Pair comes with brand new, unused DBS packs. Pure Silver cable wire.

Solid Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) Conductors
Obsidian uses all Perfect-Surface Silver (PSS) conductors, minimizing distortion and greatly increasing clarity compared to all other conducting materials. 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. PSS's transparency is made possible by applying Perfect-Surface technology to extreme high-purity solid silver, which further minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries, which exist within any metal conductor.

Dielectric-Bias System (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1)
Insulation is an electrical barrier and also a "dielectric" because it is inside the conductor's magnetic field. All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it causes different amounts of delay for different frequencies and energy levels, 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. Saturated (full) insulation absorbs and therefore releases less out-of-phase energy. Minimizing nonlinear time delays results in clearer sound emerging from a "blacker" background. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

Double Star-Quad 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 affect the sound. The Double Star-Quad construction of Obsidian allows for magnetic autonomy of each quad-conductor section and true double-bi-wire performance in a single, attractive cable. The result is significantly better dynamic contrast and information intelligibility than if the same conductors were run in parallel.

Carbon-Based Multi-Layer Noise-Dissipation and Crosstalk-Dissipation System
The negative conductors in Obsidian 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 improved dimensionality that comes whenever RF garbage is reduced in an audio circuit. Obsidian uses Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation on its positive conductors because air absorbs next to no energy, and Polyethylene is low-loss and has a benign distortion profile. Thanks to all the air in Foamed-PE, it causes much less of the out-of-focus effect common to other materials.

Spread-Spectrum Technology (SST)
Any single size or shape of a conductor has a specific distortion profile. Even though radially symmetrical conductors (solid or tubular) have the fewest discontinuities, any particular size does have a sonic signature. SST is a method for significantly reducing the awareness of these character flaws by using a precise combination of different size conductors. The four different SST-determined conductor sizes used in Obsidian allow an exceptionally clear, clean, and dynamic sound.

Bi-Wiring Ability
When possible, running separate conductors or separate cables to the treble and bass halves of a speaker will considerably reduce distortion. Bi-wiring reduces distortion by keeping the large magnetic fields caused by bass energy out of the treble cable, allowing these delicate upper frequencies to travel a less-disturbed path. Although Obsidian is an ideal full-range cable, it can also be used as a double pair for maximum benefit from bi-wiring. Obsidian has also been designed to make it possible to single bi-wire. The four conductors per polarity have been chosen and arranged so that they may be divided into two groups, allowing Obsidian to be prepared with four connections on the speaker end.

Hanging Silver Terminations
Obsidian features AudioQuest's Hanging-Silver 1000 Series bananas. These plugs are made using a Hanging Silver Directly Over Pure Red Copper process in which the bananas are submerged ("hung") into a vat of extreme-purity silver, resulting in a very thick Direct-Silver Plate. No intermediary performance-degrading materials (such as nickel or alloy) are used.

Application notes: Because listening tests have revealed that conventional metal breakouts cause distortion by disrupting the magnetic fields surrounding the (comparatively) high current carried on speaker-cable conductors, Obsidian's ABS breakouts are non-metallic for superior performance. Because all audio cables are directional, all AudioQuest audio cables are tested and controlled for correct directionality. Obsidian's ABS breakouts are labeled "Speaker End" or "Amp End," and the best sonic experience will result from using Obsidian in accordance with the labels at each breakout.