| a |
AudioQuest Niagra 2M 2M black/onyx, blue/silver
analog audio interconnect cable
Find Out More
From Below
|
The
AudioQuest Niagra 2M Features : |
AudioQuest:
Invest in the best
You're looking for a speaker cable with superior signal transmission
and a smooth, clear sound. But you want a high-quality
cable—and there's a plethora to choose from—so what
could possibly make AudioQuest cables that much more superior? Well,
let me tell you. These cables are babied. They're coddled. Each cable's
hand is held from its conception in Bill Low's head until it is
carefully swaddled in product packaging and shipped off to your home.
Perfectly,
perfect-surface silver
Material quality dramatically affects the performance of cables. By
material quality, we mean both the intrinsic quality of the metal, such
as gold, nickel, brass, aluminum, copper or silver, and we mean the way
the metal has been refined and processed. Pure silver is the very best
performing material for audio, video or digital. However, if silver is
not carefully processed, even low-grade copper will sound better.
Silver has also earned a confused reputation because sometimes the term
"silver" is used to describe silver-plated copper. When carrying an
analog audio signal, silver-plated copper causes a very irritating
sound, sort of a "tweeter in your face" effect. That's why AudioQuest
uses the highest quality solid silver in their top-end speaker cables.
Their extremely high-purity Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) minimizes
distortion caused by grain boundaries which exist within any metal
conductor, eliminating harshness and greatly increasing clarity
compared to all other conducting materials. For fifteen years
AudioQuest has pioneered the use of superior metals, and PSS is their
best analog performer.
Upping
the amperes: Dielectric-bias system (times two)
In their quest for perfection, AudioQuest found that they could bypass
the "run-in" period of a cable component by attaching a standard
battery to the outside of the cable. (What is run-in? It's the
peak-performance level components reach after 100 hours of continuously
being powered.) AudioQuest's Dielectric-Bias System consists of a
battery that provides a constant 36-volt charge on the Niagra's
insulation. The 36 volts is far above the voltage of an audio signal,
and the result is more transparency and dynamics than possible even
from a cable in continuous use (as with equipment that is never turned
off). And because there is no actual drain on the single, standard
hardware-store battery, it will last for years. AudioQuest also added a
test button and LED to allow for battery performance verification.
AudioQuest's
love affair with silver
Niagra's plugs are Resistance Welded to the cable in a process which
sends 8,000 amperes of current through the junction of conductor and
plug for 33 millionths of a second. The heat resulting from the
resistance of the metals locally liquefies the conductor and the plug,
creating a single material alloy where the two meet—an ideal
connection that puts any solder to shame. Niagra's silver-plated RCA
plugs use a patented design that eliminates the distortion caused by
the extra contact inside most plugs. Because the ground shells are
stamped instead of machined, the metal can be chosen for low distortion
instead of for its machinability.
Distortion
just doesn't stick to it
Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an
imperfect circuit. Wire insulation, circuit board
materials—all absorb energy (loss). Some of this energy is
stored and then released as distortion. The general cable industry
ranks insulating materials by loss, with little regard for distortion.
AudioQuest ranks materials by damage to an audio signal. The Niagra
uses air-filled Teflon insulation on both conductors because air
absorbs next to no energy, and Teflon is very non-reactive and has an
extremely low coefficient of friction.
The
constancy of superb solder
Just as cable technology relies on minimizing distortion, so does
solder. Using the most appropriate flux and precise metallurgy,
AudioQuest solder has been optimized to make a low-distortion
connection. All solder, including silver, is a poor conductor. The
difference you hear between solders is a result of connection quality.
AudioQuest Solder does not have a high silver content because the more
silver there is in solder, the more difficult it is to make a good
connection. (Though quite the opposite is true when it comes to using
silver conductors.)
Damage
control—let's compare apples. . .
It's important to know that an audio or video signal cannot be improved
upon—it's as good as it's going to get once it leaves your
amp, DVD player, whatever component you're running. So why bother with
a high-end cable? Simple: the signal can't be improved, but it can be
damaged. Significantly. A lesser-quality cable leaves your signal
wide-open to instabilities. A lesser-quality cable is constructed of
bundled, twisted strands of conductive material—up to 200 to
2000 strands per bundle. And as the signal wants to travel the path of
least resistance (down the outside of the bundle), all those twisted
strands inhibit the signal. They draw the signal from the outside of
the bundle to the inside, where it fights to get back to the outside
again. What's the result? Distortion. Lost data. Poor sound quality.
. .
.to oranges
Audioquest, on the other hand, engineers their cables with the highest
quality, perfectly gauged solid-core, copper and silver conductors. And
each conductor strand is slowly and precisely loomed, not twisted, into
the final cable bundle—and it's important to note that the
maximum amount of strands AudioQuest has used in their longest cable,
for flexibility requirements, is 32 (that's a few less than 200, and a
lot less than 2000). Once they have constructed the conductor,
AudioQuest wraps it in the dielectric (a fancy word for the insulating
material) to keep the cable at peak performance levels at all times by
absorbing as little energy as possible in order to avoid the
reintroduction of energy (distortion) back into the conductor.
AudioQuest
makes sure you're headed in the right direction
Cables, from hardware store electrical cable to the finest pure silver
cables, have a direction—much like wood has a grain. It has
to do with molecular structure, which we won't get into. What you
should know though is that a cable sounds much better when the signal
is traveling in the proper direction. AudioQuest audio cables are
marked for direction, so you don't have to figure it out.
The
bottom line
What AudioQuest is doing is engineering cables with conductors that
have all the proper attributes, for decreased distortion. They've
arranged the conductors so the signal travels down a straight path, for
decreased distortion. They've wrapped the conductor metal in a
non-conductive material, to decrease distortion. The result is an
astonishingly pure, very stable signal. Starting to make sense?
AudioQuest loathes distortion. You'll love AudioQuest.
The
AudioQuest Niagra 2M Details :
If life is virtually meaningless to you without
your tricked-out hi-fi system, AudioQuest can make everything better.
Get a dose of their Niagra stereo cable with its top-of-the line
distortion-reducing technology like Perfect-Surface Silver conductors,
dielectric-bias system, Teflon insulation tubes, and silver-plated
connectors. AudioQuest has dedicated 20 years to producing the highest
caliber audio and video cables, and all of their hard work has elevated
their cables to the component level. And as a component, these cables
will drastically improve the sound quality of every other audio
component in your home-theater quiver. Really.
Geometry: Balanced Design
Metal: Solid Perfect-Surface Silver Conductors / Solid, Silver-Plated
Drainwire
Gauge: 18 AWG Positive / 20 AWG Ground
Dielectric: Teflon Air Tubes, Dielectric-Bias System (36-Volt)
Termination: RCA
Shield: Foil / Mylar / Foil
Connectors: Cold-Welded Ohno Continuous Casting Copper (OCC) , Silver
Plated
Noise-Dissipation System: 3 Layer
Jacket: Silver/Black, Braided
Cable Length: 6' 7" (2M)
Resources from
http://www.vanns.com
|
|
|
