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If not for its Mythical siblings — FireBird and Dragon — ThunderBird might be the best cable the world has ever heard. Among other tried-and-true AudioQuest materials and design techniques, ThunderBird features solid directionally controlled conductors of our finest copper — Perfect Surface Copper+ (PSC+) — Copper-Plated RF-Draining Barrels, and our Level-6 Noise-Dissipation System.
The only way to avoid characteristic-impedance mismatch-effects between a cable and its attached source and load circuits is to prevent the cable from having a characteristic-impedance. ZERO-Tech succeeds by eliminating the electrostatic field between the cable's high and low signal conductors, enabling linear (consistent octave to octave) Radio-Frequency (RF) Noise-Dissipation, and uncompressed transients. In order to preserve ZERO-Tech's complete isolation between signal conductors, a Dual-72v DBS pack is included for XLR cables.
Solid conductors prevent electrical and magnetic strand-interaction. PSC+ Solid-Copper minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries and maximizes linear RF Noise-Dissipation.
Positive conductors benefit from almost no contact between metal and its FEP insulation, which is notable for its superior dielectric constant and minimal signal interference. Negative conductors benefit from intentionally "lossy insulation" — no air and no FEP helps maximize the negative connection's different job.
Insulation is also a dielectric that can act like a shunt-filter. Biasing minimizes dielectric-noise and linearizes the filter, significantly improving wide-bandwidth dissipation of induced RF noise.
Radio-Frequency Noise from cellular, WiFi, and satellites is everywhere. AQ's Level 6 Linear Noise-Dissipation includes a carbon & graphene resistive mesh-network, direction-controlled conductors, 72v DBS, and Silver-Plated drain wires, significantly minimizing RF Noise masking effects.
AudioQuest's finest plugs feature superior Hanging-Silver (not tumbled) directly over extreme-purity Red Copper.
Grounded Copper-Plated Barrels maximize Noise-Dissipation by preventing a metal barrel from capacitively coupling RF to the conductors.