Audioquest Mackenzie Interconnect XLR

Originally named “Disappointment” for dashing Alexander Mackenzie’s hope that it would lead to the Pacific rather than the Arctic Ocean, the Mackenzie River is Canada’s largest and longest river system. Stretching over 2,635 miles, it meanders through a vast network of lakes, boreal forests, and Arctic tundra. Mackenzie’s numerous tributaries cover parts of three provinces—British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan—and two territories, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Referred to as “The Amazon of the North,” the sparsely populated Mackenzie basin remains one of the world’s great unspoiled natural areas.

SOLID PERFECT-SURFACE COPPER+ (PSC+) CONDUCTORS Solid conductors prevent electrical and magnetic strand interaction. PSC+ Solid-Copper minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries and maximizes linear RF noise dissipation.

CARBON-BASED 3-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS) It’s easy to accomplish 100% shield coverage. Preventing captured Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System (NDS). Traditional shield systems typically absorb and then drain noise/RF energy to the component ground, modulating and distorting the critical “reference” ground plane, which in turn causes a distortion of the signal. NDS’s alternating layers of metal and carbon-loaded synthetics “shield the shield,” absorbing and reflecting most of this noise/RF energy before it reaches the layer attached to the ground.

TRIPLE-BALANCED GEOMETRY (SEPARATE GROUND-REFERENCE CONDUCTOR) Our Triple-Balanced Geometry uses a separate ground-reference conductor, ensuring that the cable’s shield is never used as an inferior conductor. Whether equipped with RCA or XLR plugs, the cable’s three conductors ensure that the positive and negative signals have equally superior, low-distortion conducting paths.

COLD-WELDED, HANGING-SILVER DIRECTLY OVER PURE PURPLE COPPER TERMINATIONS HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION Hard-Cell Foam (HCF) Insulation maintains critical signal-pair geometry. Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy, with some of this energy being stored and then released as distortion. Hard-Cell Foam Insulation, similar to the Foamed-PE used in our more affordable Bridges & Falls cables, is nitrogen-injected to create air pockets. Since nitrogen, like air, doesn’t absorb energy and doesn’t release any energy from or into the conductor, distortion is reduced. Furthermore, the stiffness of the material allows the cable’s conductors to maintain a stable relationship along the cable’s full length, creating a stable impedance character and further minimizing distortion.