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Indra

analog line-level interconnect

Indra Users' testimonials           Reviews

•  Amorphous conductive media (wire) - which is perfectly homogeneous, grain-less – i.e. identical in all directions, since it has no crystal structure at all;

•  Ultra thin wire (0.001" - i.e. one-thousands of an inch thick, in the Indra case. Thin wire is  important for: a) minimizing skin effect and time-domain errors (no harshness in the upper midrange and treble, and clean, well defined bass);  b) helping us deal with the resonant properties* of the assembled cable;

•  Individually insulated strands * - to eliminate direct electrical contact, i.e. galvanic interaction between strands – otherwise a cable constructed of multiple bare strands behaves like a single thicker wire;

•  Low energy storage dielectric: porous - i.e. foam-like Teflon. This material has the lowest dielectric constant of all solid and semi-solid materials. Low dielectric constant = low energy storage = fast sound. Only vacuum and gases (air, Helium) have still lower dielectric constants, but porous Teflon has an advantage over any gas which is in its mechanical properties: porous Teflon mechanically dampens the wire, while air or Helium does not...

• Proprietary non-resonant cable geometry: distributed LITZ**

• Mechanical resonance control (dielectric and jacketing mechanical properties: optimized density and damping. Too much damping usually sterilizes and deadens the sound. Too little damping is even worse since it's prone to excessive “ringing” (unwanted resonances).

• Characteristic impedance control (optimum relationships among capacitance, inductance and DC resistance) - the Indra’ characteristic impedance and its resonant behavior (“Q” at RF frequencies) is different from the vest majority of other cables.

• Proprietary STEALTH RCA and XLR connectors - custom and highly advanced; very low overall mass, solid silver contacts, machined Teflon dielectric, Carbon Fiber/Titanium shells, Kevlar support:

•  Advanced termination technique (high pressure crimping = cold weld) – a direct contact = seamless transition between the wire and the contact – no intermediate agent (solder) involved;  

REVISION HISTORY

The standard connectors for the pre-release (beta testing) Indra cables were: Cardas Ultimate (RCA) and Neutrik XLRs;

The early production (REVISION "EP")***, made until mid-2005) balanced Indra also had Neutrik XLRs; However, none of the production RCA-terminated Indra cables were ever made with Cardas RCA connectors. The early production (REVISION "EP") RCA-terminated Indra cables are shown at the picture below and features STEALTH designed and made proprietary RCA connectors.

click on the picture to enlarge it

The full production (REVISION "P") made from mid 2005 until the end of 2007, featured STEALTH designed proprietary RCA or XLR connectors (machined Teflon dielectric, solids silver contacts, machined Titanium/carbon fiber shells)

In 2007, we started experimenting with Ultra-modified PTFE (Teflon material), which lead to development of our newest proprietary connectors - both RCA and XLR - that use this type of Teflon instead of the conventional PTFE.  The Ultra-modified PTFE features superior dielectric properties (reduced permeability and a lower dielectric constant - which offer even lower energy storage and further reduced "crossover-type" distortion in cables and connectors),  better mechanical characteristics (significantly lower deformation under load, higher elongation and tensile strength - these qualities improve the "grip" of the STEALTH connectors on the chassis mounted counterparts), plus a pore-free and extremely smooth surface - preventing contaminates from being trapped in high purity applications. Appearance-wise, the Ultra-modified PTFE is similar to the PTFE, the only visual difference is a shade of blue in the Ultra-modified version.

Please note the  multiple grooves on one of the Titanium rings on the RCA connector, and machined Carbon Fiber shells with multigroove Titanium rings of these new XLR connectors - versus solid Titanium shells on the revision "P" 2005/2006/2007 XLR connectors. The center pin of the RCA connector has also changed: it now has a rounded tip and microgrooves for a better contact. If a contacts enhancer is used, these grooves would "hold" it better than a smooth pin.

The latest 2008 Indra cables (REVISION 08) are shown below:

CONNECTING THE INDRA CABLES WITH RCA

When connecting the Indra cables with the STEALTH RCA connectors to equipment, please remember that you need to apply a significant axial force to make sure the Indra connectors go all the way onto the RCA females (on the back of an equipment piece). When you insert these connectors, the feel is like forcing a knife through a cold chunk of butter: it goes slowly and smoothly, but with significant resistance. Please be patient to overcome this resistance and DO insert the connectors all the way (deep) onto the RCA females. This usually requires either approaching your equipment rack from behind, or partially removing a component from a rack - to have a clear access to its back panel to insert the connectors using the axial force (along the connector's axle, along the cable).

 The internal part of the connector is made of Teflon, and the internal diameter of the Teflon cylinder is slightly smaller than the RCA female diameter. When the connector is fist connected, the Teflon cylinder expands to reach the internal part of the titanium housing (the outer titanium ring on the connector). Once connected, the connector sits very tight on the RCA female, and the three solid silver strips, that make the actual contact, are pressed to the RCA female outer part. If the RCA female was cleaned right before inserting the Indra into it (with a contact cleaner or with simply rubbing (isopropyl alcohol), the connection between these trips and the RCA female is very firm, close to air tight, so it doesn't oxidize or deteriorate with time.

PRICING

Suggested retail price for a 1 meter RCA-terminated Indra pair is  $6,500.00, and $8.500 for balanced XLR version;

*In simple, inexpensive cables, bare strands are twisted together and insulated as a whole. AS we know, the electric current (a music signal) tends to flow at the "skin" of the conductor, and thus jumps repeatedly from strand to another. Each strand of bare wire is covered by a thin oxide film, which means that in each “jump, the signal crosses two oxide boundaries. The most vital concern is that these oxide boundaries have semiconductor properties, the same properties that solid state diodes and transistors are built to have: it affects the signal passing through it by partially rectifying that signal. This effect is subtle-but imagine how many of these “little semiconductors” there are in a run of multistranded wire!.. With individually insulated solid core conductors, this negative effect is completely eliminated.

**STEALTH Distributed LITZ geometry:  cable is multi-layered; wires are individually insulated, gently spiraled and run in opposite directions in layers which are next to each other; and the spiral diameter and the pitch is different for each wire. Thus, the wires inside a cable are separated by the far greater distance compare to their diameter, no wires run in parallel to each other, and no regular pattern is repeated throughout the cable. The distributed LITZ geometry offers dramatic reduction of electromagnetic interaction between strands of wire (both capacitive and inductive coupling are greatly reduced. The electrical resonances in distributed LITZ are considerably less pronounced than in any conventional geometry. This dramatically reduces RF resonance-related intermodulation distortion (one of the main distortion in cables).

*** The revision abbreviations are given for information and identification of various Indra cables only: the cables are not marked!