[Wayner]

All the cable talk gave me the itch to bi-wire the Paradigms. Blue Jean cable is incredable! I ordered on Saturday and it's here today. Nice cable, 14ga. 4 conductor, about 3/8" in diameter (gray color) and is fairly mobil. These are the only speakers in the studio that are bi-wireable so I thought it is time.

Wayner 

[Toka]

How did it work out for you? And yep, BJC are lightning fast. 

[Jon L]

All the cable talk gave me the itch to bi-wire the Paradigms. Blue Jean cable is incredable! I ordered on Saturday and it's here today. Nice cable, 14ga. 4 conductor, about 3/8" in diameter (gray color) and is fairly mobil. These are the only speakers in the studio that are bi-wireable so I thought it is time.

Wayner 

BJC does have great service.  However, Canare 4S11 is a dark, slow, plodding cable, and unless your system is bright and lean, I doubt you'll like it..

[Wayner]

It's copper wire, 14 guage. Slow? I think that electricity travels at about the same speed in this wire as in about any other wire. Dark? Only the music can cast such shadows.

Wayner

[Brett Buck]

BJC does have great service.  However, Canare 4S11 is a dark, slow, plodding cable, and unless your system is bright and lean, I doubt you'll like it..

      I think this comment is in the wrong thread. Either that or I started a trend.

     Brett

[Wayner]

Don't worry about it Brett. I just thought other AC members could be looking for a nice low price non-magic cable for bi-wiring. I was, and am very happy with the cable.

W 

[Parnelli777]

Just as a comment on BJC, I replaced fairly well thought of $200+ pure silver ICs with BJC LC-1. I feel as though my system became even livelier sounding, not dark and "slow". In comparison, the silver wires were more to the dark side of neutral, and the BJC just right. Oh, and they're dirt cheap, and built well. I've since replaced all IC with BJC LC-1.

[BrianM]

However, Canare 4S11 is a dark, slow, plodding cable, and unless your system is bright and lean, I doubt you'll like it..

It always amazes me how people can achieve such a high level of confidence about how a cable "sounds."
I mean, I'm pretty confident about my ability to hear.  2 degrees in music, have both absolute pitch & perfect relative pitch, have tutored music doctoral students in aural skills, can take 4-part dictation pretty accurately, been paid to perform, etc.  And I wouldn't dream of swooping in to inform someone how a cable will sound.  I've heard (or thought I've heard) small differences between different signal-carrying cables, but I would never claim to be able to identify them in a blind test, nor to be certain how they'd likely sound to others.  It's just too subjective, system- and ear-dependent a call.

[gjs_cds]

It always amazes me how people can achieve such a high level of confidence about how a cable "sounds."
I mean, I'm pretty confident about my ability to hear.  2 degrees in music, have both absolute pitch & perfect relative pitch, have tutored music doctoral students in aural skills, can take 4-part dictation pretty accurately, been paid to perform, etc.  And I wouldn't dream of swooping in to inform someone how a cable will sound.  I've heard (or thought I've heard) small differences between different signal-carrying cables, but I would never claim to be able to identify them in a blind test, nor to be certain how they'd likely sound to others.  It's just too subjective, system- and ear-dependent a call.

Well--I think the response to your post is that you're intellectually honest.  The golden eared crowd is based on dogma, as opposed to quantifiable science.  If I recall correctly, Dan Morrison (Canadian Audio Engineer) actually performed some blind A-A tests... and some of his golden-eared test subjects wrote pages of subtle sonic differences between (the same) cables.  Point being, if you believe and are willing to search for differences, you can at least convince a population of 1. 

The DC Speaker Building DIY club did a really neat double-blind cap and resistor test a few years ago.  And all the guys believed they could tell a difference *before* the test.  Afterwards, most were humbled by reality--myself included.  Only 1 guy in about 20 could: (1) Consistently differentiate between caps, and (2) Consistently identify Cap A as being Cap A, and cap B as being cap B.  (I could with about 60% accuracy--which is about as good as flipping a coin...)  Resistors were a bit easier to detect, but not by much.  Again--it was a humbling experience...

The law of diminishing returns is a very slippery slope when it comes to cables, if it exists at all. 

[Russtafarian]

FWIW, I know Jon and I've attended a few listening sessions with him.  I think he's very good at describing what he hears because I've been there when we've heard it and he's described it.  He's listened to a lot of gear in a lot of systems and has developed a knack for identifying how a certain component, wire, tweak, etc. impacts the sound of a system.  I'd trust his judgement over most of the published reviewers I've read.

So if he says 4S11 is a dark, slow plodding cable, I believe he had good reason for saying that.  I also know that he would be the first to qualify that as a judgement on his part and not a dogmatic fact. 

That said, I have 4S11 in my system and would not describe it that way, probably because I've voiced my system to my liking with that cable in place.  I've heard power cables, interconnects and speaker cables that dramatically change the sound of a system.  Context, system voicing, and taste determine whether the change is better or worse.  I'm a cable cheapskate and I'm quite happy with 4S11. 

If you're in SoCal, invite Jon over sometime to hear 4S11 in your system.  You might just change his mind.  Or he might bring a few other cables over for comparison and he might change your mind.  In the mean time, enjoy your cables and your music.

Russ

[Wayner]

4S11 is not UL listed for use as a power cable. The voltage rating of the dielectric is unknown, the jacket temp and dielectric is unknown (at least to any approval agency). Use it for speaker wire.....

Wayner

[Russtafarian]

4S11 is not UL listed for use as a power cable.

Thanks for pointing this out.  I'll remove that comment.

Russ

[Brett Buck]

BJC does have great service.  However, Canare 4S11 is a dark, slow, plodding cable, and unless your system is bright and lean, I doubt you'll like it..

    So, when you put a square wave in one end, it comes out as a trapezoid at the other end? Say, if the input rise time is 1 microsecond, what is the output rise time?

      Brett

[Jon L]

FWIW, I know Jon and I've attended a few listening sessions with him.  I think he's very good at describing what he hears

Thanks for your comments, Russ.  I just clicked onto the "Recent" thread without realizing it was manufacturer thread, esp AVA.  Had I realized it, I would have not posted the above 

Having said that, all I intended was for those reading to possibly benefit from *MY* personal experience without paying money out first like I did.  Admittedly, Canare costs less to experiment with than most others

I should probably qualify my comments by saying although I hear what I hear with Canare, it's in direct comparison to my reference cables like Silversmith, DIY cross-connected ribbon/solid core, VH Audio CheLa speaker cables...