ANTICABLES Lab

ANTICABLES Lab: A History of Improvements

January 8, 2017 by Admin

ANTICABLES Speaker Wires were first introduced in 2003 and were immediately recognized for their sonic merit and value. They formed a cult-like underground following, and quickly earned seven consecutive “Editors’ Choice” and “Top Products” awards in a row from The Absolute Sound.

Through the years, we constantly look for ways to push for improved audio performance for all our product offerings. Most of the time the improvement comes without a price increase and often times comes without even being announced. We’ve included a historical account of how our speaker wires have evolved.

Looks are Deceiving

Even though our red coated speaker wires still look a lot like they did over a dozen years ago, they are actually quite different and have notable better sonic performance. If you bought your ANTICABLES Speaker Wires years ago, now might be a great time to upgrade to a new pair! The cost of a new pair might yet again be one of the best investments you could make to your audio system.

Speaker Wires Evolution

2006

Reduced red coating thickness from 0.002″ down to 0.001″
Even lower dielectric effect distortion
Shorter break-in time

Fall 2007

Created our own better sounding solid copper spade
Greater clarity
Fits both 1/4″ and 5/16″ binding posts

March 2010

Started testing, managing, and marking the best sounding wire flow direction
Proper directionality provides greater resolution and dynamics
Increased pitch definition, more presence, and less smeared highs

Nov 2011

Started factory twisting the wire pairs together
Keeps inductance low for greater ambient information and tighter bass
Nicer looking and easier to manage
Started using even higher purity copper (down to only 5 parts per million impurities)
Smoother and more extended highs and greater harmonic textures through the midrange
These two changes marked the point in which they were now called the Level 2 Speaker Wires
The price was increased by $1 per foot per speaker, and the “original” version was discontinued.

Feb 2012

Went from a generic gold plated brass banana plug to our own gold plated 90% copper alloy BFA style banana plug
Brass is simply not a good sounding metal (the sound gets “hard” when the music gets complicated)
Sound is now about half way between the old bananas and our best sounding solid copper spades

Aug 2012

Developed an even better sounding banana plug that is made out of a gold plated 99% Copper alloy called Beryllium Copper
The sound is now only one small tick away from our 100% solid copper spades.

Nov 2012

Introduced the Level 3 series, which is simply a doubled-up build of the Level 2 series
Provides additional bass weight and authority
Greater musical dynamic impact that makes the music sound more alive
Greater harmonic structure through the midrange

Feb 2013

Increased the copper purity of our solid copper spades
Slightly better resolution

Jan 2014

Changed the wire drawing process to a new facility (still in the USA)
Improved bass and a smoother top end

Aug 2016

Reduced Dislocation Density (RDD™) wire
Significant sonic improvement
Level 2 is now Level 2.1
Level 3 is now Level 3.1

Filed Under: ANTICABLES Lab, Awards & Reviews

Why Power Cords Matter (Part 2 of 2)

October 4, 2016 by Admin

By Paul Speltz

In last month’s newsletter, I presented my theory as to “why power cords matter” to the music. Here I will take that thought one step further and discuss Power Conditioners.

Many power cords make lateral changes, making the music sound “different”. You may have experienced this yourself at some time. Aspects of the component’s sound makes slight changes, some for the better, some for the worst. With those power cords, I believe much of the outcome has to do with how lucky you are with creating synergy between that particular component and that particular power cord.

Using our “first five feet” design model (as discussed HERE), I theorize that a properly designed power cord has the opportunity to help get the noise generated in the component’s own power supply out of the component (so it does not get into the music). Part of why I believe this theory holds true, is because early on, we found that with our power cord design, it sounds better when plugged directly into the mains AC wall socket. It seemed as though when plugging our power code into a power conditioner, it’s capabilities are notable reduced. How could this be the case?

My thought is, power conditioners that are filtering noise on the AC mains by adding series impedance in the noise frequency spectrum, goes both ways. In other words, if the power conditioner adds an electrical “softness” in the path between the AC mains and the component, that means that same electrical softness is there on the same path from the component back to the AC mains. The theory is, that electrical softness is reducing our power cord’s ability to dump away the noise generated in the component’s own power supply.

