9) What is the failure rate of your cables and what is the procedure that your customers need to follow to get their cables repaired if required?
We have had one customer experiencing failure from a production fault in an RCA connector that we bought from a contractor. We do not use this contractor anymore. In one instance, a customer accidentally broke a cable connector by unintentionally adding extreme force to it that would break any connector. We offer free service and repair including shipping fees to our customers if a product should have a manufacturing fault.

10) What are the sonic advantages of cables with a lower dielectric constant and no crystal boundaries in the conductor?
Lower dielectric absorption, reduced distortion and reduced signal smearing give increased detail, preserving a full room soundstage and make the reproduced music sound more dynamic and engaging. A lower dissipation factor reduces attenuation and allows high frequency signals to travel faster and with less loss. This combined with the right geometry and choice of conductor sizes keeps bass and midrange intact, helping to balance the overall “sound” of the cable so that it imposes the smallest possible sound signature on the setup. Standard grade copper is constituted of grains with borders that are less conductive than the grains themselves. Each time the signal has to cross these borders from one grain to the next the signal is degraded and distorted. Other impurities in the wire will also make it less conductive than clean copper grains and will adversely affect the signal transmission. The intent behind choosing Ultra Pure Ohno Continuous Cast copper for our cables is that this type of copper has virtually no grain borders and extremely low level of impurities. The signal is given a clean and unobstructed path that eliminates audible degradation or distortion. This in turn gives the listener the most complete and natural listening experience that their setup and listening room is capable of presenting.

11) Which type of cable termination (spade/banana/z-plug/pin) do you think delivers the best results?
It used to be spades, but with our new z-tooth bananas with a UP-OCC centre pin they are both equally good. We also offer un-terminated speaker cables for those who can hook up directly.

12) Do you think that you will ever be able to mass-produce your cables without compromising their performance?
It can’t be done by machines as it would make the cables sound like any other mass produced cables out there. Employing and training more Skogrand Cables artisans is the way to go for us to maintain our edge.

13) What are your favourite genres of music and do you think that most audio cables tend to perform better with certain music genres as compared to others?
I love tunes more than genres. I listen to everything from Classical to Hard Rock. I’m looking for the kind of mood the tunes will put me in and therefore I do not listen to music that is self-degrading or that intends to put others down unfairly. All genres sound great through our cabling as long as the recording is good. That’s why we are able to play all kinds of music in our rooms at audio shows unlike many other manufacturers.

14) How often do you attend live performances to update your mental reference of what life music sounds like and what kinds of concerts do you attend most – rock, classical, jazz, blues, pop, other?
I’m a musician who plays several instruments. I’ve also done hundreds of live shows both as a performer and as rigger so I have first hand information on how sound varies in different settings and venues. These days my location and work restrict me to listening to live music performed by others to roughly once a month. My daughters, however, play the piano and harmonica so we have a lot of fun with that.

15) Where do you see Skogrand Cables as a company (sales, staff size, product line and market share by value) 10 years from now?
We will continue to build slowly on the most significant aspect of our products in the market namely their performance. We are in no hurry and are blessed with clients enthusiastically spreading the word about our cables to their friends. Many reviewers have also experienced a revitalization and increased joy listening to music through our cables. Skogrand Cables will continue to be a highly respected manufacturer for generations to come.

16) Do you think wireless audio signal transmission will ever achieve a sound quality level where it will be comparable to the performance of the best audio cables and why/why not?  
Most wireless systems have wires either supplying power or sometimes connecting satellites or other components in the setup and of course they all have internal wiring. More and more manufacturers are using our cables for internal wiring so we still have enough to do. All in all it’s a good scenario for us. As it stands now, there are too many signals competing for the free air between the transmitter and receiver of a wireless system. This makes all wireless systems prone to interference and signal degradation. I’m looking forward to the implementation of graphine batteries to make wireless more true to its name and new solutions for wireless signal transfer that will increase signal stability, quality and speed.

I hope that, in the future, we will see wireless systems offering signal transmission that is better than cabling. Anything that improves the listening experience and helps people to enjoy their tunes even more is a blessing. I can’t say that I see this coming any time soon, but then again nobody knew what Skogrand Cables could do five years ago – so who knows!

I invite you to read my recent review of the Skogrand Cables SC Beethoven speaker cables at this link – Malcolm J. Gomes.

About the Author: Malcolm J. Gomes

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