John Dunlavy On "Cable Nonsense"

I've done a bit of poking around the Net and looked at the North American Industrial Classification System maintained by the Bureau of the Census. The industrial structure is pretty much as I painted it in the last post, only with more levels in the supply chain. For the trivia hounds amongst you, here is the series of handoffs (NAICS text in quotations).

#1 --- wire is drawn

"NAICS 33142: Copper Rolling, Drawing, Extruding, and Alloying
This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in one or more of the following: (1) recovering copper or copper alloys from scraps; (2) alloying purchased copper; (3) rolling, drawing, or extruding shapes, (e.g., bar, plate, sheet, strip, tube, and wire) from purchased copper; and (4) recovering copper or copper alloys from scrap and rolling drawing, or extruding shapes (e.g., bar, plate, sheet, strip, tube, and wire)."

#2 --- drawn wire insulated by firms at next level in supply chain

"NAICS 33592: Communication and Energy Wire and Cable Manufacturing
This industry comprises establishments insulating fiber-optic cable, and manufacturing insulated nonferrous wire and cable from nonferrous wire drawn in other establishments."

#3 --- insulated wire sold to audio OEM's and turned into audio goodies

"NAICS 3343: Audio and Video Equipment Manufacturing
This NAICS Industry Group includes establishments classified in NAICS Industry 33431, Audio and Video Equipment Manufacturing."

I would venture that most, if not all, of the audio cable manufacturers pop up at the third/last level rather than the second.

Well, yes Doc, the audio cable manufacturers pop up in the 3rd category. But the issue raised is whether many of the high end cable marketers are among the manufacturers (or final assemblers). My guess is that some are, some aren't. I find it hard to believe that Nordost Valhalla is made in the same third world factory as some lower priced branded cable. I even find it hard to believe that Kimber and Audiquest are not involved in the final assembly of their products. I think Ray Kimber has invited AA inmates for a factory tour.

Just suppose there were only one factory, and all the cables were made in the same place. So long as they were made to spec and the specifications were different as ordered by the designers, why would anyone care? You only have to look at a variety of cables to see that they reflect a lot of different ways to twist, wrap, coat and space different thicknesses of wire. Who cares where they are made?

Doc - the copper used is supplied with some type of coating on it and is single stranded solid core. From this point the cable is "braided", "twisted", whatever one would call it using materials in between each strand. This process is proprietary in nature and I am unaware of the exact winding scheme but I can tell you that it is all wound by hand. A final outer sleeve is installed and then the terminations are soldered on. Economies of scale are not realized at this time as these guys are doing it as a sideline and therefore are not relying on it for daily income. The prototype "return" cable I mentioned earlier differed in internal construction but I can attest that each and every time the difference was audible. So in the end, I guess these guys qualify as Category #3 but the entire cable is hand constructed less the coating on the copper as supplied from the copper source. I would imagine that the DIY people here can appreciate what goes into hand constructing cables but as I am not one of them my explanations may leave out key technical terms and I apologize for that. I believe that Paulwp has coined some of the phrases I was looking for in my original post and I thank him for that. Bottomline is that in my experience there was a distinct difference when the negative post cables were swapped - but only as a result of the fact that these cables differed in construction. If I have the chance to do this "test" again I would take the time to single wire the speakers (not bi-wire) and alternate the different negative post cables to see (hear) if there are any differences. If any of you guys happen to pass through Alberta this summer please advise and I will arrange the same demo so that my experience can be refuted or corroborated. I thank the recent posters for the opportunity to offer my cable story without what had been expected (many negative votes...)

Harmonic Technology has a specific process for drawing the wire through the die in a cooling process so as not to do violence to the crystalline structure. In fact, their process creates the "Single Crystal" copper wire for all of their product. I am not going to continue messing up this explanation. You can go read for yourself at their website.
But they may still have the process performed to specs at some off-shore site. You cannot afford to do any of these types of processes in this country. Could they be pulling our legs? Sure!( It would take quite a large pulley to get all of our legs at once ). But the results that I have had with the Harmonic Tech Pro Silway II make me realize that they are on to something.

Audio Tekne draws there own silver wire and does the complete assembly process themselves. This is how they are able to maintain there high quality standards and keep there prices affordable. If you need an explanation of how cable is twisted and covered I would suggest contacting Brian at BMI (or if he's reading this he could help out) for he hand assembles all his power cords. It's not a huge mystery or so difficult only a machine can achieve it. Machines are for the mass production, for example computer cables, VCR and low/mid-fi audio, T.V. lights.......

Why is everything in high-end audio a conspiracy to some?