Introduction

AViC Cable is another newcomer to the on-line cable company field. They offer a complete line of audio and video cables, including interconnects, speaker cables, S-Video, component video, and computer cables. I did not see any HDMI or DVI cables on their website, but I am sure they will come.

The Design

On the surface, the AViC cables appear to be similar to other low-priced cables out there, perhaps OEM'd by Belden. This is not a problem, as it is a common thing, and Belden makes good stuff. A designer will simply tell Belden, or whatever OEM company that makes them, what the specifications are to be, and the OEM builds them. In fact, this keeps the cost to consumers down, while maintaining the quality that a big OEM supplier has in large factories.

The only problem one might have with an OEM, is in getting an exotic design manufactured, but the AViC is not that type of cable.

The cables have a "Gold Finger", which I assume means that the ends of the conductors are coated with pure gold, to keep oxidation from deteriorating the exposed areas where the connectors are attached.

Shielding is accomplished with copper braiding and the cable also has a Mylar^® foil wrapping that gives it a very attractive appearance.

Connectors are impedance matched, which means that they are true 75 ohm impedance, and this is important for their digital cable product. XLR cables are 110 Ohms impedance. Note that this is for interconnects. Speaker wire is not only not at 75 ohm ideal, but the impedance of the cable will not be the same at connection points compared to the length of the cable itself, as the wires are spread to make the connection, and so the characteristic impedance rises at the termination points, so long as we're talking about standard binding posts that are used on pretty much every amplifier and loudspeaker.

The dielectric is nitrogen infused polyethylene, a standard for good, but not high priced, cables.

The Tests

I used the AViC 11 speaker cables in one of our reference systems, and they sounded neutral. I did not notice anything particular about them, which is good.

They are a bit stiff, but that is not a real problem.

The bench test results indicated that the AViCs have reasonably low capacitance, but not the lowest we have measured. Inductance was the second lowest we have measured in speaker cables, and this is excellent, as low inductance is thought to be an important factor in speaker cables (low capacitance is thought to be important with interconnects). We don't have data on enough different cables yet to make a generalized statement, but so far, so good.

Resistance is about as low as most of the other cables we have tested.

By the way, our measurements match almost exactly the specifications provided in AViC's literature. Nice to see a company not stretching the truth at all.

I would rate the construction quality as modest, about right for their price. In the past, I have found the netting material that is immediately adjacent to the banana plugs, in cables similar to the AViCs, to come loose over time, but that is mainly because I am constantly plugging and unplugging cables in our lab.

Conclusions

I'm impressed with the AViC speaker cables. They seem solidly built, have a good sound quality, and bench test well. You can give them a try with a full refund guarantee.

 

- John E. Johnson, Jr. -