New Speaker Cables Now Shipping!

[davef]

I am very pleased to make this announcement. Many people have been asking us for a high quality - affordable, pre-terminated speaker cable...

Here it is

Through an exclusive arrangement and continuing with our tradition of offering the highest sound quality at affordable prices, we are pleased to announce that we are now offering true audiophile-quality Ultralink speaker cable. Available in pre-terminated lengths or 14 gauge 4 conductor by the foot. This cable is made in Canada and after a thorough performance evaluation; we are using it exclusively throughout our engineering facilities and auditioning systems.

I personally find the cable to be of excellent quality!

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages...atrixspkr.html

Enjoy!

[DavidD]

Sounds good. Just for consistency - your post says made in Canada and the link says made in the USA. I do like the ultra cool carrying case.

[curtis]

I was confused at first too.

The Ultralink is made in the USA, but if you click in the bulk cable....that is the 4-conductor wire and it is made in Canada.

The Ultralink is 12 gauge 2-conductor...I think.

[davef]

My Bad...

The pre-terminated cable is made in Canada and the bulk is made in the USA (close to our location)

I believe Ultralink will soon be manufacturing all the cable local to us..

I will fix the site and thanks for letting me know!

G'night!

[BradJudy]

The bulk looks like a good alternative to Canare star quad. I'll keep it in mind.

I'm not sure about the carrying case - I never have to carry cables anywhere and would rather save a buck or two. I've never heard a good justification for having 'signal flow direction' on speaker cables. At least they aren't adding $$$ onto the price for it.

[drewface]

i like the looks of the cable (the blue and black is sexy), but the way they are listed reminds me of all the stuff i've read saying cable is cable. i'd be interested to hear what dave or any of the more knowledgeable users on this board have to say about claims like "Advanced internal winding geometery [sic] for extended frequency response, increased dynamic range and greater clarity." (there's a typo there, too, you might want to clean up on the page)

i was sort of surprised to see that listed on ascend's page, seeing as how little marketing spin is applied to the speakers. i know the cable is made by a different company, but it's still surprising to see.

so, can someone (re?)educate me on how "winding geometry" or signal flow direction can actually make a difference in a cable?

[bikeman]

so, can someone (re?)educate me on how "winding geometry" or signal flow direction can actually make a difference in a cable?

"Single flow direction" is actually an economic term. It refers to the flow of a hobbyist capital once they buy into the myth and lore of their particular obsession.

David

[Dread Pirate Robert]

I'm not sure about the carrying case - I never have to carry cables anywhere and would rather save a buck or two. I've never heard a good justification for having 'signal flow direction' on speaker cables. At least they aren't adding $$$ onto the price for it.

Not that this is a big deal, and I'm sure the cables are of high quality, but this type of marketing does not make a good impression and seems out of line with that of Ascend Acoustics' own products. I'm sorry if I sound like a "wet blanket" here--I'm just trying to help.

i like the looks of the cable (the blue and black is sexy),

Yeah, it looks cool, and kind of like a two-headed snake!

but the way they are listed reminds me of all the stuff i've read saying cable is cable. i'd be interested to hear what dave or any of the more knowledgeable users on this board have to say about claims like "Advanced internal winding geometery [sic] for extended frequency response, increased dynamic range and greater clarity."

Unless this is in reference to the copper itself, it seems to be a fancy way of saying that each of the wires are individually insulated and twisted around one another--more succinctly, it's a twisted-pair cable. I don't claim to be very knowledgeable about audio, but I've always favored twisted-pair because it's an inexpensive way to cancel out much of the interference that a cable might pick up from its surroundings. Without this effect, the relatively inexpensive, unshielded Ethernet cable that people use with their computers nowadays (e.g. Cat-5e) would not work well at all, for example. That said, since most of the interference in a typical case would be at much higher frequencies than would be audible directly (e.g. in the GHz range for Ethernet), the true value of twisting the individual wires in a speaker cable is debatable, although it doesn't add much to the cost of the cable (depending on which one you buy) and provides some peace of mind for the conservative among us.

