How did you get into cable manufacturing?

I've always been a "cable nerd", even before I got into the business.  In my 27+ years as an audiophile, trying out new cables has always been a kick for me. Don't know why, I'm just weird that way, I guess, ha!

So, years back, when I was first getting into cryo treating audio items (www.cryo-freeze.com), I became a dealer, or an OEM, for many different cable and wire brands; I would cryo their products, and then sell the cryo'd cables and wires to the DIY guys, who would report back to me how much positive difference the cryo process made.  I, of course, had listened a great deal to the effects of cryo on many commercial brands while developing my CryoFreeze™ process, and their comments were echoing what I had been hearing.

Well...since I had so many wires and cables around all the time, and my customers were happy with me and the way I was doing things, many of my them began asking me to build them custom cables, or terminate the bulk wire/cable I was offering for sale.  So, I started experimenting with different materials, processes, techniques, etc., and developing what I would say has become my "design philosophy".  Eventually, so many requests were pouring in for my custom cables that I decided to "go for it" and start manufacturing cables.

Once I had the business up and running enough to hopefully cover things (you know…like groceries and such, ha!), I left my cushy corporate gig to venture full time into the world of audio entrepreneurship.  I now design, build, and manufacture cables for my companies, (Locus Design and Cryo-Parts) as well as do OEM and design work for others.

As time passed I made many mistakes, had some wins, gained more knowledge, and generally kept things afloat and growing.  During this initial period of building a business, I took great care to foster close relationships with my vendors, invest in good tools and equipment, and set myself up for long term success.  As a result of much hard work, putting in tons of hours, and investing a great deal of money, my cables have continually improved and I am now fortunate enough now to be fairly well established and have garnered numerous awards from all over the world. 

What makes your cable different to the many other brands on the market?

There are a lot of good cables out there, and many are great choices.  I may not agree with everyone on how to do things, but I think the majority of the cable companies who still have someone passionate at the helm, are trying to build the best product they know how.  And, differences are what makes things interesting and the world go 'round, so there is room for all companies that are trying to do the right thing, methinks.

My design philosophy is simple, but is complex, labor intensive, and quite expensive to implement.  I will quote what I wrote to a recent reviewer who asked about my design philosophy and why my Parable interconnects "sound" like they do (he loves them as uses them as his reference now).  The below "design philosophy" is applied to all of my higher end cables, even though it was written in response to a query about the Parables:

"Over the last 25 years, I have been striving to come up with methods of building the 'quietest' cable available. By 'quietest', I mean a cable that is immune to the environment it is placed in both electrically, and mechanically as possible. In addition to this immunity to outside influences, a 'quiet' cable must exhibit high self-damping characteristics, so that any excitement to the internal signal conductors (via the components to which the cable is attached) is immediately quelled, and this energy is then dissipated as low level heat. In a nutshell, this is my 'philosophy' of cable design I look at a cable as a 'whole', not just a collection of component parts.

While I use the best materials available (custom drawn wire, Furutech or Bocchino connectors, Mundorf solder, etc.), I am striving for gestalt, in order to produce an ends product that is remarkable. For myself as a designer, to get my cables from 'good' to 'great' required me to start thinking differently, and visualizing the end product as a complete entity; including visualizing how I wanted this entity to perform, and then setting goals and standards for this entity. Once I started thinking like this, I designed the Axis, Nucleus and Cynosure USB cables, the Vision interconnect, the Core digital cable, and the Keynote power cable, all of which have been universally praised, and have won many awards. All of which leads us to the Parable.

The Parable is a result of my latest thinking on analog interconnect design, and takes all of the technologies I have developed over the years to their extreme, which of course meant not designing to a price point, and using what I feel are the best materials for the job, regardless of cost. To this end, I started at the beginning, and looked at the basic building blocks of an analog interconnect cable, the wire (conductors), the shielding, the damping, the jacketing materials, the ends, etc.. In short, I carefully considered each element in the cable, and picked those elements that worked together to achieve my goal of producing the 'quietest' cable that I know how to make.

While I have always had custom wire drawn to my specifications, the wire used in the Parable is my best work yet. In addition to using the highest quality raw materials, and most advanced manufacturing techniques available (like all of my wire), I developed an insulator with a remarkable resistance to being excited, i.e., it is very 'dead', and has a very low Q ring [resonance]. This wire has many upsides, but is also incredibly expensive to manufacture, so it is only suitable for cost no object products.

I then have this wire weaved into a proprietary braid, which forms the core of the Parable. The braid serves to tie the conductors together as one unit, while still allowing each conductor to be isolated from each other. Around this 'core' unit, I then add various layers of damping and shielding materials; including, but not limited to, cotton, nylon, Teflon, Mylar, SPC braid, carbon fiber, and others I will not disclose. All materials are chosen for their ability to work together to damp and shield the inner core from outside influence, as well as dissipate any energy that the conductor core may have picked up from the components they are tying together.

