A Short History of High-End Cables

 

The notion of cable as a high-end component, so contentious in the 1980s, is today rather well accepted by most serious listeners. Controversy arises because sound perception is not always predictable on the basis of objective engineering measurements and analysis. Richard A. Greiner (1931–2015), at the time professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Wisconsin, writing in the August 1989 issue of Audio magazine, seemed to deliver a definitive engineering analysis of speaker cable and concluded that “normal cables are suitable, and essentially perfect, compared to other defects in the transmission system—not the least of which is the loudspeaker crossover network and level-pad arrangement.” Cable auditions in the context of high-end systems tell a different story. And that’s why subjective audio reviewing was created some 40 years ago by J. Gordon Holt (1930–2009). Harry Olson (1901–1982), for many years the dean of American acoustical engineering, stated it best: The ear is the final arbiter in all things musical. 

 

1980년대에는 논쟁의 여지가 많았던 케이블을 고급 구성 요소로 보는 시각은 오늘날 대부분의 진지한 청취자들에게는 오히려 잘 받아들여지고 있습니다. 객관적인 공학적 측정과 분석에 근거한 사운드 지각이 항상 예측 가능한 것은 아니기 때문에 논란이 발생합니다. 당시 위스콘신 대학의 전기 및 컴퓨터 공학 교수였던 리차드 그레이너(Richard A. Greiner, 1931~2015)는 1989년 8월호 오디오 매거진에 기고한 글에서 스피커 케이블에 대한 공학적 분석을 통해 "일반 케이블은 전송 시스템의 다른 결함, 특히 스피커 크로스오버 네트워크와 레벨 패드 배열에 비해 적합하고 본질적으로 완벽하다"는 결론을 내린 것으로 보입니다. 하이엔드 시스템의 맥락에서 케이블 오디션은 다른 이야기를 들려줍니다. 그렇기 때문에 주관적 오디오 리뷰는 약 40년 전 J. Gordon Holt(1930~2009)에 의해 만들어졌습니다. 오랫동안 미국 음향 공학의 학장을 지낸 해리 올슨(1901~1982)은 이를 가장 잘 설명했습니다: 귀는 음악에 관한 모든 것의 최종 결정권자입니다. 

 

It’s fair to say that the great awakening took place in the mid-1970s. Prior to that time no serious attention was paid to audio cable. For example, the original 1972 manual of the famed Dahlquist DQ-10 advised users that “for distances to 25 or 30 feet, use no smaller than #18 lamp cord (“zip cord”). For greater lengths, use #16, or larger. In general, it is preferred to use the heavier wire, even for short distances. Smaller wires may have enough electrical resistance to reduce the damping provided by the amplifier and affect low frequency transient response.” And that was about the collective wisdom regarding cable at that time. Zip cord was cheap, often included as a freebie at the point of sale, and assumed to be a perfect conductor as long as resistance effects were taken into account.

 

1970년대 중반에 위대한 각성이 일어났다고 해도 과언이 아닙니다. 그 이전에는 오디오 케이블에 대해 진지한 관심을 기울이지 않았습니다. 예를 들어, 유명한 달퀴스트 DQ-10의 1972년 오리지널 매뉴얼은 사용자에게 "25피트 또는 30피트 거리에는 #18 램프 코드("집 코드")보다 작지 않은 것을 사용하라"고 조언했습니다. 그 이상 거리에서는 #16 이상을 사용하세요. 일반적으로 짧은 거리라도 더 무거운 전선을 사용하는 것이 좋습니다. 더 작은 전선은 전기 저항이 충분하여 증폭기가 제공하는 감쇠를 줄이고 저주파 과도 응답에 영향을 줄 수 있습니다." 이것이 당시 케이블에 관한 집단적 지혜였습니다. 지퍼 코드는 저렴했고, 판매 시 공짜로 제공되는 경우가 많았으며, 저항 효과만 고려하면 완벽한 도체라고 여겨졌습니다.

 

The status quo was shattered by the publication of several articles. In Japan it was Akihiko Kaneda at Akita University (1974) who argued that sound quality of a speaker/amplifier interface could be impacted by wire or cable. He suggested that this could be caused by the skin effect whereby current is progressively pushed to the skin layer of a conductor at increasing frequency, an effect made worse by the common practice at that time of tin-plating copper wire. Soon thereafter, in 1975, the late great Japanese audio critic, Saburo Egawa (1932–2015), practically started his audio career with the publication of listening test results showing sonic differences between different speaker cables. At Japan’s Mogami Cable, Koichi Hirabayashi was determined to prove Egawa wrong. But after extensive listening tests he became convinced that despite its apparent minimal theoretical effect over the audible bandwidth, skin effect does play a rather large role in perceived sonic differences. The end results of his research were the Mogami 2803 interconnect and 2804 speaker cable.

