Lacking Bass - Speaker Cables to blame???? (QED Silver Anniversary biwire / Canare 4s11)

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I have been using QED silver anniversary bi-wire cable to connect each of my B&W DM603 S2 speakers to a pair of MF X-AS100 power amps in a biamp configuration.

This setup has been pretty good however the sound can be a little too sharp and on a lot of tunes, I find the bass lacking. I can just about hear a murmour of the huge bass that should be apparent on e.g. Massive Attack's Angel or on Kraftwerk's Aéro Dynamik. Indeed, I can hear it more prominently on a rubbish £100 portable player!

I thought this might have been because of the speaker cable, given that I think I have ample amplification and that the B&W's were renowned for the huge amounts of bass they could generate. To test this out, I purchased some Canare 4s11 speaker cable. This cable has 4 cores - 2 neg and 2 pos. I have joined each corresponding core together at both ends and now have 2 runs of the stuff to each speaker. All connections are bare wire.

The sound is smoother in the treble and mid range is good however the bass response has not improved. The jury is still out as to whether these cables have really been an improvement over the QED's as I'm still running them in. They have had about 40 hours so far and sound a little dull compared to the QED.

Has anyone any suggestions as to what else could possibly be wrong?

Are the speakers simply not up to the job? These are next on my list of upgrades but until I have moved house, I need to hold off.

Does anyone have any experience of the Canare 4s11 and has anyone compared it to any other cables? Plenty has been said on different forums and on sellers' sites but I have yet to see this cable reviewed by any magazines or put up against more commonly available highly reviewed commercial cables.

Advice gratefully received.

thanks,

Jason.

 

[Anonymous]

Im not sure what your using as a source and interconnects maybe i didnt read it properly! But i found that when i changed to the chord chameleon silver plus a big improvement in bass if anything when using my sub i had to turn that down so may be worth looking at!

 

[Tear Drop]

Deleted

 

[Anonymous]

My apologies, I thought I had mentioned what the system comprised:

Its all Musical Fidelity

X-Ray V1 CD Player

V-DAC Dac

X-P100 pre amp

2x X-AS100 power amps

Tacima 929 (not used for power amps)

VDH/Chord i/c's

TNT Flexy Rack (3 leg).

 

[JoelSim]

I have QED SA XT and don't find it lacking in bass or too sharp. But then again it depends on what it's partnered with. Other cables will often sound duller

 

[basshead]

ja99son:
This setup has been pretty good however the sound can be a little too sharp and on a lot of tunes, I find the bass lacking. I can just about hear a murmour of the huge bass that should be apparent on e.g. Massive Attack's Angel or on Kraftwerk's A‚ro Dynamik. Indeed, I can hear it more prominently on a rubbish £100 portable player!

do you find the bass lacking on all music you listen to? i listen to massive attack quite often and it sounds awful with my sub turned off. maybe for your tatses you should consider a sub? speaker cables dont make bass, speakers do. changing cables may tweak the sound slightly, but will not dramaticaly increase the amount of bass your speakers produce.

i understand your '£100 portable player' comment, my old (cheap) sony mini system produces more bass than both my Mordaunt short floorstanders or wharfedale bookshelf speakers do. i think it could be down to processing, (all-in -one systems increasing the upper bass and lower mid frequencies to create more bass in the overall sound) i could be wrong there though, maybe 'hi fi' speakers have to sacrifice bass in order to achieve the quality of the mid range.

have you tried using the tone controls on your amp? could be the simplest solution - turn the bass up.

 

[Anonymous]

Basshead, I think you are right.

The speakers are definitely the weak link in my system. I have heard the mentioned tunes played on a tag mclaren system through spendor S9E's. The bass produced was amazing. Indeed it was only after hearing them here that I realised quite how much was missing from my own set up.

My amp has no tone controls and as I cannot replace the B&W's just yet, a sub is probably the best way forward.

Any recommendations?

Is it a good idea to buy 2nd hand or are subs better bought new?

Has anyone got any thoughts on the Canare 4s11 speaker cable?

 

[JoelSim]

ja99son:

Basshead, I think you are right.

The speakers are definitely the weak link in my system. I have heard the mentioned tunes played on a tag mclaren system through spendor S9E's. The bass produced was amazing. Indeed it was only after hearing them here that I realised quite how much was missing from my own set up.

My amp has no tone controls and as I cannot replace the B&W's just yet, a sub is probably the best way forward.

Any recommendations?

Is it a good idea to buy 2nd hand or are subs better bought new?

Has anyone got any thoughts on the Canare 4s11 speaker cable?

I don't know what to say on the cable. On one hand you say they are improved and on the other that they are duller. Which is it? I woudl imagine that at £3-£4 per metre for biwired they will be step down on the QED.

 

[Big Chris]

I'm with Joel. Yes the QED can be a tad lean (I also use S.A Biwire), but I wouldn't want to lose the detail and speed I get from it. You could find by swapping to a 'warmer' cable, you open up a whole different can of worms.

FWIW, my Rothwell attenuators gave a smoother presentation without losing (hardly) anything in the way of detail and pace. Only £40-ish, so may be worth looking at before going any further with a cable change.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think I said the sound had improved....I said I was reserving judgement until the canare was fully run in. At the moment it is duller than the QED was but that isn't surprising given that the QED is bright.

"The sound is smoother in the treble and mid range is good however the
bass response has not improved. The jury is still out as to whether
these cables have really been an improvement over the QED's as I'm
still running them in. They have had about 40 hours so far and sound a
little dull compared to the QED"

I'm just keen to hear other people's thoughts on the canare and what they compared it with.