They are essentially using litz conductors, that are separated by air. So not actually an air dielectric. The only cable that actually suspends the conductor in air is Nordost cables, that’s precisely why they silver plate them and that’s to prevent oxidization.
The best time to be an audiophile is when you are young. You will get to experience all the sound. By the time people can afford audiophile quality equipment their own hearing will have deteriorated so they are not hearing up to 20kHz but a much smaller part of the frequency spectrum.
True. Also people invest more with age to compensate for said sensatory losses. I’m also confident we will have ways of completely reversing hearing loss (and tinnitus) within the next decades. Great progress has already been made in research.
Most adult humans don't hear many sounds exceeding 15000-17000 Hz through the use of their ears. However, the human brain still receives and decodes huge amounts of data from sounds all the way up to at least 35000 Hz and maybe even beyond! These movements of air affects the cells of your skin as well as all the bones in your body and are being transmitted to your brain as...(surprise!) ....sounds and then decoded just like the sounds you hear with your ears. Of course if you only listen to redbook CDs that only carry information up to 20000 Hz or your loudspeakers can't go higher than e.g. 22000 Hz then you'll never know what you're missing out on anyway. The same applies to ultra deep sounds that also reach your brain even though most people's ears may most likely not be able to hear these sounds.
@@andersladsholm81 while it is true that some individuals are able to hear ultrasounds, it's a relatively rare occurrence. for those individuals it's an unpleasant experience since some appliances produce such noises. back to music. the brain can't decode signals that are not received thru the proper channels. sound needs to arrive to the auditory center thru the right 'interface' and that is the auditory nerves. these nerves only fire when the inner ear detects sound. sound can and does reach the inner ear thru bone conduction (as you mentioned, not just thru air in the ear canal). this is a well documented process in mammals. your skin can't hear just like it can't see. for those who can hear ultrasounds, there isn't any usable information in the recorded music. very few recordings are mixed and mastered w/ attention to ultrasounds, mostly experiments... you would need people who are able to hear those sounds thru out the production chain, recording, mixing, mastering engineers and that's simply not the case. i have a few high resolution files that contain data above 20kHz and a software (music scope) that can transpose frequency ranges. when i select a ultrasound range and pitch it lower so i can hear it there isn't any usable sound there. you mostly hear reverberations and resonances produced by high-hats, cymbals, etc, and they're at a drastically attenuated level. so even if the sounds would be something 'pleasant' or even interesting, being 30-40dB below the rest of the music renders them inaudible.. would be like trying to hear the fridge while blasting music thru the stereo system.
Me mate down the local say that if these cables from these company make such a difference that can be heard, then them companies should do blind listening tests with their cables and other cables and show everyone the results, then we will see if their cables really do make the difference them said they does.
I use DIY interconnect cables in my system. Just a simple solid core naked cable inside a teflon tube in helix config so you say it's air insulated. :D
Thanks Terry. I'm not one for creating reasons to look down my nose at cables (because I can't afford them, or whatever). I find it very interesting to see how each manufacturer designs and builds their cables and would love to be in a position to try cables out, every now and again.
Good products. I have two of their HDMI cables. Good value. But, I really wanted to thank them for a reissue of Tom Rotella Bands audiophile recording that was on D.M.P. Records in the 1980s. It is a DD recording (direct to digital) most recordings using the Spars code like AAD or let's say DDD. Somehow this reissue is much improved over the amazing original. They did one better: they released it for the first time on vinyl. I have yet to crack that open yet. Waiting for the right moment. Great video.
Terrific video! Very interesting technology and very labor intensive, looks like everyone takes great care in what they’re doing. I’d be interested to see how they sound compared to other cables. Keep up the great content!
I have fairly top range Inakustik speaker and rca inteconnects but I think it's a previous much stiffer range and I picked them as most lively and detailed for my system. The stiffness is a pain in rear connection space and in routing in general so I noticed at a HiFi show recently they are now very flexible and I wonder it that's to please the market rather than for best sound. The one thing I advise anyone new to using cables to improve your sound is dearer is not always better and you need to try on your equipment and don't just think a great cable will work great in all systems. Always trust your ears first and foremost not reviewers and salesmen. EDIT Addon - the one aspect of my cables I am not sure of is whether the Bass isn't a bit light on. Nonetheless I enjoy the detail and sparkle so much I don't care if they are.
There are a couple of things to mention: they are using air as isolator to eliminate plastics, but there is a non conductive (possible plastic) core inside the wire. Another thing; the terminals are crimped with 1.5 tons to make lossless contact, but there is a moving screw joint... I'm not convinced at all about the benefits of this cable.
i feel like its just an advanced way to do a twisted pair with some. in networking twisted pairs have been stable for quite a while because they minimise crosstalk and probably other important stuff.
@@TheSimonarne I'm not commenting on these audio cables - just writing here to clarify that these do no operate as twisted pair network wires, which are in many ways more advanced. Maybe this explanation will be of interest to someone who wants to know how a twisted pair system works. In a true twisted pair, two insulated wires are wrapped tightly around each other as they travel the length of the cable. Then, the same signal (assume the signal is alternating positive and negative like a wiggling audio signal or any other changing signal) is sent on each wire of the pair but with inverted polarity from the other wire, meaning that one wire's signal is going positive while the other is going equally negative. On the receiving end, there is a circuit known as a differential amplifier, which subtracts two signals and produces an output result. One of each of the wires of the twisted pair is fed into an input of the differential amplifier. Let's say that wire A (at some point in time) has a voltage of +1 volt. Then, wire B of the pair will have the inverse at that time: -1 volt. The diff. amp will subtract these two values as its output: (+1v) - (-1v) = +2v With inverted inputs, the output wave (wiggling signal) of the amplifier will look exactly like the input, but be doubled in size (which is just a gain increase)! But the magic is this: Any noise (I.e. radio interference noise, or other electronic noise) that is picked up by the cable along its length will be received equally by both wires in the twisted pair because they are wound so tightly together. This noise on the cables will NOT be inverted - it will be exactly the same on each wire. When this same noise signal is sent through the differential amplifier, the noise will be removed from the output! For example if wire A has +.5v of noise at some time, then wire B will also have + .5v of noise. (.5v) - (.5v) = 0! So using this scheme, any noise picked up in a long cable run is cancelled.