 

하지만 여러 기사가 발표되면서 이러한 생각은 깨졌습니다. 일본에서 스피커/앰프 인터페이스의 음질이 전선이나 케이블에 의해 영향을 받을 수 있다고 주장한 사람은 아키타 대학의 가네다 아키히코(1974년)였습니다. 그는 주파수가 증가함에 따라 전류가 도체의 피부층으로 점진적으로 밀려가는 스킨 효과로 인해 이러한 현상이 발생할 수 있다고 제안했는데, 당시에는 구리선을 주석 도금하는 것이 일반적이었기 때문에 이러한 효과가 더욱 심해졌습니다. 그 후 1975년, 일본의 위대한 오디오 평론가인 에가와 사부로(1932~2015)는 다양한 스피커 케이블 간의 음향적 차이를 보여주는 청취 테스트 결과를 발표하면서 사실상 오디오 커리어를 시작하게 됩니다. 일본 모가미 케이블의 히라바야시 코이치는 에가와가 틀렸다는 것을 증명하기로 결심했습니다. 그러나 광범위한 청취 테스트 끝에 그는 가청 대역폭에 대한 이론적 효과는 미미하지만 피부 효과가 인지된 음향 차이에 다소 큰 역할을 한다는 것을 확신하게 되었습니다. 그의 연구의 최종 결과는 Mogami 2803 인터커넥트 및 2804 스피커 케이블이었습니다.

 

Jean Hiraga, who was probably familiar with Egawa’s work, having lived in Japan during the 1970s, published an article titled “Can we hear connecting wires?” in the October 1976 issue of the French magazine La Nouvelle Revue du Son. In August 1977, HiFi News & Record Review reprinted a translation of Hiraga’s article, which while deemed as controversial, managed to stir up quite a bit of excitement among English-speaking audiophiles. 

 

1970년대에 일본에서 살았기 때문에 에가와의 연구에 익숙했던 장 히라가는 1976년 10월호 프랑스 잡지 <라 누벨 레뷰 뒤 손>에 "연결선을 들을 수 있습니까?"라는 제목의 기사를 게재했습니다. 1977년 8월, 하이파이 뉴스 & 레코드 리뷰는 히라가의 기사를 번역하여 재출간했는데, 이 기사는 논란의 여지가 있었지만 영어권 오디오 애호가들 사이에서 상당한 흥분을 불러일으켰습니다. 

 

Hiraga pointed out that while theoretically the skin effect appears to be negligible for frequencies below 200kHz, subjective listening tests suggest otherwise. Apparently, he started experimenting as early as 1972 with Litz-type speaker cable, which consists of a large number of individually insulated fine wires twisted or braided into a uniform pattern in order to maximize conductor surface area. He substituted Litz wire between an amplifier and an Onken 5000T tweeter and discovered that as the number of strands increased, so did the impression of detail and definition, accompanied by the perception of additional distortion. The obvious conclusion was that one should not shoot the messenger since the Litz cable was allowing more of the message to get through.

 

히라가는 이론적으로는 200kHz 이하의 주파수에서는 스킨 효과가 무시할 수 있는 수준이지만, 주관적인 청취 테스트에서는 그렇지 않다고 지적했습니다. 그는 1972년 초부터 도체 표면적을 최대화하기 위해 개별적으로 절연된 수많은 가는 와이어를 균일한 패턴으로 꼬거나 꼰 리츠형 스피커 케이블로 실험을 시작했다고 합니다. 그는 앰프와 Onken 5000T 트위터 사이에 리츠 와이어를 교체한 결과, 가닥 수가 늘어날수록 디테일과 선명도가 떨어지고 왜곡이 더 심해진다는 사실을 발견했습니다. 분명한 결론은 리츠 케이블이 더 많은 메시지를 전달할 수 있기 때문에 메신저를 촬영해서는 안 된다는 것이었습니다.

 

 

 

The Japanese were apparently first to commercialize a Litz-wire speaker cable, possibly based on the work of Kaneda and Egawa. Imported by Polk Audio circa 1977, it became recognized as the first high-end cable design and was commonly referred to as “Cobra cable” due to its distinctive appearance. It was constructed of two bundles of Litz wire (colored green and copper), one for each cable polarity, which were intimately woven together around a plastic core. Such a geometry drastically minimized cable inductance since the induced magnetic fields around the negative and positive conductors were in the same direction but in opposite polarity and largely canceled each other out. The resultant inductance was only 0.026µH/ft.—an order of magnitude lower than that of 18-gauge zip cord. The downside was a massive increase in cable capacitance to 500pF/ft. or almost 20 times that of 18-gauge zip cord. That didn’t sit well with marginally stable solid-state amps, which simply blew up when smitten by the Cobra’s capacitive venom. 

