Atlas

Atlas Zeno Melodic 1:2 Headphone Cable

Atlas Zeno Melodic 1:2 Headphone Cable

OCC Copper twin-balanced headphone cable.

A high-performance cable elevating headphone performance.

Our hand-made Zeno Melodic headphone cables are designed to offer a significant performance gain over typical manufacturer-supplied cables.

For the Zeno Melodic, we‘ve incorporated a series of improvements in this latest generation cable. Zeno Melodic is a twin-balanced stranded OCC copper cable, with each channel individually screened and connected in a dual symmetrical configuration.

Zeno Melodic features our proven precision-crimped solder-free construction methods, the objective being to produce a continuous high-integrity signal path which avoids the breaks in material 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 4 pin XLR and other versions in our ‘dark chrome’ finish.

The results speak for themselves; as well as excellent retrieval of fine detail, Zeno Melodic has a weight and solidity to its sound, with a wide dynamic range and well-defined soundstage, the latter not always a given in headphone listening.

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

Ultra-Pure OCC Copper Conductors

Wideband Dielectric (Physical FPE)

Unique 4-Pin OCC XLR Plug

Dual Symmetrical Configuration

Precision Cold Welded Assembly

Twin Fully Balanced Cable Design

Stranded twin balanced construction

Cables are shielded to protect sensitive signals from external noise.

There are two generally two types of shield, one to reject electrically induced noise, the other to reject magnetically induced noise. The rejection of electrically induced noise requires the shield to be made of a metal with a high conductivity (since RFI rejection requires ‘shielding’ currents to be able to flow easily in the shield.

In an unbalanced interconnect, the shield also acts as the signal return path, while in a pseudo-balanced RCA configuration the shield and return paths are two identical conductors surrounded by a wrapped/woven screen, with the shield left open at one end. This makes pseudo-balanced interconnects directional by manufacture.

A cable could be wrapped around a ferrite core (iron etc.) to maximize the rejection of magnetic fields. Interconnects incorporating such a shield are bulky, this method of magnetic field rejection is not generally used on hi-fi. To reject magnetic interference in hi-fi applications, it is usually sufficient to twist the insulated conductors together to form what is known as a twisted pair.

Nowadays technologies such as ‘High Definition Audio’ can produce audio signals well beyond the 20kHz value which was typically considered to be an adequate cut-off frequency for HiFi systems. In response to this, some loudspeaker producers are meeting the latest demands for high frequency extension with highly sophisticated tweeters capable of reproduction well above 20kHz. A few speaker manufacturers provide a ground contact on the speaker so that a drain wire can be connected to reject RFI which can otherwise become an audible problem at frequencies in excess of about 20kHz.

It’s not only the quality/quantity of shielding but also the method of terminating the screens to maximize the Rf performance. At Atlas we utilize a special technique called ‘Dual-Drain’ which not only eases the manufacturing process and maintains the screen integrity but also maximizes the screen efficiency to eliminate unwanted noise.

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: Stranded twin balanced

Conductor: OCC Copper

Dielectric: PEF

Screen: OFC Braid

Capacitance: 48.86 pF/m

Inductance: 0.756 µH/m

Resistance: 0.859 Ohms/m

Outside Diameter: 8.6 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.

Options for Zeno Melodic 1:2 Headphone Cable
(any mix)

Length

Headphone

Amplifier

2M

2.5mm x 2

2.5mm Balanced

2.5M

3.5mm x 2

4.4mm Balanced

3M

Hirose 4-pin x 2

3.5mm Stereo

4M

2-Pin HPSC x 2

6.3mm Stereo

5M

IEM 2-Pin x 2

XLR 4-Pin

6M

LEMO 2-Pin

XLR 3-Pin x 2

 

MMCX x 2

 

 

Push-pull x 2

 

 

SMC x 2

 

 

XLR 4-Pin x 2

 

Price
Regular price
$999.00
Sale price
$999.00
Regular price
Length
Custom Made Cables cannot be returned
Atlas Zeno Melodic 1:2 Headphone Cable
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