Mark Grant XLR Canare L4E6S Star Quad Balanced Cable

[MartinT]

I bought a pair of these to try out in place of my no-name OFC balanced cables between phono preamp and main preamp. My system is all-balanced XLR connected and uses mostly Kimber Select hybrid silver cables. However, several price hikes have made them eye-wateringly expensive so I decided to see how a good copper cable sounded.

The Canare cable that Mark Grant uses is well known in studio circles and features extremely good shielding with its star quad construction using eight cores. Connectors are Neutrik - the best.

Replacing my existing cables and not allowing for much burn-in, I heard an extra sparkle in the sound. Soundstage was decidedly wider and a little deeper and I could hear 'into' it more clearly. Midrange and vocals are transparent and very neutral. Dynamics are superb. The noise floor is vanishingly low. These cables give every impression of just letting the signal pass through unmolested.

For the price, I am impressed. It is harder to hear differences between balanced cables as this connection method gives so much clarity in the first place (provided your equipment uses true balanced circuitry) and yet I heard the differences quite clearly. Highly recommended.

[Marco]

Nice one, Martin

Should I bring down some G1000HDs on Saturday to test against your Kimber Selects?

Remember what happened to my ludicrously expensive Transparents, which the Mark Grants duly retired....

Marco.

[MartinT]

No good - all my cables are balanced XLR and I believe the G1000HDs are single-ended. Don't even try to compare the two, balanced sounds far superior in my system.

Anyway, aren't we playing with turntables? <rubs hands with glee>

[Marco]

No good - all my cables are balanced XLR and I believe the G1000HDs are single-ended. Don't even try to compare the two, balanced sounds far superior in my system.

Yes, good point! Might be worth a laugh though asking Mark to make up some balanced G1000HDs to compare them with the Kimbers

Turntables? Oh yes indeedy! Steve W visited today and, erm, how shall I put it, 'quite liked' the Techy compared with his LP12...

Btw, as an aside, how efficient are your Ushers and are they liable to be a tricky load for a valve amp?

Marco.

[MartinT]

how efficient are your Ushers and are they liable to be a tricky load for a valve amp?

Quite efficient, but they may be a bastard load especially as they have two bass drivers per side. Of course, the Chord doesn't even blink

[Steve Toy]

My Heco Celan 700 speakers have two drivers aside. My Copper amp (same as Marco's) doesn't blink. If they are ~89dB + and 6 to 8 ohm-ish the Copper amp shouldn't have a problem.

They are in a different league to my Hecos though.

The specs are as follows:

Usher Dancer Be-20 speakers

Technical Specification

3-way Floor standing 1.25" BeO dome tweeter and 5" BeO inverted dome mid, and 2x11" low woofer
Sensitivity 90dB @ 1watt/1m
nominal impedance 8 ohms
frequency response 22Hz - 40Khz (+/- 3dB)
power handling range60 - 300 watts
crossover frequencies 544Hz and 3.84 Khz
weight 123Kgs (inc base) (foookin' elll!)
dimensions (wxdxh) 36.5 cm x 89.5 cm x 140 cm

http://www.hiaudio.co.uk/UA/Be20.htm

[Dave Cawley]

In my personal experience the Ushers will work fine with a valve amp. I have used 2A3 to PP 300B no problem. But they are designed for high power amplifiers to get the dynamic range in a big USA rooms.

Dave

[Marco]

That's good enough for me, chaps... Then I may as well bring the Croft and copper amp down for a giggle

Marco.

[Steve Toy]

You'll need the G1000HDs then as you can't plug XLRs into your amps.

[leo]

Keep us updated, be quite an interesting comparison copper valve amp against the Chord