 

일본이 리츠 와이어 스피커 케이블을 최초로 상용화한 것은 카네다와 에가와의 연구를 바탕으로 한 것으로 보입니다. 1977년경 Polk Audio에서 수입한 이 케이블은 최초의 하이엔드 케이블 디자인으로 인정받았으며 독특한 외관으로 인해 흔히 "코브라 케이블"로 불렸습니다. 이 케이블은 케이블 극성별로 하나씩 두 묶음의 리츠 와이어(녹색과 구리색)로 구성되었으며, 플라스틱 코어를 중심으로 서로 밀접하게 엮어져 있습니다. 이러한 구조는 음극과 양극 도체 주변의 유도 자기장이 같은 방향이지만 극성이 반대이고 서로 상쇄되기 때문에 케이블 인덕턴스를 획기적으로 최소화했습니다. 그 결과 인덕턴스는 18게이지 지퍼 코드보다 훨씬 낮은 0.026µH/ft에 불과했습니다. 단점은 케이블 커패시턴스가 18게이지 지퍼 코드의 거의 20배에 달하는 500pF/피트로 크게 증가했다는 점입니다. 이는 코브라의 정전 용량 독에 맞으면 폭발해 버리는 안정성이 떨어지는 솔리드 스테이트 앰프와 잘 어울리지 않았습니다. 

 

Bob Fulton (1925–1988) has been called a mad genius and a “screwball,” but it’s fair to say that during Fulton Musical Industries’ (FMI) relatively short lifespan, few designers have been more creative than he was. Gordon Holt was a big fan of the FMI 80 loudspeaker, but Fulton was also actively involved in the entire recording chain, including microphones, tape recorders, and record production via the Ark label. He was the first U.S.-based designer to focus on optimizing the amplifier-speaker interface. His research resulted in two models of cable, referred to as Gold and Brown, presumably on the basis of the color of the outer jacket. The Gold turned quite a few heads because of its price and performance. It was a massive cable which quickly gained a reputation for stupendous bass response and midrange clarity. It was said to be equivalent to 4-ga. wire, but its resistance (R) per foot was 0.001 ohms versus 0.00025 for 4-ga. copper wire. The Gold was a multi-strand twin-lead design with each polarity conductor adequately spaced apart to keep capacitance (C) quite reasonable at 28pF/ft. Inductance (L) was 0.19µH/ft., about the same as 18-ga. zip cord.

 

밥 풀턴(1925~1988)은 미친 천재이자 '스크류볼'로 불렸지만, 풀턴 뮤지컬 인더스트리(FMI)의 비교적 짧은 수명 동안 그보다 더 창의적이었던 디자이너는 거의 없었다고 해도 과언이 아닙니다. 고든 홀트는 FMI 80 라우드스피커의 열렬한 팬이었지만, 풀턴은 마이크, 테이프 레코더, Ark 레이블을 통한 음반 제작 등 전체 레코딩 체인에도 적극적으로 참여했습니다. 그는 앰프-스피커 인터페이스 최적화에 초점을 맞춘 최초의 미국 출신 디자이너였습니다. 그의 연구 결과 외부 재킷의 색상에 따라 골드와 브라운이라는 두 가지 케이블 모델이 탄생했습니다. 골드 케이블은 가격과 성능 때문에 많은 사람들의 관심을 끌었습니다. 이 케이블은 엄청난 저음 응답과 중음역대의 선명함으로 빠르게 명성을 얻은 거대한 케이블이었습니다. 4-ga 와이어와 동급이라고 했지만, 피트당 저항(R)은 0.001옴으로 4-ga 구리선의 0.00025에 비해 훨씬 낮았습니다. Gold는 각 극성 도체가 적절히 간격을 둔 다중 가닥 트윈 리드 설계로 정전 용량(C)을 28pF/피트로 상당히 합리적으로 유지했습니다. 인덕턴스(L)는 0.19µH/ft로 18-ga. 지퍼 코드와 거의 같았습니다.

