You can now invest in perfectly balanced cables for your high end system that will last a lifetime. Combining the three most important elements in cable design when designing the world's most natural-sounding speaker cables - Geometry, Material and Insulation. So, for the first time ever you’ll not have to throw cables away when the next over-hyped ones appear on the market.
MAX TOWNSHEND
Audio Housekeeping
Our founder Max Townshend has spent 30 or more years searching for the Holy Grail of audio cable technology and a solution that satisfies his ears as well as the audio measurement tools that he uses. In doing so he discovered a solution that delivers the perfect sound. So good that it will put the hairs up on the back of your neck when you listen for the first time.
LORD CABLE
Father of Cable Theory in Transmission Lines
Max went all the way back to the fundamentals of Transmission Line Theory, first theorised by Lord Kelvin in 1855, and on which all cables are based today. He then added modern concepts, the latest technology and unique know-how to produce a breakthrough cable that is guaranteed to provide a sound that your ears will find difficult to believe and will astound your friends.
Max perceived that speaker cables are transmission lines, and as such, they will generate reflections if not terminated
by their characteristic impedance, i.e., the cables themselves must match their loudspeaker load. The result: Isolda cables, made using Max’s unique cryogenically treated wire.
Independent reviewers, users and audiophiles all agree that our cables achieve everything we say they do. Here are some brief extracts of what they have said:
HAND MADE WITH CARE
In Our London WorkshopEmploying Local Craftsman & Suppliers
Our cables are painstakingly hand made in our workshops one pair at a time using the finest materials available. We do not buy reels of mass-produced wire and cut this to length. We know that our approach offers listeners the best chance of audio fidelity that they can enjoy. Part of the design and bespoke craftsmanship process is ensuring that the Geometry and Material of our cables are optimized for the audio signal to freely oscillate between the amplifier and the speaker and that the impedance is perfectly matched.
Of course, what appeals to one set of ears is unlikely to match someone else’s. Often choosing a cable comes down to personal taste based on the equipment you are employing and the type of music you enjoy listening too. Plus, what you can afford – let’s get the price out of the way first!
The audio industry is awash with expensively packaged and advertised cables that claim to offer amazing benefits. The design of these cables relies on hype and marketing rather than solid scientific principles. What you may get from them is a temporary perceived improvement in audio quality, often marred later by listening fatigue, as newly recognized distortions grow increasingly tiresome.
WHAT SOUND DO YOU WISH TO ACHIEVE?
What sound do you wish to achieve? A quick fix to a dull system that needs brightening or a neutral and natural sounding system that delivers the original sound heard by the musicians in the studio or concert hall? If it’s the second of these that you required, you can trust Townshend to provide cables that don’t degrade any part of the signal and negate any added noises or distortions that were not on the original sounds.
MEASURE
The science of audio requires measurements both subjective and objective. While our cable is loved subjectively by some of the pickiest ears in audio, we wanted to give our clients and prospective customers greater insight into why our cables sound so natural and free of distortion.
So, we set up an experiment, that measured what happened between where the signal goes in and goes out in a selection of competing cables and our own. For this we used a computer spectrum analyser between an amplifier and a speaker. In this simplified chart you can see the results of seven different cables measured in this way
Max Townshend describes the reasoning behind his chosen geometry and the importance of characteristic impedance when choosing a speaker cable that will sound natural and relaxing.
The black line at the bottom of the chart shows Townshend cables in the test environment and a virtually flat level across the chart. The other six cables show a wide variety of discrepancies due to multiple reflections caused by a mismatch between the cable characteristic impedance and the impedance of the load. If you are technically minded, you can read more about this in our paper The Sound of Music And Why Your Cables Matter.
isolda cable impedance matched
By matching the cable impedance to the speaker impedance you preserve the square wave reading. Producing pure undistorted sound
oscilliscope
Measure the voltage drop between one end of the cable and the other to see if there is any loss using a square waves to show any distortion
non-impedance matched cable
Non-impedance matched cables will show this readout 'ringing' described as micro echoes and heard as smearing and subtle veiling of sound
“As a long time user of Townshend cable, I have to say that the sonic character does match that shown in the graph or to put it another way most of the other cables I’ve tried are too bright for my tastes. You can see reviews of Townshend Isolda and F1 Fractal on the site where I attempt to explain the things that they do which few others speaker cables appear to match.If this were not the case and Townshend more of a marketing-oriented company, this sort research would not be of great interest but the sonic results do seem to correlate and that doesn’t often happen with audio measurement.” Jason Kennedy
HiA friend has just given me the Isolda speaker cable to try. I have tried many cables in the past and own Chord Signature interconnects. I have heard the Chord signature speaker cable in a demo on my system. It was good but not as good as this. I have already decided to purchase the cable from my friend but if I were to replace all my interconnects would the DCT100 outperform my Chord Sig? Just to say I have spent an evening in astonishment at the performance of my system with your speaker cable installed. The utter naturalness and balance and soundstage and on and on, WOW!I thought I would never find my way out of the "Alice in Wonderland"confusion which seems to be hifi cables, now I believe that you have the answer with impedance matching and the amp end widget.Matt O'Donoghue.
The Ear HI-FI Music Gear - Jason Kennedy
I have been using Townshend Isolda EDCT for a number of years now and regard it to be one of if not the best speaker cables money can buy. So I was surprised when its maker told me that the current version, the enhanced deep cryogenic treated variant had never been reviewed, an oversight by me and for all other reviewers for that matter. This is the cable that makes all the other speaker cables that people send me to review seem insubstantial and lacking in stereo solidity, it pretty well stops me from wanting to review speaker cable to be honest which is not such a good idea from the point of view of making a living. But as no-one else makes or distributes a cable of this type in the UK it’s hard to find anything to beat it. https://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/townshend-audio-isolda-edct-speaker-cable-speaker-cable
HiFi Pig
How we approach the building of our cables
There are myriad ways to build a cable: the choice of metal material, the way the wires are arranged and also the insulation, conductors and sheathing. All play significant roles and crucially at Townshend we believe that matching the impedance of the cable with that of the speaker also holds the key to producing the world’s finest cables. We are resolute in our design philosophy and for the reasons our decisions are based on. This site explores these approaches and the sound scientific reasons behind them. Nothing is left to mere chance, and superbly engineered cables are the result. Ultimately, freeing you to concentrate on other components in your system.
Geometry
Topology
Our unique geometry: Two flat insulated copper strips closely spaced is the ultimate geometry for preventing any deterioration of the frequency characteristic in the high-pass region as well as maintaining the integrity of the music waveform.
Copper
DCT & FRACTAL treatments
Treating copper with these specialised processes changes the the lattice structure creating the finest sounding cables ever.
Impedance Matching
8 ohm
Matching the cable impedance to the speaker prevents echoes and reflections within the cable that would otherwise distort the sound.