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AViC Speaker Cable 11 Review

Name: Speaker Cable 11
Brand: AVIC
SKU: not available
Rating: 4.0 (1 reviews)

by Gene DellaSala — August 03, 2004

AVIC speaker cables

Product Name: Speaker Cable 11
Manufacturer: AVIC
Performance Rating:
Value Rating:
Review Date: August 03, 2004 19:00
MSRP: $ 99.95 (1m)

Specifications

Pros

Disco-style glittery look
Measurements within acceptable tolerances

Cons

Disco-style glittery look
Minor amount of snake oil marketing terminology

AViC Speaker Cable 11 Introduction

AViC is a relative newcomer and until we received their introductory email we weren't even aware of their existence. When they heard about this review via gossip in the forums, they asked to be part of it and we happily accepted. We wish more cable companies would be this proactive in having their cables objectively reviewed as it does a great service to them since many cable vendors and other audio publications lack the precision test gear to adequately test their designs. It also does a great value to the consumer in that they know exactly what they are getting.

AVIC Speaker Cable 11 Specifications and Conclusion

When I initially peered at the specifications of this cable on their website, the inductance to capacitance ratio didn't seem quite right. Not surprising, when I actually measured the cables I found the inductance to be about 14 times higher than their spec (a measurement which was still incredibly low) and the capacitance to be about 3 times higher than their specification. I was glad to see them update their website with the correct specifications based on my measurements. It is not atypical for cable vendors cable specifications to be inaccurate for the reasons previously mentioned. In fact I have found a great bulk of the cable vendors in this review to be a bit off on their cables, but most of the cables still measured extremely well and this was only mentioned for academic purposes.

Features & Style

In any event , the AViC cable is certainly an interesting one. Its shiny silver wrapping reminds me of a disco-tech style look from 舠 Saturday Night Fever 舡 or the evil Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. They were cool looking and could certainly dress up any high end system quite nicely. Their banana connectors fit snugly and they appeared to have no problems making a nice solid connection with several brands of speakers that I tried them out on. The only potential downside was that the AViC cable banana tends to stick out a tad too far when connected to equipment.

Marketing Literature Evaluation
A few excerpts from their marketing literature that I found interesting:

The Invisible Cable
We start with four of our ChonoSync conductors, each protected by AViC Involution shielding. The conductors are helically wound end to end, resulting in a cable that has incredibly low inductance, resistance and capacitance. To put it in other words, the cable is "invisible", as if the signal travels directly from the amplifier to the speaker. You will hear everything you should, and nothing you shouldn't.

We certainly cannot argue with these statements since I did not rip apart the cables to examine the shielding, but based on my measurements, they truly were a low inductance cable as they claimed while the capacitance was also equally low and impressive. Usually, low inductance cables tend to be high in capacitance based on the conductor spacing ratios. This cable reminds me of a Star Quad configuration which is popularized by many DIY gurus. It is certainly a valid method for producing a cable with reasonably low inductance and capacitance and reduced RF immunity ( not typically a real world problem for most environments).

Connect your speakers with a set of AViC SC1100 speaker cables for 45 days, and if you do not like what you hear, return the cables for a full refund.

It is refreshing to see a cable company offer its consumers a 45 day trial period without luring one into believing the "Break In" fallacy to persuade the consumer into keeping it beyond the return policy or motivation for the consumer to actually bring it back.

With characteristics that eliminate any perceptible colorations or distortions, the AViC SC1100 lets your speakers play pristine full-range audio that will tantalize your ears and have them begging for more.

While I can certainly see how a cable may "colorize" a signal acting like a tone control or filter, AVIC is lightly treading on the dangerous grounds of injecting the word "distortion" to discuss cables. While this is obviously a subjective statement on their part, I felt it appropriate to note the term distortion in their statement should either be eliminated or clarified as to what type of distortion they are referring too.

As previously mentioned, cables DO NOT introduce non linear distortions . Be very wary of any cable vendor, audio publication or cable forum cult hobbyist that claims otherwise. Be equally wary of a cable vendor that slaps batteries on their cables to allegedly minimize this fictitious problem.

Overall, we found the AViC cables to be attractive, fairly well measured and not too caught up in snake oil hype. As for improvements, perhaps AVIC would consider offering a compression banana plug in their future cables for a minimal cost addition. This cable is certainly worthy of a top notch termination.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

— Excellent
— Very Good
— Good
— Fair
— Poor

Metric	Rating
Performance
Value

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About the author:

Gene manages this organization, establishes relations with manufacturers and keeps Audioholics a well oiled machine. His goal is to educate about home theater and develop more standards in the industry to eliminate consumer confusion clouded by industry snake oil.

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