WEL Signature
It was never William E. Low’s intention to create a “signature series” of cables, so it can be said that the WEL Signature series is something which evolved. As anyone who has ever birthed something from the ground up knows, things have the tendency to take on lives of their own. Inspiration becomes the compass that sets the direction we follow. WEL Signature speaker cable is a 30+ year culmination of AudioQuest’s best materials and techniques, combined with the sensitivity and refinement that only comes when those who love music and appreciate the objectivity of uncolored, undistorted sound.
SOLID 100% PERFECT-SURFACE SILVER (PSS) CONDUCTORS: WEL Signature uses extremely high-purity Perfect-Surface Silver conductors. All conductors are solid, which prevents strand interaction, a major source of distortion. Surface quality is critical because a conductor can be considered as a rail-guide for both the electric fields within a conductor, and for the magnetic fields outside the conductor. The astonishingly smooth and pure Perfect-Surface eliminates harshness and greatly increases clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers. The superior purity of PSS further minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries, which exist within any metal conductor.
CARBON-BASED MULTI-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION and CROSS-TALK-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (INSULATION): The negative conductors in WEL Signature are insulated with partially conductive Carbon-Loaded Polyethylene. This remarkable material damps radio-frequency garbage from being fed back into the amplifier. The sonic benefit is exactly the same reduction in “hash” and better dimensionality that comes whenever RF garbage is reduced in an audio circuit. WEL Signature uses Nitrogen-Injected Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation on its positive conductors because air absorbs next to no energy, and Polyethylene is low-loss and has a benign distortion profile. Thanks to all the air in Foamed-PE, it causes much less of the out-of-focus effect common to other materials.
DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.
DOUBLE COUNTER-SPIRAL GEOMETRY: WEL Signature and the other AQ “Tree Feature” cables have an inner circular array of positive conductors spiraling in one direction. Around this inner group are the negative conductors spiraling in the opposite direction. Even while the positive and negative conductors are crossing each other instead of being parallel, the relationship between the positive and negative groups is fixed and non-changing, adhering to one of AudioQuest’s most basic design tenets: consistency. The result is an astonishing clarity, like focusing a camera lens you had no idea was so far out of focus.
SPREAD-SPECTRUM TECHNOLOGY (SST): Any single size or shape of conductor has a specific distortion profile. Even though radially symmetrical conductors (solid round or tubular) have the fewest discontinuities, any conductor of a particular size does have a sonic signature. SST uses a precise combination of different size conductors in order to significantly reduce the audibility of these character flaws. The different SST-determined conductor sizes used in WEL Signature allow an exceptionally clear, clean and dynamic sound.
BIWIRING: When possible, running separate conductors or separate cables to the treble and bass halves of a speaker will considerably reduce distortion. BiWiring reduces distortion by keeping the large magnetic fields caused by bass energy out of the treble cable, allowing these delicate upper frequencies to travel a less disturbed path. Although WEL Signature is an ideal full-range cable, it can also be used as a double pair for maximum benefit from BiWiring. WEL Signature has also been designed to make it possible to Single BiWire. The five conductors per polarity have been chosen and arranged so that they may be divided into two groups, allowing WEL Signature to be prepared with four connections on the speaker end.
TERMINATIONS: The 1000 Series Mulit-Spades are machined from a pure C11000 Electrolytic Copper billet and then a thick coat of silver is directly applied. Direct Plating (also know as Hanging Silver) means that no harsh sounding nickel is applied prior to the silver. This may leave the connectors looking less shiny, but the result is an unequivocal level of performance not matched by any other connector on the market. These uniquely transparent spades are the closest things to no spade we have ever heard. The 1000 Series Mulit-Spades are available in both ¼” and 5/16.”
APPLICATION: The ABS breakouts on either end of WEL Signature are marked “Speaker End” or “Amp End.” Please use cables in the direction required.