As an aside, all Parable's will be built by me personally, as I am the only one who knows exactly what goes into the cable, and I am not going to share this knowledge with anyone, anytime soon."

What difference in terms of sound do you think the Cryo process adds?

When I am designing a new wire, or cable for myself and others, I consider cryo as an integral part of the process.  I no longer look as it as "adding" anything, as I have fully incorporated the use of cryo into my design and manufacturing process.  I can't imagine being without it, as it is a critical part of my "recipe".

Copper, Silver plated Copper or Silver? Which do you prefer and why?

Depends on the application. Frankly, to me, the materials are less important to me than how they fit into my "recipe" for a particular cable.  I use all three compositions/metals that you mentioned, depending on the cables projected price point, and how the material fits into the rest of the whole design; how it contributes to the gestalt. 

People tend to get hung up on materials, when what they should really be concerned with is who is designing the cable; first and foremost, the skill of the designer is far more important than what materials are being used.  That being said, the conductor is an important piece of the recipe, and my more expensive cables allow me to utilize materials and processes that come closer to what I consider the "ideal" conductor, which like anything cutting edge, is wicked expensive.

You get most of your cables custom designed to your specifications, right down to the composition of the metal, why?

Control.  When I am designing a stranded wire, for example, their are numerous things that will contribute to how the final product will sound.  Just to name a few things that contribute to a a wires "sound":

• Conductor material
• How the metal is drawn
• What type of dies
• How new the dies are
• Strand count
• Strand size
• Pitch
• Insulating material
• Extrusion heat
• Extrusion thickness
• Extrusion quality
• How the wire is spooled
• ..And a hundred other things.

So, in order for the wire to "sound" like I want it to, and fit into the "recipe" for the overall cable concept, I need to have control over all the aspects above, and more.  Fortunately, over the years, I have developed close relationships with vendors who "put up with me" and my "crazy demands".  Without these relationships, I would never be able to produce the cables I am able to today.

Locus has a reputation for the best USB cables, what is it about your USB cables that make them so superior to other product?

As far as them being superior to others products, I'll leave that up to the pundits.  I just make the best cables I know how to, right now. 

As far as I know, I was the first to come out with an "audiophile" USB cable, and I was also the first to recognize that the data and vcc/ground lines should be separated and isolated from each other, a practice which I pioneered in the Axis USB cable.

I have been continually improving and building on the Axis design since then, have learned a great deal along the way, discovered new materials and processes, and come out with three models above the Axis;  the Essentia the Nucleus, now in a v2 version and the Cynosure, also in now in its v2 version.  As far as I know, I am the only one who damps and shields USB cables the way I do.  This method took me a very long time to develop, a great deal of money, and is quite expensive to implement; however, this damping/shielding method is one of the main contributors to how my USB cables sound. 

As one climbs up my line, this unique shielding and damping method is taken further and further toward the ideal, as the more expensive the cable is, the more top flight "ingredients" I can use as I am less limited by cost constraints.  My top cable, the Cynosure is almost at this theoretical ideal, and is the best USB cable I currently can make, without getting into the $5K to $8K territory, which I am not sure there is much of a market for yet.  When there is a market ready for a cable in that price range, I have a cable ready to go, it's in it's fourth prototype now!

Sure, I have received numerous awards, my cables are used by many top music producers/engineers, audio software engineers, digital gear manufacturers, etc. as their reference cables, and I am very proud of this.  But, it is the comments from my customers relaying to me how I have helped to improve their system (and satisfaction with it) that keep me going, and keeps me pushing the boundaries. 

Frankly, there is not enough money in this business to be made for one to do it only for money (contrary to opinions of many, no cable manufacturers I know are driving Ferrari's around, and raking in the dough), one must have a passion for it.  My passion is to help the customer, in some tiny way (after all, audio is not THAT important in the grand scheme of things) enjoy the free time they choose to spend in front of their audio system just a bit more due to a product that I made with my own two hands.

The high-end Locus USB cables use a special shielding method, can you explain how this is done and why?

Many different layers of different materials, applied in a certain way, in a certain order, and all designed to work together to form a "whole", or gestalt.  Took me a long time to figure out the materials, methods, processes, and techniques to get the results I desired.  Some of the materials used are mentioned above in the description of the Parable.

Many people are skeptical about the benefits of a good USB cable, so what is the benefit?

One can read the reviews or testimonials and get an idea of what people are saying about the benefits of a good USB cable, and specifically my cables.  I am not one to hype or wax poetic about differences, or hype, I prefer to let the product do the talking for me. I will say:  A good USB cable should provide an easy to hear positive difference, if it does not, move on to a different brand, or model.

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