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So what makes Teo Audio's Liquid Cable special?
What is truly new in audio cable design? Until now, every cable design has been based on attempts to overcome the frequency-based limitations inherent in the transmission of electromagnetic signals through solid metal conductors.
Fortunately for all of us who love music there is, for the first time in decades, something truly revolutionary to listen to! Years of inquiry into an entirely new medium of electromagnetic signal transmission - liquid metal conductors - has lead a Canadian company, Teo Audio, to create their Liquid Cable line of audio, video, and digital cables.
Unlike anything before them, Liquid Cable achieves a sonic result that seemingly re-writes the rules governing cable design.
The old bottom line:
- Cable designs are wrought with sonic information transfer compromises inherent in solid metal conductors.
The new bottom line:
- The laws of physics tied to solid core conductor cable design no longer exclusively define how cables are designed and built.
The proof is as simple as experiencing the sonic result you hear when your system is wired up with Teo Audio's Liquid Cable.
How does Teo Audio get the sonic result it achieves with Liquid Cable?
This issue is best explained by first looking at the defining characteristics of solid metal conductors. Cable manufacturers have for decades attempted to reduce to the greatest extent possible those electromagnetic factors which render any cable inherently imperfect:
- inductance and capacitance
- inductive reactance and its high frequency rolloff and phase shift
- capacitive reactance and its resulting low frequency rolloff and slurring of bass tonality.
To this end, most recent designs employ small conductors, because these small conductors yield very wide bandwidth (high speed, high frequency capability) and reduced phase shift (proper timing for better soundstage dimensionality and focus).
The problem with these designs is that, while they are able to achieve minimization of some of the typical electromagnetic problems noted above (thus providing an "accurate" frequency response) they are still plagued by obvious sonic problems resulting from their inability to accurately deliver the most subtle gradations of current and voltage (which are expressed sonically as macro and micro dynamics). These flaws deprive our audio systems of a key component required to unravel the complexities in our favorite musical passages.
Next is the issue of sonic quality associated with cable diameter. Prevailing thin-conductor designs sound "fast" (providing fine leading edge transients) yet often sound "edgy". They are also generally unable to provide the "weight" behind those leading edge transients because they are physically incapable of efficiently carrying current. As a result, these designs typically deliver thin-sounding bass, rendering superbly the flair of Heifetz' bow on the string, for example, yet lacking the full body and amazing power we know a real violin possesses. Likewise, our favorite female vocalist's lips can almost be kissed, yet we can never quite sense the chest that creates her breathiness. We get the bell of Hugh Masekela's horn, yet his majestic power, drive, and love of life remain experienced only live in concert.
What of thicker conductors? Remember the "golden age" of stereo with the warmth, power and dynamic that we loved about our audio systems? While not much for speed, finesse, or delicacy, the cables in those systems were still quite able to deliver the power of our favorite rock and roll classics as well as the dramatic crescendos in our favorite symphonic works because they provided an ideal conduit for current delivery. Their major flaw, when compared to the holy grail of cable design, was a muted high frequency response. The good news was that "listener fatigue" was a term yet to be invented, and thus was not a major issue in extended listening sessions. For the most part we simply kicked back and melted into our chairs until the LP was over. We enjoyed the music because it had the impact of the real thing... it rocked... it rolled... it put a smile on your face and not a furrow on your forehead!
The very next generation of cable design gave us hints of what would evolve into the current state of cable sound. These new designs revealed that thicker conductors sounded like what they are: thick, both literally and aurally. They lacked the speed, delicacy, tonal accuracy, and finesse of the newer predominately thinner cable designs because they could not effectively carry high frequency information. Once our ears and brains heard that "snap" associated with the increased resolution of thinner cables, many of us began a never-ending search for more information, often at the expense of emotionally engaging musicality.
Time has given us a more balanced perspective on cable design. It is now widely understood that larger conductors, while immediately engaging on an emotional level, with their characteristic warmth and richness, ultimately become a bit boring as the listener realizes there is too much musical information missing. In a similar vein, thin conductors are seen as exciting and intellectually engaging because of their ability to provide new, previously unheard details in our favorite recordings, yet their inherent aggression ultimately drives many to a state of listener fatigue. Such conductors simply lack the ability to deliver the impact, warm tone and relaxed airiness we experience when listening to real players playing real music in our favorite real music venue.
Today's cable designers have all but exhausted the possibilities in their respective solid wire based design philosophies. Some manipulate the geometry among various sizes, shapes and groupings of solid-material conductors while others have even gone so far as to electrically charge insulation and shielding materials in an attempt to improve the sonic result. Ultimately, however, most recent designs have merely succeeded in "flavoring" sound; hundreds of designs producing incremental differences yielding hundreds of sounds for a myriad of individual tastes. Most dedicated music lovers and audiophiles are now exhausted from having tried so many cables. Having repeatedly encountered the compromises that underscore the respective design philosophy of each and every solid cable, they deserve a better solution.
Teo Audio's Liquid Cable, with its patent-pending liquid metal technology, has none of the sonic limitations typically associated with solid-metal conductors. They yield an emotionally-engaging, never-fatiguing, highly-resolving sonic result never previously experienced. Teo Audio's Liquid Cable provides simultaneously both the power and delicacy found in our favorite music. They sound relaxed without sounding smoothed over; fast but not hard or etched.
Imagine the correct amount of "bite" in Dizzy's horn and the "snap" in Blakey's drum skins while never sensing a need to lower the volume. Likewise, imagine sensing the correct weight of Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar and Stanley Clark's bass without having to raise the volume. Liquid Cable renders effortless the most complex micro-dynamic and macro-dynamic passages you may select from the most challenging pieces in your music collection; the smallest and most delicate instruments alongside the largest and most powerful ones finally coming together to create a singularly fulfilling musical whole.
Teo Audio's Liquid Cable yields something truly unique. The listener will sense neither the insertion of that which has been missing nor the removal of that which was unwanted. Only the music, nothing more and nothing less, as never before experienced.
How does Teo Audio do it? Their answer, "We simply break the rules". We have harnessed the inherently magnificent electromagnetic signal transmission capability of liquid metal conductors, which have superseded the rules we have been forced to live within until now. Nothing solid can compare.
Teo Audio's Liquid Cables. Let the music flow!
Recycling
Teo Audio believes that the concept of extended producer responsibility is especially important in the field of audio, in which many components are hard on the earth. We want to enjoy the music and at the same time ensure that those who come after us can do so too.
At the end of their life in your hands, we will take back our cables from you for recycling of the components. We will reimburse you the shipping cost and an additional bonus based on a percentage of the current market value of the proprietary metal. Please contact Taras@teoaudio.com if you have any questions