‘2 end’ (or ‘4 end’ in 4>4) connects to amp, ‘4 end’ connects to speaker.

You know the direction on a biwire sheathed cable, by following the direction of the writing on the sheath

This basic diagram below shows you the cable’s colour configuration as you look at the back of your speaker (your speaker will be marked with positive and negative or colour coded, follow the code marked on your speaker if it does not match the standard shown).

The solid cores on our biwires are the blue and yellow ends, going to the tweeters with the yellow end on the right side as you look at the back of your speaker.

This shows you the colour lay out as you look at the back of a general amp, both 2 and 4 socket.

O       O

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The Ecosse Interconnect Cable Range consists of either coaxial or 'balanced' conductors of rope-lay multi stranded topology - insulated then twisted (to reject unwanted noise) and surrounded in a soft PVC sheath.

These cables are composed of three main elements: the signal conductors, the dielectric, and the terminations (see HI-FI/ AV INTERCONNECTS TERMINATION). The conductors carry the delicate audio signal; the dielectric is an insulating material between and around the conductors to reduce signal loss; and the terminations provide the proper connection to audio equipment.

They use, for the most, Foamed Polyethylene insulation- as this material exhibits least energy-store loss. Yes even better than Teflon!

a) Balanced (symmetrical)- Electrically identical paths for the signal:
With balanced - or symmetrical - cables the two paths for the signal are electrically identical and are totally divorced for low noise. They are screened but the screen is connected at one end only to collect and drain R.F.I/EMI 'noise' (usually the 'source' end). These symmetrical cables, where the conductors are positioned side-by-side, require a twisted design configuration. Here, conductor attraction ('proximity effect') is neutralised resulting in uniform, low resistance, current flow.

b) Unbalanced (coax) - Non-identical paths for the signal:
The unbalanced type has a 'going' and 'returning' line which are not equivalent in terms of construction or electrical performance. These are 'coaxial' cables, where the shield is conductive and is employed for the return path. In general the resistance of the shield is lower than that of the conductor - hence unbalanced! more...

The grounding wire of a coaxial cable is an important design feature as it is this wire that completes the circuit protecting the conductor and minimising signal leakage and also shielding the assembly from EMI 'noise'.

The higher the percentage of braid, the less 'leakage' occurs. That's why Ecosse coaxial interconnects use no less than a 95% braiding - and in some cases we employ double braiding to ensure maximum coverage. This increases the random closing of gaps and greatly reduces signal leakage, as it also improves the ground, thus preventing current flow. Current flow in a ground can be detrimental to the delicate signal.

In each cable a conductive braided shield protects the signal conductor from electrostatically induced noise and its 2nd,double screen, rejects magnetically induced noise - ensuring no less than 95% rejection of R.F.I. (radio frequency interference).

Our interconnects employ only the finest insulation materials of either low-density foamed Polyethylene (LDPE ) - the foaming reduces the 'dielectric constant' thereby stabilising the frequency characteristics of the cable) or Teflon (PTFE). These dielectric insulators exhibit superior mechanical properties such as isolation to vibration and maximise signal velocity.

Ecosse Interconnects are all double, triple and sometimes quad shielded. The first shield will protect the conductor from electrostatically induced noise (EMI) the second shield rejects R.F.I.

The quality of any digital cable is ultimately defined by its conductor material, the dielectric used and the electrical properties it exhibits in terms of inductance, impedance, and rejection of the environment-eg EMI,RFI noise.

It is of fundamental importance for the transmission of high frequency and pulse signals such as those from a digital (or video source), that the transmitted signals match the characteristic impedance of the cable. The correct type of cable is an asymmetrical, or co-axial, typically of 75 Ohm impedance. If an alternative is used, then the signal will be reflected - 'jittered' - and the square wave signal form will be distorted, causing a roll off in high frequency information. more...

Jitter (clock phase noise):
There are many ways that so -called 'jitter' can affect the final digital to analog conversion at the DAC; Jitter on the transmitted signal can bleed or feed through the input receiver, and affect the DAC.

Thankfully this really only affects sound of the signal going directly to a DAC. If you're running into a computer, the computer is effectively going to be reclocking everything. Same applies to CD-recorders, DAT tapes and similar devices. Even modern DACs have typically a small buffer and reclocking circuitry, so the jitter is not such a big problem nowadays.

