Black and White Starquad Information
The Black and White Starquad represents a four year evolution of audio cable design and fabrication.
In the beginning, I was experimenting with audio cables just for my own enjoyment. I started with one really simple cable idea that when produced, sounded great but eventually proved to be too delicate, too susceptible to noise and too vulnerable to triboelectric effects. None of that was evident until I moved house and needed to reorganize my gear on a single rack because of space constraints. Problems with noise, with a lack of durability and triboelectric effects came gushing out all on their own and set in motion the processes which culminated in the Black & White.
This cable was engineered using proprietary tooling and machinery designed and built entirely in-house. It features precision Starquad geometry and UPOCC solid core conductors, insulated with braided silk for exceptional dielectric performance. A dense copper braid delivers robust shielding, while a braided cotton jacket completes the design.
Every material and design choice incorporated here was tested against dozens of other options. All the various designs were tested electrically and most of the results were fairly similar but they did not sound alike. The cables which carry the Black & White name were the absolute sonic winners.
Black & White was not designed to a price point, it is a cable that was designed and redesigned , again and again until the sonic performance was undeniably excellent. These are ultra-low capacitance and impedance, with outstanding vibration damping and noise rejection. They faithfully convey the shimmering sustain of a triangle, the sharp transient thwack of a rim shot, the rich midrange bloom of a cello or human voice, and the punch of a bass guitar or kick drum—with startling clarity and realism across the entire audio band.
Why Use Starquad Geometry?
1. Noise rejection in balanced circuits. To explain this involves a lot of typing that I would prefer to avoid, however I chose starquad, so I’m in it now. Referring to the illustration above, you can see the quadrupole conductor arrangement, 4 conductors in a diamond.
Functionally these are 2 pairs of wires, red/green make one pair and blue/white make the other (as a side note, in reality all the wires are braided white silk- the colors are for image clarity). These pairs are joined at both ends of the cable and act as a single conductor. The electrical center of each pair is the geometric center point of the cable. This allows for the electrical center of each pair to exist in the same space as the other pair. The more uniform and precise the geometry the greater the noise reduction in balanced circuits.
If you are a magnetic field (like the kind emanating from your power cords etc.) you can blow right through copper shielding and wiring and in doing so you induce a current in the wiring and shielding you just blew through. This effect is common mode interference which balanced circuits are designed to reject. Since the electrical center of both the positive and negative legs of our cable are in precisely the same place in space for the entire length of the cable, the interference is identical and will be completely rejected by the balanced circuit on the receiving end.
If this only works on balanced circuits why are the Black & White RCA single end cables using this exotic, time consuming, expensive, headachy cable type? We’ll get there.
2. Lower Inductance. The formula for parallel inductance is the same as the formula for parallel resistance. Since we are using two pairs of conductors, we’ll use a two-value formula, and since the conductors are identical, we’ll use the same values. R ₜ = (R ₁ * R ₂ ) / (R ₁ + R ₂ ) 5x5=25 5+5=10 25/10=2.5 So, for our example (and no these cables do not operate at 5 ohms) two 5-ohm components in parallel present a load of 2.5 ohms.
This means that all starquad cables will present one half the inductive load as single conductor cables. Interconnect cables are primarily voltage transfer devices so the benefit is mitigated somewhat, however there is current in an analog interconnect cable and that current sees half the resistance and inductance in a starquad cable. It’s a win.
What isn’t a win? The capacitance formula. It’s simple, capacitance in parallel is additive: Ctotal=C1+C2+etc. etc. So, our parallel conductors now serve up a possible problem but with the very low dielectric coefficient of silk it's a non-issue.
Why use Silk Insulators?
Silk as insulation/dielectric was not the first proposed use for silk in this endeavor. Originally the thought was to use it as a centering mechanism for wire running in a PTFE tube. This would keep the wire centered and straight in the tube thus resolving a number of problems such as starquad geometric uniformity and triboelectric effects.
