Customer Review Excerpt
I began my experience with the Chimera Labs Interconnects by being highly skeptical…Could the Advantage HiFi cables really be as good as claimed on the web site? Were they really equal to audio cables of ten to twenty times the price? The money back guarantee convinced me to take a chance...Is it as good as other hifi cables on the market for 10 times the price…yes, I think it quite possibly is. If anyone s in the market for a sub $3000 hifi interconnects the Chimera Labs Advantage is definitely the bench mark by which to judge and that s praise indeed for a hifi cable in the $300 area. Read all the analog audio interconnect reviews here.

Chimera Labs Advantage Audio Cable - Background
In order to refine its tube audio designs, Chimera Labs developed its own design for high end audio cables. This was required due to the inadequate performance of the high end commercial audio cables available at the time. The designs for Chimera Labs Advantage Audio Interconnects and speaker cables are a result of an extensive audio wire and cable evaluation and testing program spanning over 12 years.

During visits to listen to Chimera’s audio products, customers identified a strong interest in being able to purchase the audio interconnects and loudspeaker cables used in Chimera’s reference system. The high performance audio cable designs also meet Chimera Labs goal of offering carefully crafted audio products that provide exceptional audio performance at affordable prices. One of our goals is to offer its customers a range of high end audio products. A range that will permit Chimera Labs customers an opportunity to purchase a complete home audio stereo system. A system that provides excellent performance by ensuring there is no “weak link” or compatibility problems between the various audio products.

Advantage Audio Cables – General Information
The wire and connectors used in an audio system have a significant effect on that system’s overall ability to reproduce the sound of live music. The challenge an audiophile faces is finding cables that are transparent and fast enough to “disappear” and let the system’s audio components realize their full potential.

High end audio cable manufacturers adhere to the same Marketing Plan. They offer a wide range of cables at price points that range from affordable to almost unobtainable. The changes in materials and construction don’t seem to justify the sizable price increases and a lot of “Black Magic” hype is used in their product descriptions. They also tend to sell their products through audio dealers which adds at least 30% to the cable’s retail price.

Chimera Labs only sells one type of high performance cable for various applications and we only sell directly to the end user. These high end cables are a simple refined design using the best materials and construction techniques we have been able to develop. We spent as much time on connectors, solder and damping products as we did on wire and cable geometry. Extensive listening evaluations were used to finalize their design. This included providing samples to ensure the sound performance of the audio cables with the widest possible range of equipment, music sources and perceptions of music reproduction performance. We feel they provide a very high level of sound performance, compatibility, reliability and appearance. Offering, in effect, “lifetime” products that will stand the test of time and allow our customers to get off the “cable merry go round and just enjoy the Music.

Chimera Labs high performance audio cables are a hand braided Litz (Litzendraught) design. The positive and negative conductors are the same length and cross section. They are not shielded. In our experience shielded audio cable induce energy storage that absorbs the leading edge of an audio signal. This stored energy is added to the trailing edge of the audio signal introducing distortion artifacts.

Reviewers invariably identify the low level detail resolution, sound stage and lack of noise of the Chimera Labs cables as a major improvement over the audio interconnects they were using. We feel that the lack of shielding, as well as the careful hand braiding construction are the two major factors contributing to this performance.

We have tested every type of conductor used in audio wire and cable. You may have heard or read about “Long Crystal” or “Single Crystal” wire. To our knowledge there are only three factories in the World capable of manufacturing wire with this process. The process invented in Japan, is correctly identified as Continuous Cast Copper. So far, it is the best conductor for accurate reproduction of music. We also use it for the internal wiring of our high end tube audio products.

We use Copper Content Solder instead of the usual Silver Content types. Used with OCCC wire, silver solder adds a grain or edge to the upper midrange frequencies. This characteristic induces listening fatigue as well as distortion artifacts. All solder joints are sealed with a proprietary varnish to provide “gas tight” joints that will not oxidize over time.

We only use OFC Copper connectors in our high performance cables. The outside surfaces of the OFC Copper connectors have a hard gold alloy directly applied to the OFC copper base metal. There are no Nickel or Silver sub plating, which are in effect dissimilar conductors which degrade phase and transient performance.

This superior construction allows us to offer all Advantage Cable products with a Lifetime Warrantee. In addition, Advantage Cables carry the same money back guarantee found on the entire line of Chimera Lab’s Audio products. If a product does not satisfy your needs, you can simply return it for a full refund.

Advantage Audio Interconnects – Material and Construction Specifications
Braided Cover – A fine polyester monofilament sleeving is used to cover the wire braid. We prefer polyester as opposed to cloth. It will not absorb contaminates and has better dielectric performance. It also provides better abrasion resistance. It’s added stiffness helps the installed interconnects form large radius bends and keeps the wire conductors from forming kinks.

