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ZS Acoustics

Speaker Cables:

ZS Acoustics Baritone

ultra-thin ribbon (foil) speaker cable

The Baritone cable construction utilizes a phenomenon called skin effect.

Skin effect or surface (electric) phenomenon results in a higher concentration of electric current on the surface of the conductor compared to other parts of the conductor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect

This effect becomes more pronounced as the frequency of the passing current increases. We counteract this effect by increasing the conductor's surface area.

Higher frequencies propagate faster at the edges and on the surface, while lower frequencies propagate slower at the center of the conductor. As a result, a time delay occurs between low and high tones at the output end of the conductor.

The design objective was to reduce signal transmission error caused by this time delay in the conductor.

To ensure that the power amplifier completely controls the speaker system at low frequencies, the conductor must have the lowest possible DC resistance. This requires a sufficiently thick conductor.

However, a sufficiently thick conductor has a high time delay.

This is where the usefulness of the foil conductor concept is revealed, as its surface-to-volume ratio is significantly higher than that of a thick conductor. Low frequencies are also forced to propagate more on the surface, reducing the time delay between low and high frequencies. Therefore, the foil conductor is thin but must be wide enough to maintain a low DC resistance.

For high frequencies that propagate on the surface, the quality of the conductor's surface and the material of its insulation are very important. That's why the Baritone cable is manufactured with a highly reflective conductor surface where surface unevenness is minimized. This minimizes distortion caused by material granularity, which exists in any metallic conductor, and nearly eliminates sound roughness. Non-bleached cotton is used for insulation, which has a dielectric constant of only 1.3. Let's compare this with PVC insulation, which is most commonly used in cables, with a dielectric constant of 4, causing a greater impact on the signal in the conductor. In expensive audio cables, the best synthetic material PTFE PolyTetraFluoroEthylene with a dielectric constant of 2.1 is used. Cotton surpasses this material. The lower the dielectric constant, the better it is for the audio signal, the less it distorts and changes it. The thick structure of cotton further minimizes its impact on the cable because cotton touches the conductor over a smaller area. Cotton also plays an important role as a damper in reducing unnecessary vibrations that affect the resulting sound, so-called microphonics.

At the end of the cable are non-magnetic hollow banana plugs made of beryllium copper with cryogenic treatment. The plugs are manufactured as one piece and gold-plated.

Beryllium gives copper the necessary flexibility to adapt to banana connectors, thereby maintaining better contact. The contact surface is over the entire length of the plug. The touch is not just on a fraction of the surface like with other products. A larger contact surface transmits the entire spectrum of sound signal, including low frequencies, more effectively. The plugs are in direct contact with the conductor, and the joint is filled with silver-plated tin. The plug and joint are embedded in dry wood, which is a good insulator with a dielectric constant of 1.4.