Atlas Hyper dd Ultra RCA Cable

Atlas Hyper dd Ultra RCA Cable

DESCRIPTION AND FEATURES

The latest generation Hyper dd Ultra interconnect offers a sophisticated, evenly balanced sound which draws you into the musical performance.

The conductor in the Hyper dd cable is a solid core OCC (Ohno Continuous Casting) copper core surrounded by multiple bunch-stranded ‘satellite’ conductors of high purity OCC copper, The ‘speed’ characteristic of analogue cables is determined primarily by the dielectric performance of the insulator applied around the conductor, Hyper’s conductors are encapsulated within a PEF (Foamed Polyethylene) dielectric, with excellent immunity to interference and noise.

Termination is via our wide-band, low-mass solder-free Ultra connectors – the fewer discontinuities in the signal path, the lower the level of signal degradation and the better the performance.

The Atlas Dual Drain (dd) System

Normally screened cables suffer from screen distortion when they are prepared for production. (If you've ever wired a plug or connector which uses a screened cable, you've done this yourself, cutting back and probably twisting the screening braid for termination). This distortion of the screen has a measurable impact, effectively changing the impedance and therefore the performance of the cable.

Our ‘dd’ configuration is based on a simplified version of the techniques we developed for our top-of-the-range Mavros and Asimi interconnects. Twin symmetrical drain wires (each attached to 180° segments of the plug) are inserted between a 100% copper/Mylar™ foil and screen. The unique dd system connects the screen effectively to the cable return/plug interface, meaning the cable can be terminated without distorting, twisting or mechanically stressing the precision-laid screen. The benefits are in maintaining a consistent low impedance load to the plug, and a total 360° screening against noise and signal loss caused by RFI (radio frequency interference).

Atlas Ultra RCA

Less is more. That’s certainly true regarding the design of analogue audio cables, where the goal is to render the cable effectively ‘invisible,’ or more accurately, inaudible, in terms of impact on the signal.

Ideally, cables shouldn’t add or subtract anything, but in reality, numerous factors combine to have an audible and measurable effect — which is a form of distortion.

One of the essential elements in the mix is the connector plug. Atlas recognized over a decade ago that the traditional CNC-machined metal-bodied RCA connector was a weakness, with demonstrably significant performance loss.

Atlas Cables research showed that a Polycarbonate and latterly ABS for the plug body was a superior material, allowing us to create an RCA plug with a low dielectric constant, low-mass, non-conductive body but retaining the physical resilience and stability of a CNC-machined product.

The outcome was our original Integra connector, used in our entry-level Element and Equator cable ranges, but we quickly came to realise the superiority of the approach for all our cables, with further R&D resulting in the development of the Ultra RCA plug for our higher performance ranges.

The original Ultra was constructed from solid PTFE, a more complicated material to work with, but which immediately reduced the dielectric constant further and offered improved bandwidth and fidelity.

Ohno Continuous Casting Copper (OCC Copper)

In 1985, Professor Ohno, from the Chiba Institute of Technology, developed his patented method for the extrusion of a grain-free copper wire. (Technical papers are available from the Japan Inst. Metals and from Chapman & Hall, publishers.)

When a pure metal solidifies, its crystals grow in a specific geometrical pattern (typical to that metal) emanating from a nucleus, rather like the dendritic growth pattern of a tree. The size of the metal crystals grown can be varied by repeatedly annealing metal such as is done in the LC-OFC process. The structure of a strand of copper may be likened to that of a bag of sugar. Every grain of sugar has a crystal boundary. In a conductor, these crystal boundaries (potential barriers) act as a non-linear resistance to the flow of electric current. It follows that, the fewer the boundaries, the less the effect there is on an electric signal as it propagates from one end of the conductor to the other. Atlas cables such as the Arran and Mavros use OCC copper, whereas the top of the range Asimi uses pure OCC silver.

The Ohno continuous casting method reheats the extrusion as the molten copper is forced out of the mold, and very slowly and gradually draws the grain or crystal down the conductor‘s length, creating a ‘single crystal structure.’ Actually, because no copper is 100% pure, there will always be a few boundaries produced by impurities. The frequency of boundaries created are quite insignificant. A typical crystal in a copper conductor drawn to 0.3 mm diameter, using the OCC process is 125.00 meters long!

The benefits are obvious, with almost no crystal boundaries, the audio signal is no longer impeded down the copper wire and more information and detail is delivered faithfully to the receiving equipment.

SPECIFICATIONS

Connector: Ultra RCA

Geometry: Twin twisted pair multicore, dual drain

Conductor: OCC Copper

Dielectric: PEF

Screen: (dual drain) OFC 94.2% – 252 strands

Capacitance: 71.54 pF/m

Inductance: 0.542 µH/m

Resistance: 0.0239 Ohms/m

VOP: 0.682

Outside Diameter: 10.0mm

THE ATLAS DIFFERENCE

Conductor Purity

Manufacturing Consistency

Signal Screening

Harmony of Materials

Acclaimed in 30+ Countries

Custom Made & Shipped: 14-21 days

These cables are custom made to your specifications. The process takes 14-21 days. The cable is packaged and shipped via UPS Ground from New York. Custom-made cables cannot be returned.

ATLAS CODE, LENGTH

HDD-IC-RCA-0.5, 0.5M

HDD-IC-RCA-0.75, 0.75M

HDD-IC-RCA-1, 1M

HDD-IC-RCA-1.5, 1.5M

HDD-IC-RCA-2, 2M

HDD-IC-RCA-3, 3M