Despite being a minority interest format in its sunset years, this particular model merits a thread of its own, partly because of its unusual construction but also its exceptional performance.
Almost every spdif cable out there is a coaxial, yet this design is neither shielded nor coaxial. It is in fact very different, being hand-built to a theoretical 75ohm characteristic impedance from bare wires and no shielding.
The underlying design starts with a solid silver hot conductor which is then hand-polished and coated with avm paint. It is then inserted into a woven silk tube and a copper return conductor is helically wound around it in a geometry which Townshend later marketed as a ‘Fractal’. So far so simple, however as with many elegant implementations the devil is in the detail since the conductors are different gauges to maintain its transmission line qualities. There was also a lot of testing of ostensibly identical wires from different producers to arrive at the best sounding combination.
Anyhow the proof of the pudding is in the eating and this model received a few very enthusiastic reviews, notably from Terry London who sold his mucho dinero reference cable to buy this one.
That was several years ago and more recently Jay from AudioBacon also reviewed it, which generated some enquires regarding clock versions. Looking closer at what was needed to create a 50ohm version, it became apparent that the Atlas BNC plugs I had been happily using all these years were actually 50ohm format rather than the 75ohm they claimed! Lemons and lemonade though as this presented an opportunity to enhance the cable by not only cutting back the insulation to 75ohm format but also by drilling out their monkey metal hot pin and pulling the silver wire all the way through to make direct contact within the bnc equipment jack. A great tweak and a couple of demo examples are in circulation, ideal for Chord Dave / Mscaler owners!
This spdif is also available with KLEI pure silver RCA plugs for those who must however BNC remains the goto recommendation as it is both 75ohm compliant and you also get to benefit from my direct contact plug mods.
An extrapolation of this design is also available in AES format using the superb Oyaide Focus xlr plugs.
Almost every spdif cable out there is a coaxial, yet this design is neither shielded nor coaxial. It is in fact very different, being hand-built to a theoretical 75ohm characteristic impedance from bare wires and no shielding.
The underlying design starts with a solid silver hot conductor which is then hand-polished and coated with avm paint. It is then inserted into a woven silk tube and a copper return conductor is helically wound around it in a geometry which Townshend later marketed as a ‘Fractal’. So far so simple, however as with many elegant implementations the devil is in the detail since the conductors are different gauges to maintain its transmission line qualities. There was also a lot of testing of ostensibly identical wires from different producers to arrive at the best sounding combination.
Anyhow the proof of the pudding is in the eating and this model received a few very enthusiastic reviews, notably from Terry London who sold his mucho dinero reference cable to buy this one.
That was several years ago and more recently Jay from AudioBacon also reviewed it, which generated some enquires regarding clock versions. Looking closer at what was needed to create a 50ohm version, it became apparent that the Atlas BNC plugs I had been happily using all these years were actually 50ohm format rather than the 75ohm they claimed! Lemons and lemonade though as this presented an opportunity to enhance the cable by not only cutting back the insulation to 75ohm format but also by drilling out their monkey metal hot pin and pulling the silver wire all the way through to make direct contact within the bnc equipment jack. A great tweak and a couple of demo examples are in circulation, ideal for Chord Dave / Mscaler owners!
This spdif is also available with KLEI pure silver RCA plugs for those who must however BNC remains the goto recommendation as it is both 75ohm compliant and you also get to benefit from my direct contact plug mods.
An extrapolation of this design is also available in AES format using the superb Oyaide Focus xlr plugs.