 

 

The year 1979 proved to be monumental for the evolution of high-end cable. It was the year that both Monster Cable and Kimber Kable came into being. In the late 1970s, Noel Lee’s unique résumé included engineering positions at government labs and a stint as a drummer. He was also an audiophile who wanted to improve the sound quality of his home system, but without substantial financial resources he decided to focus on cable. Working out of his family’s apartment and later from his in-laws’ garage, he experimented with different cable concepts to find a superior alternative to zip cord. He would compare various designs while listening to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Lee dubbed his final design “Monster” because of its size relative to ordinary zip cord. It was a multi-strand twin-lead design, approximating 12-ga. wire with a resistance of 0.0034 ohms/ft., an inductance of 0.21µH/ft., and a capacitance of 24pF/ft.—pretty much Goldilocks specs for a speaker cable. Initially, retail price was about 60 cents per foot; not cheap, but far more affordable than the Fulton Gold. Lee would go store-to-store doing live demos. And after a favorable reception at the 1979 Summer CES in Chicago, the company was officially launched. Lee’s business genius lay in establishing an extensive retailer network and in promotion. He did more than anyone else to bring cable to the forefront as a specialty component. Over the years, Monster Inc. has grown rapidly, diversifying into other markets. Today, its unique product count is around 6000, including speakers, headphones, power strips, accessories, and automobile audio devices.

 

1979년은 하이엔드 케이블의 진화에 있어 기념비적인 해였습니다. 몬스터 케이블과 킴버 케이블이 모두 탄생한 해였습니다. 1970년대 후반, 노엘 리의 독특한 이력에는 정부 연구소의 엔지니어링 직책과 드러머로 활동한 경력이 포함되어 있었습니다. 오디오 애호가이기도 했던 그는 홈 시스템의 음질을 개선하고 싶었지만, 재정적 여유가 없어 케이블에 집중하기로 결심했습니다. 가족의 아파트에서, 나중에는 처가의 차고에서 작업하면서 그는 다양한 케이블 콘셉트를 실험하며 집 코드를 대체할 수 있는 우수한 케이블을 찾았습니다. 그는 차이코프스키의 1812년 서곡을 들으며 다양한 디자인을 비교했습니다. 리는 일반 지퍼 코드에 비해 크기가 커서 최종 디자인에 '몬스터'라는 이름을 붙였습니다. 저항 0.0034옴/피트, 인덕턴스 0.21µH/피트, 커패시턴스 24pF/피트의 약 12가닥 트윈 리드 디자인으로 스피커 케이블로서는 거의 골디락스 사양을 갖춘 멀티 가닥 트윈 리드 디자인이었습니다. 처음에 소매 가격은 피트당 약 60센트로 저렴하지는 않았지만 풀턴 골드보다는 훨씬 저렴했습니다. 리는 매장을 돌며 라이브 데모를 진행했습니다. 그리고 1979년 시카고에서 열린 하계 CES에서 호평을 받은 후 회사는 공식적으로 출범했습니다. 리의 비즈니스 천재성은 광범위한 소매업체 네트워크 구축과 홍보에 있었습니다. 그는 케이블을 전문 부품으로 전면에 내세우기 위해 누구보다 많은 노력을 기울였습니다. 몬스터는 수년에 걸쳐 다른 시장으로 다각화하면서 빠르게 성장했습니다. 현재 스피커, 헤드폰, 멀티탭, 액세서리, 차량용 오디오 장치 등 약 6000개의 고유 제품 수를 보유하고 있습니다.

 

Ray Kimber’s “Aha!” moment arrived in the mid-70s while working as a sound engineer in Los Angeles when the first big discotheques were being installed in the States. The big problem encountered during the install was with cables picking up EMI/RFI noise from electronics and, especially, lighting systems. In a discotheque, placement is very tight so that noise from the lighting systems was significant and clearly audible due to ordinary cable behaving like an antenna. Kimber tried shielding at first by encasing the cable in a steel conduit. This did help with the noise, but sound quality suffered. The fix that worked was to braid the negative and positive polarity conductors of the cable at an angle approaching 90 degrees. At such angles, EMI/RFI is reduced through electric-field cancellation. Not only was lighting system noise eliminated but sound quality improved across the spectrum. After braiding the first speaker cables by hand and listening to the results, Kimber decided to strike out on his own with Kimber Kable. Since the initial need was for braided cable, he started buying braiding machines to expedite production. In subsequent years Kimber continued to experiment with the number of conductors, insulation, and metals, the ultimate goal being to make a cable that is as neutral as possible. 

