I never forgot that the internal cable used by Harbeth was the VanDamme Blue Studio series. That was in a German review of the M40 - they showed photos of the speaker’s interior and crossover. Since then I bought some VD cables and use the hi-fi oriented LCO-FC speaker cable often. The great thing about VanDamme, Canare, Mogami and Belden is that because they are so cheap you can simply buy 3 or 4 types and experiment. You will learn a lot, especially if you choose cables with different approaches on construction. I am talking not only about speaker cables but also interconnects and power cords. It is a lot of fun and easy to DIY. Sometime ago I have sold a pair of 8ft Transparent speakers cables (entry level) and that allowed me to buy several different brands and types of cables for DIY... and I have better sound now
Interesting you mention the idea of experimenting. I just bought some inexpensive DIY wire from an overseas site and plan to do just that. The wire looks stunningly familiar in construction and configuration to many big dollar name brands at a fraction of the cost.
Have I ever stated on here that the markup on cables is huuuuge? And that the materials used to make them are not expensive? Its just the way it is. 6 and 7 nines pure copper and silver wire is not expensive, nor is any of the other stuff that goes into making cables, simple as that. Cable manufacturers just lead (some, but not me) people to think it is with their slick schmarketing. Have $15 million burning a hole in your pocket? No problem! Shopping Cart Back when I taped concerts (95-01) and was on dat-heads digest, mic cable (balanced interconnects) made with Canare was very popular, probably the most used.
Hmmn, may have to try out the canare cable. I’m using Belden 5000UE for my surround channels , and a set of quicksilver cables for the L, R, C. Lengths for those three are very short, so three cables of canare will only cost me $100 and a bit so not a big investment. Maybe somebody said this already …. The canare is 14 ga per conductor? Or 14 with the four twisted into two?
Four (4) 14 ga conductors inside the jacket. Take a look here Canare 4S11 Star Quad 14AWG 4-Conductor Speaker Cable - Grey - Per Foot they spell it out.
After reading this thread, I think I'm going to try the 4s11 again in my system, and bi-wire at the speaker and amp (my amp has 4 speaker terminals over A/B channels, one amplifier internally). I'll compare it to my current two conductor Mogami 3103. A further test of bi-wire vs bridging.... I have new speakers for the last couple of months, and still have not done enough comparison like I did with my older speakers. I have 22ft runs to each speaker, but they are nominal 8 ohm speakers, and my amp drives 90W into 8 ohm, and 180W into 4 ohm for impedance dips.... so 14 ga *should* be plenty thick according to many sources, but I know many like to overkill gauge size with speakers to reduce resistance (like me, and why I chose the 12ga Mogami....)
If the cables are very short, how are you coming up with $100? I'm seeing 4s11 cable for as low as $1.16 per foot from reliable sources?
It is the only way to get further from the others recommendations for such and such cables. The opinions are precious for figuring out some details about the products we are interested in, but nothing is achieved without experimentation. The variables are always too much for “one-size-fits-all” solutions. Because of this good value products are always on my radar, and I will try the Canare 4S11 in the near future. Besides, brands like Canare, Mogami, VanDamme and Belden spend everything in the products developing (done properly) and nothing on marketing, so you get what you pay for
Comparing Apples with Apples...From the BJC Website: DIY=Stereo pair of BJC Canare 4s11 10ft length speaker cables, + 4 pairs of locking banana plug connectors=$67! OR AIO=Stereo pair of BJC Canare 4s11 10ft length speaker cables, With Installed "Sonic Weld Terminated locking banana plug connectors"=$106! In my experience, believe the Sonic Weld Process makes for a Very Solid cable/terminal connection that sonically and electrically better synergizes the cable geometry and design! Is the Terminated BJC worth the additional 59% premium over the DIY creation...it was for me, but only you can answer that for yourself (especially if you need/want cable in bulk)! Ted
True. I wonder how much "technicality" is spent upon termination from Blue Jeans, or elsewhere? Basic run of the mill Terminals of choice, a pair of Pliers, and some Shrink Wrap and a heat gun, or a Bic Lighter? Or toss some Solder on. Sure, you can terminate Canare with WBT if you have the money. The Terminals will cost more than the Cable used. That's life I reckon. For those who have vintage gear, lets say a McIntosh MC-2105 Amp. well, you're gonna need those small Spade Lug Terminals for the Terminal Strips on back, but they can be had, and can accept the two runs of 14ga Canare per Spade Lug. At the speaker end, then terminate with whatever you want-need, end of story.
I will share with you the results of my comparison of Canare 4s11 cable with Audio Note AN-D cable. A wonderful person gave me this cable to test. I think this information may be useful to someone. To begin with, I note that AN-D cable is about 10 times more expensive than Canare, but the exact price will depend on many factors, so somewhere it will be more expensive, somewhere cheaper. So, now about the differences in the sound of these cables. AN-D has less bass than Canare. This difference is immediately apparent. Due to the presence of a more powerful bass, Canare also seems to be more dynamic. Male vocals seem livelier and more realistic with Canare thanks to the well-defined low range. Canare produces a more varied sound than AN-D, which colors the sound a little in one way. AN-D smoothes out the variety of sounds a bit by emphasizing the midrange, making the sound sound more musical but less realistic. In general, the differences between these two cables are not very big and I had to swap them for a long time and involve my household in the test. But I made a conclusion for myself - Canare won again.
LT, No experience with the AN-D speaker cables, but as far as the Canare 4S11 low end, it certainly is impressive! Tight, fast, punchy, articulate and dynamic are some superlatives I'd use to describe the bass response, with an open highly resolving and very wide/high soundstage! FWIW, if I hadn't heard and was willing to spend 4X the price for the Morrow SP4's (bass equal to the 4S11, but goes Deeper + soundstage depth is equal, but also goes Deeper), then I'd currently be a happy and proud BJC Canare 4S11 speaker cable user!! Ted
In appearance, it is slightly thicker than the two wires from the Canare cable. There is clearly less copper in it than in the four-wire Canare cable. I can find the price in my area at $ 11.53 per foot. In the UK, it seems to be cheaper.
TVA, Don't forget about the 8 "quality" cable Termination $$$ to Complete a stereo pair of Canare 4S11 speaker cables! In my example HERE, an ultrasonic high quality terminated lockable banana plug 10ft retail pair comes out to $5 per foot! Ted
My search continues. I am thinking of trying the Van Damme cable. If this cable works well inside Harbeth, can it work better than Canare outside Harbeth?
