Schnerzinger

Another Case of High-End Audio Nonsense?

When we first heard about these unusual devices, we were by default very sceptical. Unfortunately, high-end audio is full of ‘snake-oil’ sales people making totally unsubstantiated claims about all sorts of pseudo-technologies and if you’ve been in the industry for some time, you tend to develop a healthy cynicism for many of the latest fads and ‘revelations’. Usually, a few years later, those products have disappeared because they eventually get exposed. So when we first heard about this brand SCHNERZINGER making products that radiated certain frequencies to eradicate interference fields, we rolled our eyes and moved on. More high-end audio absurdity to trick people into paying lots of money for expensive poppycock? You betcha!

However, over the years, we kept receiving positive feedback from trusted contacts around the world and then in recent years, we exhibited at the Munich High-End Show in a room running a complete SCHNERZINGER cable and signal protection system. The experience was eye-opening to say the least and we were converted through our experience. When we came back to Australia, we conducted our own research and obtained test equipment that actually revealed the presence of these interference fields in our listening rooms. In fact, our rooms are overflowing with radiated high frequency energy across a wide band – once you measure it, you realise that if your ears were able to hear it, you would be deafened by how much of it is radiating from so many sources.

The question then becomes, since it is beyond my normal range of hearing, why does it matter to me? It matters because although you can’t hear the originating radiated energy, it actually interacts with your audio system in many ways and stops your system from performing optimally. You think that your system sounds great because your brain has used that experience as a reference point. Then you switch on the SCHNERZINGER signal protection devices and you hear an all new level of naturalness and tonal purity. Switch the devices off and your previous reference sounds ‘artificial’ like there’s a degree of enhanced leading edge and trailing edge definition that never occurs at a live event.

We also did some blind tests where one person switched the devices on and off at different times while a system was playing music and recorded those times. Then another person listened to the music and made a note of when the sound changed (improved or degenerated) and after the performance was over, the notes were compared and the times aligned perfectly. After auditioning the product and installing it into a few state-of-the-art systems with amazing results, our initial scepticism has morphed into huge respect and admiration for the results that SCHNERZINGER products achieve. We encourage you to hear the results for yourself.

Giga Cancelling

The proliferation of data driven technologies in our lives like smartphones, Wi-Fi, WLAN, etc have resulted in an extraordinary amount of radiated fields in our homes. From an audio perspective, our hi-fi components are sitting in rooms where many of these radiated fields are abundant. Terms like ‘electromagnetic pollution’ and ‘electrosmog’ are widely used to describe all technically generated electrical and magnetic fields. Low frequency electrical and magnetic fields arise wherever electricity is generated, transported and used. High frequency fields arise with data and communications networks.

SCHNERZINGER developed GIGA CANCELLING, a pioneering technology that effectively frees the audio system from sound-impairing electrical interfering fields up to the gigahertz range. The operating principles are as follows:

• SCHNERZINGER protectors have a receiving unit and a control unit.
• The receiving unit picks up interference frequencies up to the gigahertz range from the surrounding area.
• The control unit processes the received interference frequencies at high speed and submits them with a delay to the surrounding area.
• The precisely defined offset between received and re-emitted interference frequencies causes a cancellation effect that minimises (almost eliminates) interfering fields that impair sonic performance.
• This has no effect on the speed and bandwidth of the audio signal at all.
• In addition, the functionality of radio-controlled devices is retained.

Bandwidth and clock rate of GIGA CANCELING technology are adjustable. This makes it possible to adapt the Protectors to any interference field spectrum. The change in bandwidth extends or decreases the detection range, changing the clock rate the processing speed. The rule is: The narrower the bandwidth, the higher the efficiency – the smaller the detection range. The lower the clock rate, the higher the extinction rate – the less interference frequencies are detected.

The performance and efficiency of the SCHNERZINGER Giga Cancelling technology is unique. No components that can be problematic to audio performance are used – no capacitors, diodes, filters or components that add to ‘electrosmog’. Even the fastest of these devices or applications tends to slow down electrons and delay transmission, significantly reducing the bandwidth and speed of the audio signal. This makes SCHNERZINGER Giga Cancelling an unrivalled solution in the market. From a health perspective, this technology does not increase electromagnetic pollution in the room as it just uses the existing interfering fields to reduce them by GIGA CANCELING.

