Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo New cables: XLR Balanced and Speaker cable

As sent to Mojo in a direct e mail and his suggestion of posting this....

Mojo,

I received my package of newly made custom cables today. I had been using
my Y connector balanced XLR interconnects which were splitting the output
L+R from the AVM60 prepro to the Parasound A51 5 channel amp for the bi-amp
set up I was doing, only I left one leg un-plugged.

I had Blue Jeans Cable make me up some new Belden 6 foot single line
balanced XLR cable in red so that they are easy to find vs. all of the black
lines. As you know, the Y connector split cable will reduce the signal by
3db, which seems easy enough to make up for by adjusting the output
calibration of the preamp by 3db boost. Well let me just say that I am
blown away! The difference in signal, which only being 3db, is truly huge.
I think that it's not a simple increase in signal by 3db, but it's really
the relationship to the noise floor. But, what I am hearing is an immense
increase in the Lows and Mids, so much so I had to recalibrate the output of
the preamp by 3 db to equal what I had with the split Y cable, which cut
down how hot the signal was, but it is still amazing at how much more
low/mid signal I have. I never expected this. I think that with the
reduced level via calibration, I still retain a better s/n ratio and better
transfer of frequency range.

Then after listening and recalibrating, I installed the new speaker cables
made from Canare 4S11 quad 14 gage twisted pairs. Holy moly again. The
vocals and high end just popped! As we talked about the other day, the
twisted pair 14 gage lines tied together equals 11 gage which is marginally
larger than the 12 gage I was using, but more so, as you pointed out the
voltage delivery will increase and this along with the twisted pairs is
definitely doing something. I have never been a believer of hearing
differences in speaker cables, but this combination of twisted pairs,
slightly heavier effective gage and the dual lines increasing voltage have
certainly done something....

Slim

Oh my! Interconnects and speaker cable make a difference in sound quality! So, those still using shoe laces, be woke!

I just picked up a gaggle of Belden XLR cables from Blue Jeans to connect an Integra Research RDA 7 amp to a Marantz 11.2 channel processor. I also picked up some silver serpent II XLRs from Amazon to connect an OPPO UDP205 to the Marantz. Magnolia is going to do the install for me and I will report back as to how it sounds.

The twisted pairs of Canare 4S11 quad must be pretty thick and difficult to hide, yes? no?

Yeah, the Canare 4S11 cables are not inconspicuous. Mine I ordered in Gray jacket and I went over their standard shrink tubing at the terminations with some dual wall, adhesive polyolifin black heat shrink tubing just to super reinforce the split at the ends. It's pretty tough stuff and the ends are surely closed off now. I just like the stiffer ends to hold the position of the connectors.

I'd say the cables are around a half inch diameter, so they are like larger 12/3 SJ power cables in size, only in a nice satin gray.

What were you using before the BJC XLR's? I am a big fan of anything Belden, and now Canare. I would like to hear your thoughts after the install.

This will be my first experience with XLR interconnects. Previously I have used Tara Labs prisms, Audioquest King Cobras, Chords ... I have a large tupperware-like container full of all kinds of interconnects.

Speaker wires ... my favorites are the Mapleshade Clearview bare terminated, Double Golden Helix Plus (that's a mouthful), they are wonderful, but very stiff and difficult to work with. I have also used Anti-cables, tried to save a few bucks, they are good, but not as good, also very stiff and difficult to work with. I have some old Audioquest Donkey-Dick speaker cables, I used with some Thiel CS3.6s, retired them as they look too industrial. I have rolls of Monoprice 12 gauge.

Congrats guys those honking cables look so cool.

With the beneficial advantages of XLR, Mike cables not to surprised of your +3. They are highly recommended for that aspect. Noise floor can be a big deal. Especially if you only have RCA pre outs.

I really don't like RCA unbalanced lines at all. I had issues with 60 cycle hum in my subs, the balanced lines eliminated that.

I know that balanced XRL terminated interconnects do pass a 6db higher signal with a lower noise floor over the RCA lines. I really notice it to be honest. The Y connector split balanced lines were very good, much better than RCA lines, but when I replaced those with single balanced lines, it really stepped it up quite a bit. From what I am told this will add in another 3 db over the Y connectors and this should improve the S/N ratio, which it seems to have done from what I heard.

I still cannot figure out what is going on with the 4 conductor Canare 4S11 speaker cable. As Mojo pointed out, dual 14 gauge leads welded together at the termination ends still effectively winds up at 11 gauge which will pass more voltage over a single 14 gauge wire or my previous 12 gauge wire. But the improvement I am hearing is more than the difference in just wattage; the vocals and high frequency ranges improved to my ears quite a bit. The twisted pairs in the dual conductors apparently will alter the inductance of the leads. Perhaps this is playing into this? Or is it the bourbon?

Probably mostly the bourbon...

TAM

I'll try Gin and see if the bass improves.

I lost my mind the other night, can't recall what frequencies sounded best or what the music was for that matter

I'll try it again

Canaries sound sweetest between 1KHz and 5KHz.