 

레이 킴버가 "아하!"를 외친 순간은 70년대 중반, 로스앤젤레스에서 음향 엔지니어로 일하던 중 미국에 최초의 대형 디스코텍이 설치되고 있을 때였습니다. 설치 과정에서 직면한 가장 큰 문제는 전자기기, 특히 조명 시스템에서 발생하는 EMI/RFI 노이즈를 포착하는 케이블이었습니다. 디스코텍에서는 배치가 매우 빡빡하기 때문에 일반 케이블이 안테나처럼 작동하여 조명 시스템에서 발생하는 노이즈가 상당하고 선명하게 들렸습니다. 킴버는 처음에는 케이블을 강철 도관으로 감싸 차폐를 시도했습니다. 이 방법은 소음에는 도움이 되었지만 음질에는 문제가 있었습니다. 해결 방법은 케이블의 음극과 양극 도체를 90도에 가까운 각도로 편조하는 것이었습니다. 이러한 각도에서는 전기장 제거를 통해 EMI/RFI가 감소합니다. 조명 시스템 노이즈가 제거되었을 뿐만 아니라 스펙트럼 전반에 걸쳐 음질이 개선되었습니다. 첫 번째 스피커 케이블을 수작업으로 편조하고 그 결과를 들은 후, 킴버는 킴버 케이블을 직접 사용하기로 결정했습니다. 처음에는 편조 케이블이 필요했기 때문에 그는 생산 속도를 높이기 위해 편조 기계를 구입하기 시작했습니다. 이후 몇 년 동안 킴버는 도체 수, 절연 및 금속에 대한 실험을 계속했으며, 궁극적인 목표는 가능한 한 중립적인 케이블을 만드는 것이었습니다. 

 

Bill Low, who founded AudioQuest in 1980, said a few years back that “everything I’ve learned about hi-fi or cables is purely the result of being interested in getting high on music.” It was this passion that drove AudioQuest to innovate, becoming the first U.S. high-performance cable company to introduce advanced conductor technology in the form of 6N (99.9999% pure) copper and linear crystal copper. Over the years, AudioQuest diversified to embrace consumer electronics. HDMI cable currently represents a big chunk of its business. In addition to digital cables, the award-winning DragonFly USB DAC should be mentioned as well.

 

1980년 오디오퀘스트를 설립한 빌 로우는 몇 년 전 "내가 하이파이나 케이블에 대해 배운 모든 것은 순전히 음악에 대한 관심의 결과"라고 말했습니다. 이러한 열정이 AudioQuest를 혁신으로 이끌었고, 미국 고성능 케이블 회사 최초로 6N(순도 99.9999%) 구리 및 선결정 구리 형태의 고급 도체 기술을 도입하는 기업이 되었습니다. 수년에 걸쳐 오디오퀘스트는 소비자 가전제품을 수용하기 위해 다각화했습니다. HDMI 케이블은 현재 오디오퀘스트 비즈니스의 큰 부분을 차지하고 있습니다. 디지털 케이블 외에도 수상 경력에 빛나는 DragonFly USB DAC도 빼놓을 수 없습니다.

 

Bruce Brisson happened to become a cable designer by chance. In the late 1970s, after he repaired a complex three-way speaker system with active crossovers, he cabled the system back differently—easy to do since he was using three different cable types. The sound of the system changed. He proceeded to move the cables back to where they had been prior to the repair and everything sounded correct again. He decided to pursue in earnest the question of why that should be. Circa 1981 he was already busy designing and patenting speaker cable for Monster Cable. The goal of his first design was to minimize time delay between the low and high frequencies, a theme that would echo throughout his career. This was achieved with a geometry in which the outer conductors were wound into a number of bundles around a central conductor. Brisson founded Music Interface Technologies (MIT) in 1984, and has since become a force majeure in the cable industry as he has continued to develop a series of innovative designs. In the late 1990s he introduced a cable terminated by a passive network consisting of RC or RLC elements in parallel. The network is connected between the negative and positive cable polarities in order to control impedance resonances over the audible bandwidth. This concept continued to evolve and morph into the recently released ACC 268 Articulation Control Console, which maintains MIT’s traditional sonic virtues while allowing the user to fine-tune a system’s sound. 

 

브루스 브리슨은 우연히 케이블 디자이너가 되었습니다. 1970년대 후반, 액티브 크로스오버가 있는 복잡한 3웨이 스피커 시스템을 수리한 후, 그는 세 가지 유형의 케이블을 사용하던 시스템을 다시 케이블을 다르게 연결했습니다. 시스템의 사운드가 달라졌습니다. 그는 케이블을 수리하기 전의 위치로 다시 옮겼고 모든 것이 다시 정상적으로 들렸습니다. 그는 왜 그럴까 하는 의문을 본격적으로 탐구하기로 결심했습니다. 1981년 무렵 그는 이미 몬스터 케이블을 위한 스피커 케이블을 설계하고 특허를 출원하는 등 바쁜 나날을 보내고 있었습니다. 그의 첫 번째 설계의 목표는 저역과 고역 사이의 시간 지연을 최소화하는 것이었는데, 이는 그의 경력 전반에 걸쳐 반복되는 주제였습니다. 이는 외부 도체를 중앙 도체 주위에 여러 번으로 감은 구조로 달성할 수 있었습니다. 브리슨은 1984년 MIT(Music Interface Technologies)를 설립했으며, 이후 일련의 혁신적인 디자인을 지속적으로 개발하면서 케이블 업계에서 불가항력적인 존재가 되었습니다. 1990년대 후반에 그는 병렬로 연결된 RC 또는 RLC 소자로 구성된 패시브 네트워크로 종단된 케이블을 선보였습니다. 이 네트워크는 가청 대역폭에서 임피던스 공진을 제어하기 위해 음극과 양극 케이블 극성 사이에 연결됩니다. 이 개념은 계속 발전하여 최근 출시된 ACC 268 아티큘레이션 제어 콘솔로 진화했으며, 이 콘솔은 MIT의 전통적인 음향 미덕을 유지하면서 사용자가 시스템의 사운드를 미세 조정할 수 있게 해줍니다. 

