Fellow AVA circlers (circulars?):
I made a pilgrimage to Frank’s factory/salon today to ask such learned and abstruse questions about his new differential equipment that he literally had to hold his head in his hands!
While I was there he graciously showed me those much anticipated, new speaker cables. They are truly revolutionary! The signal carrying components are solid, not stranded (thus eliminating all the reactance [inductance vs. capacitance vs. frequency] problems of that configuration), cuprous material of unique, proprietary structure. Other high-end cable manufacturers focus on crystal structure, alignment and directionality. That’s fine when the current is flowing in one direction. But what of the fact that audio signals are AC, not DC? (Say, there’s an idea: DC audio signals! They’d be very quiet and…never mind.) When the signal travels in the direction that the crystalline alignment favors, all is well. But on the return portion of the cycle, problems ensue. The increased resistance from going against the grain causes problems in the time domain, making for collisions, delays, etc., depending on the instantaneous frequency(-ies) at that moment. (Did I mention the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle?) I shudder to think of the standing wave ratio (SWR) problems at low frequencies and the beat frequency oscillation (BFO) problems at all frequencies this entails. The secret formula (patent pending) allows electrons to flow in both directions freely. I am not at liberty to divulge the formula that grew out of the research that went into this find, but I can tell you the results were eye-opening! I almost forgot: everyone knows (you don’t!?) about the “skin effect.” As frequencies rise into the higher radio frequency (RF) ranges, such as VHF, UHF, SHF, the current migrates more and more to the outer surface or “skin” of a conductor. That’s why in those higher RF ranges hollow conductors are employed. Why pay for precious minerals that are not used? But the opposite situation occurs at AF freqs. So, just before these conductors are terminated in standard (but highest quality!) banana plugs, that outer skin is scraped off by the manufacturer, thus providing an elegantly simple filter for radio frequency interference (RFI). And we all know what kind of hash that can sling into our listening pleasure, don’t we!
But the really advanced technological breakthrough in these cables is the dielectric chosen after years of trial and error. The answer? Sisal! Twisted and intertwined with the color-coded, insulated cuprous conductors in a precise turn/cm ratio, this increasingly rare, natural, environmentally friendly, sturdy and strong fiber is just the thing to provide the right separation between the high-quality conductors so that they can do their job without interference or heat build up. Other dielectrics were tried, including the increasingly more common synthetic nylon (both white and yellow), but they proved unsatisfactory. The seemingly random, stray, “broken” fibers emanating from the sisal strands provide the perfect mechanical damping that keeps the energy in the wires on the way to the speakers without dissipating in useless audio frequency (AF) vibrations before it can be properly conveyed to the voice coils. Electrons move, after all, according and in proportion to the electromotive forces exerted upon them. The idea is to keep the electrons moving each other, not the wires, until they can be usefully employed ergonomically in the voice coil/cone/diaphragm/ion chamber/etc. that moves the air that moves our ear drums, that move our hammers, that move our anvils, that move our stirrups, that move our oval windows, that move our cochlear fluid, that move our auditory hairs, that stimulate our aural nerves, that…well, you get the idea. Lots of necessary energy transfers in that chain that inevitably result in losses, usually dissipated as heat. That's why your ears get red and warm after hours of listening, especially with earphones. The idea is to eliminate unnecessary losses.
Speaking of heat, an unexpected side benefit occurs when the gain (volume to you) is turned up enough to heat the conductors so that the dielectric reaches the flashpoint. This lends a certain mood altering quality to the atmosphere in the room, causing the room, with all its acoustical nodes and untamable quirks literally to disappear! This of course requires one of those $150,000 amplifiers and pennies in the fuse box.
Availability? Pricing? Stay tuned. The increasing rarity of the materials may make mass production (and therefore marketing) problematic. A few samples, such as the ones I saw, exist, but they are considered so precious that, in order to make them last longer, they are not used. For now, don’t call Frank or Mark. They’ll call you.
BTW, I would have included some pictures, but I was told that light, whether natural or artificial, causes the dielectric to break down. Don’t want that!