Atomic Bonding

The secret to SCHNERZINGER cable technology lies in what is termed ‘Atomic Bonding’. It has been well documented through research and experimentation that the molecular structure of a conductor influences how electrons move through the material and in terms of sound quality, the more ‘aligned’ and the less ‘random’ the molecular array are, the better the sound quality. This is why so many high-end audio companies expose their cables to cryogenic treatment.

SCHNERZINGER have taken this approach to another level with their complex Atomic Bonding process. To explain the concept in a simple way, imagine the analogy of a conducting wire being a pipe filled with ice cubes whereby the ice cubes symbolically illustrate the inner grain structure of the wire. From an audio perspective, the best outcome is to have a compacted, fully merged structure without any gaps. This constitutes the basis for a true and accurate signal transmission.

The usual approach (special casting processes, OCC, UPOCC, cryogenic processes, etc.) aims to combine several individual ice cubes to form long ice cube chains. Atomic Bonding follows a different approach, one where the existing ice cubes are crushed into very small pieces which are then compacted in the pipe to a stable homogenous ice block with very high cohesion forces. This process involves specialised technology and takes time, however the sonic performance benefits are startling, delivering a sound quality beyond the very best cryogenically treated mono-crystalline OCC conductor materials.

Bidirectional Barrier

All SCHNERZINGER cables have a double interference field protection technology referred to as the ‘Bidirectional Barrier’ which blocks external interference fields radiated via the power grid and cables systems from entering the signal path. Furthermore, the internal electrical interference fields caused by the hi-fi equipment itself or any interference that has penetrated into the signal path via foreign cables is not transmitted downstream to the rest of the system but is instead diverted outside the system.

In case of very strong interference field loads, the effectiveness of the Bidirectional Barrier can be increased for the cables of the Resolution Line by adding an optional Cable Protector, which is an amplification device that cleans external interference fields. If you are using the Resolution Line cables, SCHNERZINGER also offers the optional Signal Protector, an effective power amplification device for diverting the internal interference fields that have penetrated the signal path to the outside.

Each SCHNERZINGER cable can be used on its own, however the cumulative effect of using a complete SCHNERZINGER wiring loom is astounding. We recommended this approach because the Bidirectional Barrier technology is uninterrupted within the system.

Di-electric Charging

SCHNERZINGER uses a special air-filled material as a dielectric. Unlike PTFE or Teflon for example, this material is applied to the wire while avoiding structurally damaging temperatures and yet is completely stable. To prevent electrical short circuits, the individual wires in a cable must be insulated. The insulation material has an enormous influence on the transmission quality of the actual cable (and the sound). Pure air is theoretically the best dielectric, but it does not insulate. Most high-end audio cables that use an air dielectric deal with this challenge by applying an insulating layer of varnish, which has significantly poorer dielectric values than PTFE, for example. Alternative insulating layer technologies are often applied using structurally damaging high-temperature processes which often negatively affect the quality of the conductor’s material structure.

SCHNERZINGER researched and tested various isolators, starting with best polyethylene PTFE, FEP, across foamed material, natural fabric, like unbleached cotton or silk right up to the expensive exotic technologies using inert gas and specifically deployed battery voltage. The range of results confirmed unequivocally the enormous importance of the often underestimated dielectric element. However, the contradiction between high insulation on the one hand and lowest storage capacity on the other hand could not be solved so satisfactorily with any of these approaches. Not one of them were able to optimise the performance potential of the SCHNERZINGER signal conductor.

In theory, an electrical signal propagates in a vacuum at the speed of light. Since an audio system is not operating in a vacuum, the electrical signal must move through a conductor, which slows it down from the theoretical reference point. When the conductor comes into contact with a dielectric, the speed slows down even more. The ratio of actual speed to the speed of light is known as the velocity factor, or Velocity of Propagation (VOP), expressed as a percentage of the speed of light in free space.

