Cynosure USB Cable
Cynosure USB Cable Receives 2009 PFO Brutus Award!
New! ...Cynosure is clearly a step up from the Nucleus in all areas: bigger, more resolving, warmer, more real and tonally richer… and way more dimensional. Wow, this USB cable is not only the cat's pajamas but the slippers and lounging robe as well! Dave Clark, Positive Feedback, Issue 46
New! Also when going USB try the best USB cable you can afford… say any from Locus Designs… their Nucleus is quite intoxicating, but Lee just came out with the new Cynosure and yikes… Lee is one amazing USB/cable guy. This cable is so dimensionally sweet with such a gorgeous mid-range… and yet you get all the resolution with no hint of hype that… hey, this cable sounds a lot like the MPS-5! Killer cable man. Dave Clark, Positive Feedback, Issue 46
The below pics are from Dave's article that I quoted from above, one can see the Cynosure (and the Core digital cables) in "action":
Available now. My personal statement on ultimate USB cable design, the Locus Design Cynosure. The ultimate realization of my USB cable construction philosophy using a core of my custom manufactured dual Complect™ braid of ultra pure CFDCT-UP-OCC-Ag conductors and Teflon air tubes. I then surround the core with multiple layers (how many=proprietary) for damping and shielding. The layers consist of cotton, carbon fiber, Teflon, Mylar, Nylon, silver plated copper braid, and many more materials that I will not reveal. All Cynosure's are hand built, burned in, and evaluated in one of my reference systems, by me personally.
New information 06/2010--I have been asked numerous times for more details of how the Cynosure is constructed, but have been reticent to "leak" too much info, as in the recent past there have been some people out there who took my ideas and tried to pass them off as their own, going so far as to actually lift sentences off of my website and use them on theirs...crazy.
However, now that the Cynosure is recognized by many as the state of the art for USB cable design, and has received quite a bit press, I have decided to go into a little more detail about the Cynosure's construction, and what makes it unique.
Locus Design was one of the first, if not the first, to come out with an "audiophile" USB cable. The Cynosure is a culmination of everything I have learned over the past four years about USB cable design, and is the best USB cable I know how to make, right now.
It all starts with raw materials, I have a vendor partner who I have have taught (and wasted more money than I want to think about teaching them) to make my wire exactly like I want it made, and exactly to my specs, which I then treat with my CryoFreeze&trade process as soon as I receive it. So, the raw materials are without peer.
I use two different gauges of this custom wire, each optimized for the duty they are going to perform, and have it braided into a proprietary braid with Teflon tubes so that the conductors are evenly spaced, and arranged in the configuration I want them to be.
Around this core, I then add many different layers of shielding and damping. Some of the materials I use are carbon fiber, cotton, SPC braid, ERS fabric, Nylon, Teflon, and many more. This damping/shielding arrangement ensures that the inner cores that carry the data and VDC lines are isolated not only from each other, but from any external influences to the cable, be they mechanical, or electrical. In addition, these layers damp the conductors themselves, and prevent micro vibrations inside the cable from affecting the signal. These layers are one of the reasons that the cable takes a while to "settle" back in after it has been moved, or unplugged.
I use two of these "assemblies" above, one carries the VDC and ground, the other carries the data +/- signal. These two assemblies are then braided around a core of different materials to further damp them, space them, and isolate them from each other.
Over the whole tri-braided assembly I then add more layers of shielding and damping in order to damp the whole internal build of the cable, and further isolate the inner assembly from the outside world.
Everything about the Cynosure is custom, the connectors, the wire, the way I damp and shield it, and even how I terminate it with the best Mundorf solder and a special adhesive material that not only does not negatively impact the sound, but makes the ends very strong and durable.
All of the above took me a great deal of money, listening time, and experimentation to find the optimum balance to build the finest USB cable I currently know how to build. The Cynosure is incredibly labor intensive, all of the materials are of the highest quality and very expensive, and the development took quite a long time. So, while the cable is expensive, the price is what it is, and if one wants the best, well...
For those who demand the very best, and have the means to acquire it. E-mail for details.
Starting at $2849 for 3FT.
*New! Return policy on cables. For the past few years we have been making all of our cables to order (bespoke) and have not offered a trial period on these cables. Frankly, demand is so high that I am kept so busy building cables that are paid for and sold, and don't have time to build cables for thse who wish to compare them or "try them out". However, in order to help those out that require a trial period and allay that last little bit of purchase anxiety, I am instituting the new policy effective 5/15/09:
Please contact us for further details and/or clarification.