User Manual

CABLE THEORY

Page 10

later releases energy. This is true of circuit board materials, cables, resistors and of course capacitors.

The ideal wire is one with no insulation except for air. When a solid material must be applied, it should

be electrically invisible, meaning that the less energy it absorbs, the better. The energy which is ab-

sorbed should stay absorbed (turned into heat, a high dissipation factor), and the energy which does

come back into the metal conductor should have minimal phase shift and not be frequency selective

(a high velocity of propagation, independent of frequency). All dielectrics absorb more energy at higher

frequencies, but some are more linear in their overall behavior relative to frequency.

The most commonly used insulations are PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene and FEP. These can be

mixed with air (foamed) or applied in ways which maximize the amount of air around the metal strands.

Which material is used and how it is applied will dramatically affect the performance of a low-level cable.

Capacitance is more important in low-level than high-level cables for two reasons. If a long, “over the

cliff” high capacitance cable is used, many preampliﬁers, CD players, tuners, surround processors, etc.,

will not be able to “drive” the cable. The resulting distortion does not happen within the cable, but is

caused by using the cable. There is never a disadvantage to using low capacitance low-level cables.

The other important reason for low capacitance is that high capacitance causes greater ﬁeld strength

between the positive and negative conductors (and the shield). This means more energy is put into the

dielectric material. There is always a priority to minimize dielectric involvement, through proper selec-

tion of materials and low capacitance design.

Important Cable Facts Running-In: As with all audio components, audio cables require an adjust-

ment period. This is often mistakenly referred to as “break-in”. However, break-in is properly used to

describe a mechanical change-engines break-in, loudspeaker and phono cartridge suspensions break-

in. A cable’s performance takes time to optimize because of the way a dielectric behaves (the way the

insulating material absorbs and releases energy), changes in the presence of a charge. Cables will

continue to improve in sound or picture quality over a period of several weeks. This is the same reason

ampliﬁers, preampliﬁers and CD players also require an adjustment period. The key difference between

“adjusting” and “breaking-in” is that things don’t “un-break-in”, however, electrical components do “un-

adjust”. Several weeks of disuse will return a cable to nearly its original state.

The run-in time is essentially the same for all cables. However, the apparent need for run-in varies

wildly. As with ampliﬁers and other components, the better the cable, the less distortion it has, and

therefore the less there is to cover up the obnoxious distortion caused by being new. Since human per-

ception is more aware of the existence of a distortion than the quantity, the better the cable, the worse

in some ways it will sound when new, because the anemic forced two-dimensional effect reulting from

being new will not be ameliorated by other gentler distortions. Please be patient when ﬁrst listening to

any superior product.

Directionality: All cables are directional, from hardware store electrical cable to the ﬁnest pure silver

cables. All AudioQuest cables are marked for direction. With other cables it might be necessary to sim-

ply listen to the cables in one direction and then the other. The difference will be clear-in the correct

direction the music is more relaxed, pleasant and believable. While cable directionality is not fully un-

derstood, it is clear that the molecular structure of drawn metal is not symmetrical, providing a physical

explanation for the existence of directionality.