All irrelevant theoretical consideration as is the construction detail used as promo. For a true listener rather than tyre kicking time passer all that matters is how they sound in your system (aside from WAF).
@82 Levy Good luck trying to convince people who spent a few hundred grand on their high end audio system to use some electrical cable from home depot. What you're saying is like telling someone who just bought a high end Pagani Zonda to just put budget tires on it, because you will save some money. If you think an expensive cable makes no difference, maybe you should just convince everyone in high end audio to just abandon Tube and Class A and just use Class D because there is simply no difference, right? ;) People will buy this cable for the same reason why you put high end tires on a Pagani Zonda. The budget tires and the electrical cable from home depot will still do their job.
also they removed the inner core of the wire in order to prevent higher resistance on the high end (the skin the mentioned), but they just made the gauge smaller, the strand still has a skin on it. and according to them higher frequencies use the skin only and the low frequencies use the whole cross section? ok
The best compliment for them would be that the cable ADDS nothing to the sound . Would like to see how well it passes a square wave signal , analogous to transient response .
@@biketech60 Even the worse cable will pass a square wave audio signal unchanged, all is low frequency. I use air dieelectric cable at SHF frequencies above 1GHz.
Is pricing based on the air quality so cables with “air” from say Beijing or NYC cost a lot less than those with “air” from Tasmania or the Himalayas. And what if the assembler had blood sausage and sauerkraut for breakfast, are they allowed to work on the cables?
Would make for an interesting comparison test. Baked beans from A vs baked beans from B etc. Just leave my youngest niece out of it; there is no known cure for her...
Very informative, thank you for the great video. I'm not a big believer in expensive speaker cables or 3rd party power cables, but like you said early on in your video, form your own opinion. At the end of the day, its what sounds best to you, in your room, spend your money on a system that suits your tastes. Love this hobby.
Air is nice as isolation but not constant, regarding temperature, pressure and moisture levels. What about a vacuum cable? I know, not the easiest because it will require a vacuum pump (noisy) but insulation wise it will be the highest you can achieve.
I am sure that technically, there is a difference. But the real question everyone should ask themselves is : Do I hear that difference? I think there's no clear "general" answer to this, as there are as many ears/tastes/biases as there are humans on the planet. If you think you can get better sound you should check everything in this order (correct me if I'm wrong) : - listening room acoustics (often neglected in a lot of rooms I saw in people's homes) - audio source (spotify would kill all the rest including your ears) - speakers -preamp/poweramp / integrated - cables My experience tells me that except you have 20ft long cables or more, it will change nearly nothing (audible for me at least and some of my friends). Of course good cables are important but is it really worth the price? It all depends on the motivational value it has for you and of course, on your wallet ;)
I think as long as the manufacturer is not making false claims then people are free to spend their cash however they choose to. Some people will buy a BMW for $150,000 only for it to be worth $60,000 5 years later. If someone wants to spend tens of thousands on their sound system, and they can afford it, then go for it. We only live once and are a long time dead.
Great Video! One question popped to my mind. Assuming that those cables are great...how does the "crappy" cabling before the power socket in the wall affect the sound? I think it is fair to assume, that most people's home have the cabling, which was put into walls when the house was built. It would be great to have a video about how to tackle this issue. Thanks, and keep the fantastic videos coming. Greetings from Estonia!
There is a really interesting video posted recently about how electricity works, it doesnt flow through a cable like water down a pipe there is a circuit interaction where much more than just the basics is happening. Other people jumped on the band wagon to dissprove this theory of course because that is how people are when certain beliefs are challenged but it alludes to why the cable closest to the component matters most. Here is a link to the video ruclips.net/video/bHIhgxav9LY/видео.html There has been follow ups since
@@PursuitPerfectSystem A couple of hundred years after it's discovery it's remarkable how little consensus there is about how electricity works. It is a "known thing" in theory, yet however deep down the rabbit hole you go, it seems you will still find experts arguing about it :D
Looks nice, I'd also like to try Litz cables. But probably not spending as much as these things are likely to cost :) Also you just know that I will use these with a 3" cube speaker just to make it look silly ;p
Another fascinating, informative & unique video. Thanks Terry! No mention of the price of those 'Air Insulated' cables? I'm sure the Silver versions will be more than 10% of most people systems budget. But it's nice to know where the state of the art in cable manufacturing is. It makes me wonder if I could just strip some 15Amp solid core mains cable, varnish & support the cables on wooden blocks... Maybe that's something for another video... Hehe 😜
i'm 58 so my hearing just wouldn't allow me to hear any benefit, my own feeling is the same as your's apart from i'd go for 35 amp solid core, one solid cable without signal losing strands and a good solid connector at each end, given the price I might well try 35 amp, you never know it might make a difference I can hear haha
Why cannot one company simply show the waveform for the sound before and after their cables.., because they’ll be the same. Why can’t they have blindfolded people decide what sounds better? They’ll only win 50% of the time
What waveform are you expecting to see, the waveform that would be different is from the speakers and the interpretation of that sound is what people use to make a buying decision. The whole blind testing thing for HiFi is bullshit because the only way to remove bias for listening to HiFi is to never see and never know what your HiFi system is, as soon as you know or see any of the Hifi your biased to how it will sound. But who in their right mind is ever going to do that, noone. Doing one blind test does not prove anything and does not make you exempt from bias, everyone is biased all the time so blind testing for HiFi is pointless. So you might say measurements are objective, nope they bias you just as much, probably more to how something will sound, because HiFi sound quality is always a subjective thing.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem You illustrate bias of the placebo effect, that which can be applied to not only the system but the cables. You could set up a blind test as you say by removing any visuals or prior knowledge of the system to be used. But I'm not knocking the placebo effect; it works and in many cases is a good experience.
How do you define a variation of happy on a graph? Some things arent so simply defined. A group of Sounds have almost infinite variables depending on their conditions
Hi Terry, was thinking I can catch you here, little bit off topic. What subwoofer you currently love to use for music and movie duties with your setup? I know you prefer Dirac bass management and also RELs, but for some reason REL is advocating against room correction while high pass connection is used for some reason I cannot fathom.
