I am very happy to announce that we have a couple of major developments. First we have launched the new website and I hope many will find it much easier to navigate and have the use of FedEx as well. Second I have finally integrated the new ALO wire (
ALO Cryo SXC) into the line of standard cables. I am very pleased with this new raw material. I spent a lot of time and capital developing this wire. I am happy to report that this stuff totally fits the bill for what I have envisioned in a wire. Some of the major features of this wire are an improved physical handling; it is very soft and bendable, does not put any stress on your jacks. The wire is a Certified Ohno continuous cast copper (OCC)*. I have specifically asked for a very fine strand size for this wire. Then I had the manufacture silver plate each tiny strand. The reason for this is twofold, one to guard against future discoloration of the wire caused by oxidation, second to provide the wire with an increased detail on the top end. Next I asked to have this wire jacketed in a clear PE jacket, because I think the wire looks as good as it sounds and I wanted this to be anything but boring.
Finally in an effort to gain (squeeze) all the possible advancements and edge sonics in a cable I have hooked up in partnership in with Lee at
Cryo-Parts to have them Cryo treat as many parts as I can. See "news"
here. I have sent
Cryo-Parts my entire shipment of my ALO SXC wire for treating as well as just about every connector I own, even my ipod connectors. In fact many of the parts I use, be it a female mini jack or 1/4 plus has been cryoed by either Cryo-Parts or
JenaLabs at one point. While I might not advertise that the part has been treated and it most likely was, it was just easier send Lee my entire inventory of parts for treatment. I know there might be some why will say ill things about the cryo claims and its benefits, and while I do not want to open a debate on all this I did want to take advantage of Cryo-Parts service regardless of what some might think. I simply want to make the best sounding and best looking audio cable I possibly can. So please check out these and many other cables and products at our new web store soon.
*The OCC process.
As for conducting materials, normal, high purity copper has about 1500 grains in each foot (5000/m). The signal must cross the junctions between these grains 1500 times in order to travel through one foot of cable. These grain boundaries cause the same type of irritating distortion as current crossing from strand to strand.
The first grade above normal high purity copper is called Oxygen-Free High-Conductivity (OFHC) copper. In fact, this copper is not Oxygen-Free, it should more properly be called Oxygen-Reduced. OFHC is cast and drawn in a way that minimizes the oxygen content in the copper: approximately 40 PPM (parts per million) for OFHC compared to 235 PPM for normal copper. This drastically reduces the formation of copper oxides within the copper, substantially reducing the distortion caused by the grain boundaries. Additional improvement can be attributed to OFHC copper having longer grains (about 400 per foot), further reducing distortion. The sound of an OFHC copper cable is smoother, cleaner, and more dynamic than the same design made with standard high purity copper.
Not all OFHC is the same. If the poorest copper were given a value of one, and the best was a ten, then OFHC ranges from two to four-it is actually a range rather than a single performance level.
The next higher grade is an elongated grain copper sometimes called "linear-crystal" (LC-OFC) or "mono-crystal". These coppers have been carefully drawn in a process that results in only about 70 grains per foot. Cables using LC-OFC have an obvious audible advantage over cables using the same designs with OFHC.
In 1986 the Ohno Continuous Casting (OCC) process was introduced. The world patent "UP-OCC" (Ultra Pure Copper by Ohno Continuous Casting Process) was developed by professor Ohno of Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. This technology has been applied to the manufacturing of single crystallized copper with the process of heated mold continuous casting. The resulting product are small rods of OCC pure copper, from which the wire can be drawn and which can have Copper grains of over 700 ft length.
Because of its characteristics of single crystal, unidirectional, free of impurity, flexible fatigue-resistance, corrosive-resistance, low electric resistance, none-crystal boundaries, rapid transmissibility, perfect in structure, and easy to process, all make it an ideal material for making rapid transmission lines. From inner hook up wires to interconnect cables, they can be widely applied to Hi-Tech products such as Hi-Fi stereo system, high resolution TV.
A couple of years later the "nines" race began. This refers to how many times the number "9" can be repeated when specifying a metal's purity. The prime contaminants in very high purity (99.997% pure, four nines) copper are silver, iron and sulfur, along with smaller amounts of antimony, aluminum and arsenic. The purity of OCC Copper can reach up to 99.9999% and even higher.
