Heretical Analog Cable PLUS
Low Resistance? Nope...

NOTE: This cable has been replaced by the Flexible Carbon/Graphene Analog

Mad Scientist Heretical Analog Cable PLUS (HAC-PLUS) also uses carbon fiber for the main conductor. HAC-PLUS is the high-end version of the HAC. Have a taste of multi-thousand dollar cables for a sensible price!

Click Here to read the latest review of the HAC+ in Mono and Stereo : "Mad Scientist Audio HAC+ will give you more musical pleasure than many champagne level high-end cables..Very sincerely and heartedly recommended for true enthusiasts. "

Heretical Analog is Different.

Using carbon fibers as the signal conductor has some beneficial effects:

Resistance : an HAC cable has around 37 ohms of resistance. In the digital version, this resistance helps remove the reflections that occur. A reflection that bounces off the DAC's input socket will travel the length of the cable and back again, thus experiencing around 75 ohms of resistance.  But in an analog cable, such reflections are not important. Or are they? The normal answer is no - the frequencies involved are not high enough. But I'm not so sure anymore. It's possible that you have RF interference and noise at the kind of frequencies that do matter, and it seems likely that they could reflect up and down the wire. Something must account for why these cables sound so much better. 

But surely you want to have ultra low resistance for an interconnect? If you read and believe the marketing that goes with many silver cables, you'd think that low resistance was an essential part of a good interconnect. Sorry but it's not. Just about every device used to send audio down an interconnect has an output impedance of several hundred ohms. This means that it's effectively an ideal source with a resistor in line. Often that is how it is implemented.  I'm not saying that silver wire can't sound good - it can - but I doubt that low resistance is the key to this. (In fact, due to it's lower resistance, silver wire has a thinner skin depth than copper wire).

Skin Effect is clearly important for digital cables, as the harmonics of the square waves go up to the 100MHz range and higher. There has been a lot of argument about whether this is important at audio frequencies. Using simple (or maybe simplistic) math shows that skin effect should have negligible impact at audio frequencies. On the other hand, listening critically to various wire thicknesses you get strong correlation between treble performance and wire gauge. The best treble seems to come from wire that is 20awg or thinner. (Note : HAC uses 29awg wire for ground return). But note I said wire. All metals used for wire, e.g. copper, silver, etc., have similar skin depths. But carbon fibers are different - because of their permittivity and resistance, the skin depth is much more, so any fiber or bundle of fibers in HAC is much smaller than the skin depth.

But frankly, the reason we use Carbon Fibers for the conductor is because it sounds great, better then any wire I've tried.

Heretical Analog PLUS is Even More Different.

With the HAC-PLUS we use an ultra-high-quality copper-OCC wire for the earth return, coupled with a passive copper foil screen. Differences in construction also mean that mechanical damping is much improved.

The result is a cable with better overall performance - more delicacy but also more 'slam'. Highly dynamic and resolving, but also intensely musical. Audition a set without risk - you can return within 30 days for a refund.

RCA Plugs and Audio Blocks

HAC-PLUS interconnects only come with the best RCA plugs - KLE Absolute Harmony.

HAC-PLUS also comes with optional Audio Blocks - these lovely wooden blocks are made from New Zealand native Rimu wood, and are laser-etched. As well as indicating the cable direction, each holds a Magic Tube to enhance the performance of the interconnect.

HDC-PLUS Balanced

HAC-PLUS is also available in a balanced configuration, using Neutrik XLR plugs. Contact us if you prefer other types of XLR plugs, or some other balanced connectors.

Prices and Options

Heretical Analog Cable PLUS is dark blue and available in 1, 1.5 and 2.0 meter lengths.  Prices per stereo pair.