Developing Tuned ARAY for our flagship Sarum cable range was a real voyage of (particularly when it came to music we thought we knew well) discovery. What’s been really good though is the way we’ve been able to apply the same technology to our Indigo and Signature interconnects and achieve the same genuinely coherent musical performance that is unique to Tuned ARAY technology.
The Signature Tuned ARAY USB cable is a perfect example. Yes the choice of USB cable is critical, especially if you are listening to FLAC, WAV or higher resolution music (actually even MP3 gains a sense of rightness). Signature Tuned ARAY will allow you to get properly involved with the music you play. Even better, it helps extend listening sessions, Tuned ARAY users tend to stay up later than they meant to.
The Cable
The Signature Tuned ARAY USB is a completely new cable that takes its Tuned ARAY geometry from the Sarum USB cable. The signal conductors are silver-plated and insulation is PTFE. Shielding is provided by a high-density double braid that works to very high frequencies. Another shielded cable is used to carry voltage, and this means that all the cables within the black outer braiding are separately shielded. It also means that like the Sarum Tuned ARAY USB cable, the Signature Tuned ARAY USB is built almost entirely by hand, with a precision stripping machine used to prepare the cable ends. Like all Tuned ARAY interconnects the stripping of the cable ends requires a very high degree of accuracy.
The Plugs
Quality USB plugs are hard to find. In the end we could only achieve the level of performance we wanted by modifying and then gold-plating, with two microns of 24 karat gold, our choice of connectors. External strain relief and reinforcement is fitted and this avoids unwanted compression of the signal conductors (profoundly important to the performance of digital cables)
Tuned ARAY technology means that we are able to produce remarkably transparent cables. We have long thought that the choice of digital cable is every bit as important as analogue interconnects and speaker cables and Tuned ARAY was originally developed for digital cables. The benefits of Tuned ARAY can be heard in pretty much any system they’re used in. If your system requires a USB connection then the Signature Tuned ARAY is worth listening to.