Atlas Zeno 1:2 Headphone Cable

Atlas Zeno 1:2 Headphone Cable

Versatile OCC Copper headphone cable

Our Zeno cable is a high-performance OCC copper replacement cable for dynamic headphones. The 1:2 configuration allows you to connect from a single connector at the amplifier end to 2 connectors on the headphones, as used commonly with Oppo, Sennheiser, Focal and other two connector headphones.

Our Zeno headphone cables are designed to offer a significant upgrade over the cables bundled with even quite expensive headphones. Zeno can be configured to suit any headphone set-up with regard to both termination and length.

Headphone listening has grown in popularity at an extraordinary rate in recent years, but many users quickly come to realize that the original cables supplied with many models tend to be of average quality, not very durable and are supplied in typically quite short lengths.

We choose to aim higher, with cables which combine robust construction and superior sound quality with custom-configuration options. To achieve our performance goals for Zeno, we employed our proven cold-weld solder-free construction methods, the objective being to produce a signal path with the minimum of the breaks in continuity which degrade fidelity.

Staying true to our design principles meant designing a new family of low-mass, wide bandwidth connectors. These ‘Metik’ connectors are available in 3.5mm & 6.3mm jack plugs as well as MMCX, Hirose, HPSC, 4 pin XLR and other configurations, in our ‘dark chrome’ finish.

Our ‘standard’ earpiece connector options suit popular makes/models, but we know there are numerous headphones out there with non-standard or unique connector configurations. No problem — because Atlas assemble all Zeno cables by hand, we can build you a superb cable whatever your amp/headphone requirements, make sure to provide full details of your specific setup when entering your custom order.

Features

Atlas Metik Jack Plugs

OCC Copper Conductors

FEP Dielectric

Co-ax Construction

Twin coaxial construction

A coaxial cable has a single central signal conductor (stranded or solid) which transfers the delicate signal between source and destination, surrounded by a metallic shield which is used as a “return” conductor. This unbalanced return whilst providing some form of shield for stray electric fields does not provide any protection from induced magnetic fields.

This cable uses an identical conductor (return) to complete the circuit. These cables most often deliver better audio fidelity than a coaxial cable. These twisted pair designs provide greater immunity to magnetic fields, but without a shield are still susceptible to electrical interference.

This cable topology is popular for many reasons:

They present an equal impedance on both circuit paths, which is good practice.

The electrical characteristics of both conductors are identical, which delivers consistent results.

When connected to a preamplifier the return conductor is connected to system 0v and mostly later to the system ground.

They have double the volume of the important signal conductor, so are often at least twice as expensive.

They have no shielding and rely on twisting as simple protection.

These products are non-directional by manufacture and can be connected in any orientation straight from the box.

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 re-heats 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.

Oxygen Free Copper (OFC)

Oxygen free copper was developed in Japan around 1975 as it became increasingly apparent that sound quality was related to the quality of copper and the processing used during cable manufacture.

OFC is produced through an extrusion process which takes place in an oxygen-free-inert-gas atmosphere. This leads to a reduced oxygen content (10 ppm) when compared to TPC and an improvement in conductivity which typically measures in at between 0.5% and 2% greater than TPC. The OFC process therefore produces a much higher quality audio cable than the TPC process. High purity conductors sound clearer than their unprocessed (TPC) counterparts because there are fewer crystal boundaries present to cause signal degradation.

Specifications

Construction: Twin Coaxial

Conductor: OCC Copper

Dielectric: PTFE

Screen: Double OFC Braid

Capacitance: 0.122 pF/m

Inductance: 0.306 µH/m

Resistance: 0.123 Ohms/m

Outside Diameter: 6.0 mm

Color/Finish: Red Fabric

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.