Nice video, Terry. Irrespective of what people may think of possible differences in the sound quality of cables, there is no doubt that Inakustik's designs are rooted in solid science, and that their manufacturing is high class. I own Reference 2404 AIR speaker cables and interconnects, which are a step below the flagship 4004. They work very well within my system (Circle Labs A200 integrated amp; FinkTeam KIM speakers; CEC TL-5 transport). I paid €1500 used for the speaker cables, which some might argue is way too much, but is nevertheless a pittance relative to many high-end cables. They are a bit sensitive to proximity to power cables, but are light and easy to work with in terms of routing.
Great stuff, the 20 year old QED genesis report which is searchable and a good read, also says how important cable insulation and lay is. Air is the best insulator and Pvc insulation is really bad, it has high capacitance and hence smooths out all the fine detail.
That would be useful, though I think many of these companies claim that it's measurements other than R, L and C that define how their cables sound. Personally I'm agnostic as to whether they do or they don't but I don't see why you can't mic up a speaker with a cable, record it, then swap that out for another cable, record that and analyse the differences in the two recordings via computer, though...
The best wire for speakers and interconects is pure silver 0.6 mil solid core cotton insulated wire with quality silver RCA plugs for the interconnect, and bare connection for the speaker wire. Anyone contemplating buying "high end" placebo cables should buy and listen to these first! One more thing, as electricity flows on the outside of a wire, silver will keep its sonic properties because silver oxide is still a conductor of electricity whereas when copper oxidizes (as it will on exposure to air) is a semi conductor and sounds awful.
I’m old enough to remember cables “insulated with light”. I think I’ll suspend stripped Romex suspended on golf tees using “room air” as the ultimate insulate.😂 Uh, yeah
Great vid Terry but I don’t get the Air tech theory. If each strand of the conductor is coated, surely no air can touch it anyway? I could understand if each strand was bare and they could not touch each other conductor in the plastic lattice framework. The dialectric is the coating covering each strand surely?
If you think about it everything that surrounds the conductors has a dielectric constant, so it stores electrical charge, all these have is an ultra fine coating of lacquer that is it
Amazing designers and factory the usual anti cable comments below you need a certain high standard of play back equipment to hear the differences in cables, stands etc but if you cant hear any improvement in your home dont buy its that simple but go to a dealer and do a test there wont cost you anything
@@PursuitPerfectSystemi use referenz LS1102. Sounds great. Doesnt make sense if change to air because my speakers just entry level. But i bet air will be sounds amazing
Thanks, great video… 👍 the guys from InAkustik did not mentioned, that they involve for simple jobs disabled people to give them the chance to feel useful. That‘s - except of the really good quality of their cables, I tested it in comparison to other producers - the reason, why I‘m using InAkustik cinch- and speaker cables for years… And I’m absolutely happy with it. Best regards from Hamburg/Germany 👋
I have a pair of bi-amped/bi-wired McIntosh MC312's running 10awg tri-core briaded copper that I paid about $60/meter for. To me it sounds amazing. I'd love to be able to try some ultra-precious cable like in-akustik, but a run of speaker cable would cost nearly as much as one of my amps. Or more, hard to find exact prices. So it's down to, do you prioritize something like this, or do you take that 8-10 grand and put it in a preamp, a clock, or somewhere else you KNOW you'll hear the difference. I think you pretty much have to be "done" with the component side of your system before you can even get your head around spending that kind of money on cable. Until then it just feels bizarre to even think about. I love seeing things like this, thanks for the video, everybody in this video clearly cares about audio. And that alone makes me happy. Just reminds me there really is no limit to how far you can go in hi-fi. Bob Ludwig, the mastering engineer, has speaker cable that is cryogenically cooled with a power supply as big as a mini fridge that sits in its own room, reportedly paid hundreds of thousands for it. So now I'm going back to listening to my regular old 10 guage :)
I think the design is beautiful but I’m not a believer that cables make much of any difference to sound quality beyond providing a clean noise free signal.
If those wires are covered with some lacquer they hardly can be described as wires with an air insulation. Does that lacquer have better dielectric properties than PTFE (Teflon) insulation?
Thats a very interesting point. Of course, the layer of lacquer is very thin, and its main purpose is stopping oxidation. So the Dielectric value between opposite polarity wires must be close to that of air. To me, the Inakustik way of doing the Air cable is interesting, but still, they primarily focus on reducing capacity. It does not look like they do much to reduce inductance. A “Kimber-like” structure would do that to a greater extend, when opposite polarities cross each other, with a minimum of parallel cross section. As a former cable manufacturer, we did bare silver conductors in hermetically sealed air tubes. And to my experience the silver did oxidate to a very small amount, and then stopped as oxygen was not allowed to circulate. I still have 15 year old cables laying around, with see through PTFE tubing, showing shiny silver conductors inside. Wondering if any measured values are available for theese cables 🙂
But then it is no longer “real air” as a dielectric but conductors are surrounded by lacquer and also another lacquer in the core as wave guide. Many of us knows Teflon < Air as dielectric , so whatever the lacquer material, it is not real effective as air This design is nothing new but only a fancy way to construct cables? I found only Zensati cables with their twisted flat conductors have real “air” dielectric design with at least more 90% surrounded by air
I kind of thought there might be some merit in avoiding the plastic because of static charges, but transmission lines and skin effect for audio frequency AC? Nah! If you think the plastic is a problem just get some meaty pieces of bare copper conductor. Solid core or stranded? You decide! String them on ceramic electric fence insulators if you have to. No plastic insulation - dirt cheap! After all, unless you get to concert PA system power levels, speaker signal currents are SELV.
Owned the air series speaker cable and interconnect before, very airy opened cables. Only problem IMO is the price and performance ratio of Inakustik is relatively average vs other cabling brands I heard nearly no different of lower line LS1603 speaker cables vs cheaper cables until I upgraded to next line Air series. The built quality and construction are top class however
Vacuum is even better than air as an insulator, plus the laquer on the individual wires isn't that the main insulator ? All companies have to have some marketing slogan to differentiate themselves from the compettition. However all that aside the try before you buy is great for all cable skeptics out there. I don't se a US distributor.
