PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN
The Clearview Golden Helix Speaker Cables share the distinctive sound of Mapleshade CDs: lots of dynamic punch, unusually clean bass with lots of attack and no boominess, surprisingly transparent midrange and a brilliant, unsmeared, extended treble. In independent dealer and audiophile listening tests, they have won against all the well-known budget cables they've been paired with. In addition, they've bested MIT, Transparent, Nordost and Audioquest cables costing two to five times as much.
The design principles that underly the Clearview Golden Helix's speed and lack of coloration are:
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Far lower dielectric (insulation) losses than standard "garden hose" cables, due to ultra-thin dielectric films (under two ten-thousandths of an inch), composed of polymers selected by ear.
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High purity copper wire—drawn, tempered and silver-plated to our specification.
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Thin diameter, single strand wire to greatly reduce skin effect relative to "garden hoses". As determined by listening tests, the diameter chosen optimizes the balance between skin effect losses and resistance losses.
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Tight, single helix field-cancelling configuration to reduce all signal interactions between the + and – signal conductor.
INSTALLATION TIPS FOR MAX PERFORMANCE
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Install the cables with the single color band ends at your speaker. If the output of your amplifier is in correct absolute phase, connect red-banded cable to red speaker and amplifier posts (same for black). If your amplifier outputs an inverted phase signal, switch red for black speaker cables at the amplifier, not at the speaker.
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Avoid laying the cables on (or under) any rug with artificial fibers or on any plastic-tiled floor or along any plastic wall-molding or plastic wallpaper. If you have artificial fiber rugs or plastic tile floors, raise cables at least four inches off the floor with wood blocks or cardboard vees or polystyrene cups or suspend them with non-plastic string or thread. This is true of all cables, not just ours: they all are severely muddied by the dielectric losses of nearby artificial fibers and plastics.
All brands of cables, not just ours, are severely muddied by the dielectric losses of nearby artificial fibers and plastics. Other manufacturers simply don't warn you because they're afraid of sounding tweaky. We recommend any speaker cables, power cords or interconnects be kept off plastic fibers rugs of other plastics.
