User Manual

CABLE THEORY

Page 12

AudioQuest, the company, manufactures cables using the brand names AudioQuest and Cinema-

Quest.

The AudioQuest Solutions HyperLitz® construction is the ultimate solution. “Hyper” means to go

“over, above or beyond”. “Litz” type cable construction was invented long ago for the purpose of pre-

venting skin-effect induced power loss in high-frequency applications. Conventional litz construction

uses multiple individually insulated strands arranged so that no matter how big the cable, skin-effect is

only that effect which would be associated with a single strand.

By “Hyperlitz” we mean a construction which meets the litz deﬁnition of reducing skin-effect to the

strand level and a cable which goes signiﬁcantly beyond conventional litz in its ability to prevent other

distortions associated with the use of multiple strands. Conventional litz does not address the major

problem of magnetic interaction. We have deﬁned Hyperlitz as a construction which virtually eliminates

magnetic interaction and ensures that the electrical characteristics of each strand are constant and

unchanging over the length of the cable. Hyperlitz design fulﬁlls the ideal of preventing the distortion

normally associated with multiple strands or multiple conductors, yet allows us to make cables with a

large cross sectional area and low resistance.

Litz design is a conductor speciﬁcation, and therefore has no bearing on the relationship between con-

ductors. Litz construction is completely independent of values such as capacitance, mutual inductance

and resistance.

AudioQuest uses two basic versions of Hyperlitz construction. Most AudioQuest cables use a helical

array of individually insulated solid conductors. The insulation is thick enough to provide signiﬁcant

magnetic spacing between the strands. AudioQuest’s previous top interconnect cables used a more

complicated patented Air-Hyperlitz construction in which the strands are not insulated, but are instead

isolated. The metalÕs surface was never damaged by a hot insulating process. Around its entire cir-

cumference, a metal conductor only touched solid insulation at four points, everywhere else was air.

AudioQuest’s new top cables now use polyethylene or FEP tubes having an inner diameter larger

than the outer diameter of the solid conductor inside. This means only one point of contact, more air,

less distortion. Because low-level cables are most sensitive to dielectric involvement, such cables ben-

eﬁt the most from these superior construction techniques.

Third Generation Spread Spectrum Technology (SST): To minimize a distortion mechanism, one

ﬁrst has to be aware of it. Near the beginning of this discussion we discussed how skin-effect causes

strands larger than 20 awg (0.811 mm) to distort an audio signal. There is also some distortion asso-

ciated with smaller strands. For sizes larger than 20 awg, the audible skin-effect induced distortion is

simply wrong. However, for sizes smaller than 20 awg, even though the distortion signature is simply

different for each size, one is not more wrong than the other, they are just different. There is no size or

shape which doesnÕt have some limiting characteristics. The conductor shape which causes the least

distortion is radially symmetrical. Round is simple, round is best.

SST, now in it’s third generation, is an extremely effective way to reduce distortion signatures and

better preserve a natural homogenous harmonic balance across the entire frequency range. By using

a multiple of different size conductors whose character ﬂaws are similar but slightly different, the “vis-

ibility” of any one character ﬂaw is greatly reduced. In order to optimize this defocusing of distortion

awareness, the conductor sizes must be close together. If they are too far apart, then the cable simply