Manufacturing

First, all Outlaw cables are designed by us in conjunction with a world-class, ISO 9002 certified manufacturer in Taiwan. Prior to offering these cables we met with the manufacturer and personally inspected the facilities where raw copper ingots are processed, extruded, and built into our own PCA offerings. Even the connectors are made for us and the final assembly is done under strict supervision with silver content solder. Make no mistake about it; these cables are manufactured under the strictest quality controlled conditions.

Philosophy and Design

We are firm believers in the use of twisted, twin conductor construction for analog audio interconnects. This type of construction is superior due to the natural hum and noise reduction when twisted pairs are used, something not possible when coax type construction is used for audio applications. In addition, the use of twisted pair construction allows us to build semi-balanced style cables, where the ground is lifted at one end. This allows for a further degree of noise immunity not possible when coax style cables are used for audio applications.

To further increase the transparency of our cables, the PCA interconnects are designed in a "dual-symmetrical" configuration, with two separately jacketed conductor paths for each side of the cable. The PCA cables have a dual shield system to isolate them from RFI and EMI as well as the digital noise that permeates today's complex audio/video systems. A 100% coverage copper foil shield, as opposed to the less expensive aluminum shield used in competitive products, is the first line of defense, covered in turn by a high-coverage copper braided shield. This dual system gives the maximum possible defense against both high and low frequency intrusion into the audio signal path.

The PCA cables have an internal fabric braid and the outer covering is a tough, clear PVC jacket. The connections are made with silver content solder and high quality locking connectors are used.

Unlike many of the myriads of cable companies on the market today, there ain't no smoke and mirrors here! Our cables utilize real world technologies that just sound better. As you may have read in our FAQ, or in prior newsletters, our PCA cables list "OCC" as a main feature. So what does that mean? The OCC process for refining copper was developed and patented by Professor Ohno of the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan and is licensed to our manufacturer for use in the production of wire and cable products for the audio/video industry. In conventional processing, hot molten copper is poured into a cooled mold for extrusion, resulting in multiple, fractionated crystal structure. While the copper may be "pure" in the sense of measuring gas impurities in the copper in comparison to standard copper refining techniques, Oxygen Free Copper (OFC) has undesirable effects that lead many to use more expensive materials such as silver for their conductive strands.

figure 1

As developed for A/V cable use, the OCC process utilizes a heated mold for casting and extruding, with cooling taking place in a separate process. The result is a larger crystal size and increased purity that approaches the 6N, 99.9998%! Looking at it another way, traditional copper has oxygen impurities of 200 to 500 parts per million (PPM), while traditional OFC copper reduces that to less than 10 PPM. With the OCC process, the figure is cut in half to less than 5 PPM of oxygen, and less than 0.25 PPM of hydrogen (compared to 0.5 PPM for OFC). See figure 1.

With these results, the OCC process creates "ultra-pure" copper, and thus the acronym for the copper material is more properly known as "UP-OCC", for Ultra-Pure, Ohno Continuous Casting.

Now that you know what "OCC" is, it is important to understand what it does. Using UP-OCC material produces a truly unidirectional copper crystal that is as free from impurities as possible to prevent corrosion. It increases flexibility and fatigue resistance without impairing conductive characteristics. It offers extremely low electrical resistance and rapid signal transmission. In plain English, your signals get from point A to B without losing the detail, soundstage, and bass response of the original recording.