Cable Asylum Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Cable Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Speaker Wire Conundrum

Posted by synergisticone969 (A) on December 11, 2016 at 09:46:08

To Whomever Might Provide Feedback:

Approximately 1 month ago, from Blue Jeans Cables I purchased a pair of 40 ft. long Canare 4S11 bi-wire/locking banana plug terminated speaker cables, being assured that increasing the length within that range could not possibly significantly affect the sound of the cables, (based on the physics involved, impedance/inductance, etc...). I elected to select that length so as to maximize my speaker/audio equipment placement flexibility. (Prior to this purchase, my speaker wire was approx. 10 ft. in length, bi-wire/banana plug terminated "Better Cable" branded wire, purchased approx. 10 years ago, and what I replaced with the Canare 4S11 wire. (The related Better Cable interconnects were/are named "Silver Serpent", and I believe that they may have a silver plating on the copper wire).

With the Better Cable speaker wire in use, the sound of my stereo system sounded accurate, with clarity...air...and "correctness" of instrumental and vocal timbres. With the Canare 4S11 speaker wire in use, the sound of my system has changed...both instrumental timbres and vocal timbres sound somewhat "odd"...as if slightly to moderately pinched or nasal, particularly noticeable with higher pitch range instruments, such as trumpets, oboes and so forth...even mid-range brass such as French Horns sound just a little off/muffled or slightly deadened, as if playing into velvet. Another way to describe the sound is as if instruments were being played toward/into a ceramic mug or glass, as if a mild cup-mute effect was created with trumpets or oboes...this same "cupped" or nasal timber quality is moderately noticeable with female voices, with a loss of high frequency "air"/naturalness.

Now, I am wondering if this actually IS due the length of the speaker wire, or some other factor...the ONLY other thought I had was that, because I elected to only use about 15 feet of the 40ft. of speaker wire, the other 25ft are coiled together, and could THAT create an electrical issue..(inductance?), that is inducing a significant departure from flat frequency response from one end of the wire to the other...?... If this IS the case, I can certainly "stretch out" the wire along the length of the side walls, so that the wire only lies against itself once, or at worst two times...IF that would rectify this problem...

Without going into unnecessary details, my Schiit Audio Ragnarok preamp/integrated amp feeds a Marchand crossover, which feeds an Aragon 4004 amp, which feeds a pair of Lipinski Sound 707 monitors from 60 Hz up...

I am now wondering if there is another reasonably priced speaker wire out there that might solve this issue, if the issue is indeed being caused by this particular cable...

Any observations/suggestions/recommendations are very welcome...

Thank You!

Sincerely,
T.A.K.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Amplified Parts

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---