Impedance Mismatch:
Impedance mismatch can occur when a cable with internal impedance less than 75-ohm is connected to a true 75-ohm load, such as a quality A/V receiver or DVD player. In this situation, some of the frequencies that make up the signal will be reflected back to the source. Since the source is a 75-ohm unit, this reflected signal is sent directly back to it (A/V receiver or DVD player) creating a delay effect at certain frequencies. This delay, for example, can show up as a ghost in the picture. Multiple ghosts resulting from multiple frequency reflections can look like ringing around the original image. These reflections can also cause partial signal cancellations at various frequencies corresponding to a partial signal loss resulting in a loss of picture detail or color for video and constriction of particularly upper frequencies for audio (jitter).

Maintenance of the cable impedance from end to end is an imperative in video signals. At Ecosse our RCA or BNC connectors maintain the electrical integrity of the cable-which, as stated above, is rated at 75ohms. With each succeeding cable in our range you will notice that the quality of the plug improves so that in our 'Executive Digital' cable we use our superlative constant impedance MACH1 RCA terminations.

For the Audiophile 'Director' and 'Soundman' Cables these plugs are further upgraded to the beyond-the -competition Monocrystal™ MACH2 and MACH3 phono plugs and Of course BNC plugs by their very nature are designed to be rated at 75ohms so you can be certain that all Ecosse BNC terminations adhere to this specific design principle.

Beware: There is a new cable hitting the market that doesn't use conventional RCA connectors. It actually has a 'Bullet Connector' derived for audio cables. Based on the RCA connector's geometry its design cannot produce anything close to a 75-Ohm termination and therefore, can cause impedance mismatching resulting in reflections and signal.

There is a specific relation between the diameter of the conductor used and the diameter of its surrounding dielectric that must be maintained to ensure a true 75-ohm cable- and thus delivery of lifelike digital signals used in high-end/audiovisual system. The equation is also dependent on the dielectric characteristics of the material. The best dielectric is air (not practical) followed by Teflon and/or Foamed Polyethylene (nitrogen, air…), Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Nylon and least of all PVC- a material NEVER used by Ecosse as a dielectric.

Impedance is a measure of the ability of an AC network to impede the flow of charge or current through a network. A high cable inductance causes loss of signal strength towards the high end of the audible range (also known as roll-off). It also causes frequency dependent phase-shifting which disturbs true stereo imaging.

EMI exists within the range of video signal frequencies so it is possible for 'stray' signals from EMI to find their way into the cable and therefore, create a false signal or internal noise within the cable. Our Ecosse digital/video cables are sufficiently shielded to minimize EMI from entering into the cable including the use of braided grounding shields and non-magnetic foils.

S/PDIF signals

The signal on the digital output of a CD-player looks like almost perfect sine wave, lose/alter that wave and you interfere with the delicate signal. It can carry a stereo pair of channels with a sampling rate of up to 96 Ksps and with a sample precision of up to 24 bits. The S/PDIF output from CD players fits inside this envelope, being only 16 bits per sample at 44.1 Ksps. RCA/phono sockets are normally used but for maintenance of the square-wave we recommend true-75-ohm rated BNC plugs (if permissible).

AES/EBU signals

At audiophile-reference level you may encounter the AES/EBU interface, which uses symmetrical connections with transformer isolation and an output impedance of 110 ohm. The signal-level of this interface is reasonably higher than in S/PDIF. Because AES/EBU digital audio signals are transmitted at high, video-like frequencies (at around 6MHz) they require very precise construction and termination. At Ecosse we offer the finest AES/EBU digital cable on the market today-our all-Monocrystal™ Silver individually wound and hand-made 'In the Beginning' Interconnect!

The two formats are compatible with each other for audio, but differing connectors are required. Reference quality equipment will use balanced XLR connectors to carry S/PDIF over differential pair cable (as commonly used for low impedance recording studio microphones.) However, it is important not to use low-microphony cable for digital interconnections since it has very poor high frequency transmission capabilities.

Fibre Optic signals

A third physical media often used is plastic optic fibre. Optical Fibre has the advantage that, since it is non-conducting, earth-loops cannot be generated and the fibre link is immune to hum and noise pickup. That's the theory-in practice however optical fibre components can lead to increased jitter generation in the process of separating clock from data. This can cause a measurable degradation of the conversion back to analogue format.

