What are OCOS cables?
Scott McIntosh
Roland Yap Hock Chuan wrote:
>
> Dynaudio speakers come with OCOS terminals with OCOS jacks.
> I have not seen them described anywhere ... any details on what
> are these beasts?
>
> Roland
I only know of the adapters. Are you sure the terminals and jacks
aren't the same thing. The adapters have a receptor for the OCOS
termination and spades for attaching to speakers jacks. Are they
red or black? They are different.
I remember a review in Stereophile of Sonus Faber Minuetto's and
OCOS cable. The reviewer mentioned that the pair seemed soft in
the highs, and replacing the OCOS with Kimber helped this some.
Just one observation I remember.
Back to the cable itself. It's a coax construction from Switzerland.
Based on the idea of characteristic impedance, OCOS cables have a
flat, very low char. impedance, whereas they say other cables have
char. impedances many times higher, with them going even higher in
the bass freqencies (ever notice MIT's energy curves which rise through
the bass frequencies and then level out).
Two of their big points out of this is the ability to use unequal
cable lengths for left and right and still maintain proper stereo
timing and also being able to run extremely long cables with minimal
loss (lit. says less than 100m). It is also very small. Also the
plugs on the cables allow you to switch between adaptors on several
pairs of speakers and amps very easily.
For example, on Martin-Logan ReQuests, we use two cable runs per
speaker, one on a red adaptor, one on a black. The parallel cables
halve the impedence, and the black adaptor equalizes the rising
impedance
of the higher frequencies.
I've never A/B'd the OCOS with say, MIT 750, but we always keep it on
top speakers, Sonus Faber Extrema's. That may have something to do
with the fact that Sumiko imports both, but at $10/ft. bulk, OCOS has
never been a shopping curiousity (Sp?) for me.
--
Scott McIntosh
gtd...@prism.gatech.edu
June 14th, come on June 14th...
Roland Yap Hock Chuan
Scott McIntosh <gtd...@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:
: Roland Yap Hock Chuan wrote:
: >
: > Dynaudio speakers come with OCOS terminals with OCOS jacks.
: > I have not seen them described anywhere ... any details on what
: > are these beasts?
: >
: > Roland
: I only know of the adapters. Are you sure the terminals and jacks
: aren't the same thing. The adapters have a receptor for the OCOS
: termination and spades for attaching to speakers jacks. Are they
: red or black? They are different.
Sorry ... bad choice of phrasing. I haven't had the chance to see
what the cables actually look like. Since Dynaudio speakers can take
the OCOS jacks directly, I suppose one would only need the adapter on
the other end. Is there any other equipment with provisions for OCOS
besides Dynaudio, out of interest?
What is the difference between red or black?
: I remember a review in Stereophile of Sonus Faber Minuetto's and
: OCOS cable. The reviewer mentioned that the pair seemed soft in
: the highs, and replacing the OCOS with Kimber helped this some.
: Just one observation I remember.
: Back to the cable itself. It's a coax construction from Switzerland.
: Based on the idea of characteristic impedance, OCOS cables have a
: flat, very low char. impedance, whereas they say other cables have
: char. impedances many times higher, with them going even higher in
: the bass freqencies (ever notice MIT's energy curves which rise through
: the bass frequencies and then level out).
: Two of their big points out of this is the ability to use unequal
: cable lengths for left and right and still maintain proper stereo
: timing and also being able to run extremely long cables with minimal
: loss (lit. says less than 100m). It is also very small. Also the
: plugs on the cables allow you to switch between adaptors on several
: pairs of speakers and amps very easily.
: For example, on Martin-Logan ReQuests, we use two cable runs per
: speaker, one on a red adaptor, one on a black. The parallel cables
: halve the impedence, and the black adaptor equalizes the rising
: impedance
: of the higher frequencies.
: I've never A/B'd the OCOS with say, MIT 750, but we always keep it on
: top speakers, Sonus Faber Extrema's. That may have something to do
: with the fact that Sumiko imports both, but at $10/ft. bulk, OCOS has
: never been a shopping curiousity (Sp?) for me.
Pricing wise they do seem to be good value.
Stereophile has the comment that it is lightweight on bass and I
have heard comments that it is good for classical but not for rock.
Roland
Scott McIntosh
Roland Yap Hock Chuan wrote:
>
> Scott McIntosh <gtd...@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:
> : Roland Yap Hock Chuan wrote:
> : >
> : > Dynaudio speakers come with OCOS terminals with OCOS jacks.
> : > I have not seen them described anywhere ... any details on what
> : > are these beasts?
> : >
> : > Roland
>
> : I only know of the adapters. Are you sure the terminals and jacks
> : aren't the same thing. The adapters have a receptor for the OCOS
> : termination and spades for attaching to speakers jacks. Are they
> : red or black? They are different.
>
> Sorry ... bad choice of phrasing. I haven't had the chance to see
> what the cables actually look like. Since Dynaudio speakers can take
> the OCOS jacks directly, I suppose one would only need the adapter on
> the other end. Is there any other equipment with provisions for OCOS
> besides Dynaudio, out of interest?
>
> What is the difference between red or black?
>
Well, I find that someone would build a speaker which takes OCOS
directly
odd, but I guess Dynaudio would be one, if any, to do it. How would you
hook up non-OCOS speaker cable to the Dynaudio's?
The black adaptor is like the red, but also adds a "HFC Impedence
Stabilizer".
Or I guess more properly, the black is an HFC Imp. Stab., where the red
is
just a standard adaptor. Anyways, the HFC I S "compensates for the
rising
impedence common to most dome tweeters in the high frequencies.
...reduces
glare and brightness and increases transparency and spatial focus. Most
conventional and some planar speakers benefit...". This is from the
lit.
I personally have no comment on black and red adaptors.
>
> : I've never A/B'd the OCOS with say, MIT 750, but we always keep it on
> : top speakers, Sonus Faber Extrema's. That may have something to do
> : with the fact that Sumiko imports both, but at $10/ft. bulk, OCOS has
> : never been a shopping curiousity (Sp?) for me.
>
> Pricing wise they do seem to be good value.
> Stereophile has the comment that it is lightweight on bass and I
> have heard comments that it is good for classical but not for rock.
>
Well, we had OCOS running off a Meridian 506-20/551 pair to Vienna
Acoustic
Haydn's. For a 5.25" woofer, they had a lot of bass. If other cables
would
have had more, it would have been too much. But maybe the Haydn's are a
little bass heavy. I'll have to look into that.
> Roland
Later,
Roland Yap Hock Chuan
Scott McIntosh <gtd...@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:
: Well, I find that someone would build a speaker which takes OCOS
: directly
: odd, but I guess Dynaudio would be one, if any, to do it. How would you
: hook up non-OCOS speaker cable to the Dynaudio's?
Thanks for the info. The Dynaudio speakers (I believe this is true for
all the models which I have seen) have standard gold binding posts as
well as OCOS terminals.
Roland