'Time Aligned' Silver Audio Cables
Providing “SYNERGY” to your
Audio System
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“Silver Line” interconnect cables
Specifications and Theory We started developing cables in 1993 to compliment our Loudspeaker
range, the cables culminated in the use of Military/Aerospace grade Silver
and Copper combined with VIRGIN PTFE (Pressure cast Teflon). Our 'Time Aligned' configuration was chosen after extensive testing
and the design was registered in 1994. Sonic Art's conductor design is essentially a silver alloy, 40 microns
of Military Grade 4N Silver
plated onto a Military Grade 4N
Copper core. Anyone who tells you their cable is 6N or 7N should be
asked to supply a laboratory report showing the purity grade and how they
tested for it! Even the Military & Aerospace industries test only to a
provable 99.99% purity, their testing includes checking for trace elements,
terms like “oxygen free” are more a gimmick than a real measure of metal
purity. Plating of copper base wires is a very expensive process if done to
Military/Aerospace standards, and contrary to what
many “cable producers” will try to convince you of, correct hi-tech plating
is superior to any other method of combining silver and copper. Each of our 19 strands is saturated with 40 microns of Silver, which
forms the basis of our conductors. The conductors are drawn through Diamond dies
which create excellent surface finish and a smooth consistent base wire. The
dies compact the wire into the desired diameter and form an almost alloy of
silver and copper. The cross sectional metallurgy is smooth and gradual in
its consistency. Our process eliminates brightness & dioding effects associated
with cheap plating techniques such as molten bath plating, commonly used by
Asian & commercial wire manufacturers. The military would never use
molten bath plating as it is of low quality, with the problems of stripping
and corrosion in the metallurgy. We insulate our conductors with VIRGIN
PTFE Pressure Cast Teflon
insulation and a Military Grade 4N Silver/Copper mesh shield. VIRGIN
PTFE Teflon is used exclusively on
all our conductors as although it is the most expensive of extruded
insulators it exhibits the lowest dielectric loss, and is the best dielectric
besides air. It is amazing to see
over the last decade so many cable sellers spouting the benefits of PTFE, Silver,
and Military or Aerospace technologies, Sonic Art was using this technology
along with engineered cable design long before it became a “boutique” way of
marketing a product. • Why choose Silver? Because it offers
excellent conductivity, and if the metallurgy is correct, a sweet and
detailed sound. • Why Silver & Copper?
Pure Silver is soft, it requires impure metals for strength and usually sounds
bright and thin when combined with the most common hardeners. Combine it with
Hi purity copper and you have the best of both worlds. • An audio signal is what?
It is a collection of electrical signals of varying frequencies, and the basic
idea of a cable is to provide a path for this signal which DOES NOT ALTER the signal. DESIGN centred on physics principles
of electrical conductivity combined with complete purity of metallurgy
is a proven way to provide this path. • Why choose TEFLON? Dielectric quality is
an important factor when designing cable. The lowest loss insulator available
is VIRGIN PTFE (Pressure Cast TEFLON),
Teflon unfortunately it is
also the most expensive, which you could surmise is why many manufacturers
avoid using it. Our TEFLON is
the highest MILSPEC grade
available and exhibits the lowest signal loss of any insulator besides air. • Design of the cabling is of
course paramount to the performance. Our conductors are engineered to a
diameter that keeps eddy currents to a minimum. An Audio Signal is an
Electrical Signal of varying frequencies, frequencies
that create eddy currents, and generate magnetic fields around the cable.
