AViC Cable is another newcomer to the on-line cable
company field. They offer a complete line of audio and video cables,
including interconnects, speaker cables, S-Video, component video, and
computer cables. I did not see any HDMI or DVI cables on their website, but
I am sure they will come.The
Design
On the surface, the AViC cables appear to be similar to other
low-priced cables out
there, perhaps OEM'd by Belden. This is not a problem, as it is a common
thing, and Belden makes good stuff. A designer will simply tell Belden, or
whatever OEM company that makes them, what the specifications are to be, and
the OEM builds them. In fact, this keeps the cost to consumers down, while
maintaining the quality that a big OEM supplier has in large factories.
The only problem one might have with an OEM, is in
getting an exotic design manufactured, but the AViC is not that type of
cable.
The cables have a "Gold Finger", which I assume
means that the ends of the conductors are coated with pure gold, to keep
oxidation from deteriorating the exposed areas where the connectors are
attached.
Shielding is accomplished with copper braiding and
the cable also has a Mylar® foil wrapping that gives it a very
attractive appearance.
Connectors are impedance matched, which means that
they are true 75 ohm impedance, and this is important for their digital cable
product. XLR cables are 110 Ohms impedance. Note that this is for
interconnects. Speaker wire is not only not at 75 ohm ideal, but the
impedance of the cable will not be the same at connection points compared to
the length of the cable itself, as the wires are spread to make the
connection, and so the characteristic impedance rises at the termination
points, so long as we're talking about standard binding posts that are used
on pretty much every amplifier and loudspeaker.
The dielectric is nitrogen infused polyethylene, a
standard for good, but not high priced, cables.
The Tests
I used the AViC 11 speaker cables in one of our
reference systems, and they sounded neutral. I did not notice anything
particular about them, which is good.
They are a bit stiff, but that is not a real
problem.
The
bench test results
indicated that the AViCs have reasonably low
capacitance, but not the lowest we have measured. Inductance was the second
lowest we have measured in speaker cables, and this is excellent, as low
inductance is thought to be an important factor in speaker cables (low
capacitance is thought to be important with interconnects). We don't have
data on enough different cables yet to make a generalized statement, but so
far, so good.
Resistance is about as low as most of the other
cables we have tested.
By the way, our measurements match almost exactly
the specifications provided in AViC's literature. Nice to see a company not
stretching the truth at all.
I would rate the construction quality as modest,
about right for their price. In the past, I have found the netting material
that is immediately adjacent to the banana plugs, in cables similar to the
AViCs, to come loose over time,
but that is mainly because I am constantly plugging and unplugging cables in
our lab.
Conclusions
I'm impressed with the AViC speaker cables. They
seem solidly built, have a good sound quality, and bench test well. You can
give them a try with a full refund guarantee.
- John E. Johnson, Jr. -