• If the VOP is 70%, this means that a signal will travel at a speed that is 70% of the speed of light. Here are the VOP values for some of the most commonly used dielectrics:
• Foamed PTFE 85%
• Teflon® 70%
• FEP 69%
• Silicone 53-69%
• TFE 69%
• Polyethylene 66%
• PVC 35-58%
• Nylon 47-53%

To better illustrate this sound-degrading memory effect, one can imagine that the individual signals flowing through a wire are attracted to the dielectric, ‘park’ there, and are carried away again by subsequent signals. SCHNERZINGER research shows that this effect results in a slowed down, time-delayed electron flow, working against the crucial target of time correct and integrated signal processing. Therefore, an ideal isolation material is a dielectric without the attractive forces and buffer effect.

To solve the challenge of the negative effect of dielectric material on a cable designed for audio applications, the team at SCHNERZINGER developed the ‘Dielectric Charging’ technology. Despite the fact that it is an expensive and time-consuming process, Dielectric Charging has been an extremely successful breakthrough. The technology acts against the adherence, or ‘parking’ of the electrical charge at the dielectric. A useful analogy for how Dielectric Charging works is to imagine a road with many intersections. It’s not by improving the road surface, but by reducing the number of intersections that one achieves significant progress toward unimpeded traffic flow. This technology has been so successful that even wire operating without a dielectric (surrounded by pure air) is at a disadvantage sonically compared to Dielectric Charging! The result is the virtually loss-free transmission of information along with a significant increase in information density, thereby redefining audiophile parameters such as resolution, soundstage, dynamics and musicality.

Better Skin

Another challenge of a cable is to transport all the frequencies of a signal at the same speed in the same time domain, which is difficult to do because of the way signals of different frequencies move through a conductor in different ways (and speeds). Therefore, isochronous transport across all frequency ranges is the SCHNERZINGER conductor construction objective. Traditional solid, bunched, foil or hollow conductor constructions favour the transmission of very specific frequency ranges in each case which is not ideal.

An important sound-relevant factor is ‘skin effect’ which is the phenomenon where high frequencies flow near the surface whereas medium and low frequencies are oriented more towards the center of the conductor.

Some cable designers focus on the transportation of the high frequencies which gives the sonic presentation definition and ‘air’ or special cues. Hence they utilise flat wire, foil conductor, hollow conductor or litz wire designs which have a large surface area and a small core portion which favours the transport of high frequencies. However these designs compromise the necessary transportation of mid to low frequencies in the same time domain. Nevertheless, they are perceived by audiophiles as having an open, resolving sound (hyper hi-fi sound). Careful listening will reveal that a time-correct, natural and not artificially accentuated presentation of the upper spectrum it’s of elementary importance and that all frequencies need to be transported holistically.

SCHNERZINGER developed the ‘Better Skin’ technology to deliver a time-correct signal without any electronic artefacts. It ensures an almost uniform flow of all frequencies due to the special surface coating within the SCHNERZINGER Atomic Bonding process, thus combining the advantages of different designs without accepting their disadvantages. Better Skin has the following advantages:

• Frequency-dependent signal transport in the conductor.
• Optimises the time-correct transmission of all audio frequencies.
• Perfect conductor cross-section sounds rhythmically captivating without tonal colouring.
• No “tuning”, no “Hyper-HiFi” but pure and unadulterated information reproduction.

Better Flow

SCHNERZINGER’s research indicated that a cable’s performance potential is primarily determined by the crystalline structure of the deployed material rather than by the material itself. For example, sonic performance deteriorates when a signal moves through the non-optimum crystalline material structure of a connector plug. Many manufacturers of connector plugs in the audio domain apply a layer of gold, silver, rhodium, palladium etc. to the conducting material which improves the electrical contact and compensates for material deficits.

The SCHNERZINGER team wanted to strive for a solution, not just compensation for the problem, so they designed connector plugs that are joined to the conductor metallurgy via the complex process of Atomic Bonding. All plugs are disassembled into their individual parts and the contact pins are replaced with new Atomic Bonding formatted pins. To perfectly protect the contact pins against interfering fields and to establish double operational reliability, the plug receives a two-shelled housing. To reduce contact resistance, after the final assembly of the plugs and conductor has been completed, the whole system is processed via Atomic Bonding once again.