Just found the prices. Wait for it. Drum roll. The reference air speaker cable is between 19k and 35k. Damn. So if people say spend between 10 and 20 percent of their high fi on cables, that means my hifi needs to be around 1 million pounds. That price was for one pair and doesn't include interconnects.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem you'll have to excuse me Terry. I find your channel brilliant. Especially when you were doing the multiple speaker reviews. But I can't help but think that it gets a little silly at times and I cannot resist a dig. I hope the website I was looking at got the prices wrong, but even at 5k. Who can afford the power cables, interconnects and speaker cables. This kind of money is only for the rich to contemplate.
There are a lot of people in the world for whom prices like that are pretty insignificant. There are many suburbs in my city where the average house price is about 5 to 10 million dollars. If you think about it, if people even with average white collar jobs are sitting on property worth that sort of money then they can easily free up some dollars to spend on luxury goods. Admittedly 35k on speaker cables seems a bit over the top.
This is great Terry, really interesting content that goes beyond 'check out this new box', though I like that content too! Its a shame that describing what you hear and your subjective opinions can see you branded as 'the enemy' in some circles, and this is one of the drawbacks of online content, people wish to take position on an imaginary 'side'. Like most of us, im on the side of music. I have a lot of qualifications in electronics and sound studio design, so solid science background. None the less, 50 years or so of being into audio has shown me conclusively that cables can and will sound different. Science exists to explain the observable, not dictate what you can observe, and life experiences have abley demonstrated what I can observe, repeatedly. So im not averse to cables, but the prices of these mean they are well beyond anything I would consider for my poor systems. But that doesnt stop their construction and methodology being incredibly interesting!
Disappointed not to see measurements - frequency, harmonic in audio spectrum to quantify the differences claimed. This would be a lot better / supportive if it showed the differences / advantages of these designs.
This is a factory tour video not a detailed technical video, if your interested in buying the cable and have a specific interest in more technical information contact them and ask for it. Otherwise its difficult to be disappointed by something that was never promised in the first place.
Now we are waiting for sound comparison videos using their speaker and rca cable range. They should provide you with sets of cables for you to record videos with all their cables. I for one bought my audioquest power cable listening to your power cable video with headphones. And that was a perfect choice for me so I bought a second one.
They charge up to 30.000 Euro for one cable. Im really sure that good cables make a difference.. but at some point i cant accept the price anymore. I dont believe that the material for on 30k cable is even close to 1k Euro. So where do the 29k went?
Skin effect is applied in one laquered solid copper thread not the whole cable. So in this point of view i think this speaker cable design is pointless.
Maybe watch the video again, that is just one detail as to why one part of the Air technology is designed the way it is, just one and you label the cable as pointless, seems like an extreme take on it? As I said watch it again as there is a lot of information to take in and seems like you missed a lot of it
No question of quality from Germany as very Passanante about what Thay build but. 3,577.35 US Dollar and marginal difference between a good quality occ copper let me try before I buy :]
Terry if you didn’t listen to the product then what’s the point of commenting about it? I get that you’re impressed with the company ideas and processes but if you can’t listen to then what the hell?
You're going to need suitable cables between the nearest nuclear power plant and the factory come this winter without gas from Russia. Length, water resistance and political inductance maybe being key characteristics...
They are essentially using litz conductors, that are separated by air. So not actually an air dielectric. The only cable that actually suspends the conductor in air is Nordost cables, that’s precisely why they silver plate them and that’s to prevent oxidization.
The best time to be an audiophile is when you are young. You will get to experience all the sound. By the time people can afford audiophile quality equipment their own hearing will have deteriorated so they are not hearing up to 20kHz but a much smaller part of the frequency spectrum.
True. Also people invest more with age to compensate for said sensatory losses. I’m also confident we will have ways of completely reversing hearing loss (and tinnitus) within the next decades. Great progress has already been made in research.
Most adult humans don't hear many sounds exceeding 15000-17000 Hz through the use of their ears. However, the human brain still receives and decodes huge amounts of data from sounds all the way up to at least 35000 Hz and maybe even beyond! These movements of air affects the cells of your skin as well as all the bones in your body and are being transmitted to your brain as...(surprise!) ....sounds and then decoded just like the sounds you hear with your ears. Of course if you only listen to redbook CDs that only carry information up to 20000 Hz or your loudspeakers can't go higher than e.g. 22000 Hz then you'll never know what you're missing out on anyway. The same applies to ultra deep sounds that also reach your brain even though most people's ears may most likely not be able to hear these sounds.
@@andersladsholm81 while it is true that some individuals are able to hear ultrasounds, it's a relatively rare occurrence. for those individuals it's an unpleasant experience since some appliances produce such noises.
back to music. the brain can't decode signals that are not received thru the proper channels. sound needs to arrive to the auditory center thru the right 'interface' and that is the auditory nerves.
these nerves only fire when the inner ear detects sound. sound can and does reach the inner ear thru bone conduction (as you mentioned, not just thru air in the ear canal). this is a well documented process in mammals. your skin can't hear just like it can't see.
for those who can hear ultrasounds, there isn't any usable information in the recorded music. very few recordings are mixed and mastered w/ attention to ultrasounds, mostly experiments...
you would need people who are able to hear those sounds thru out the production chain, recording, mixing, mastering engineers and that's simply not the case.
i have a few high resolution files that contain data above 20kHz and a software (music scope) that can transpose frequency ranges.
when i select a ultrasound range and pitch it lower so i can hear it there isn't any usable sound there. you mostly hear reverberations and resonances produced by high-hats, cymbals, etc, and they're at a drastically attenuated level.
so even if the sounds would be something 'pleasant' or even interesting, being 30-40dB below the rest of the music renders them inaudible.. would be like trying to hear the fridge while blasting music thru the stereo system.
Great video series! 👍🏻
Thank you for this extremely revealing presentation of this German audiophile products.
Me mate down the local say that if these cables from these company make such a difference that can be heard, then them companies should do blind listening tests with their cables and other cables and show everyone the results, then we will see if their cables really do make the difference them said they does.
It is a very useful video especially for people who consider that cables are the least important component for any Fifi system.
this is interesting.. it's like wine appreciation.. the most obvious difference is price, followed by palate preference/discernment.
