First I agree on tubes for Cal Alpha. JJECC88's have a nice warm tone. If you can afford it, the 'gold pin' edition is probably worth the extra $10. Works for me. :-)
Re Canare wire - I used this for quite a few years. I recently decided to try BJ's 10ga Belden cable, a single wire cable, and I found in my system its sound was much clearer/cleaner than the Canare 4s11. It is not brighter in any respect than the Canare but it seemed to remove a layer of grundge that had become apparent in my system. It's cheaper too if you care to experiment.
Out of curiosity, have you explored room/speaker set up options? I found that paying close attention to set up issues, including toe in and side wall reflections paid huge dividends.
Re Canare wire - I used this for quite a few years. I recently decided to try BJ's 10ga Belden cable, a single wire cable, and I found in my system its sound was much clearer/cleaner than the Canare 4s11. It is not brighter in any respect than the Canare but it seemed to remove a layer of grundge that had become apparent in my system. It's cheaper too if you care to experiment.
Out of curiosity, have you explored room/speaker set up options? I found that paying close attention to set up issues, including toe in and side wall reflections paid huge dividends.