Why silk? Dielectric constant of 1.3 to 2 is sited frequently, there are also higher numbers sited and without knowing what form was tested and how, it’s all up for debate. I wanted to know how it would sound as a fiber in a low-density wrap. The biggest issue with this approach was wrapping the silk around foot after foot of wire in a way that would stay in place while pulling the wire through the tube. In the end this idea would require a braiding machine. So the search for a braiding machine began and it became increasingly clear that what I needed was either A) prohibitively expensive or B) too large for my needs or C) both A and B. In the end I opted to build one on my own, how hard could it be? A year or so later I was able to answer that question in excruciating detail but I now had a working braiding machine. On a side note, I have learned more about thread and string than I ever wanted to know. The design idea was to have overlapping threads running up the wire and crossing at approximately 30 degree angles, like a wire in fishnet stockings.
After 20 or 30 thread/wire/tube mishaps, this worked and the is resulting cables sounded really great. It kept the wire off the tube sides and mostly centered but never 100%. Right about that time I thought since I had my braider just sitting around, it might improve the geometric precision of the starquad by skipping the PTFE tube entirely and tightly braiding silk on the entire surface of the wire creating an insulating layer, which I wasted no time in doing. The resulting wire was very pretty and incorporating it into a cable was effortless. Terminating that cable was neither pretty or effortless. Maybe I’m not as clever as I think I am but figuring out best way to terminate this cable was a work of aggravation and time.
None of this effort matters if the audible results aren’t great. I was always willing to walk away from the silk idea if it didn’t pan out and I was a little skeptical anyway. However, the sonics with the silk insulation in use, were and are much better than I anticipated, they sound fantastic, much better than I could have guessed. It loses nothing to the tubed versions (which I was pretty sure it would). The result, from a user perspective, is a cable that sounds wonderful and is much easier to handle. It is not overly stiff or heavy. Triboelectric troubles? Gone. Fighting with stiff cables make a connection? G-Bye!
Why UPOCC Conductors?
They sound better. Period. I wish they didn’t and I’ve tried everything else I could access, including OCC conductors of dubious provenance at a much lower price point and guess what? You can hear it. For me (my ears, my gear, etc. etc.) the midrange is the biggest tell. UPOCC sounds silky smooth with body and clarity and a prodigious sense of space. Anything else may produce good transients and great thump but the overall presentation is simply not relaxed or enjoyable.
I’ve listened to some of these copper contestants for weeks on end and it is always a huge relief when the Neotech wire is back in the system. These other conductors do not sound as fleshed out or natural and most importantly I cannot connect with the music in the same way. At this stage I could go on about UPOCC fabrication but I’ve already exposed my dislike of typing and to be honest there are other resources available to explore the mysteries of Ohno Continuous Cast metals. Try this one: Google .
For the foreseeable future I’ll be sticking with UPOCC, which is the Neotech version, there is literally nothing else like it. To the best of my knowledge the only other reputable producer is Furutech. If you happen to know of any others, please drop me a line!
Why use a cotton jacket?
The cotton jacket is used for several reasons but primarily as vibration control. Used in conjunction with the cotton core and spacers as well as the silk insulators this may be the most vibration resistant cable available.
In addition it opens up some opportunities to execute different ideas with respect to color. The first direct benefit of this new flexibility is the “Right Red Thread” (which rhymes with "Right Said Fred") . All M&R cables will be sold with this red thread identifying the right channel. Anyone who has ever cabled up a system against a wall knows it’s a dark, cramped area and being able to identify which cable is which can get a little frustrating.
This should help. You’re welcome. You may be asking, “why not Tech Flex” or a similar product? Short answer: triboelectric effects. I don’t like scratching a cable with my fingernails and hearing that come out of the speakers.
What about the Cotton Core and Spacers?
The core and spacers are meticulously sized to ensure the starquad square remains a square. They also contribute to vibration control.