Fans of Blue Jeans Speaker Cable?


I searched the archives and have seen a good bit of comment on Blue Jeans' ICs but not much on their speaker cables.

Based on comments here I recently bought a pair of their LC-1 RCA interconnects. They're fantastic, period, and one of the best audio purchases I've made--everything I play sounds more human, whole, and naturally occurring in space. They replaced Tributaries A2. I'm planning to buy another set of the LC-1 to use as jumpers on my NAD C372.

So...my question is what kind of experience people have had with the speaker cables, particularly their 10g Belden 5t00up? I'm currently using Anti Cables and have been very happy with them (smooth highs, deep, well defined bass, vivid mids), but I thought that at the price I might give the Blue Jeans wires a try. Do they have any particular sonic signature? Are they as good a value as the LC-1 or the Anti Cables? Is the solid-core/stranded wire debate relevant to the comparison?

System is: Rotel 1072 with RFI chokes on the power cord > Blue Jeans LC-1 > NAD C372 with Signal Cable Magic Power cord > Anti Cables > Vandersteen 1Ci.
ablang
Just ordered the Canare 4S11 this afternoon--8' lengths for me to single-wire and shorter lengths for my buddy to bi-wire, so I'll get to hear it in two configurations. I'm also getting another LC-1 IC to use as a jumper on my NAD C372. Hope they'll be here by the end of the week, and assuming I have power (with the storm and all) I'll post my impressions. Not sure if I'll get a new baseline with the jumpers in place before I swap speaker cables or if I'll try the speaker cables first. Good cheap fun, in any case!
I have the 4s11 for speaker cables - they are great.
I have bl-1 for interconnects, but also canare lv61 which I prefer (greater clarity / dynamic range I feel!)

Honestly, I do not see the point going with more expensive cables than canare or belden.
First impressions. I got the Blue Jeans cables yesterday and have been listening to my system with the new LC-1 jumpers on my NAD (a mild improvement compared to when I bought the LC-1 for my CD player, but an improvement all the same: blacker background, primarily). Then I've been comparing speaker cables.

Yesterday morning I terminated and shrink-wrapped the Canare 4S11 (compression bananas on the amp end and bare wire on the speaker end), and I've been going back and forth between them and the Anti-Cables.

When I first hooked them up, my initial impressions of the Canare were of a little less weight in the bass up through the mid-bass (even acoustic guitars seem to lack a little body) and a slight softening up top. This impression has remained, though I've come to appreciate that the Canares do offer a rich and beautifully focused midrange with far better soundstage depth than the Anti-Cables. At the same time, they offer what seems like better midrange resolution--the sound of the room and of reverb decay is much clearer and comes with a greater sense of ease than with the Anti-Cables. High-frequency transients like cymbals and chimes fall back in the soundstage a bit with the Canares, and perhaps have a touch--but just a touch--of grain, where the Anti-Cables seem to throw those sounds outward and upward from the plane of the speakers with great smoothness and tonal purity.

Swapping the Anti-Cables back in, I'm impressed by the bass weight and definition, and high-frequency sounds come forward in the soundstage with clarity--though this also comes with a flattening of the soundstage overall. The midrange is clear and lifelike, though everything seems just a little bit crisper and perhaps a touch less naturally warm. The sound of the room and of decay can be picked out, but it sounds a little more mechanical and less wholly integrated with the instrument(s) or voice. I really enjoy what the Anti-Cables let me hear, but each time I turned the music off I realized I also felt a sense of relief--that the increased sharpness and definition of high frequencies had been a touch fatiguing. With the Canare I found myself leaning into the soundstage to hear things I was used to hearing with the Anti-Cables' definition; with the Anti-Cables I found myself leaning back from the musical presentation as it came toward me.

These are very, very, veeerrrry initial impressions based on just a few hours of listening. The discs I've mostly used are favorites: Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood; My Morning Jacket, Z; Lucinda Williams, World Without Tears; Kenny Burrell, Midnight Blue and Handcrafted; Bill Evans, The Complete Village Vanguard; and Mozart's early string quartets on Brilliant Classics. So far I find myself drawn to the buttery midrange of the Canare even though it doesn't seem to excel at the frequency extremes. I'm going to keep using them for a few weeks before checking against the Anti-Cables again to see if there's any change as the Canare's dielectric breaks in. Good, cheap fun all around.
Thats exactly the difference I noticed between the belden and the rocket 44's. Beldens had better highs and more weight to the bass, more detail but perhaps slightly fatiguing and the 44's had better, smoother mids. Overall, I preferred the belden because of the micro details.