The primary purpose of a component video cable is to carry the pulsed square wave high frequency AC video signals from source to TV/plasma/projector. Ecosse component cables ensure this transfer is carried out with the minimum of interference, signal loss, and signal degradation. With each cable upgrade 'noise' is progressively reduced resulting in an increasingly improved picture at your monitor end.

At the seriously high frequencies involved in video signal transfer, there are a number of factors that can create problems. As above: It is imperative that for video (and digital) signals the characteristic impedance of the cable matches the impedance of the component interface -which is 75ohms.

The characteristic impedance of a coaxial cable is determined by the size of the conductor and the quality-in terms of minimising energy loss-and diameter of the dielectric material. You can be certain that our component video devices are designed to ensure matched impedance. more...

Impedence Mismatch:
Impedance mismatch can occur when a cable with internal impedance less than 75-ohm is connected to a true 75-ohm load, such as a quality A/V receiver or DVD player. In this situation, some of the frequencies that make up the signal will be reflected back to the source. Since the source is a 75-ohm unit, this reflected signal is sent directly back to it (A/V receiver or DVD player) creating a delay effect at certain frequencies. This delay, for example, can show up as a ghost in the picture. Multiple ghosts resulting from multiple frequency reflections can look like ringing around the original image. These reflections can also cause partial signal cancellations at various frequencies corresponding to a partial signal loss resulting in a loss of picture detail or color.

In a standard audio cable for example, the internal impedances are between just 50 and 60-ohms. Since they are designed to carry low frequencies (20Hz to 20 kHz), audio cables have different impedances from component video cables. If audio cables are used in place of component video cables this lower impedance can result in degrading signal reflection.

Problems can occur during soldering: these include, if great care is not taken during the delicate soldering process, melting of the dielectric, excessive solder, incomplete solder joints etc.

All Ecosse video (and digital) cables are specifically designed for their respective interfaces. Thus we will never use an analog audio cable to transfer these significantly higher frequency video (about 10MHz) signals.

All Ecosse cables employ the finest insulation materials of minimum dielectric loss, thus ensuring accuracy of musical timbre and ambience. Quality insulation will also reduce E.M.I, R.F.I. and 'proximity effect'. We use either polyethylene or Teflon (PTFE- polytetrafluoride epoxy) dielectric as these insulators exhibit superior mechanical properties (such as isolation to vibration) to maximise the signal and its transmission velocity.

In certain of our cables these two dielectrics are combined within the cable's topology. Air-Foaming reduces the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss by introducing air, thereby stabilising the frequency characteristics of the cable.

Ecosse interconnect conductors employ (foamed) Polyethylene Dielectric or Teflon (PTFE) Insulation as these insulators exhibit superior mechanical properties (such as isolation to vibration) to maximise the signal and its transmission velocity.

Our loudSpeaker cables are sheathed in a polypropylene insulator except where the more-expensive Monocrystal™ Silver loudSpeaker Cables are concerned. Here we add our patented PTFE (polytetrafluoride epoxy) ultra-low D.C. air-space dielectrics together with Cu-foil and a nylon or polyester braiding.

Our 'Legend' Monocrystal™ Interconnect similarly has a tertiary, unique, patented PTFE (polytetrafluoride epoxy) ultra-low D.C. air-space dielectric between conductors ensuring that in a high-resolution audiophile system these Monocrystal™Ultra Pure Silver loudSpeaker and Interconnect Cables offer the finest sonics available anywhere and at any price.

Dielectric Constant:
The dielectric constant (D.C.) of the insulation material influences the ability of the cable to deliver rhythmic, fast and uniform sound. Frequencies fluctuate according to the efficiency of the dielectric constant of the insulation employed.

All Ecosse cables employ the finest insulation materials of minimum dielectric loss, thus ensuring accuracy of musical timbre and ambience. Quality insulation will also reduce E.M.I, R.F.I. and 'proximity effect'. We use either polyethylene or even Teflon (PTFE- polytetrafluoride epoxy) dielectric as these insulators exhibit superior mechanical properties (such as isolation to vibration) to maximise the signal and its transmission velocity. In certain of our cables these two dielectrics are combined within the cable's topology. Air-Foaming reduces the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss by introducing air, thereby stabilising the frequency characteristics of the cable.

