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Since the early 1980's, there has been an increasing demand for high-quality interconnect and speaker cables. What began as a quest by music lovers to get that little bit more out of their hi-fi systems has grown into a multi-million pound business, full of marketing hyperbole, exotic packaging and often enough expensive metal to keep a jeweller happy for weeks! Unfortunately, many of these over-engineered cables owe more to increasing the perceived value of the product than to true research in the field of audio. Ribbon-type solid core cable was developed by DNM back in 1984 and now has many converts. It represents the opposite view to the bulk of the audiophile cable market, but it is designed for domestic audio and for that application we believe it is the best at any price. The majority of cables used in audio have been selected for their low inductance, low resistance and high capacitance characteristics as measured on the test bench. These parameters define what are believed to be the electrical properties most fundamental to an 'ideal model' audio cable. Audio applications, however, vary widely, from recording studios through public address systems and live concert amplification to the domestic, with each having its own particular demands. No multi-purpose cable can, therefore, suit the precise requirements of the domestic music lover as ideally as one designed specifically for that purpose - as home listening tests prove! EDDY CURRENTS Once the cross-sectional area of a cable exceeds a certain size, things begin to go badly wrong with the sound. Magnetic interaction between the cable and the magnetic fields generated by transmission of an electrical signal cause circulating eddy currents, which generate significant magnetic fields in their own right. These stray fields are unrelated to the original signal but can still interact with it - the result is distortion. In short, the smaller a cable's cross-sectional area the greater its clarity. When auditioning speaker cable, most differences you hear are caused not by the cable itself but by the amplifier interacting with the cable. Large, multiple strand cables are mistakenly recommended by some manufacturers because of their low resistance. This is felt to aid the amplifier's output impedance. Whilst true, it has no sonic benefit. More significantly, large cables link the amplifier's sensitive feedback control system to an undefined cable load and other external influences. Smaller diameter cables with higher resistance and inductance effectively help to isolate the amplifier's feedback control system, improving clarity throughout the frequency range. What holds for the speaker cables holds equally well throughout the audio chain. Even further improvement can be produced by using solid core mains cable in the place of multiple stranded cable. Like anything from DNM, the proof is in the auditioning. Although our cables are inexpensive by high-end audio standards, we believe that they prove their worth, no matter how large or exotic the comparison! ______________________________________________________ |
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