Nice to see Audiovector R6 Arreté are being used to gain a clear insight what the cables(and rest of the system) are doing.
I use DIY interconnect cables in my system. Just a simple solid core naked cable inside a teflon tube in helix config so you say it's air insulated. :D
Amazing video, thank you! Wow. Just incredible cable designs and the production process!
Germany geniality 🙏🏻🙏🏻 God bless you all beautiful human being
I wonder how they sound they look amazing. This was truly a benchmark video.
I enjoyed the video, thank Terry 🙏🏾
What a breath of fresh air! Something that is not made in China. Thanks!
EXCELENTE TRABAJO
MUCHAS GRACIAS
UN FUERTE ABRAZO DESDE SANTIAGO DE CHILE
Excellent
Really great video, Terry.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Very interesting and enjoyable thank you 👍
a pleasure to watch this video, great insights...
Thank you 👍🏾
Thanks Terry. I'm not one for creating reasons to look down my nose at cables (because I can't afford them, or whatever). I find it very interesting to see how each manufacturer designs and builds their cables and would love to be in a position to try cables out, every now and again.
Great Video Terry.
Cheers,, 🍻😎👍👍
Great video, thanks for this!
Good products. I have two of their HDMI cables. Good value. But, I really wanted to thank them for a reissue of Tom Rotella Bands audiophile recording that was on D.M.P. Records in the 1980s. It is a DD recording (direct to digital) most recordings using the Spars code like AAD or let's say DDD. Somehow this reissue is much improved over the amazing original. They did one better: they released it for the first time on vinyl. I have yet to crack that open yet. Waiting for the right moment. Great video.
Great Video, Thanks, very interesting to see how these are made.
Fantastic content. Thanks a lot.
Enjoyed the video thank you.
Terrific video! Very interesting technology and very labor intensive, looks like everyone takes great care in what they’re doing. I’d be interested to see how they sound compared to other cables. Keep up the great content!
Well done Terry excellent video I really enjoyed it.
Thanks Shane 👍
Thank you. Amazing tech.
Alles gut erklärt! 👍
..love your channel !
🤗👏👏👏 THANKS TERRY …FOR TAKING US ALONG…WE LOVE ❤️ LEARNING ABOUT HOW THINGS ARE MADE 🧐😍😍😍
I have fairly top range Inakustik speaker and rca inteconnects but I think it's a previous much stiffer range and I picked them as most lively and detailed for my system. The stiffness is a pain in rear connection space and in routing in general so I noticed at a HiFi show recently they are now very flexible and I wonder it that's to please the market rather than for best sound. The one thing I advise anyone new to using cables to improve your sound is dearer is not always better and you need to try on your equipment and don't just think a great cable will work great in all systems. Always trust your ears first and foremost not reviewers and salesmen. EDIT Addon - the one aspect of my cables I am not sure of is whether the Bass isn't a bit light on. Nonetheless I enjoy the detail and sparkle so much I don't care if they are.
Great review, thanks sir. Very informative 👌☺️
Great factory visit video!! I have been using In-akustik loudspeaker cable for more than a decade (Ken Wong)
Thanks Ken
There are a couple of things to mention: they are using air as isolator to eliminate plastics, but there is a non conductive (possible plastic) core inside the wire. Another thing; the terminals are crimped with 1.5 tons to make lossless contact, but there is a moving screw joint... I'm not convinced at all about the benefits of this cable.
i feel like its just an advanced way to do a twisted pair with some. in networking twisted pairs have been stable for quite a while because they minimise crosstalk and probably other important stuff.
@@TheSimonarne I'm not commenting on these audio cables - just writing here to clarify that these do no operate as twisted pair network wires, which are in many ways more advanced. Maybe this explanation will be of interest to someone who wants to know how a twisted pair system works.
In a true twisted pair, two insulated wires are wrapped tightly around each other as they travel the length of the cable. Then, the same signal (assume the signal is alternating positive and negative like a wiggling audio signal or any other changing signal) is sent on each wire of the pair but with inverted polarity from the other wire, meaning that one wire's signal is going positive while the other is going equally negative.
On the receiving end, there is a circuit known as a differential amplifier, which subtracts two signals and produces an output result. One of each of the wires of the twisted pair is fed into an input of the differential amplifier. Let's say that wire A (at some point in time) has a voltage of +1 volt. Then, wire B of the pair will have the inverse at that time: -1 volt. The diff. amp will subtract these two values as its output: (+1v) - (-1v) = +2v With inverted inputs, the output wave (wiggling signal) of the amplifier will look exactly like the input, but be doubled in size (which is just a gain increase)!
But the magic is this: Any noise (I.e. radio interference noise, or other electronic noise) that is picked up by the cable along its length will be received equally by both wires in the twisted pair because they are wound so tightly together. This noise on the cables will NOT be inverted - it will be exactly the same on each wire. When this same noise signal is sent through the differential amplifier, the noise will be removed from the output! For example if wire A has +.5v of noise at some time, then wire B will also have + .5v of noise. (.5v) - (.5v) = 0! So using this scheme, any noise picked up in a long cable run is cancelled.
All irrelevant theoretical consideration as is the construction detail used as promo. For a true listener rather than tyre kicking time passer all that matters is how they sound in your system (aside from WAF).
@82 Levy Good luck trying to convince people who spent a few hundred grand on their high end audio system to use some electrical cable from home depot. What you're saying is like telling someone who just bought a high end Pagani Zonda to just put budget tires on it, because you will save some money. If you think an expensive cable makes no difference, maybe you should just convince everyone in high end audio to just abandon Tube and Class A and just use Class D because there is simply no difference, right? ;)
People will buy this cable for the same reason why you put high end tires on a Pagani Zonda. The budget tires and the electrical cable from home depot will still do their job.
also they removed the inner core of the wire in order to prevent higher resistance on the high end (the skin the mentioned), but they just made the gauge smaller, the strand still has a skin on it. and according to them higher frequencies use the skin only and the low frequencies use the whole cross section? ok
Terry, really cool video. Hopefully, you'll get to try their product lines.
I would buy this for pure placebo. Gorgeous engineering…not sure if it adds that much to the sound but cool 😎 as heck!!