A perfect dielectric will store zero energy and therefore, not take away any signal from the conductor. The closest to a perfect dielectric is air with a dielectric value of one, but it is not practical to use air as a dielectric as the entire assembly would have to be hermetically sealed (sic).

Dielectric materials absorb energy, a phenomenon called dielectric absorption. Dielectric absorption can degrade the signal so its important to use the best dielectric insulation for the task as the energy absorbed by the dielectric is released back into the interconnect slightly delayed in time-an undesirable condition.

COMPARISON CHART
Dielectric Material	Dielectric Constant
Air	1
Foamed Polyethylene	1.5 to 2.1
Teflon	2.03
Polyethylene	2.27 to 2.5
Polypropylene	2.25
Nylon	4.0 to 4.6
PVC	3.8 to 8.0

RFI & EMI noise ingress Dealing with the mains should be considered fundamental. What you are fighting in you mains system is not just one problem, but a number of problems, all of which affect the sound of your system.

The first problem is earthing, or rather a lack of it. The next problem is EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) and RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). more...

We live in an invisible sea of electromagnetic energy, caused by the electronics we own, radio stations, the earth's movement through space, even the sun's radiations. EMI, RFI and ESI are on the rise with mobile phones, wireless LAN's, digital radio and digital satellite TV broadcasting, all attacking your mains. Now with the imminent arrival of 3-G phones with their always live radio connections and wireless broadband internet connections, you are looking at a hideous soup of RFI that your mains just loves to transmit into your audio equipment. All these signals, when summed together in your living room, are called EMI/RFI.

EMI (nothing to do with the British Record Company holding the same name) interference is conducted from other audio components or appliances in your home (a humming refrigerator makes a lot of hash on you AC power lines, too). RFI is radiated by the components and cables themselves, and received from radio signals/noise in the environment (which is much worse in urban areas; all those cell phones, etc.).

It's all noise and has varying affect on audio signals, which cannot improve them. Thankfully, electromagnetic effects such as capacitance, inductance and resistance can be minimised by the use of high quality dielectrics; components and cables can be designed to reject RFI noise, and proper filtering of wall current and signal cables can reduce EMI conducted noise, and the results can be heard if you have quality equipment.

Outer sheaths require to absorb mechanical and electromagnetically induced vibration and to bend with relative ease. Ecosse Reference Cables use soft, pliable PVC.

There is also the problem of electromagnetic interaction between components across the mains-but hey, there's only 24 hours in a day for this stuff…so read on…and quickly.

Mains Noise: The Facts Have you ever experienced days/nights when your system just isn't sounding (or picture looking) as good as you remember it? Something is wrong; it's lifeless and uninvolving. What's going on?

It's not your imagination. It's because your AV components are designed to operate consistently with 240 Volts of AC power, but they rarely receive that amount from your wall outlet. The power is constantly changing, and thats bad for home audio/cinema. There are many reasons for this.

Outside your home, your local electricity provider is reacting to constant changes in consumer demand. The higher the common demand in your community the less power coming into your home.

Once inside your home, the effect is made even worse. Household appliances such as hair-dryers (the worst), washing machines, vacuum cleaner, freezers, even your own hi-fi system and indeed (in fact especially) this computer etc compound the problem. These demands can result in even more voltage sags (a dip below the standard voltage) to your wall outlets.

Because you're A/V components have to compensate in real time to keep up (and down) with changing voltage, they end up doing much more work, and are often strained, to accomplish the tasks they were designed for. This can result in dramatically compromised performance, not to mention shortened component life. The problems are numerous:

'Mains Noise' and where it comes from: Ideally, our power lines should contain nothing but absolutely clean 50 or 60 Hz, which is needed to make our supply alternating current, AC, as opposed to direct current, or DC. But we don't live in an ideal world, and our power supply lines in fact contain so much garbage

In any city, the degree of grid pollution is both large and ever growing. Therefore, it is there and exists whether you realize it or not.

HOUSEHOLD NOISES SHOWN AS CUMULATIVE SERIES-NOTE HOW NOISE ADDS UP!