This technology is known as BETTER FLOW, which eliminates unnecessary material changeovers, contact resistance and material resonances. It eliminates compromised alloying which enduringly affects the conductivity of a pure signal conductor. Conventional untreated conductor material consists of many short crystalline grain structures arranged in a relatively disorganised assembly. So to some extent, the signal information has to find its diffuse way through many grain structures. Flowing through the grain boundary junctions from grain to grain implies an enormous resistance potential und thus causes a slowed down signal transmission. In addition, information transmission virtually swirls in the grain boundary voids, so tones belonging together are time delayed or disappear. Furthermore, on a microscopic level, grain boundary voids allow deformations of the grain structure and often result in grain contact points, whose resonances may distort the information.

The SCHNERZINGER Atomic Bonding conductor material minimises these sound-influencing effects by providing a permanently compact and enormously homogeneous microstructure of the conductor.This process is superior to the testing and measurement of many of the most reputed high-performance plugs and socket brands in the world. Due to this intricate process, SCHNERZINGER cables should never be retro-fitted with any other plugs or terminations – this will drastically degrade sound quality and irreparably destroy the SCHNERZINGER original connection.

Better Geometry

Common conductor geometries (eg. binding, parallel, twist designs) are afflicted with gains and significant losses. The design of a cable geometry must be mechanically stable, create a homogeneous electromagnetic field between and around the conductors, and ensure the time-correct, and loss-free signal flow. Efforts to use elaborate stranding and braiding techniques to counteract the problems of interference fields often yield very poor results.

Twisted constructions reduce the susceptibility to interference and typically result in a low inductance, which is usually targeted. However, as soon as current flows through a wire, its own electromagnetic field is generated. If the cores are twisted, the electromagnetic fields of the individual wires are close together over a large area, acting on each other and impairing the flow of electrons, which is why solid conductors are often used instead of stranded wires.

Braided constructions also typically reduce susceptibility to interference but suffer from the effects of a constant but permanent change in the electrical environment of the individual conductors relative to each other. This leads to electromagnetic clutter, which in turn affects electron flow. Parallel constructions with conductors running in parallel are not very resistant to external interference fields and favour the proximity effect, which also impairs the flow of electrons due to eddy currents that are generated.

To realize a full speed and even electron flow, the electrical parameters and the electromagnetic fields should remain constant and homogeneous across the entire cable length. The requirement of a mechanically stable design is often underrated, although this is an important factor in order to adhere to constant conditions. In order to take full advantage of close-meshed interlocking constructions without accepting their electromagnetic problems, SCHNERZINGER relies on a combination of intelligent superstructures and a revolutionary technology known as Better Geometry.

• Uses the advantages of established designs without accepting their disadvantages.
• Perfect conductor cross-section – rhythmically captivating without tonal colouring.
• No use of braided fabrics to avoid statically problematic plastics.
• Avoidance of material-damaging heat processes.

No Cryo Processing

SCHNERZINGER does not use cryogenic applications. This often highly advertised treatment approach may lead to short-term improvements in sound, but these are not usually permanent and often lead to microstructure damage to the conductor material if applied incorrectly. Cryogenic processes used in the metal industry involve the cooling of metals in a computer controlled cryogenic facility in definite intervals to about -150 to -196°C and lower. In doing so nitrogen or even other cooling substances are used.

In the opinion of the SCHNERZINGER team, there are two possible challenges related to this process. One is that the treatment does not last a long time. Once the metal reaches room temperature, the molecular structure slowly starts to change, thus the sonic advantages diminish over time. The second is that the common method of simply dipping the materials into a nitrogen filled container can create molecular structures that may break over time due to the hardening of the fine material.

SCHNERZINGER believe that their Atomic bonding process is durable and has research has demonstrated a high structural integrity of conductors without any potentially negative effects of the treatment on the microstructure quality of the conductor material.

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