Cobra Audio Cables
In my other product performance papers, I have referred to "electron flow".
Now I must define and explain this term. Many manufacturers and audiophiles
have not bothered to explain or use this simple and basic term. All voltage
signals including; phono cartridge voltage outputs, CD's tape decks, tuners,
surround sound processors, and all other equipment which pass voltage or amplifies
voltage is subject to "electron flow" principals. When I first opened The Audio
Alternative In Portland, Oregon over 20 years ago, a very talented and brilliant
man, Rober Fulton of Fulton Musical Instruments, in Minneapolis, Minnesota shared
many of his observations and theories with me. Mr. Fulton broke down the audio
chain and put it in simple turms of water running through pipes. Regardless
of the amount of voltage we were dealing with we had to consider the capability
of the voltage. At the time Mr. Fulton explained this theory to me we were primarily
dealing with the phono cartridge as the best source of reproduction available,
whether it be a moving magnet or a moving coil cartridge. He explained that
the audio signal at the output of the phono cartridge was the absolute, and
as the absolute signal traveled down the cables to the preamp, through cables
to the poweramp, through wire to the speakers, through wire in the speakers,
to the dividing network (crossover), and finally through wire to the actual
speaker driver, this once absolute signal has been changed dramatically. Of
course the less change you could achieve greatly improved the musical experience.
In simple termes if we consider the phono cartridge capability as a 12 inch
pipe folowing maximum water, as this signal flowed through the cable in the
tone arm it was reduced to a 10 inch pipe flowing maximum water. As the tone
arm cables attached to the turntable connecting cables, the signal was diminished
to an eight inch pipe. Regardless of the preamps effect, the connecting cables
to the power amp, again diminished our flow to six inches, and the speaker wire
from the amplifier to the speaker again changed our signal to a five inch pipe
and the speakers internal wiring being a terrible problem )since you can't see
it most speaker manufacturers use the cheapest, smallest gauge wire available)
our once absolute signal is reduced further to only a three inch pipe with maximum
water flow. The pipe sizes are not important, the improtant issue is to understand
that cables and speaker wire dictate, yes dictate, the performance of your electronic
components and speakers. Now consider a CD, LD, DVD, cassette deck, or any input
device including satellite dishes, the same diminishing signal scenario is at
work. Now that your depressed and half way out the door to purchase the most
expensive connecting cords and speaker wire, lets talk about "electron flow".
Mr. Fulton explained what I now only have learned to understand, large guage
speaker wire, high quality connecting calbes, and improved quality phono cartridge
leads, all these improvements are mearnly lowering resisitance to improve the
electron flow. Incidentally FMI was the first company to use bi, tri, and quad
wiring techniques for their speaker line. What do all of these improved cabling
techniques have in common? Better "electron flow" and integrity. "Electron flow"
is simply "Electron flow". If you go back to the phono cartridge, you're dealing
with the smallest "electron flow" device in the audio chain, producing womewhere
between 1/2 millivolts to 7 millivolts, a very small voltage. The "electron
flow" principals connected to voltage: that is the higher the voltage the more
"electron flow" there is present. If you consider a five millivolt voltage or
signal, and you lose 10%, that is very significant, if you consider a five volt
signal which is possible and you lose 10% it is still significant, but not as
musically important as the beginning point of our music system. How do you minimize
the musical losses? Consider a piece of copper wire, all of the molecules of
copper are bound together to form a single strand of wire. As electrons flow
(electons are defined as an electrical charge) or jump from molecule to molecule,
they have a path from one end of our copper strand to the other. Some electrons
will be lost in the flow process due to each molecules resistance to allow our
electron to pass through it. The lost electrons produce small amounts of heat
which cause no danger, but the problem exists that some electons are lost. This
can be measured by using a meter, to measure the "voltage drop" from one end
of a piece of wire to the other, for instance lts say a 100 foot piece of wire
loses two volts, that means that the difference between the input voltage and
the output voltage is two volts. Imagin going back to our 12 inch pipe that
is now transparent and six feet long and packed tightly with hundreds of white
ping pong balls each touching each other forming paths from one end to he other.