Video Degradation That You Can See
Your TV monitor suffers visibly when AC power is unstable. Unfortunately, you may only realise this once you have installed one of our power filters. When you see the difference you'll know.

Regardless of which type or technology of TV display you own, there's a power supply inside it that feeds the monitor with the electrical energy to display pictures at your chosen settings. When your wall outlet supplies less than the required volts of AC power, the power supply in your TV monitor has to work correspondingly harder to produce pictures at these levels. The extra effort ends up being clearly perceivable as subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, picture artifacts, such as flickering and noise, as well as an overall loss of brightness, contrast, colour and sharpness.

In CRT-based projectors, this same problem will actually cause the picture to lose focus. When the power supply works harder, it burns hotter, which then heats up the housings for the picture tubes. When heated, the tubes drift out of convergence and focus, with the result being a fuzzier picture.

Audio Degradation That You Can Hear
The same problem clearly affects the audio in your system. When a musical or sonic peak happens during a particular piece of music, the amplifier(s) may need as much as 10, 20 or even 30 times as much power for the brief moment of the peak. This amplifier "headroom" is what gives your music the room to "breathe," sonically speaking.

When the amplifiers receive less than the 220-240 volts of power from your wall that they were designed to work with, they have to work much harder in order to produce the constantly changing energy for continuous musical signals. Because the amp is working overtime there's less energy to reproduce all of the fine details contained within the delicate audio signal being reproduced. This problem, naturally, is compounded when the music (or movie soundtrack) calls for a dramatic sonic peak.

Typically for us audiophiles most noise occurs in the 5...80 kHz range-right slap bang in the middle of our audible extremes. Bastard!

Its a cable's ability to reject-or rather best screen- its conductors from all this noise that pretty much affects how the cable and indeed your system is going to perform.

A well-screened mains distribution board is also pretty much a necessity-but worry-not, our R&D people are busy burning the midnight oil on coming up with just such a plug board-and it should be available at a store near you-very soon!

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Cables are delicate scientifically designed products, so, for optimum performance:

1. Do not wind, bundle, stretch or tightly bend.
2. Do not place the audio cable in parallel with a power cable.
3. Do not place the audio cable in parallel with ferrous constructions.
4. Do not leave one end of any cable open, and do not allow positive and negative paths to short circuit.
5. Disconnect unnecessary cables.
6. Do not try and affect a join in cables.
7. Periodically clean any oxidation from contacts.
8. Do not use in unnecessarily long lengths.
9. Keep all power cords away from interconnects, speaker wire, video cables and all other wire from the equipment, all the way to the wall-outlet or line conditioner. If you absolutely have to cross a power cord then do so at a 90-degree angle.
10. Cables should be installed in a relaxed position never kink or try to make a short cable reach; there should be gentle bends at both ends for optimal stress relief for the attached components and cabling.
11. Always insert or remove a cable by gripping the plug - not the cables

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The ECOSSE Team

"...we pride ourselves on being a team which has experience and expertise not only in the audio industry, but also in the fields of recording, promoting and managing artists..."

Our people have won many, many prestigious hi-fi and music entertainment awards, in fact its fair to say, Ecosse is the only cable company in the world to have won awards in both entertainment fields!

                     ...Our Passion is Music

Interconnect and Speaker Cable Product of the year	Brit "Music Artist" Award

"...no other hi-fi company in the world can say that it has people who have been recipients of a prestigious Brit Music Award and a coveted What HiFi? Product of the Year trophy..."

ON TOUR

Finally, show-wise, here we are in Oslo at the Norway Hi-End Hi-Fi Show 2003….and yes, once again, voted ‘best sound’! The gentlemen in the picture are Mr. Anders Folkedahl and Mr Per Bendiksen respectively- the latter is our Norwegian Distributor.

FACTORY TOUR 3

Ok so we demonstrate our cables at show all over the world as we believe that this is the way to truly show that we have/are the best. In fact we'd go as far to say that if a cable is not demonstrated at shows you should ignore it, as it clearly shows how little that manufacturer trusts their cables when directly compared to others!

Also,as you can see, we take a very precise approach to cable terminations; our staff ensure the highest level of craftsmanship-precise and accurate-where the greatest attention to detail is guaranteed. (Ask our competitors to show you their (genuine) factory photos-you may be surprised!)

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