AudioQuest WEL Signature Interconnects (pair) | 1m [RCA]

Setting Incredible New Standards in Cable Design

AudioQuest's WEL Signature Interconnects rank among the world's very best. Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) conductors shielded by FEP air tubes guarantee minimal loss and distortion. Further, the conductors are arranged in AudioQuest's Triple-Balanced Geometry to minimize wire/shield interaction for the blackest, most silent backgrounds imaginable. The 72V Dielectric Bias System (DBS) ensures incredible transparency and dynamics, far above any industry standards.

Named in honor of AudioQuest's founder and CEO, William E. Low, the WEL Signature line represents the sum total of the company's numerous innovations. From the brilliant metals that make up the conductors and the FEP air tubes that insulate them, to the unique geometry and AudioQuest's patented DBS system, these cables simply deliver a performance second to none.

"[A] single pair of WEL Signature interconnects produced obvious improvement in terms of soundstage size, image specificity, and transient speed. The entire presentation was bigger and more bold -- "shock and awe," to use an overused phrase...AudioQuest's William E. Low Signature interconnects and speaker cables are the most complete-sounding audio cables I've heard, passing the signal with the greatest amount of musical energy intact. Get the picture?"
-- Marc Mickelson, SoundStage!, Feb. 2008

Solid Core Conductors
Strand interaction is the single greatest cause of distortion in cable, and one of the easiest to avoid. Whenever current crosses the oxidized contact between bare strands, the signal will be altered. In addition, the magnetic fields of the various strands are constantly interacting, causing confusion (smearing) and causing the contact pressure between strands to be constantly modulated. AudioQuest’s solid core conductors are the complete solution to this problem.

The sheer amount of metal used in an audio cable is much less important than the quality. Since the surface of a conductor has 100% current density at all frequencies, the surface most defines the sound quality of the whole conductor. AudioQuest’s Perfect Surface metals start with very high purity copper or silver, which minimize distortion caused by grain boundaries that exist with any metal conductor. These are then drawn and annealed though a novel proprietary process which creates an exceptionally soft silver or copper conductor with an astonishingly smooth and uncontaminated surface. Extreme high-purity solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) is the ultimate embodiment of this conductor technology.

Conductor material quality makes a world of difference. Impurities in the conducting material cause a harshness signature similar to strand interaction. The best materials have very long grain structures and superior contact between the grains - all of that going on inside every single strand! The quality of a conductive path is most defined by a conductor’s surface. The surface is a meeting of the area of greatest current density inside the conductor, and of the greatest external magnetic field density. The conductor surface is like a rail-guide for the entire energy envelope.

Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene Air-Tubes (FEP)
Air is the best insulation for audio signals because it does not absorb and later release energy. The FEP Air-tubes used in several of the WEL Signature products have an inner diameter much larger than the outer diameter of the metal inside. Air becomes the primary insulation!

Noise-Dissipation System
Noise, in the form of RF energy, is the mortal enemy of good sound. Our environment is more contaminated with RF than ever due to the huge proliferation of RF radiating devices like computers and mobile phones. Traditionally RF energy is routed to ground through the use of a “shield” consisting of either a braided metal or foil. This “draining” of RF to ground causes a modulation of the ground plane, which in turn causes a form of signal modulation.

The Noise-Dissipation System greatly reduces the effect of this modulation. A combination of metal and carbon-loaded synthetics prevents most RFI from ever reaching the equipment's ground plane. The carbon-loaded synthetics have the ability to turn some of this RF energy to heat, to very effectively “lose” this energy. Metal, used in a passive manner, is used to act as another method of dissipating and reducing the incoming RF. This results in dramatically less modulation of the signal, less distortion and better sound.

Cold-Weld System
Making the perfect connection between conductor and connector is not a simple process. There are three accepted ways to make the connection between a cable and an RCA or XLR plug. Solder is by far the most common method of connection. Resistance welding is clearly superior to even the best solder. However, just as solder introduces an inferior layer of differing material, causing distortion and reflections, so does welding. The alloy created at the interface of cable and plug is far superior to solder, but it is still an undesirable intermediary layer. After so much attention to the quality of the conductor and connector, the contact system deserves just as much consideration.
AudioQuest’s Cold-Weld System solves this problem with 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 silver impregnated paste.

Signature RCA and XLR Connectors
The Signature Interconnect RCA and XLR connector’s 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 Signature connector designs was maximizing sonic performance and making the connectors as sonically invisible as the cable.

Signature RCA connectors are precision machined from 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, Signature XLR wire bays and contact pins are also machined from HC-OFC Billet, heavily Silver plated and secured into a Delrin bushing.

Dielectric-Bias System
In a very similar manner to the way a compass needle aligns itself to the Earth’s magnetic poles, the AudioQuest Dielectric-Bias System (DBS) featured on all WEL Signature products causes the molecules of a cable’s insulation to align themselves relative to an electrostatic field. A 72v DBS battery-pack attached to inner and outer DBS field elements creates a strong and stable field. This keeps a cable's insulation fully polarized all the time, something no level of signal can come close to accomplishing. The result is considerably more transparency and dynamics. Because DBS battery packs are attached when the cables are assembled, they do not require an additional run-in period. Because there is no “load” on the batteries, they will last for years. A test button and LED allow for occasional verification of battery charge.
Electrostatically unorganized insulation causes non-linear phase error; different amounts of time delay for different parts of the signal. Polarized (aligned) insulation eliminates almost all of this distortion for much smoother and easier sound from a quiet, black background. Information and emotion come through as never before.