original poster described as a shrinking of the Sound-stage. In addition to that, I have experienced the opposite outcome in terms of detail. There are certain CD's in my collection that I have grown to know very well over the last few years and would always give me goosebumps to hear with my previous cables in place. Now with the Anti-Cable there are many details that I know exist which have all but disappeared.

The pace of the music has also slowed quite noticeably and the lower registers of the bass are no longer there. As a side bar, on some songs the mid bass seems more detailed but the lower bass is not as extended as it used to be.

I will be keeping the Anti-Cables cables in the system for now in hopes of the stories of things getting better as the listening hours increase.

As far as my previous cables go, they are ones that were purchased several years ago from a vendor on Ebay called "Raymond Cables" which has since disappeared but they appear visually to be of good quality. They are a muti-strand type of fairly significant gauge (10ga) and are terminated with heavy duty gold plated spades. I believe I only paid about $300 at that time for a similar 15' foot run.
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