Name: AudioQuest Big Sur 3.5mm Jack To Jack Cable 12m
SKU: YXYUY 6884
Availability: InStock

Full Description

Stereophile Review, October 2013

“Our connection with the music grew stronger yet when we switched to Big Sur. Bass control, high-frequency extension, transient articulation, overall clarity, and all that good stuff were all improved, but now the musicians seemed to play with even greater purpose and intensity. We felt as if we were in a jazz club, watching rapt, following the many careful twists and turns as Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, and Miles took their memorable solos.”

AudioQuest’s Big Sur is a cable that delivers spectacular soundscapes just as sensational as the views of majestic canyon in California it’s aptly named after. The Big Sur 3.5mm male jack to jack cable enjoys AQ’s Solid Perfect-Surface copper+ conductors at its core which involves the raw copper ingots being processed much more slowly and carefully which gives a beautifully smooth and indent-free surface for a signal to travel down. The audio advantages are crystal clear as soon as you sit down to listen. A stunning cable.

All the interconnects in the AudioQuest Big Sur cable range have the same luxurious braided jacket which wrap around foamed polyethylene insulated conductors with plugs being cold-welded (no messy soldering examples here) and 24k gold-plated for maximum conductivity. The plugs themselves are made from Pure Purple Copper which is a more expensive material than the cheap alloys most manufacturers use and offers a cleaner pristine sound.

AudioQuest Big Sur Features

Solid PSC+ Conductors

The beauty about Perfect Surface Copper+ conductors is the astonishingly smooth surface the conductor has. During the copper process, the wire is drawn through with much slower and more careful technique than OFC or even LSC (Long Strand Copper). This process takes a lot more time to make but the results are plain to see, or in fact, hear. AudioQuest have been pioneers at developing cables and PSC+ conductors surprised even the AudioQuest research team after testing. It simply outperformed all previously available copper metals no matter how pure or expensive and so PSC+ is used throughout their reference analogue ranges from Big Sur and above.

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.

AudioQuest 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 before 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. AudioQuest’s Noise-Dissipation System greatly reduces the effect of this modulation. Metal, used in a passive manner, acts as a method of dissipating and reducing the incoming RF. The result is dramatically less modulation of the signal, less distortion and better sound.

Cold-Weld Purple Copper Plugs

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 its termination. 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 insures 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. Purple Copper as a base material also offers a cleaner, clearer sound than the nickel-plated or OFHC metals commonly found in competing manufacturers’ plugs.

Foamed Polyethylene Insulation

AudioQuest Tower’s polyethylene insulation, foamed to include as much ‘air’ as possible, provides superior clarity and dynamics. By keeping the positive and negative conductors separate, offers the greatest stability for cable geometry resulting in a fantastically clean sound.

Cable Specifications

Conductor	Perfect Surface Copper+ (PSC+)
Dielectric	Foamed Polyethylene
Jacket	PVC
Plug Type	Gold-Plated Purple Copper 3.5mm Male Jack x 2
Shielding	Standard NDS
Type	3.5mm Jack (Male to Male)