Our Product Research Team

At Crutchfield, you'll get detailed, accurate information that's hard to find elsewhere. That's because we have our own in-house Product Research team — they open the box, verify contents, check the owner's manual, and record dimensions, features and specs. We stay on top of new products and technologies to help people make informed choices.

Features

Golden Gate Series Stereo Audio Minijack Cable: The AudioQuest Golden Gate stereo audio minijack cable is terminated by a gold-plated male 3.5mm stereo connector on each end. The AudioQuest Golden Gate stereo audio minijack cable is available in the following lengths.

• 0.6 meter (2')
• 1 meter (3' 4")
• 2 meter (6' 7")
• 3 meter (10')
• 5 meter (16' 5")
• 8 meter (26' 3")

Solid Perfect-Surface Copper Conductors (PSC): Perfect-Surface Copper has an astonishingly smooth and pure surface. Proprietary metal-processing technology protects the wire's surface at every stage of drawing and fabrication. When high-purity low-oxide copper is kept as soft, pure and smooth as possible, it becomes a wonderfully low-distortion conductor. Electrical and magnetic interaction between strands in a conventional cable is the greatest source of distortion, often causing a somewhat dirty, harsh sound. Solid conductors are fundamental toward achieving Golden Gate's very clean sound

Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation: Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy (loss). Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Golden Gate uses air-filled Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation on both conductors because air absorbs next to no energy and Polyethylene is low-loss and has a benign distortion profile. Thanks to all the air in Foamed-PE, it causes much less of the out-of-focus effect common to other materials.

Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy; preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment's ground reference requires AQ's Noise-Dissipation System. Noise-Dissipation System prevents a significant amount of RFI from reaching the equipment's ground plane.

Double-Balanced Asymmetrical Geometry: Purposely designed for single-ended applications, Double-Balanced Asymmetrical Geometry offers a relatively lower impedance on the ground for a richer, and more dynamic experience. While many single-ended cable designs use a single path for both the ground and the shield, Double-Balanced designs separate the two for cleaner, quieter performance.

Cold-Welded, Gold-Plated Plugs: This plug design allows for a connection devoid of solder, which is a common source of distortion. Because the ground shells are stamped instead of machined, the metal can be chosen for low distortion.

Directional: Arrows on the connectors indicate the preferred signal path from the source component to the input.