Now imagine each ping pong ball at the input end being red. The red balls are
electrons and the white balls are copper molecules. The electrons jump from
one ball to the other untill they reach the other end, the ouput end. Simple
right? Not quit so simple. There are impurities in copper, dirt, oil, by-products,
ash, and many other types. thake our 12 inch pipe and add black ping pong balls
randomly, lets say 50 balls, this represents impurities. Now as you look through
the transparent pip you can only see 9 black balls but internally in our pipe
are 41 black bals that also represent impurities. The red electrons still have
to jump from molecule to molecule but now sometimes there is a black ball, or
an impurity in the electrons path, the electron may enter the impurity and be
lost. Simple description but in reality this realy does happen all the time.
Solution, very pure copper wire. The other copper problem is air pockets which
confuse the electron while on its path from input to output of our copper wire.
The second solution is "oxygen free copper" (OFC). Now you should understand
why pure OFC copper is very important. The next problem is a friction connectoins
like the pins and connectors on the back of phono cartridges, like the plug
that connects turntables to preamps, preamps to amplifiers, amplifiers to speakers,
crossover wires to speaker components: these are the worst situations for "electron
flow". Lets break this connector down, instead of being attached to each other
as molecules are with minimal resistance to electon flow, the connections merely
touch each other. The "friction connections" are microscopically just very rough
surfaces like very course sand paper. When the two curfaces touch each other
there are many black balls between them and fewer white molecules touching each
from one surface to the other surface, there fore the fewer "friction connections"
the better, and try to utilize the best male and female phono plugs. Ceramic
insulators are best, fiberglass insulators are next best, now we should talk
insulators.
Insulators are simple, the best way to separate two conductors is insulations.
Just like you insulate the walls of your house to keep heat in and cold out:
we want to keep voltage or "electron flow" away from each other. We deal with
AC line voltage that comes out of our wall sockets, plus and minus voltages
inside electronic components, and in connecting cables we have plus voltages
and "0" voltage (zero voltages called ground), also a neutral wire where neither
plus or minus electrons are present. I believe that when any of these wires
are allowed to touch each other a loss due to less than 100% isolation from
each other occurs. This occurrence happens when two or more wires touch isolation
from each other occurs. This occurrence happens when two or more wires touch
each other once or many times, I call it "leakage". This leakage is always present
unless the wires are separated by air, the best insulator, ceramic or glass
insulators, or the next best insulator cotton. I use a large number of strands
of OFC, very pure copper wire that is P.V.C. (polyvinylchloride) coated as the
insulator, then I use cotton covering to give it 100% isolations from leakage
to make our "Cobra Audio Cable". After all, this is supposed to be about our
"Cobra Audio Cable", not just physics 101. Ok, now we have the highest quality
of wires, cotton covered. Next step, plugs and attachment of these wires to
these plugs. I have found only one plug to use, the only plug to have the least
amount of loss. Remember back to insulator theory - air, ceramic, glass - fiberglass,
yes I know cotton was next, but that is because it is fleaxible, but you could
not use cotton as an insulator in a plug, the cotton would scorch just like
an iron on a white shirt, if the iron was left on long enough it would burn
the cotton leaving carbon, a conductor, as our insulator in our plug - hence
fiber glass is chosen because of it's high temperature before becoming carbonized.
I use only "silver solder" in all my connections and construction. I have developed
a special technique to optimize each solder joint, "silver solder" is not a
significantly better conductor as you migt guess but it "eats up" the copper
forming an ally of copper and solder improving the "electron flow" (sorry there
it is again) through the solder joint.
There are many significant details in "Cobra Audio Cables" if you are interested
call me and I will elaborate. What we are trying to do is minimize any losses
and maximize the "electron flow" from component to component which will improve
your audio and video experience. Borrow a pair and give them a listen. We have
sold our cables, over many that were fifteen times more expensive.
Sincerely,
Dave Herren, Owner
Innovative Audio Products
Portland, Oregon
