Locus Design
News
09.14.07--Here are a few pictures of the new power extension strip and the AMD power condtioner. Enjoy!
And...some pictures of our room at RMAF 2007.
09.14.07--Been working feverishly on a new power conditioner, hoping to get two prototypes ready for RMAF. These units look to be remarkably effecive in removing AC nasties and protecting your gear. I know that everyone claims to use proprietary technologies, and that their conditioner is based on "new technology" and that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread, however, in the case of this unit, that type of marketing may well be warranted.
But I won't do that to you. I will say that the mechanism that this conditioner uses to filter the AC is complex, involved, difficult to build...and expensive. However, I have heard nothing better. We employ no "magic", just good solid engineering, based on sound principles and attention to even the smallest of details.
A little back story...I have been toying around with the idea of building a line conditoner under the Locus Design brand for quite some time and have worked on various designs for the last 4 years, or so. However, until now, I haven't been happy enough with any of them to put my name on. Well..some stars aligned and put some forces in motion the past few months that have finally allowed some significant progress toward my goal.
In conversation recently with one of my dearest and closest friends, the talk turned to power conditioning and my ideas and theories on the subject. He was very interested in the ideas that I had been pursuing as he had been going down a similar path, but had taken a left when I had taken a right and ended up finding an incredibly elegant solution to one of the main problems with line conditioning. His solution to the problem fixes the reason that line conditioning devices, in general, tend to do more harm than good.
To digress a bit, some background on my friend. He is one of the most talented engineers in the medical and military contracting industries, being the "go to guy" that tackles the problems that have vexed teams of engineers for years. His work is not only very well known in these high end engineering circles, but respected. He is recognized as an authority on high speed digital and RF design, known to produce work in these fields that is unparalleled. However, most of the projects he is involved with are shrouded in a veil of secrecy, well out of the public eye and classified. But suffice to say, the guy is one smart cookie. Certainly, the smartest person I know and I have been in electronics now for going on 25 years.
So...back to the story. He took my filtering circuit idea and greatly expanded on the concept, adding his circuitry and know how and optimizing the design. He spent a great deal of time modeling and simulating circuits, to get a result he was happy with and proud of. Now, this type of engineering skill normally does not come cheap. In fact, if I would have had to pay him his hourly rate to design this circuit, this project would still be on hold! I owe him a lot of dinners to pay for this project...
Once he was happy with the results of the computer sims and response, he handed the project back to me for board design, parts selection and to optimize the mechanical details. I have been staying up all night researching parts and have built two scaled down prototypes thus far, but the results, even with these scaled down prototypes are very promising. In fact, I would go so far as to say these are the finest, most effective, power conditioners I have ever heard, even in their compromised state. I am still working on the details and parts selection, and plan to build two or three more prototypes over the next two weeks to not only fully proof out the concept, but also refine parts selection.
My goal is to get all of this ironed out and have two working "more final" prototypes at the RMAF. Come by and say hi and check them out.
I will update this project as I am able, including working out the pricing details. While this unit will not be cheap, it will offer real value.
08.30.07--Finalized pricing on the cables today: Cynosure will be offered for $3200 for a 2FT pair with each additional stereo foot running $800. This cable is offered only on a bespoke basis and requires a 4-6 week lead time.
Criterion will be offered for $1299 for a 2FT pair with each additional stereo foot running $380. This cable is only offered on a bespoke basis and rquires a 2-3 week lead time.
We haven't forgotten about the digital cable, we are still experimenting and beta testing different builds. Things are progressing, we hope to have it finished in the next 60 days or so.
07.27.07--Finalized the build for "Criterion" today, a new interconnect based on lessons learned while developing "Cynosure". While Crtierion does not go as far to mitigate negative influences (internal, external, mechanical and electrical) as Cynosure, it is still an incredibly quiet, dynamic and detailed cable.
Both Cynosure and Criterion use the same silver/gold alloy conductor that I extensively treat until it meets my needs. The main difference is the type, amount and cost of the shielding/layering material and terminations used. Cynosure is a true cost no object project. If a certain material was found to work even a minute amount better in an application, no matter the cost, it was used. Criterion is more of a real world cable; if a material costs 80% less, but gives 90% of the performance of the more expensive material, it was used for Criterion. A good example are the ends used to terminate the cable. Cynosure uses the Bocchino RCA's, arguably the best in the world, but quite expensive. Criterion uses the fantastic new Furutech filament style RCA's--great ends certainly among the top 5 best in the world--but much less expensive.
So, what it really boils down to for me is, if your system cries out for the best, and you have the financial means to afford Cynosure, by all means commission a pair as that cable is my finest work up until this point and, to my mind, is a true step forward in cable design. However, if you have more of a real world budget, Criterion may be the answer.
Feedback from early adopters of Cynosure is starting to come in. I am honored and humbled by the praise that is being heaped upon the cable. Once more comes in and I secure permission to publish copies, I will post it both here and the "testimonials" page.
I am still working on the digital cable, it is still coming along as expected. Have worked out all EMI/RFI shielding schemes, am now working on mitigating triboelctric effects. Hopefully will have it ready within 2-3 weeks.
And below, a few pictures of Criterion:
07.18.07--Snapped a few photos of Cynosure today:
07.15.07--Been doing a lot of listening and tweaking of the digital cable and have settled on and built a final prototype. This is really going to be a special cable. It matches with and complements exceptionally well with Cynosure, allowing the music to flow very naturally while offering up loads of inner detail. It is also dead quiet like Cynosure and presents a incredibly black background. A system set up with Nucleus Reference power cables, Cynosure analog cables and the "un-named" digital cable is a real treat. I am very proud to put my company's stamp on these cables.
