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Conductivity

Conductor

The conductor carries the audio or video signal and is therefore a critical factor in good performance. The conductor material is obviously important but so also is the purity of that material. Copper is by far the most commonly used conductor material and, not surprisingly, comes in many different grades of purity.

TPC - Tough Pitch Copper

Commonly used when a conductor is simply referred to as COPPER. This is the most basic form of copper conductor with many impurities. It offers poor performance.

OFC - Oxygen Free Copper

Most commonly used in quality cables. The oxygen content and other impurities in the copper are greatly reduced in the manufacturing process, thereby reducing the distortion that is commonly described as “harshness”.

PC-OFC - Pure Crystal Oxygen Free Copper

There are many grades of Oxygen Free Copper (OFC). Some have more impurities removed than others. PC-OFC is a high purity grade OFC conductor used by IXOS which offers significantly improved overall audio and video integrity and detail.

SP-OFC - Silver-Plated Oxygen Free Copper

Silver has lower resistance than copper. Plating or coating the copper conductors with silver reduces the resistance of the conductor and also prevents the copper from oxidizing. This allows the conductor to perform better over a longer period of time. It also produces a noticeably smoother high frequency response and a more tangible three-dimensional quality to the soundstage. In video the benefits are a sharper picture and lower signal loss.

What are Dielectrics?

Dielectric

The dielectric is the material that is used to insulate the conductors. It is important to use high quality materials because of the complex negative effects that inferior dielectrics have on the signal. The quality of the dielectric is commonly described by reference to its dielectric constant. This is simply a measure of a non-conductive material’s tendency to momentarily retain an electrical charge that it comes into contact with. The lower the dielectric constant the better and the less detrimental the effect on the transmitted signal.

Rubber

Not recommended for audio or video applications because of its very high dielectric constant. To distract attention from the fact that they are using rubber, some manufacturers create fanciful proprietary names to describe what is a low cost and very poor dielectric. Not used in any IXOS products. PVC-Polyvinyl Chloride The most commonly used dielectric material because of its excellent price to performance ratio. Far superior to rubber.

PE-Polyethylene

PE offers a markedly lower dielectric constant than PVC. A higher cost material that is much less commonly used. Cables utilizing PE tend to impart a less constrained, more detailed and natural quality than PVC. PEF-PE foam This utilizes an expanded PE. It is primarily used to control the impedance of application specific designs. Would be used in certain types of video and digital coaxial cables. An example would be a co-axial antenna cable which needs to conform to the 75-ohm impedance standard.

Teflon®

Teflon is a space-age product that is the most slippery material known to science - in other words it has an extremely low co-efficient of friction. As such it offers the lowest dielectric constant of any usable material. It is also the most expensive dielectric material available. IXOS exclusively uses pure Teflon whereas many proprietary cables only use Teflon derivative materials, which are far less effective. Pure Teflon is without question the first choice for those who like to experience the spine-tingling reality of the best audio and video performance.

Price versus quality

Conductor

Dielectric

 

 

 

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