Golden Gate
The
nearly magical confluence of land and sea where the San Francisco
Peninsula reaching up from the south, and Marin County stretching down
from the north, almost touch, was named “Chrysopylea,” meaning “golden
gate,” by Captain John C. Fremont in 1846. The Golden Gate Bridge was
the longest suspension bridge in the world from 1937 to 1964, when New
York City’s Verrazano Narrows surpassed it by a mere 18 meters (60 ft).
The main span is 1,280 meters (4,200 ft) long and 27 meters (90 ft)
wide, the towers rise to 227 meters (746 ft) above the water.
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 conductor. For over 30 years AudioQuest has
pioneered the use of superior metals; yet even we were surprised by this
huge leap in performance. PSC clearly outperforms previous AQ metals
that cost over ten times as much. 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 Golden Gate’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. Golden Gate 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 RCA PLUGS:
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.