Clear Beyond Headphone

Cardas · Headphone Cables

The first Cardas cable with silver in it: a hybrid-metallurgy Matched Propagation conductor adds a Grade 1 silver strand to a finer braid of Cardas copper, in a dual-mono headphone cable that took several years to develop.

Price is for one complete headphone cable (both channels).

Clear Beyond Headphone began when loyal customers asked Cardas to outdo its Clear Headphone Cable. Cardas refined the stranding and braiding of the miniaturised concentric Matched Propagation conductor, then did something it had never done before: added a 30 AWG strand of Cardas Grade 1 silver wire to each conductor. Like Clear Headphone it is two separate cables, one per channel, here braided in blue and black thread and joined with copper-plated hardware.

Cardas describes the results as spectacular. It is built to order with your choice of amplifier plug and headphone connectors; the selector shows the common ones, and Cardas has many more.

Key technologies

• Matched Propagation Technology. US Patent 7,674,973: the propagation rate of the conductor is matched to that of the dielectric through the conductor's internal geometry, so the signal is not smeared in time.
• Ultra Pure Cardas Copper. Grade 1, 99.9999% pure oxygen-free copper, drawn and annealed slowly through silver dies, then given a single poly-nylon coat to prevent oxidation and crosstalk between strands.
• Golden Ratio scaled Litz conductors. Multi-stranded conductors in which each layer of strands steps up in size by 1:1.618 from the centre outward, a Cardas patent that controls strand resonance.
• Any termination. Cardas stocks a large and growing selection of headphone connectors and amplifier plugs; the selector shows the common ones, and others are available on request.
• Made in Bandon, Oregon. Every Cardas cable is built and hand terminated at the Cardas factory on the southern Oregon coast, and carries a transferable lifetime warranty.

Choosing length and terminations

• Pick the amplifier end to match your amp or DAC: 1/4 in for most desktop amplifiers, 4-pin XLR or 4.4 mm Pentaconn for balanced outputs, 3.5 mm for portables.
• Pick the headphone end by model; if yours is not listed, Cardas almost certainly has the connector — ask us.
• 1.5 m to 2 m suits a desk; 3 m reaches an amplifier on a rack from a listening chair. Cardas prices in half-metre steps and builds any length.
• Clear-range headphone cables are dual-mono: two isolated runs, one per channel, so they are equally at home balanced or single-ended.