Advantage Interconnect Specifications

Advantage Audio Interconnects – General Description

The Advantage Interconnects are a simple refined design using the best materials and construction techniques we have been able to develop. Extensive listening evaluations were used to finalize their design. This included providing samples to Alliance Audio Customers and Friends. This qualified the compatibility of the interconnects with the widest possible range of equipment, music sources and perceptions of music reproduction performance.

All Alliance Audio designs are based on using the best designs, construction, layout, parts and materials to provide exceptional long term listening enjoyment, reliability and appearance….offering, in effect, “lifetime” products that will stand the test of time.

The Alliance Audio Interconnects are a hand braided Litz (Litzendraught) design. The positive and negative conductors are the same length and cross section. They are not shielded. In our experience cable shielding, often required in the harsh environment of studio applications, induces energy storage that absorbs the leading edge of an audio signal. This stored energy is added to the trailing edge of the audio signal introducing distortion artifacts.

User’s invariably identify the low level detail resolution, sound stage and lack of noise of the Advantage cables as a major improvement over the interconnects they were using. We feel that the lack of shielding, as well as the careful hand braiding construction are the two major factors contributing to this performance.

We have tested every type of conductor used in audio wire and cable. You may have heard or read about “Long Crystal” or “Single Crystal” wire. To our knowledge there are only three factories in the World capable of manufacturing wire with this process. The process invented in Japan, is correctly identified as Continuous Cast Copper. We have been told this process is not currently used to manufacture silver wire. So far, it is the best conductor for accurate reproduction of music. We also use it for the internal wiring of our tube audio products.

We use copper content solder instead of silver. In our designs, the use of silver solder adds a grain or edge to the upper midrange frequencies. Definitely not musical and very pleasant over time.

The plugs used are sourced from Vampire, we feel their products offer the best sound performance and reliability. They also allow us to install damping elements in the plug to reduce mechanical resonance.

Advantage Audio Interconnects – Material and Construction Specifications

Braided Cover – A fine polyester monofilament sleeving is used to cover the wire conductors. We prefer polyester as opposed to cloth. It will not absorb contaminates and has better dielelctric performance. It also provides better abrasion resistance. It’s added stiffness helps the installed interconnects form large radius bends and helps keep the wire conductors from forming kinks.

Conductor Material - 25.5 AWG Continuos Cast Copper wire. This manufacturing process virtually eliminates the impurities present in standard oxygen free copper wire. A heated molding process eliminates any drawing or extrusion processes and yields a conductor with a smooth void free surface. More importantly this process creates a conductor with a crystal structure over 70 meters long. Standard drawn or extruded copper wire has from fifty to four thousand crystals per meter. The continuos casting process also eliminates gas contamination of the conductor.

Connectors – Vampire 800 series RCA plugs are used. Their quality construction and finish ensure long term reliability. Their body shell design allows us to ensure all wire conductor lengths are exactly the same. Our evaluations determined having all conductor lengths the same was an important element in accurate music reproduction.

The Advantage Series I Interconnects use the Vampire 808 RCA plugs. These plugs are machined from brass. The brass is then silver-plated followed by a hard gold finish.

The Advantage Series II Interconnects use the Vampire 800C RCA plugs. These plugs are machined from OFC copper. There is no sub plating and the hard gold finish is directly applied to the copper.

The only difference between the Series I and Series II Interconnects is the use of the OFC copper RCA plug. The difference in sound performance is not subtle. The 800C superior performance is probably due to use of OFC copper as the base material. However in all our wire evaluations we hear added distortion and noise artifacts whenever a conductor is plated. Since the OFC plugs do not require silver plating, we feel this adds to its sonic superiority.

Construction – Four strands of 25.5 AWG Continuos Cast copper are hand “Litz” braided. Two conductors form the positive conductors and two form the negative conductors. Our evaluations have shown that having identical conductor cross section areas was very important to sound performance. Passing the Ac signal along positive and negative conductors of different areas, a condition commonly found in coaxial interconnect construction is not an effective approach.

Our interconnects are not shielded. We have never encountered an application where this was required. Whenever we added a copper foil shield, the interconnects performance suffered. This is probably due to energy storage, eddy currents and electromagnetic field interference.

True “Litz” or Litzendraht Wire requires a braid configuration where each conductor is braided from the outside to the center of the “bundle”. It may be possible to machine braid Litz Wire effectively. All samples we have seen form the conductors with tight radius bends. Our testing showed hand braided Litz Wire with gentle loosely braided bends was superior.

We did evaluate pseudo Litz Wire configurations. This manufacturing method spiral twist insulated wires instead of braiding them. The sound performance was significantly degraded. We think this is primarily due to the fact that spiral twist construction is more prone to mechanical resonance.

Damping Material – Dots of EAR Isodamp SD are used to dampen the RCA plugs. A special low temperature microcrystaline wax is worked into the Litz braided conductor “bundle” to dampen the mechanical resonance of the conductors.

Insulation Material – To reduce energy storage and capacitance a very thin coating of insulation is sprayed on the conductor. Two coats are applied to eliminate any porosity in the coating. The total thickness of the insulation coating is 0.0005” thick. The material has a low dielectric constant and the superior adhesion of the spray process keeps contaminates from oxidizing the conductor’s outer surface.

Solder – Chimera Laboratories Copper Content Solder is used for all terminations. Silver bearing solder is not suitable with Continuos Cast Copper wire. It adds a glare to the upper midrange that creates long term listening fatigue.

Solder Seal – To prevent any long-term degradation of performance, the solder terminations are coated with a clear gas-tight coating to prevent oxidation of the solder joint. The coating is free of any formaldehyde and toulene and its ingredients include Vitamin E and panthenol. This coating also dampens the mechanical resonance present at a solder joint.

Advantage Interconnects and Speaker Cable Audio Interconnects Audio Cable, Wire, Solder – DIY and Ready to Use Cable