PJB PIRANHA-THE SCIENCE OF BASS

Do Cables Really Make a Difference?

Contrary to the music business, in the world of Hi-Fi consumers exists a creature called an “Audiophile”. They exist to listen to audio equipment first and possibly music second. Once they have acquired the latest CD player, amplifier and speakers, they need to go on with acquiring more equipment they can listen to and that includes cables amongst other things I dare not mention.

Everything from the power cord in the CD player, through all interconnects and right up to the speakers! Are these people insane, you might ask yourself?

My answer to that is most likely some probably are (because I know a few) but not all of them.

Over the years cable companies have popped up and made huge business successes based on the feeding frenzy of these gullible individual’s lust for all things that are gold and shiny.

I have asked myself over the years what do these guys have? Hearing beyond what a bat has? Or is it the Emperor’s Invisible Clothing Syndrome?

Cables can indeed be measured but what ever is measured often simply beyond the realms of the audio spectrum (unless you’re a bat!) Do they make a difference to what you hear? Well actually in some cases they do, however the added cost for the slight difference may not be the best way ahead for sonic improvement. Which is why when we designed our cables, common sense was the primary design factor.

So why are PJB cables different?

Well one thing is we miss out a major ingredient in our cable technology, the BS Factor.

Here is our opinion of what good cables should have.

1. They have really good connectors that are tough and reliable, so they wont give up on you when you need them most.

2. The cables should have the lowest possible internal resistance, for efficient power transfer, particularly for speaker connections. For example if you have a 4-ohm speaker and a 0.5-ohm speaker cable, you could be losing at certain frequencies 11% of your amp power in the cable itself! For every 100 watts you hope to push to your speakers you may only be getting 89 watts! So it pays to use really high current cables if you are running low impedance speakers with your amp, unless you can afford to burn those watts away heating up your cables.

3. The actual cable sheath itself should be hard wearing and tough enough to take abuse on the road and yet flexible enough for you not having to hire a WWF pro wrestler to coil them up at the end of the gig for you. (If you have ever tried coiling up a PA system’s multi-core you will know what I mean.)

4. For shielded cables (low-level, instrument cables) it’s important that they have a high rejection to RF (Radio interference) or other extraneous noises and have a non micro-phonic quality. That is if you shake them or knock them, you can’t hear a thing.

5. If they do get damaged, it is easy to do a repair on them.

6. On power cables the major issue is safety! Do they have plugs that wont split, crack or come apart on you if they get dropped or stepped on? The plugs must have ultra low contact resistance; many a fire has been cause from the arcing of bad contacts in a power plug. Big power amps can draw huge currents from the wall socket, so that is an important factor also.

7. No pretty looks, just functional but we don’t mind at all if you think are cables look good too!

8. Zero BS hype.

PJB cables are made for the demanding bass player. We use material that makes sense for hardwearing durability, reliability and sonic factors.

As you now may realize that speaker cables can make a sonic difference. The parasitic resistance that all speaker cables have can affect not only how much power is transferred to your speakers but also your tone. The variations in speaker impedance in conjunction with speaker cables (particularly with vented type boxes) will change you low-end tone. The lower the impedance speaker is and the longer your cables are, the greater the effect cables will have.

PJB cables are designed to be as low a resistance as possible. Our speaker cables are typically less than half the resistance of the very best MI speaker cables offered by major brands. Our plugs are the sturdiest, toughest and best built plugs you will ever see for bass amplification. They are built to last and last. We make them ourselves because no one was able to supply the quality we demanded.

Our UL rated power cables feature tough molded plugs that wont fall apart. The conductors have a minimum 10 Amp continuous UL current rating so they are never overloaded. The ultra low resistance means that you get the maximum voltage to your amp from the wall socket and that means more power to your speakers. If you happen to damage a power cord, put safety first: just throw it away and replace it with a new one. Each PJB amplifier comes not only with a long and practical 20-foot power cord. It also includes a 6-foot IEC/IEC extension cord that allows you to plug in any ancillary equipment to your PJB amp without the need for an extra wall socket.

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