As for the benefits claimed by the manufacturer, I don't believe it personally, but would like to hear a convincing argument if there is one. It would seem that minimizing resistance and inductance by using thick enough conductor for the length required and not coiling the cable would be sufficient to achieve these benefits for all practical purposes in the home. It doesn't hurt to use exceptionally high quality cable for durability and peace of mind, but as long as one follows the most basic guidelines, speaker cable would seem to be the component that has the smallest effect on sound quality (with speakers themselves having the greatest effect, of course).

so, can someone (re?)educate me on how "winding geometry" or signal flow direction can actually make a difference in a cable?

The notion of signal flow direction is pretty funny, as the current flows in both directions in an alternating manner anyway. Even if that were not the case, I can't think of a physical reason for the distinction, either. Obviously, it's just a virtually free "feature" that does no harm yet has no meaning beyond pure marketing (and in my opinion has no place on this no-nonsense website with its no-nonsense speakers, but that's just me--delete the lines referring to this feature as well as some of the other hype, and it'll be fine).

"Single flow direction" is actually an economic term. It refers to the flow of a hobbyist capital once they buy into the myth and lore of their particular obsession.

Yeah, there are plenty of naked emperors in every hobby, but from what I've seen, audio might be the realm of the most exhibitionistic rulers of them all!

[davef]

Hi Guys,

We are offering pre-terminated cable because a very large percentage of our customers have requested it.

The "marketing" terms on the site are from Ultralink's marketing and, like everything else regarding cable; everyone has a rather strong opinion.

Would it be more beneficial if we just added the cable to our site and said "good looking, exceptionally well-made cable with high-quality gold plated binding posts"? Possibly - but quite doubtful.

The reality is this, I personally measured the inductance and capacitance of the cable and it was lower than anything else I have here in the factory for the same length pair. This is especially important when designing a loudspeaker to be accurate, if I am doing ground-plane measurements my cable runs are often in excess of 100ft.

The way a cable is wound and the manner in which it is twisted / braided does play an important role on both capacitance and inductance. A higher inductance cable will have more high-frequency loss, thus making a loudspeaker sound warmer, a higher capacitance cable will have more low-frequency loss thus resulting in a more detailed, perhaps brighter sound. These are the important factors regarding cable -- inductance and capacitance. (and cable manufacturers know this better than anyone, that is why some cables can and will sound different than others, because it is has been specifically designed to do so)

As far as signal flow goes, it is, perhaps, a meaningless feature and I am sure it is just there for marketing purposes. Please understand, a very large percentage of our customers are true audiophiles and many of them approve of such features.

I like the quality of the cable and I like the fact that it has very low capacitance and inductance, resulting in the lack of coloration, which, as you all know -- is everything to me.

We have, perhaps, 3-4 dozen equipment vendors approach us every year requesting that we evaluate and sell their products. Here is one that I found to be of high quality that we are selling at a very reasonable price and it meets my standards of performance (a rather difficult accomplishment)

Understand that we make very little $$ at the prices we are selling it for (it is really a matter of convenience) and if us selling this cable bothers you because of Ultralink's marketing (which we agreed to by becoming a distributor and is really no different than any other cable manufacturer's marketing) -- cool, I will dump the product.

We are not "pushing" the cable, nor is our site filled with promoting it -- it is there because many people requested the cable and we are marketing it as we agreed, using their terms.

We have sold Harman Kardon for years now (often selling a component at a loss) simply because our customer base liked the receivers. The marketing terms we use on the site for HK are the same as HK's, the marketing term's we use for Ultralink are Ultralink's -- These are not Ascend products, I have no control over manufacturer claims, whether I agree with them or not.

You guys know the deal and certainly know how to read between the lines and pass over marketing hyperbole, but unfortunately, this is what the audio cable industry has become. ( I should probably be very careful here… if you all know what I mean)

Selling some cable on our site for added convenience to many of our customers will NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER result in Ascend taking that kind of approach with our products…

[davef]

Here is a fun idea ---

You guys create the marketing copy for the cable page using at least some of Ultralink's terms / claims, watering it down perhaps just enough so it fits into your perception of everything my company represents...

All I ask is that you are serious about this and do not get *too* carried away. Remember, you are not the only one's reading this

I will let you guys determine the "winner" and I will send him (her?) an Ascend baseball hat and have the site updated as we see fit.

Could be fun