The RCA's on the ends are undoubtedly made from Brass
( some brasses are made with high purity copper but they are still brass
and have less than 30% and nominally 23% the conductivity of pure copper
)!
Brass consists of Copper 50% to as much as 75% and Zinc 50% to as
little as 25%. Nominally it is 67% Copper and 33% Zinc with
traces of lead, iron and phosphorous ****
Brass is a lot easier to manufacture into an electrical connector
than Pure Copper and many manufacturers of so called 'high end' audio connectors
are 'high end' in name and physical appearance only and not in substance.
The reason being is the metals machineability index. With a machining index
of 100 and a passable electrical conductivity with excellent hardness Brass
is the preferred material for the manufacture of electrical connectors.
It's cheap, quick to machine, easy to work and package and durable. But
in comparison to Pure copper it is a poor electrical conductor. Pure Copper
has a machining index of 20. That's a bit like machining clay. Pure Copper
is one of the softest metals to machine and one of the most difficult also.
This takes time but the rewards are of immense benefit in both audio quality
and in the enormous increase in information gleaned from the appliances
in which all Pure Copper links are used. One of the popular masking
scripts to avoid saying that a connector is made from brass is to call
it a copper alloy. If its a copper alloy it is most likely brass! If its
a high copper alloy and is not >100% IACS
then it is a compromise and will not deliver the same quality of signal
as does Pure Copper.
Aluminium Bronze has a copper content of greater than 90% and yet
still has only the same conductivity as brass. Alloy almost any metal (
except gold and silver ) with copper at concentrations greater than 5%
and the conductivity of that 'copper alloy' dives! to that of brass! Click
on the thumbnail to see a comparison of electrical conductivity versus
copper content of Bocchino Audio Pure Copper Connectors and other competitors
connectors that use Copper Alloys
The performance of all brass connectors is nearly identical when compared to a pure copper connector. The only difference is how much you, the consumer, are willing to bluff yourself that you bought a great set of cables with 'famous name brand connectors' as opposed to having the same cable with what complies with excellent basic engineering and scientific principles; in that a good conductor ( cable ) should be terminated into a good conductor ( connector ) to get the most faithful transfer of information carried in the electrical signal. And the only metals that such a connector should be made of are either Copper, Sterling Silver (expensive ) or Silver ( very expensive ). Silver is only marginally better electrically conductive than Copper ( 6% better ) as opposed to Copper being nearly 4 times ( 400% ) a better conductor than Brass.
All Bocchino Audio connectors electrical conductivity is >100% IACS ( International Annealed Copper Standard ).
I am still astonished as to how a manufacturer of an excellent cable
terminates the excellent Copper or silver metals into resistors ( Brass
connectors ) at both ends! What are you paying for! Firstly,
an excellent state of the art single crystal metal conductor and then it
is either soldered or arc-welded into a piece of plated brass
which has a microscopically thin veneer of gold on a self magnetising thin
Nickel subplate! ( another thin film resistor! ); Secondly
you are paying for a lot of marketing hype to get you to part with your
money for a well packaged dream: But in the end it's all let down
by the hopelessly cheap and useless ( brass or low % copper alloy ) RCA
connector at the cable ends. When your cable is terminated with RCA's,
Insist on having Pure Copper
Brenda'sTMon
your audio investment and maximise the performance attainable from the
cable you buy. The BrendaTM
is a precision Engineered component. Every aspect of its production is
totally controlled and manufactured to the most exacting tolerances. No
other RCA has had the attention of excellent materials, design, manufacture,
and assembly that the BrendaTM
has had.
No other RCA matchs the Brenda'sTM
performance.
Return to Bocchino Audio contents page
****
Links for details regarding the properties of Brass and other Copper
alloys.