Price Paid:  $0.00 from Markertek

Summary:
I'm very familiar with Canare cable. Markertek uses Canare GS-6 for these cables. They are not good for full-range audio (as regular interconnects.) However, the GS-6 makes GREAT subwoofer cable! It uses rather thick 18-gauge wire, which is great for carrying bass. Connect all your subwoofer/LFE signal with this cable, and you'll end up with great bass in your system.

Strengths:
Great for bass! Use for subwoofer connections.

Weaknesses:
Not good for anything but bass.

Similar Products Used:
MIT, IXOS, ???

Summary:
This is intended as comment toward my earlier post. Since I do not wish to affect the review average I will post 3 speakers, the current average.
I just could not accept that these cables were so bad after someone else, Greg Smith, praised them. So I did a little investigating. While reading some blurb about the construction of interconnect cables I learned that in one simple approach an interconnect consists of signal and ground wires plus a shield sheath, usually stainless steel. The article went on to mention that the shield should be grounded at only one end of the cable. This prevents the shield from being part of the circuit loop. Examining the Marktek Canare cable I found exactly what I expected. The shield was connected at both ends. So I performed a little surgery, not an easy thing since I had to remove part of a single solder joint which connects both the shield sheath and the ground wires to the connector.

The result was wonderful. High frequencies abound (without glare). Very neutral sounding. Much better than 3 or 4 department store, gold-plated, cables that range from $10-$25 which I have previously tried used.

I still can't recommend these cables because I don't know if mine were the only flawed examples. However, I do intend to buy the raw materials from Markertek and assemble my own cables. For the money I would give the end product 5 speakers.

Summary:
I tried these cables after reading Greg Smith's praise at WWW.SOUNDSTAGE.COM.Although bass had some solidity and midrange was very clear, the highs were rolled-off too much. With one pair on a signal source and one pair between my A/V receiver and amplifier the highs were completely lost. My treble control does not have enough range to compensate (and I hate to use tone controls). Needless to say, I was disappointed. It's possible these cables might be useful to tune an overly bright system but in general I do not recommend them.

Summary:
FOr roughly $11 per chable, the Markertek Canare seems like a real nice value. It's a great alternative to the standard Monster stuff, yet very competitive price wise. Markerek mainly caters to professional/industrial houses, but they sell to individuals too. I'm not going to waste your time making up adjectives to describe the sound like transparent or bright or laid back. I'll just say that they are built well and sound great and they fit nicely for people who want to spend more than $10 for Radio Shack Gold but less than $70 for the next level up. www.markertek.com for more info... 5 stars for its price and category