The best compliment for them would be that the cable ADDS nothing to the sound . Would like to see how well it passes a square wave signal , analogous to transient response .
Um I'm sure the cables gives the audio a lot of air.... lol
The hell you say.
@@biketech60 Even the worse cable will pass a square wave audio signal unchanged, all is low frequency. I use air dieelectric cable at SHF frequencies above 1GHz.
@@RennieAsh air pockets.
Is pricing based on the air quality so cables with “air” from say Beijing or NYC cost a lot less than those with “air” from Tasmania or the Himalayas. And what if the assembler had blood sausage and sauerkraut for breakfast, are they allowed to work on the cables?
Lol not literally air is just the way the space the wires apart lol
Would make for an interesting comparison test. Baked beans from A vs baked beans from B etc. Just leave my youngest niece out of it; there is no known cure for her...
Nice video, Terry. If I win the lottery, I know where to get my cables from. 😄
Very informative, thank you for the great video. I'm not a big believer in expensive speaker cables or 3rd party power cables, but like you said early on in your video, form your own opinion. At the end of the day, its what sounds best to you, in your room, spend your money on a system that suits your tastes. Love this hobby.
Air is nice as isolation but not constant, regarding temperature, pressure and moisture levels. What about a vacuum cable? I know, not the easiest because it will require a vacuum pump (noisy) but insulation wise it will be the highest you can achieve.
I am sure that technically, there is a difference. But the real question everyone should ask themselves is : Do I hear that difference? I think there's no clear "general" answer to this, as there are as many ears/tastes/biases as there are humans on the planet. If you think you can get better sound you should check everything in this order (correct me if I'm wrong) :
- listening room acoustics (often neglected in a lot of rooms I saw in people's homes)
- audio source (spotify would kill all the rest including your ears)
- speakers
-preamp/poweramp / integrated
- cables
My experience tells me that except you have 20ft long cables or more, it will change nearly nothing (audible for me at least and some of my friends). Of course good cables are important but is it really worth the price? It all depends on the motivational value it has for you and of course, on your wallet ;)
I think as long as the manufacturer is not making false claims then people are free to spend their cash however they choose to. Some people will buy a BMW for $150,000 only for it to be worth $60,000 5 years later. If someone wants to spend tens of thousands on their sound system, and they can afford it, then go for it. We only live once and are a long time dead.
This is false you cannot just buy a slightly older bmw for super cheap anymore
Agree 💯. Well said. You may piss of some BMW lovers. So be it.
Lacquer dielectric is amazing. Enamel is nice only in transformers.
Great Video! One question popped to my mind. Assuming that those cables are great...how does the "crappy" cabling before the power socket in the wall affect the sound? I think it is fair to assume, that most people's home have the cabling, which was put into walls when the house was built. It would be great to have a video about how to tackle this issue. Thanks, and keep the fantastic videos coming. Greetings from Estonia!
There is a really interesting video posted recently about how electricity works, it doesnt flow through a cable like water down a pipe there is a circuit interaction where much more than just the basics is happening. Other people jumped on the band wagon to dissprove this theory of course because that is how people are when certain beliefs are challenged but it alludes to why the cable closest to the component matters most.
Here is a link to the video ruclips.net/video/bHIhgxav9LY/видео.html
There has been follow ups since
@@PursuitPerfectSystem A couple of hundred years after it's discovery it's remarkable how little consensus there is about how electricity works. It is a "known thing" in theory, yet however deep down the rabbit hole you go, it seems you will still find experts arguing about it :D
Looks nice, I'd also like to try Litz cables. But probably not spending as much as these things are likely to cost :)
Also you just know that I will use these with a 3" cube speaker just to make it look silly ;p
Hi.l love Germany.
Friend tell me who is better in tone and in general Acoustic Energy AE500 vs Linton Heritage?
Another fascinating, informative & unique video. Thanks Terry!
No mention of the price of those 'Air Insulated' cables? I'm sure the Silver versions will be more than 10% of most people systems budget. But it's nice to know where the state of the art in cable manufacturing is.
It makes me wonder if I could just strip some 15Amp solid core mains cable, varnish & support the cables on wooden blocks...
Maybe that's something for another video... Hehe 😜
i'm 58 so my hearing just wouldn't allow me to hear any benefit, my own feeling is the same as your's apart from i'd go for 35 amp solid core, one solid cable without signal losing strands and a good solid connector at each end, given the price I might well try 35 amp, you never know it might make a difference I can hear haha
Why cannot one company simply show the waveform for the sound before and after their cables.., because they’ll be the same. Why can’t they have blindfolded people decide what sounds better? They’ll only win 50% of the time
What waveform are you expecting to see, the waveform that would be different is from the speakers and the interpretation of that sound is what people use to make a buying decision.
The whole blind testing thing for HiFi is bullshit because the only way to remove bias for listening to HiFi is to never see and never know what your HiFi system is, as soon as you know or see any of the Hifi your biased to how it will sound. But who in their right mind is ever going to do that, noone. Doing one blind test does not prove anything and does not make you exempt from bias, everyone is biased all the time so blind testing for HiFi is pointless.
So you might say measurements are objective, nope they bias you just as much, probably more to how something will sound, because HiFi sound quality is always a subjective thing.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem Logic FAIL.
Perhaps you prefer to only use untested pharmaceutical drugs too?
@@PursuitPerfectSystem You illustrate bias of the placebo effect, that which can be applied to not only the system but the cables.
You could set up a blind test as you say by removing any visuals or prior knowledge of the system to be used.
But I'm not knocking the placebo effect; it works and in many cases is a good experience.
How do you define a variation of happy on a graph?
Some things arent so simply defined.
A group of Sounds have almost infinite variables depending on their conditions
Hi Terry, was thinking I can catch you here, little bit off topic. What subwoofer you currently love to use for music and movie duties with your setup? I know you prefer Dirac bass management and also RELs, but for some reason REL is advocating against room correction while high pass connection is used for some reason I cannot fathom.
Probably better to email me about this rather than chat in here terryellis@pursuitperfectsystem.com
Nice video, Terry. Irrespective of what people may think of possible differences in the sound quality of cables, there is no doubt that Inakustik's designs are rooted in solid science, and that their manufacturing is high class.