 

George Cardas argues that cables chose him since the design issues were squarely in the middle of his interest and skill set. He was engineering transmission lines at the phone company and, as he puts it, “obsessively interested in music.” By 1985 it seemed unlikely that cable geometry was amenable to any further insights. And then Cardas discovered a solution to the issue of wire-strand resonance in a Litz cable. By using a “Golden Ratio” progression of strand sizes, such that the size of the smaller strand to that of the next larger strand is about 0.62x. The reference to size typically refers to the cross-sectional area of the individual conductive strands within the cable, although it can also refer to the strand diameter. Cardas discovered the sonic benefit of such an arrangement through trial and error—by putting his ears into the engineering process. Image outlines snapped into focus when the right combination of strands was used, something that measurements just couldn’t capture. 

 

조지 카다스는 케이블이 자신을 선택한 것은 설계 문제가 자신의 관심사와 기술력의 정중앙에 있었기 때문이라고 주장합니다. 그는 전화 회사에서 송전선을 설계하고 있었고, 그의 말대로 "음악에 강박적으로 관심이 많았다"고 합니다. 1985년까지만 해도 케이블 기하학적 구조에 대한 더 이상의 통찰은 불가능해 보였습니다. 그러던 중 카다스는 리츠 케이블의 선재 공진 문제에 대한 해결책을 발견했습니다. 작은 가닥의 크기와 다음 큰 가닥의 크기가 약 0.62배가 되도록 가닥 크기를 '황금 비율'로 배열한 것입니다. 크기 기준은 일반적으로 케이블 내 개별 전도성 가닥의 단면을 의미하지만, 가닥 지름을 의미할 수도 있습니다. 카다스는 엔지니어링 프로세스에 귀를 기울여 시행착오를 거치면서 이러한 배열의 음향적 이점을 발견했습니다. 올바른 가닥 조합을 사용하면 측정으로는 포착할 수 없었던 이미지 윤곽선이 초점에 맞춰졌습니다. 

 

In 1987 Japan’s Nippon Mining company succeeded in implementing copper purification technology suitable for commercial-scale production of high-purity copper. Just as important is the conductor’s grain structure. Copper is not a homogeneous metal. On a microscopic scale standard copper displays about 1500 grains per foot. Elongated-grain copper, referred to as linear-crystal, is drawn in a process that results in only about 70 grains per foot. Even better is the Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) process, developed by professor Atsumi Ohno (1926–2017) in 1986 at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. This technology has been used to manufacture single-crystal copper rods from which wire can be drawn with grain structures several hundred feet long. Minimizing grain count translates to higher purity and reduced capacitive effects at grain boundaries. 

 

1987년 일본의 일본 광업 회사는 고순도 구리의 상업적 생산에 적합한 구리 정제 기술을 구현하는 데 성공했습니다. 마찬가지로 중요한 것은 도체의 입자 구조입니다. 구리는 균질한 금속이 아닙니다. 현미경으로 볼 때 표준 구리는 1피트당 약 1,500개의 입자를 나타냅니다. 선형 결정이라고 하는 길쭉한 입자의 구리는 피트당 약 70개의 입자만 나타나는 공정으로 그려집니다. 1986년 일본 치바 공과대학의 오노 아츠미 교수(1926~2017)가 개발한 오노 연속 주조(OCC) 공정은 이보다 더 나은 공정입니다. 이 기술은 수백 피트 길이의 입자 구조로 와이어를 뽑아낼 수 있는 단결정 구리 막대를 제조하는 데 사용되었습니다. 결정립 수를 최소화하면 순도가 높아지고 결정립 경계에서 정전용량 효과가 감소합니다. 

 

An important historical footnote belongs to Ed Meitner who initiated a cryogenic treatment program while at Museatex (now defunct). When copper wire is extruded, intense heat is generated along the surface which causes stress at a molecular level. Cryogenic treatment of cables substantially reduces surface tension and this results in more coherent signal transmission. Although only skin deep, and not as elegant as the OCC process, cryogenic treatment can be quite effective in focusing image outlines. 