Conductor Material - 25.5 AWG Continuous Cast Copper wire. This manufacturing process virtually eliminates the impurities present in standard oxygen free copper wire. A heated molding process eliminates any drawing or extrusion processes and yields a conductor with a smooth void free surface. More importantly this process creates a conductor with a crystal structure over 70 meters long. Standard drawn or extruded copper wire has from fifty to four thousand crystals per meter. The continuous casting process also eliminates gas contamination of the conductor.

Insulation Material – To reduce energy storage and capacitance, a very thin coating of polyethylene insulation is sprayed on the conductor. Two coats are applied to eliminate any porosity in the coating. The total thickness of the insulation coating is 0.001” thick. The material has a low dielectric constant and polyethylene has proven to have better distortion “ratios” then Teflon or Polypropylene. The superior adhesion of the double spray process keeps contaminates from oxidizing the conductor’s outer surface. Copper oxide is not a conductor, if the surface of a copper conductor becomes oxidized, it will “smear” the audio signal.

Connectors – Oxygen Free Copper connectors are used. Their quality construction and finish ensure long term reliability. Their body shell design allows us to ensure all wire conductor lengths are exactly the same. Our evaluations determined having all conductor lengths the same was an important element in accurate music reproduction. There is no sub plating and the Hard Gold alloy finish is directly applied to the copper. We remove the gold plate from the solder points to ensure a copper to copper connection.

Construction – Four strands of 25.5 AWG Continuous Cast copper are hand “Litz” braided. Two strands form the positive conductors and two strands form the negative conductors. Our evaluations have shown that having identical conductor cross section areas was very important to sound performance. Passing the AC signal along positive and negative conductors of different areas, a condition commonly found in coaxial interconnect construction is not an effective approach.

Our interconnects are not shielded. We have never encountered an application where this was required. Whenever we added a copper foil shield, the interconnects performance suffered. This is probably due to energy storage, eddy currents and electromagnetic field interference.

True “Litz” or Litzendraht Wire requires a braid configuration where each conductor is braided from the outside to the center of the “bundle”. It may be possible to machine braid Litz Wire effectively. All samples we have seen form the conductors with tight radius bends. Our testing showed hand braided Litz Wire with gentle loosely braided bends was superior.

Damping Material – EAR Isodamp SD grommets are used to dampen the RCA plugs. A special low temperature microcrystaline wax is worked into the Litz braided conductor “bundle” to dampen the mechanical resonance of the conductors.

Solder – Chimera Laboratories Copper Content Solder is used for all terminations. Silver bearing solder is not suitable with Continuous Cast Copper wire. It adds a glare to the upper midrange that creates long term listening fatigue.

Solder Seal – To prevent any long-term degradation of performance, the solder terminations are coated with a clear gas-tight proprietary varnish to prevent oxidation of the solder joint. The coating is free of any formaldehyde and toulene and its ingredients include Vitamin E and panthenol. This coating also dampens the mechanical resonance present at a solder joint.

Advantage Audio Interconnects – Optimizing Use and Installation
All Chimera Labs Interconnects and high performance cables are tested and broken in after assembly. The total break-in time is one hour. Our high end interconnects will continue to improve with age and use. The majority or 95% of full sonic potential will be reached after about 45 to 60 hours of use.

The Continuous Cast copper wire used to construct the Chimera Labs interconnects is not directional. But the interconnects become directional as a signal is passed along them. In fact they become accustomed to the specific signal strength and current applied. For that reason if you are using more than one set of Chimera Labs high performance audio interconnects in your system, you need to make sure their locations are not inadvertently switched. It’s more important not to reverse their direction. Inspect the interconnects before you install them. You will notice one plug has a black sleeve on the braided conductor. That identifies the exit end of the interconnects. If you are installing the interconnects between your preamp and power amp, the black sleeved “end” is installed on the power amp’s input.

Chimers Labs feels it is important to stress that there is an optimum performance length for audio interconnects and high end speaker cables. In our evaluations the optimum length for high performance audio cables is from 40 to 80 inches or 1 to 1 1/2 meters. The optimum length for high end Speaker Cables are from 4 to 5 feet. This provides enough separation between components to avoid interaction. It also minimizes the distortion added by the additional capacitance, inductance and resistance inherent in long cables, regardless of construction.

You should position your equipment and select an interconnect length that allows the interconnects to bridge the equipment properly. The audio interconnects should have loose radius bends and fall in a gentle loop between the equipment. Ideally it should be located away from any AC power cords and not touch any chassis or metal shelving. Install the interconnects gently taking care not to kink or tightly bend the wire. Kinking the wire may cause its crystalline structure to fracture and randomize. All the benefits of the Continuous Cast Copper conductor, where you have a single copper crystal between the RCA plugs can be lost. ~ Dennis Boyle