I own Reference 2404 AIR speaker cables and interconnects, which are a step below the flagship 4004. They work very well within my system (Circle Labs A200 integrated amp; FinkTeam KIM speakers; CEC TL-5 transport). I paid €1500 used for the speaker cables, which some might argue is way too much, but is nevertheless a pittance relative to many high-end cables. They are a bit sensitive to proximity to power cables, but are light and easy to work with in terms of routing.
They certainly got it goin on here! Mind you I've always been impressed by Germans ingenuity.
Great stuff, the 20 year old QED genesis report which is searchable and a good read, also says how important cable insulation and lay is. Air is the best insulator and Pvc insulation is really bad, it has high capacitance and hence smooths out all the fine detail.
Great video, how much would you be spending on speakers and separates to justify £2000 + on cable ?
Excellent video Terry👍
Thanks 👍
A double shielding is, by the distance between the wires.
A most intriguing cable design and manufacturing process. I look forward to some sort of follow-up or review from you.
Now we have been shown the technology how does it sound and cost. compared to other cables?
How about a comparison of specs with existing audio cables where specs are freely available - capacitance per metre etc.
That would be useful, though I think many of these companies claim that it's measurements other than R, L and C that define how their cables sound. Personally I'm agnostic as to whether they do or they don't but I don't see why you can't mic up a speaker with a cable, record it, then swap that out for another cable, record that and analyse the differences in the two recordings via computer, though...
The best wire for speakers and interconects is pure silver 0.6 mil solid core cotton insulated wire with quality silver RCA plugs for the interconnect, and bare connection for the speaker wire. Anyone contemplating buying "high end" placebo cables should buy and listen to these first! One more thing, as electricity flows on the outside of a wire, silver will keep its sonic properties because silver oxide is still a conductor of electricity whereas when copper oxidizes (as it will on exposure to air) is a semi conductor and sounds awful.
I am not sure this is the right approach because electricity doesn't seem to flow on the outside of a wire ruclips.net/video/oI_X2cMHNe0/видео.html
@@PursuitPerfectSystem Where else? That is called skin effect, negiable at audio frequencies.
I used usb cable and coaxial cable of Inakustik, they are good sound!
"Made in Germany" : we never would have it without your english folks! ^^
So what is the point of oxygen free copper?
I’m old enough to remember cables “insulated with light”. I think I’ll suspend stripped Romex suspended on golf tees using “room air” as the ultimate insulate.😂
Uh, yeah
Wow...
Great vid Terry but I don’t get the Air tech theory. If each strand of the conductor is coated, surely no air can touch it anyway? I could understand if each strand was bare and they could not touch each other conductor in the plastic lattice framework. The dialectric is the coating covering each strand surely?
If you think about it everything that surrounds the conductors has a dielectric constant, so it stores electrical charge, all these have is an ultra fine coating of lacquer that is it
@@PursuitPerfectSystem yes I guess so, have you auditioned them?
I have to wonder what the price will be come winter.
I’ll fire up fusion 360, 3D printer and strip some coax this weekend 😂
Loved this and Darko's Cardas Video.
yeah Jana Cardas video on Johns channel is a bit special, like watching a Netflix episode, I love Jana she is awesome and very lovely as a person too.
Amazing designers and factory the usual anti cable comments below you need a certain high standard of play back equipment to hear the differences in cables, stands etc but if you cant hear any improvement in your home dont buy its that simple but go to a dealer and do a test there wont cost you anything
Is there any risk that black and red is touching each other?
No the cables are sheathed in a mega thin layer that has to be removed to make a connection, you see that happening at one point in the video
@@PursuitPerfectSystemi use referenz LS1102. Sounds great. Doesnt make sense if change to air because my speakers just entry level. But i bet air will be sounds amazing
Cable maniacs!
I see all this as a great example of humans endeavouring to engineer better products……as simple as that…..
always love your videos, hope we can hear your thoughts on if these cables improve sound
Thanks, great video… 👍 the guys from InAkustik did not mentioned, that they involve for simple jobs disabled people to give them the chance to feel useful. That‘s - except of the really good quality of their cables, I tested it in comparison to other producers - the reason, why I‘m using InAkustik cinch- and speaker cables for years… And I’m absolutely happy with it. Best regards from Hamburg/Germany 👋
I have a pair of bi-amped/bi-wired McIntosh MC312's running 10awg tri-core briaded copper that I paid about $60/meter for. To me it sounds amazing. I'd love to be able to try some ultra-precious cable like in-akustik, but a run of speaker cable would cost nearly as much as one of my amps. Or more, hard to find exact prices.
So it's down to, do you prioritize something like this, or do you take that 8-10 grand and put it in a preamp, a clock, or somewhere else you KNOW you'll hear the difference.
I think you pretty much have to be "done" with the component side of your system before you can even get your head around spending that kind of money on cable. Until then it just feels bizarre to even think about.
I love seeing things like this, thanks for the video, everybody in this video clearly cares about audio. And that alone makes me happy. Just reminds me there really is no limit to how far you can go in hi-fi.
Bob Ludwig, the mastering engineer, has speaker cable that is cryogenically cooled with a power supply as big as a mini fridge that sits in its own room, reportedly paid hundreds of thousands for it.
So now I'm going back to listening to my regular old 10 guage :)
I think the design is beautiful but I’m not a believer that cables make much of any difference to sound quality beyond providing a clean noise free signal.
If those wires are covered with some lacquer they hardly can be described as wires with an air insulation. Does that lacquer have better dielectric properties than PTFE (Teflon) insulation?
Thats a very interesting point. Of course, the layer of lacquer is very thin, and its main purpose is stopping oxidation. So the Dielectric value between opposite polarity wires must be close to that of air.
To me, the Inakustik way of doing the Air cable is interesting, but still, they primarily focus on reducing capacity. It does not look like they do much to reduce inductance. A “Kimber-like” structure would do that to a greater extend, when opposite polarities cross each other, with a minimum of parallel cross section.
As a former cable manufacturer, we did bare silver conductors in hermetically sealed air tubes. And to my experience the silver did oxidate to a very small amount, and then stopped as oxygen was not allowed to circulate. I still have 15 year old cables laying around, with see through PTFE tubing, showing shiny silver conductors inside.