Rate of change in the electrical signal is responsible for this and music
signals have fast and complex rates of change. Conductor diameter and
metallurgical mismatching are major causes for these problems. As the cross sectional area of a conductor increases, the problem of
eddy current increases when handling an audio signal. An amplifier connected to
a cable of huge cross sectional area could become completely unstable as eddy
currents (caused by transient signal change in the cable) create enormously
magnified transient capacitance. Large low impedance cables are probably the
worst things for audio. Ultra low impedance creates a cable of high
capacitance creating a low resistance path into a short circuit at high
frequencies. Our cables are not ultra low resistance, although the conductivity of
the cable is high. Our cables feature a 'time aligned' drain system for both the signal and return
wiring, maintaining a balance of resistance and capacitance which keeps the
arrival time of frequencies as even as possible. Our strand number and individual conductor thickness is calculated to
create a conductor that is perfectly round when the strands are combined and
twisted. The wall thickness of the MILSPEC PTFE Teflon is therefore perfectly
even, eliminating conductor to insulation anomalies. • What about termination? We do not buy
our plugs off the shelf, instead they are Custom Designed by us and
manufactured to our specifications. Featuring a machine Brass alloy base with
Silver Plated body and 24K gold plated contact points. Our plug performs well
and is a balance of open sound stage and frequency response. We have tested
the 'Hi-end' plugs available and most exhibit compromises in detail and size
of soundstage when connected to our Silver cables. The only outside plug we
use is the CARDAS range of Silver/Rhodium plated RCA plugs. •
Our SOLDER is Genuine Military Grade Silver Solder and is manufactured specifically for termination of Silver wire. If
you attempt to solder silver with normal solders you get absorption of silver
particles causing poor joint performance and degradation of signal. Military
Grade Silver solder is designed to suppress silver absorption from the
surface of the silver wire leaving a joint that is pure and provides the best
conductivity from solder possible. • How
is our cable made? There are many so
called ‘Hand Made’ cables out there these days, most are made by small back
yard operators who cannot afford the cost of employing a specialised factory
to lay up and bind their cables. There are several major problems with ‘hand made’ cables. First, the
weaving of the inner wires is done by hand, and in some instances, by
twisting with an electric drill! This
results in an inconsistent weave pattern along the length of the cable. The
weave pattern in the design of a cable is one of the most important
parameters of the design, and affects performance. If it is not precise and
consistent along its entire length, you will not get consistent performance
from one cable to another. Some are good, some not so good. The other problem is the outer sheath, most Hand Made cables use a cheap nylon mesh outer
sheath to hold the construction in place. This sheathing method is not strong
enough to keep the wires in their correct position, and bending of the wire
subsequently alters the design and the sound. This type of sheath also allows
sharp bends to be made, and sharp bends fracture the conductors over time,
resulting in poor wire runs, and degraded signal transfer. No Sonic Art cables
are made in this fashion! All of our cables are woven using professional cable weaving machines
where the weave is accurate to our design and consistent through the entire
length. The accurately woven inner conductors are passed through shielding
laying machines, where the shield is tightly laid over the conductors. The
assembly then passes through extrusion machines where either pressure cast or
molten sheathing insulation is used to insulate and further protect the
finished cable. The result is an accurately made cable; consistency from
cable to cable is maintained. Also, the outer sheath holds the inner conductors
in perfect placement, ensuring there is no deterioration of performance as
you bend and flex your cables. We
use PTFE Teflon outer sheathing
over our heavy braided shield in all RCA & XLR cables, or in the case of
our Ebony speaker cable, Military
grade PVC over Silver Mylar Foil,
which holds the Ebony conductor pattern in perfect alignment.
All Sonic Art cables are hand assembled in Our cables produce a smooth transparent
soundstage with excellent detail, placement and depth, a lack of harshness
and grain immediately noticeable. |
NOTE:
Where we use Military Grade polyester sheathing over our cables, it is purely
for Anti Static properties and in no way is a structural part of the cable. RCA & XLR Interconnect
Specifications:
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Wire: MILSPEC factory construction of Military
Grade 4N Silver/Copper 0.8mm
diameter. Perfectly round conductors. Time aligned construction with balanced
drain wires. |
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Insulation: Military Grade VIRGIN PTFE (Pressure
cast Teflon) with Military Grade Silver Braided shield. |
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Termination: Sonic Art RCA plugs featuring 24K gold
contacts and silver plated copper/brass alloy body or CANON XLR with Silver
plated contacts all with the correct MILSPEC Silver Solder. |
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Note: All Sonic Art Cables must be run in the
direction of their respective arrows or label wording. |
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Sonic Art Cables
require 100+ hours of use before reaching full performance. |
Local and
Overseas Dealer inquiries welcome
©1992-2010 Sonic Art
Sonic Art reserves the right to change specifications due to ongoing
research.