 

지금은 없어진 Museatex에서 극저온 처리 프로그램을 시작한 Ed Meitner가 중요한 역사적 발자취를 남겼습니다. 구리선을 압출할 때 표면을 따라 강한 열이 발생하여 분자 수준에서 응력을 유발합니다. 케이블을 극저온 처리하면 표면 장력이 크게 감소하여 보다 일관된 신호 전송이 가능해집니다. 극저온 처리는 피부 깊숙이만 처리하고 OCC 공정만큼 우아하지는 않지만 이미지 윤곽선을 집중시키는 데 매우 효과적일 수 있습니다.  

 

Audio history wasmade in 1976 when Hiroyasu Kondo (1941–2006), founder of Audio Note Japan, unveiled the world’s first 4N pure-silver cable. Mr. Kondo, aka the “Audio Silversmith,” gets credit for being first in elevating silver technology atop the high-end totem pole. As a conductor of both heat and electricity silver has no equal, and it is only second to gold in malleability and ductility. One ounce of silver can be drawn into a fine wire about 30 miles long! Lab-grade silver is 4N, but 5N as well as 6N grades are available at a significant premium. If conduction electrons could talk, they would sing praises of silver wire. Lack of granularity and oxygen contaminants make electron drift along a conductor more efficacious from an audio standpoint, as there is less opportunity for time smearing and loss of low-level detail.

 

오디오의 역사는 1976년 오디오 노트 재팬의 창립자인 콘도 히로야스(1941~2006)가 세계 최초로 4N 순은 케이블을 선보이면서 시작되었습니다. '오디오 은세공인'으로도 알려진 콘도 씨는 실버 기술을 하이엔드 토템 폴의 정상에 올려놓은 최초의 인물로 인정받고 있습니다. 은은 열과 전기를 모두 전달하는 전도체로서 금에 필적할 만한 소재가 없으며, 가단성과 연성에서 금에 이어 두 번째로 뛰어납니다. 은 1온스는 약 30마일 길이의 가느다란 와이어로 뽑아낼 수 있습니다! 실험실용 은은 4N이지만 5N 및 6N 등급은 상당한 프리미엄을 지불하고 구입할 수 있습니다. 전도 전자가 말을 할 수 있다면 은선에 대한 찬사를 아끼지 않을 것입니다. 입도와 산소 오염 물질이 부족하면 도체를 따라 전자가 드리프트할 때 시간 번짐과 낮은 레벨의 디테일 손실이 적어 오디오 관점에서 더 효과적입니다.

 

 

High-purity silver wire is clearly a phenomenon of the high-end audio scene, and no one takes silver more seriously than Siltech Cables, which of course stands for Silver Technology. Silver became the focus of attention by virtue of its superior conductivity, chemical stability, and ability to maintain its crystalline integrity when subjected to mechanical stress. Although the company was founded in 1985 in the little Dutch town of Elst, it received a boost of innovation when it was acquired by Edwin van der Kleij (now Kleij-Rijnveld) in 1992. Today, International Audio Holding oversees the Siltech and Crystal Cable brands—quite logical as Edwin is married to Gabi van der Kleij-Rijnveld, founder of Crystal Cable. Edwin, an electronics engineer, worked for Philips and Exxon before focusing on high-end audio. This was a natural destination since he was a music enthusiast from a young age, played bass guitar in a high school band, and built speakers and amplifiers along the way. He was rather curious to know how cables create audible differences in sound. Over time, Edwin was able to obtain key answers helped by new and better measurements and multi-physics simulations, which allow the combined effects of material and construction properties to be visualized prior to production. Noteworthy are Crystal Cable’s designs using a pure-silver monocrystal core with outer layers of silver-plated monocrystal copper and gold-plated monocrystal silver.

 

