Some Origin Live cables are unique in the way they address the problem of tonal imbalances within a cable. This is not an easy concept to understand in theory and even harder to eliminate in practice. Due to capacitance and other factors, cables can seem to exhibit a sound like mechanical “ringing” which gives prominence to certain frequencies. The effects are to cause blurring and tonal imbalance. For example, bass notes are prevented from dropping deep in the way you know they should. The reason may not be because your speakers can’t go deep but because the deep notes are masked by upper mid-range “ringing” in the cable.

A vastly oversimplified illustration to understand the principle of ringing is to consider a flash of lightning in a major storm. Lightening produces a loud roll of thunder. This is the result of air crashing into the atomised lightning gap. The echoes from the landscape then add to the effect we hear as thunder which carries on for longer than the original crashing noise which created it.

When electricity passes through your cables it causes momentary electrical changes within the material analogous to lightning in air. These changes then input a delayed release of electrical energy back into the signal.  This manifests itself audibly by introducing an effect similar to  “ringing” which accentuates certain frequency bands. The effects vary significantly in frequency, magnitude and decay time depending on the cable you use.

When you hear thunder you observe two important facts:

• Hearing the thunder is delayed from the time you first see the flash.
  In a similar way for music, the slight delay time of signal “after effects” changes the “timing” of notes.
• A roll of thunder lasts a lot longer than the flash which created it.
  In a similar way for music, any ongoing electrical after effects causes blurring and reduces clarity.

Through observation and intensive research, Origin Live has found a unique way to dramatically reduce these effects. The results are astonishing with major improvements to clarity and tonal qualities in the music.

Electrical “after effects” are not to be confused with mechanical resonance which many cable manufacturers refer to. Mechanical resonance causes conductors to vibrate microscopically against one another – this also degrades signal quality because it interrupts the electromagnetic field consistency around each conducting strand. 25 years ago Hitachi promoted high-pressure binding of stranded cable to reduce this effect – nowadays some ideas (among many) include adding clamps and cable risers to slightly dampen such effects.