I'll try and get some new pictures of the finished Cynosure and the digital cable taken and posted, but I find it really hard to make myself remove them from my system.
07.03.07--Worked on the digital cable a bit more today, playing around with ERS fabric, carbon fiber and other EMI/RFI absorption materials. Also experimented with damping materials for the ends and the end/cable interface. Things are moving along nicely.
Ordered all finishing "bits" today for Cynosure. Hope to have all items in and start building pre-orders by late next week.
07.02.07--Decided on a name today, Cynosure, which means: "something that strongly attracts attention by its brilliance, interest, etc.: the cynosure of all eyes."
Also built two prototypes for a digital cable based on the concepts and technologies emplyed in the Cynosure. Early results are very promising. We hope to have this new digital cable avaialble within two months... or so.
Our plan is to start building the pre-orders tomorrow and finish them up as soon as the custom heatshrink arrives. So, those of you who have pre-ordered may very soon have a Cynosure in your hands!
We plan to update the website soon with a page dedicated to the Cynosure, in the meantime, pelase feel free to e-mail us with any questions.
06.28.07--Built a final prototype today. You can see the pictures below. The heat shrink is not cut quite correctly, as I just used the generic heat shrink I have here around the shop, so it doesn't look like a finished cable in that respect, but in all other regards, the final production cable will look the same. The final prototype is used as a guide for all others that come after. Not only will this cable serve as the sonic reference with which all others will be compared, but the final prototype also serves as a model, so that we order the correct size of logo'd heat shrink, and so forth.
We will soon decide on pricing, come up with a catchy name, order heatshrink, and other items to put this cable into production. If you are interested in pre-ordering a pair, please e-mail us for ordering details.
06.26.07--Snapped a few pictures of one of the prototypes. Please keep in mind that this cable has generic heatshrink and the shrink is not cut to the correct lengths, so the terminations look a little uneven. However, you can get an idea of the "look" of the cable and the size. The "eagle eye'd" among you will notice that the cable is terminated with Bocchino RCA's, arguably the finest in the world. These are the RCA's we will be using on this cable. Yes, they are expensive, VERY expensive... However, on this particular cable, nothing else we tried even came close, and this cable is all about performance, and not about designing to a "price point", so we just simply "had" to use them.
06.26.07--Started building a few cables today. Wow, these really are quite involved to build. Currently it is taking us about 8-10 hours per pair to build, hopefully, over the next few weeks we can get that time down a bit! We are still accepting pre-orders and we are running about 14 days backordered at this time.
06.25.07--Through lots of listening, trial and error, and gnashing of teeth, we made a few pretty major changes to the cable today, so the above pictures really no longer apply.
We have decided on which raw wire to use, which ends and the final build of the cable. As it stands now, the cable will be quite large, about the same circumference as a quarter at it's largest point! This is due to the multiple (many!) layers of damping and shielding that we are employing. However, even as thick as it is, it is still relatively flexible, so shorter (1.5ft-2ft) cables shouldn't be a problem to build as the bend radius will allow it.
In finalizing the design, we now have a handle on all of the different materials that are going in to the build. There is truly a cornucopia of materials employed, including, but not limited to: gold, silver, copper, carbon fiber, carbon infused nylon, nylon, cotton, Teflon, ERS fabric, and a host of other materials. This really illustrates our premise that there is no one "right" answer in cable design, be it conductor material, dielectric, or a myriad of other things marketers latch onto in an effort to make their product seem unique. When a cable is looked at as a "system", and not just a collection of parts, no single "technology" or material was sufficient to meet our (read my) goals.
This really will be an exceptional cable, even surpassing the lofty goals we (meaning me in this instance) set over the last few years for it's performance. Sometimes reality can surpass dreams, this may very well be one of those times.
For the first few production cables, we will only be building single-ended (RCA) versions as we are still working on the final conductor geometry for the balanced version.
06.22.07--We are moving along on this cable. We are finalizing a few changes to the raw wire and listening to different ends. At this time, the ends that are leading the pack are really showing the other ends under consideration a thing or two about how to produce exceptional sound. And...of course they cost the most! Ha! Why is that always the case?
06.09.07--Above are sneak preview pictures of an early prototype for an upcoming cost no object interconnect we will be introducing soon. This will be a state of the art cable made from a very unique silver/gold wire ensconced in a multi-layer shielding/damping arrangement of both cutting edge fiber technology and natural materials.
We have been working on this cable now for about 3 years,and finally everything is lining up so that we may be able to produce it. Everything we have learned and currently know about cable design will be incorporated into this cable. Our goal with this cable is to advance the state of the art.
We will also be using (not shown above) the finest RCA or XLR ends that money can buy, and the cable will be designed so that all parts will work together as a coherent/cohesive system. Far too many times, many take a great set of ends, slap them on some expensive wire and claim that they have produced a new reference. Most of the time, this approach produces less than stellar results and the cable does not stand the test of time. This cable is designed so that each part complements the others, and the sum is greater than the total of the (necessarily expensive) parts.
If you are in the market for a cost no object interconnect, don't buy anything from $1000-$15000/pr until you take a gander at our new offering. Those of you that know us well, know that we don't like to hype things and generally are pretty reserved in our pronouncements. We really do believe that this cable is going to compete with and take it's place among the best available.
These will very expensive, will be a limited edition, and will only be made on a bespoke basis. If you have invested a considerable amount in your system already, and have the financial wherewithal to afford the very best, these will be a treat.
We may offer a scaled down version under our CryoParts brand, however, it is likely that the original offering will be offered under our Locus Design brand due to the projected cost.