AudioQuest - WEL-Signature - RCA - Interconnect - 1,5 Meter - Pair

AudioQuest  - WEL-Signature  - RCA - Interconnect - Cable  - 1,5m  - Retail 10.000€   

"Frankly, I have never contemplated the notion of a “signature series” of products. It remains a rather alien notion to me. When one of my good friends (and AQ aesthetic steward), Joe Harley, suggested this, I was taken a bit off guard. However, as we sat back and discussed the quest; the many years of analyzing the quality of materials and construction, the hours upon hours of listening, the proving of theories and yes, the bit of luck that is required, it finally made perfect sense to me. For me, when a designer puts their name on a product, it feels like a kind of “final chapter”. Rest assured, this is the beginning of a new book." - William E. Low, AudioQuest Founder and Chief Designer
  Strand interaction is the single greatest cause of distortion in a cable. Semi-Solid Concentric Packed Conductors avoid many strand-interaction distortion mechanisms. Solid-core conductors offer a complete and compelling solution to this problem.
Conductor metal quality is critical for the best cable performance. The conductor surface is the only area of the conductor with 100% current density at all frequencies. The smoothness of the conductor surface is imperative because the surface is a guide rail for the entire energy envelope. The best copper and silver conductor metals have fewer grain boundaries and low oxygen content for low distortion and high performance.
Perfect-Surface Technology applied to extreme-purity silver provides unprecedented clarity and dynamic contrast. Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, a major source of cable distortion. Extremely high-purity OFC minimizes distortion caused by the grain boundaries which exist within any metal conductor, nearly eliminating harshness and greatly increasing clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers.
  FEP Air-Tube Insulation (FEP is a Fluoro-Polymer) : Insulation is necessary to keep the positive and negative conductors separate and to give stability to cable geometry. Insulation is also a "dielectric" because it is inside the conductor's magnetic field. Dielectrics absorb energy, which after a delay is then released in the signal, causing smearing and distortion. Better insulation reduces distortion by absorbing less energy.
All of WEL Signature’s conductors use Air-Tube insulation because air absorbs next to no energy, and FEP is the best extractable solid insulation and absorbs less energy than other materials. The FEP Air-Tubes used in WEL Signature have almost nothing but air around the solid PSS conductors (117% more air than the AudioQuest Wind interconnect).
 
Dielectric-Bias System (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1) : All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.
WEL Signature utilises the Carbon 72V DBS. This takes things a step further by utilizing proprietary technology that was originally developed for use in the AudioQuest Niagara 7000, which includes a superior RFI filter, used for draining harmful Radio Frequency Interference.
(The batteries within a DBS battery pack will last for years because there is no current draw. The batteries will eventually die due to internal leakage, as will any batteries, even if never unpackaged).

Carbon-Based 7-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS) : 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Noise-Dissipation System prevents a significant amount of RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.
AudioQuest’s Noise-Dissipation System (NDS) offers a compelling solution to this challenge by using metal only or alternating layers of metal and carbon-loaded synthetics to effectively “shield the shield,” absorbing and reflecting the Radio Frequency (RF) energy before it reaches the layer attached to the ground.
WEL Signature ultilises the Carbon-Based 7-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS) to prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.
 
Triple-Balanced Geometry : Geometry is the physical relationship of the conductors to one another within a cable and determines a cable’s most basic electrical values (capacitance and inductance). Different cable applications have different/specialized geometry requirements, and so these applications do not merely follow a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Better geometry leads to lower levels of distortion.
The three conductors in “Triple-Balanced” WEL Signature cables ensure that whether prepared with RCA or XLR plugs, the positive and negative signals have equally low-distortion conducting paths. The 100% coverage shield is never used as an inferior conductor.
 
Directionality : AudioQuest’s understanding of conductor directionality and its effect on audio performance has steadily evolved, growing stronger and more complete. All audio cables are directional. The correct direction is determined by the arrows on the plugs or cable parts.
 
Cold-Welded Hanging Silver Directly Over Pure "Red-Copper" System : AudioQuest specifies materials and designs each of its own connectors from the ground up, resulting in the long-lasting quality and exceptional performance you deserve. These components are crucial to the overall performance of a cable. 
To provide the best possible performance for each application, AudioQuest designs each of its connectors from the ground up. These components are crucial to the overall performance of the cable. Painstaking care is taken to evaluate the highest quality materials and design for every application.
AudioQuest pays special attention to the plating it uses over its connectors’ carefully crafted base metals. This proprietary, novel plug design allows for a connection devoid of solder, which is a common source of distortion. Because the ground shells are stamped instead of machined, the metal can be chosen for low distortion instead of machine ability. Red-Copper offers a cleaner, clearer sound than the nickel-plated or OFHC metals commonly found in competing manufacturers' plugs.
This plug design enables a perfect heat-free connection between cable and plug. The connection between the plug and conductors is made using AQ's Cold-Weld System, which provides a superior connection that ensures that the structural integrity of the conductor is kept completely intact. The Cold-Weld System refers to a combination of high pressure at the point of contact and the use of copper- or silver-impregnated paste. (WEL Signature's silver conductors get silver paste.) XLR plugs are also available.
 
Terminations : The WEL Signature interconnect RCA and XLR connectors' striking visual appearance is the result of many years of intense research into every aspect of plug design. These plugs are precision-engineered components far surpassing the performance of any previous design. The sole guiding mandate for the WEL Signature plug designs was maximizing sonic performance. WEL Signature connectors must be as sonically “invisible” as WEL Signature cable! WEL Signature RCA connectors are precision machined from a High-Conductivity Oxygen-Free Pure-Copper Billet (99.94% +Cu) for all conductive parts. FEP is used as the main insulation material. A thick (100 micron) layer of silver is then directly plated over the copper. Similarly, WEL Signature XLR wire bays and contact pins are also machined from HC-OFC Billet, silver plated and secured into a Delrin® bushing.
Contact Enhancer Option To ensure the best possible connection between your system, Future Shop recommends the DeoxIT Gold G-Series contact enhancer.
DeoxIT Gold is carefully applied to the plug contacts of your cable and is a unique conditioning solution designed to improve conductivity and provide long-lasting protection on gold, base metals and other precious metal contacts and connections. DeoxIT Gold penetrates plated surfaces, molecularly bonding to the base metals to seal and protect both surfaces.
The benefits of applying DeoxIT gold are:
Improved Conductivity Maintained optimum signal quality Reduced wear & abrasion Prevents fretting/dendrite corrosion Forms a protective anti-tarnishing coating Stabilises connections between similar and dissimilar metals Reduces arcing, RFI and intermittent connections Please select this option from the above ‘Contact Enhancer’ drop-down menu and our engineers will apply the contact solution to your cable connectors prior to shipping.

Specification : Geometry: Asymmetrical Triple-Balanced (always lower impedance on ground, always separate ground-reference path) Metal: Solid PSS Silver Dielectric: FEP Air-Tubes (FEP is a Fluoro-Polymer) 62% larger than Sky Noise-Dissipation System (NDS): Carbon-Based 7-Layer Noise-Dissipation System 72V Dielectric-Bias System (DBS) saturates and polarizes insulation, greatly reducing digital-audio distortion RCA Plugs: Cold-Welded Direct-Silver Plated Pure "Red Copper", RCA or XLR Jacket Colour: Black polyester/Black nylon braid