Big Sur
Note: All cables in our Bridges & Falls Series place their left and right channels in a single jacket, and feature our Asymmetrical Double-Balanced geometry with separate high-quality positive and negative conductors. This design allows for a thin, flexible, and uniquely versatile high-performance cable that can be terminated with a variety of today’s connections, including 3.5mm (male or female), DIN, and RCA. In Bridges & Falls, you’ll find better metals and more sophisticated technologies — including Air-Tube insulation, Dielectric-Bias System, and Noise-Dissipation System — at lower prices than ever before. Do keep in mind, however, that, by necessity, the plugs on Bridges & Falls cables are fairly close together. If the L and R inputs of your components are more than 3″ (7.6cm) apart, please consider models from our Rivers or Elements Series.
Spanning a creek and a formidable travel-impeding canyon, the Bixby Creek Bridge compliments and counterpoints the majestic beauty of California’s spectacular coastline just north of Big Sur, 190km (120 miles) south of San Francisco. As an integral part of this stretch of landscape, the bridge has been featured in numerous TV shows and movies, and is seen on travel posters all over the world.
SOLID PERFECT-SURFACE COPPER+ (PSC+) CONDUCTORS: Perfect-Surface Copper+ has an astonishingly smooth and pure surface. Proprietary metal-processing technology protects the wire’s surface at every stage of drawing and fabrication. When high-purity low-oxide copper is kept as soft, pure and smooth as possible, it becomes a wonderfully low-distortion PSC+ conductor. PSC+ is manufactured by applying the same exceptional technology to an ultra-pure copper. The resulting sound quality is even more focused and simply less in the way. For over 30 years AudioQuest has pioneered the use of superior metals; yet even we were surprised by the huge leap in performance made possible with Perfect-Surface Technology. PSC+ simply outperforms all previously available copper metals at any price. All of Big Sur’s conductors are solid. Electrical and magnetic interaction between strands in a conventional cable is the greatest source of distortion, often causing a somewhat dirty, harsh sound. Solid conductors are fundamental toward achieving Big Sur’s very clean sound.
FOAMED-POLYETHYLENE INSULATION: Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy (loss). Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Big Sur uses air-filled Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation on both conductors because air absorbs next to no energy and Polyethylene is low-loss and has a benign distortion profile. Thanks to all the air in Foamed-PE, it causes much less of the out-of-focus effect common to other materials.
METAL-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Noise-Dissipation System prevents a significant amount of RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.
ASYMMETRICAL DOUBLE-BALANCED GEOMETRY: Purpose designed for single-ended applications, Asymmetrical Double-Balanced Geometry offers a relatively lower impedance on the ground for a richer, and more dynamic experience. While many single-ended cable designs use a single path for both the ground and the shield, Double-Balanced designs separate the two for cleaner, quieter performance.
COLD-WELDED, GOLD-PLATED PURE PURPLE COPPER TERMINATIONS: This plug design allows for a connection devoid of solder, which is a common source of distortion. Because the ground shells are stamped instead of machined, the metal can be chosen for low distortion instead of machinability. Purple Copper offers a cleaner, clearer sound than the nickel-plated or OFHC metals commonly found in competing manufacturers’ plugs.