Audioquest Type 8 Speaker Cable

This double star quad geometry “Flat Rock” cable does not look normal on the outside, and it is not at all normal on the inside. A sophisticated combination of extraordinary materials and extremely refined design lets Slate… to equally honor all types of music.

CONDUCTORS:
All eight of Slate’s conductors are solid. Electrical and magnetic interaction between strands in a conventional cable is the single greatest source of distortion, often causing a somewhat harsh, dirty and confused sound. Solid conductors are the most important ingredients enabling Slate’s very clear sound. Whether a conductor is solid or stranded, skin-effect is a prime distortion mechanism in speaker cables. Slate very simply keeps this effect out of the audio range by using conductor sizes that are below the threshold for audible distortion.

LONG-GRAIN COPPER & PERFECT SURFACE COPPER:
Slate uses a carefully finessed combination of Long-Grain Copper (LGC) and high purity Perfect-Surface Copper (PSC) conductors. All conductors are solid, which prevents strand interaction, a major source of distortion. Surface quality is critical because a conductor can be considered as a rail-guide for both the electric fields within a conductor, and for the magnetic fields outside the conductor. The astonishingly smooth and pure Perfect-Surface eliminates harshness and greatly increases clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers. High-purity PSC further minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries, which exist within any metal conductor.

GEOMETRY:
The relationship between conductors defines a cable’s most basic electrical values (capacitance and inductance). However, even when those variables are kept in a reasonable balance, the relationship between conductors can be varied in ways that greatly effect the sound. The dual spiral construction of Slate allows for significantly better dynamic contrast and information intelligibility than if the same conductors were run in parallel. The specific 4-cross geometry used in each half of Slate maximizes this advantage.

CONDUCTIVE INSULATION:
The four negative conductors in Slate are insulated with partially conductive carbon-loaded polyethylene. This remarkable material damps radio-frequency garbage from being fed back into the amplifier. The sonic benefit is exactly the same reduction in hash and better dimensionality that comes whenever RF garbage is reduced in an audio circuit.

BIWIRING:
Slate is an exceptional Single-Biwire cable. When the halves are separated at the speaker end, the double quad-helix design turns Slate into a true double-biwire set thanks to the magnetic autonomy of each quad-helix. On it’s own; one quad would be a little light-weight in performance as it is biased towards treble finesse. The other quad is biased toward the bass; it’s more forceful and lacking ultimate resolution. Together they form a completely optimized full range design, which was the first priority; but when separated the dual star quads let Slate be a maximum performance double-biwire in a single cable.

TERMINATIONS:
AudioQuest offers a wide range of high quality connectors that allow Slate to be securely attached to any type of equipment. “Quality” is in the low distortion sound, not necessarily in the eye-candy effect. AQ ends are either a dull looking gold or silver because these metals are plated directly over the connector. There is no shiny and harsh sounding nickel layer underneath. AQ PK-spade lugs are soft because better metal is soft, and facilitates a higher quality connection. For pieces requiring a banana plug or BFA connector the AQ PK-BFA/Banana provides unprecedented performance over conventional brass versions.

A combination of these major ingredients, and many more subtle details add up to explain how even a reasonably priced cable like Slate can sound so good.