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Proprietary Connectors
There
are hundreds of RCA-type connectors on the market. Most of them are
machined from brass - which is far from the perfect conductive material.
The dielectric used is often molded thermoplastic, - again, far from
the ideal. Yes, there are
few RCA connectors to make use of Teflon as a dielectric, and there
are some connectors made of pure copper and even solid silver, but none of
them use BOTH Teflon dielectric and silver contacts. In addition, most of
the commercially available connectors are way too massive (the outer
shells are machined from a chunk of metal, and the center pins are solid
metal). We strongly
believe that in order to sound good, the analog interconnects must be made
of thin wire. The wire used in our best interconnects is 0.001"
thick. Imagine what happens to the music signal traveling via a
0.001" thick wire when it suddenly "encounters" the
0.125" solid metal center pin of a common RCA connector. Let me
emphasize: the pin is 125 times (!!!) thicker than the wire itself. We
think this is NOT the best one can do for the sound... |
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... So, we have developed our own RCA-type
connector to come as close to perfection as we can imagine.
Our custom RCA connector shell is made of carbon
fiber composite with two solid titanium rings at its ends. Carbon fiber is known
for its mechanical strength, light weight and RFI
rejection properties. Titanium is also very strong, light weight and
non-magnetic.
The internal connector "body" is
machined from Teflon - which was chosen for its supreme dielectric
properties.
The contacts are made of solid silver.
click on the picture to
enlarge it
The center pin is hollow: it's a thin wall silver
tube, reinforced with a Teflon-coated Kevlar composite rod inside it, to
prevent
the central pin from bending.
The outer (ground) contact is made via three
symmetrically arranged solid silver strips.
The outer shell is electrically insulated from
the contacts via additional machined Teflon inserts (shown inside the outer
titanium ring).
Nothing but Teflon touches and surrounds
the actual contact surfaces.
click on the picture to
enlarge it
The solid (but very thin wall) titanium rings on the outer shell are
"satin" finished and have two diamond-cut grooves for a distinctive
look. Titanium doesn't oxidize and is extremely scratch resistant. The carbon
fiber connector body is covered with several layers of crystal clear high gloss lacquer
and is also scratch resistant.
Yes, the machined Teflon connector
"body" is relatively soft, but it is fully enclosed in the (above
mentioned) carbon fiber/titanium shell, and in its assembled form the STEALTH
connector is extremely robust (virtually indestructible with normal use). During
our bench tests, these RCAs easily handled several hundred
connections/disconnections without any performance loss. The solid silver
contacts provide for very low contact resistance with any high quality female
RCA on the market. But - we recommend using STEALTH RCA female connectors,
designed to match our cable-end RCA male connectors:
click on each picture to
enlarge it
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