고순도 실버 와이어는 분명 하이엔드 오디오계의 현상이며, 실버 테크놀로지의 대명사 실텍 케이블보다 실버를 더 중요하게 생각하는 업체는 없습니다. 은은 뛰어난 전도성, 화학적 안정성, 기계적 스트레스를 받았을 때 결정 무결성을 유지하는 능력으로 인해 주목받게 되었습니다. 1985년 네덜란드의 작은 마을 엘스트에서 설립된 이 회사는 1992년 에드윈 반 데어 클레이(현재 클레이-라인벨트)가 인수하면서 혁신에 박차를 가하게 되었습니다. 현재 International Audio Holding은 Siltech와 Crystal Cable 브랜드를 총괄하고 있으며, 이는 Edwin이 Crystal Cable의 설립자인 Gabi van der Kleij-Rijnveld와 결혼했기 때문에 당연한 결과입니다. 전자 엔지니어인 에드윈은 필립스와 엑손에서 근무하다가 하이엔드 오디오에 집중하기 시작했습니다. 어렸을 때부터 음악을 좋아했고 고등학교 밴드에서 베이스 기타를 연주했으며 그 과정에서 스피커와 앰프를 직접 만들었기 때문에 이 길은 자연스러운 선택이었습니다. 그는 케이블이 어떻게 소리의 차이를 만들어내는지 알고 싶어했습니다. 시간이 지나면서 에드윈은 새롭고 더 나은 측정과 다중 물리 시뮬레이션을 통해 재료 및 구조 특성의 결합 효과를 생산 전에 시각화할 수 있는 핵심적인 해답을 얻을 수 있었습니다. 주목할 만한 것은 순은 단결정 코어와 은도금 단결정 구리 및 금도금 단결정 은의 외부 레이어를 사용하는 Crystal Cable의 설계입니다.

 

 

An alternative to Litz wire offered by several manufacturers, most notably Tara Labs, is best described as small-gauge solid-core wire. Tara Labs was founded by Matthew Bond in Sydney, Australia, in 1984. After its move to the U.S., it was first to market in 1988 with solid-core cable designs. The design was refined in 1990 when the shape of the conductor was changed from round to rectangular to further reduce skin effect. 

 

리츠 와이어의 대안으로 여러 제조업체, 특히 Tara Labs에서 제공하는 소형 게이지 솔리드 코어 와이어를 가장 잘 설명할 수 있습니다. 타라 랩스는 1984년 호주 시드니에서 Matthew Bond에 의해 설립되었습니다. 미국으로 이전한 후 1988년 솔리드 코어 케이블 디자인으로 시장에 처음 출시되었습니다. 1990년 도체 모양을 원형에서 직사각형으로 변경하여 스킨 효과를 더욱 줄이기 위해 디자인을 개선했습니다. 

 

Skin depth is defined for a given frequency and conductor material as the distance into the wire at which the signal decreases by a factor of 2.718. To minimize the impact of the skin effect, conductor radius should therefore be small relative to the skin depth at the highest frequency of interest. For copper at 20kHz, the skin depth is 0.47mm—or about the radius of a 19-gauge wire. The finer the gauge, the more uniform the impedance magnitude becomes but at the cost of a higher DC resistance, which is not usually an issue for interconnect design since it is used in a high-impedance circuit. 

 

스킨 깊이는 주어진 주파수 및 도체 재질에 대해 신호가 2.718배 감소하는 전선 내 거리로 정의됩니다. 따라서 스킨 효과의 영향을 최소화하려면 도체 반경이 관심 있는 최고 주파수에서 스킨 깊이에 비해 작아야 합니다. 20kHz에서 구리의 경우 스킨 깊이는 0.47mm, 즉 19게이지 와이어의 반경 정도입니다. 게이지가 미세할수록 임피던스 크기가 더 균일해지지만, 고임피던스 회로에 사용되므로 일반적으로 인터커넥트 설계에는 문제가 되지 않는 DC 저항이 더 높아집니다. 

 

Some manufacturers such as van den Hul have taken this approach to an extreme limit. Van den Hul’s Carbon Nano Tube (CNT) interconnect uses 19 carbon conductors (to keep impedance reasonable) twisted together to form a single interconnect leg. Each carbon strand is a mere 15 microns in diameter and that manufacturing process is an art in itself. 

 

반 덴 훌과 같은 일부 제조업체는 이 접근 방식을 극한까지 끌어올렸습니다. 반 덴 훌의 탄소 나노 튜브(CNT) 인터커넥트는 19개의 탄소 도체(임피던스를 적정하게 유지하기 위해)를 꼬아 하나의 인터커넥트 다리를 형성합니다. 각 탄소 가닥의 직경은 15마이크론에 불과하며 제조 공정 자체가 하나의 예술입니다. 

 

For those of us who have lived through the past 40 years, the advances in cable technology have been nothing short of amazing. And there is no reason to think that innovation will stand still. Today, cable is one of the most popular accessory categories, and my guess is that most audiophiles upgrade cables more often than any other component. 

 

지난 40년을 살아온 우리에게는 케이블 기술의 발전이 놀랍기 그지없습니다. 그리고 혁신이 멈추지 않을 것이라고 생각할 이유는 없습니다. 오늘날 케이블은 가장 인기 있는 액세서리 카테고리 중 하나이며, 대부분의 오디오 애호가들이 다른 어떤 부품보다 케이블을 더 자주 업그레이드하는 것으로 추측됩니다.