The other common side effect of this electrical softness is a reduction of dynamics. For me, musical dynamics is a big part of the difference between live music and playback of recorded music, so I want all the dynamics I can get.

Like Don reported in his findings (as shown HERE), all but two customers have ever reported getting sonic benefit with their power conditioner when using our ANTICABLES Power Cords. In working with those two exceptions, it comes to find out, in both cases their power conditioners were actually power regenerators. This makes total sense because power regenerators are not going to have that electrical softness that a passive power conditioner has.

The Pros

If you have on your system’s “wish-list” to add a power conditioner to get better sound, you can re-budget those funds towards getting properly designed power cords. Or, if you already have an expensive power conditioner and find with our power cords you get better sound without it, you can sell it off to help pay for the new power cords.

The Caveat

Power conditioners are multi functional. Each power conditioner design can do any single or different combination of these functions: passive noise filtering, spike protection, over voltage shutdown, voltage and current meters, power up sequencing, over current fuses, power regeneration, transformer isolation, balanced power, etc.

If your purpose for your existing power conditioner is only to improve the sound, and if you find that with our ANTICABLES Power Cords you get better sound without it, it will be easy to abandon it. If your power conditioner’s purpose is to try to protect your equipment from power surges, yet you find that with our ANTICABLES Power Cords you get better sound with it, you will have to decide between improved safety or improved sound.

From the experience our customers have brought to me, if you want the protection of a power conditioner without the sonic compromise, try our power cords with a power regenerator. And yes, our customers have also reported getting even better sound when running their power regenerator with our Level 3 Power Cord.

The Sales Pitch

We invite you to discover why our Level 3 Power Cord have become our top selling product, by trying one in your system. Like all of our products, it comes with our 30 Day Trial Period, our 60 Day Upgrade Option, our Buy Back program, and our 5 Year Warranty.

We think you will really enjoy them.

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Filed Under: All News, ANTICABLES Lab, Inside ANTICABLES

ANTICABLES Lab: Why Power Cords Matter (Part 1 of 2)

September 1, 2016 by Admin

by Paul Speltz

The development cycle for our power cords lasted three years. We spent two years first figuring out and understanding why power cords can make an audible difference, and then another year optimizing the design with that knowledge. The long development cycle paid off. In the four years since they first came out, we have not needed to make any improvements in the design. Customers that bought them in 2012 have the same performance as power cords sold today.

If you think of a power cord as the last five feet of getting power from the electric company’s power plant into your component, electrically it does not have much sonic advantage. But, if you model a power cord as the first five feet of getting the noise generated in the component’s own power supply out of the component (so it does not get into the music), power cords make a lot more sense.

Any manufacturer that markets their heavy duty power cords towards customer’s big power amplifiers, and offers smaller gauge power cords for customers to use on lower power components such as DACs and PreAmps, is designing to the “last five feet” model, and missing out on the bigger advantages of what a properly designed power cord is capable of.

If I had only one ANTICABLES Level 3 Power cord (our heaviest duty offering), for my personal listening system, I would use it on my DAC instead of my power amp to get best sound. This is because DAC’s, by nature, are generally much more susceptible to noise than power amps. Noise in DACs causes timing errors call jitter, and it is jitter that makes digital audio sound flat, hard, and non-dynamic. Jitter makes bass sound wooly, voices and piano sound harmonically uninteresting, and cymbals sound like spray cans. Our Level 3 Power cord is so good at removing noise from components, it is my top recommendation for Digital sources, CD players and DACs.

A properly designed power cord can improve the sound of any component, it is just generally true that digital components have greater potential for sonic improvement than other components, but that is only if the power cord used has been designed as the first five feet of getting the component’s own power supply noise out of the component.

Most audiophiles have been told the only noise source getting into their music is from all the computers, lights, and appliances running in their and their neighbors houses. But I believe the biggest source of noise getting into the music signal is from the component’s own power supply (which can be an inch or two away from critical circuitry). If you think about it, this makes so much sense, it is practically self-evident .

Our “first five feet” designed power cords have become so well received, that they have gone from a nice sideline offering, to now to being our customer’s favorite product. Our Level 3 Power Cord was ANTICABLES top selling product last quarter.

Next month, I will share my unusual perspective on power conditioners.