Wondering if any measured values are available for theese cables 🙂
One thing I worry about regarding these cables are oxidation of the cores being that they have no insulation are are only separated by air.
They talk about this, the cables are covered in a lacquer that prevents oxidation.
@@PursuitPerfectSystem ahhhh, ok that makes sense.
But then it is no longer “real air” as a dielectric but conductors are surrounded by lacquer and also another lacquer in the core as wave guide.
Many of us knows Teflon < Air as dielectric , so whatever the lacquer material, it is not real effective as air
This design is nothing new but only a fancy way to construct cables?
I found only Zensati cables with their twisted flat conductors have real “air” dielectric design with at least more 90% surrounded by air
I kind of thought there might be some merit in avoiding the plastic because of static charges, but transmission lines and skin effect for audio frequency AC? Nah! If you think the plastic is a problem just get some meaty pieces of bare copper conductor. Solid core or stranded? You decide! String them on ceramic electric fence insulators if you have to. No plastic insulation - dirt cheap! After all, unless you get to concert PA system power levels, speaker signal currents are SELV.
the copper would oxidise though and probably not very flexible or something someone wants to have in their living / listening room.
Owned the air series speaker cable and interconnect before, very airy opened cables.
Only problem IMO is the price and performance ratio of Inakustik is relatively average vs other cabling brands
I heard nearly no different of lower line LS1603 speaker cables vs cheaper cables until I upgraded to next line Air series.
The built quality and construction are top class however
Vacuum is even better than air as an insulator, plus the laquer on the individual wires isn't that the main insulator ? All companies have to have some marketing slogan to differentiate themselves from the compettition. However all that aside the try before you buy is great for all cable skeptics out there. I don't se a US distributor.
I dont know how you could have a vacuum in a cable design ?
@@PursuitPerfectSystem not easily you would have to tube the wire create a vacuum and seal the ends, just like a vacuum tube
Just imagine how many LPs one can buy for the same money. I am not saying one should do that ...
Regards from Copenhagen
Was that a pioneer record player in the back?
Sorry I dont remember seeing that
@@PursuitPerfectSystem During your interview with Sven. But looking at it twice, looks like a Thorens 16XX.
Thanks for replying!
Oh sorry yes it was a Thorens, very nice table
Just found the prices. Wait for it. Drum roll. The reference air speaker cable is between 19k and 35k. Damn. So if people say spend between 10 and 20 percent of their high fi on cables, that means my hifi needs to be around 1 million pounds. That price was for one pair and doesn't include interconnects.
That must be for the pure solid silver cables, the pure copper are about 6k so still a lot but a lot less than 35k
@@PursuitPerfectSystem you'll have to excuse me Terry. I find your channel brilliant. Especially when you were doing the multiple speaker reviews. But I can't help but think that it gets a little silly at times and I cannot resist a dig. I hope the website I was looking at got the prices wrong, but even at 5k. Who can afford the power cables, interconnects and speaker cables. This kind of money is only for the rich to contemplate.
Sorry. 6k.
There are a lot of people in the world for whom prices like that are pretty insignificant. There are many suburbs in my city where the average house price is about 5 to 10 million dollars. If you think about it, if people even with average white collar jobs are sitting on property worth that sort of money then they can easily free up some dollars to spend on luxury goods. Admittedly 35k on speaker cables seems a bit over the top.
@@aussie8114 Hahaha .... it looks like you live in a millionaire country!
This is great Terry, really interesting content that goes beyond 'check out this new box', though I like that content too!
Its a shame that describing what you hear and your subjective opinions can see you branded as 'the enemy' in some circles, and this is one of the drawbacks of online content, people wish to take position on an imaginary 'side'.
Like most of us, im on the side of music. I have a lot of qualifications in electronics and sound studio design, so solid science background. None the less, 50 years or so of being into audio has shown me conclusively that cables can and will sound different. Science exists to explain the observable, not dictate what you can observe, and life experiences have abley demonstrated what I can observe, repeatedly.
So im not averse to cables, but the prices of these mean they are well beyond anything I would consider for my poor systems. But that doesnt stop their construction and methodology being incredibly interesting!
Man are these expensive... just found a distributor that lists the prices.
Great video! I enjoyed it very much. Now if you excusme me, I shall take a shower to wash all that snake oil off :)
Disappointed not to see measurements - frequency, harmonic in audio spectrum to quantify the differences claimed.
This would be a lot better / supportive if it showed the differences / advantages of these designs.
This is a factory tour video not a detailed technical video, if your interested in buying the cable and have a specific interest in more technical information contact them and ask for it. Otherwise its difficult to be disappointed by something that was never promised in the first place.
Now we are waiting for sound comparison videos using their speaker and rca cable range. They should provide you with sets of cables for you to record videos with all their cables. I for one bought my audioquest power cable listening to your power cable video with headphones. And that was a perfect choice for me so I bought a second one.
What are they powering with that cable, a 50KVA big electric motor Or just a speaker / Amplifier. , ha ha ha ?
They charge up to 30.000 Euro for one cable. Im really sure that good cables make a difference.. but at some point i cant accept the price anymore. I dont believe that the material for on 30k cable is even close to 1k Euro. So where do the 29k went?
Probably labour
Skin effect is applied in one laquered solid copper thread not the whole cable. So in this point of view i think this speaker cable design is pointless.
Maybe watch the video again, that is just one detail as to why one part of the Air technology is designed the way it is, just one and you label the cable as pointless, seems like an extreme take on it? As I said watch it again as there is a lot of information to take in and seems like you missed a lot of it
No question of quality from Germany as very Passanante about what Thay build but. 3,577.35 US Dollar and marginal difference between a good quality occ copper let me try before I buy :]
Terry if you didn’t listen to the product then what’s the point of commenting about it?
I get that you’re impressed with the company ideas and processes but if you can’t listen to then what the hell?
I will do in time, blame British Airways for that
Why don't they design a 3D printer to make the insulation discs on the spot instead of pulling every single wire through hundreds of them?
Maybe because the product would then not be hand built
You're going to need suitable cables between the nearest nuclear power plant and the factory come this winter without gas from Russia. Length, water resistance and political inductance maybe being key characteristics...