Read Why Power Cords Matter, Part 2

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Filed Under: All News, ANTICABLES Lab

ANTICABLES Lab: 6.2 Digital ICs Innovation

March 18, 2016 by Admin

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
– Keith Louis Eichmann ABSOLUTE-Harmony RCA Plugs
– ACElectrum™ Silver/Gold alloy signal conductors
– Delineated Weave™ configuration
– Optional 150 hour Burn-in treatment
– Optional Cryo & Burn-in treatment
– 30 day risk free trial

CORE DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The ANTICABLES Level 6.2 ABSOLUTE Signature Digital RCA 75 Ohm Interconnect use the newest Keith Louis Eichmann’s Absolute-Harmony RCA Plugs, which we believe are the best sounding RCA plugs in the world. These RCA plugs are so much better then Mr. Eichmann’s PURE-Harmony plugs, we were inspired to push our technology to the maximum to match their musical ability.

NEW CABLE TOPOLOGIES
Instead of using the red coated elongated coil copper wire to serve as both the returning ground wire and the shield wire (as with our other digital cable designs), these RCA Digital Interconnect uses two additional ACElectrum™ Silver/Gold Alloy wires as the return signal path. The three signal carrying wires are then woven in our Delineated Weave™ configuration.

In addition, the woven signal wires are protected by our new DoubleBack™ shielding configuration. The red colored elongated coil copper wire serves only as the shield wire. It provides twice as many shielding loops per inch then normal, and sinks the noise back to the sourcing component’s ground, instead of sending it forward towards the input of the receiving component.

MUSICALLY
This configuration provides an even greater picture of each instrument in the recording, and the harmonic beauty of the music. There is better focus and less digital artifacts.

Shop Interconnects Now

Filed Under: All News, ANTICABLES Lab, New Products

Inside ANTICABLES: Evolution of Power Cords

February 23, 2016 by Admin

ANTICABLES is never willing to offer a product until we are confident our design has the ability to outperform top tier offerings, at a fraction of the cost. After spending three years developing the best sounding power cord we had ever heard, in 2012 we released it as our Level 3 Reference Series Power Cord.

Wait a second- your first power cord released was the highest level?
We know what you’re thinking. Typical product evolution would be to first release a product, and then improve upon it. For our power cord line-up we released the best first, and then investing even more time into researching ways to reduce cost while maintaining a viable product. Thus came, the Level 2 Performance Series Power Cord, and Level 1 Classic Series Power Cord.Several years on the market, our power cords have consistently ranked among our top-selling products, and received outstanding reviews!

How can a High End Power Cord improve a system’s sound?
ANTICABLES high-end Power Cords are hand built using many wire strands drawn in a way that forms the wire into a cross sectional molecular shape, which allows noise coming from the component’s power supply to quickly escape the component on the skin of each wire strand. In doing so, ANTICABLES Power Cords help keep the component’s own power supply noise from contaminating the music. This processed wire also has the great advantage of time smearing any noise traveling in the wire in the opposite direction, thus reducing the amplitude of noise getting into the audio component from the wall outlet.

When should I use ANTICABLES Power Cords?
Since it is improbable that one would fully dive into investing in high-end power cords for every component in a system, the natural question is how to best invest progressively in ANTICABLES Power Cords. For the most cost effective strategy, we recommend this priority list:

Source (CD player, DAC, and phono preamplifier)
Digital Transport
Power Amplifiers
Preamplifier
Turntable Motor Supply

How do the levels sound when compared to one another?
This is one of the most difficult questions to answer! All three Power Cord levels and two other well known and well designed aftermarket power cables were compared in three different systems against the stock power cords. Below is a rough average of how they scored on a scale of 1 to 10. Our best advice is to buy the best scoring power cable that is within your system’s budget:

Free stock power cord scored 2.5
$700 Shunyata Research scored 5.5
$180 Level 1 ANTICABLES scored 6.5
$600 LessLoss Audio scored 7.0
$230 Level 2 ANTICABLES scored 8.0
$330 Level 3 ANTICABLES scored 9.5

Not sure which level to select?
Within 60 days of purchase, if you like your ANTICABLES power cord so much you want to hear how good a higher level will sound, we will give you full credit towards an equal or longer power cord of a higher level.

Filed Under: ANTICABLES Lab, Inside ANTICABLES