The Oyaide Advantage - A New Standard of Excellence

While other manufacturers have reworked existing AC connector and receptacle designs to adapt them for audio, Oyaide's engineers (whose knowledge of physics and materials with regard to sound is second to none), set out to examine each optimal material in exhaustive detail, determining what would yield the best sonic result. They realized that their connectors needed to be designed and built “from the ground up”....and in the process, they achieved a new standard of excellence.

They determined the most important considerations for a secure and improved AC electrical connection:

1.) appropriate hardness....the contact material must maintain its exact shape over time without any adverse effect to the sound.

2.) appropriate springiness....the connecting material should have the ability to rebound from the compression of first contact and expand to make firm long-term contact. This is crucial, as a superior contact has the ability to eliminate vibration due to the movement of electrons (current) or electromagnetic fields (signal) through the contacts. For clean transmission, secure contacts are essential.

3.) conductivity

4.) choice of plating materials....the quality and type of materials, their optimal combination, and requisite thickness must be carefully chosen.

5.) surface finish....at the microscopic level, the more flat and uniform the final finish, the greater the amount of contact. Strict control of surface quality, including uniformity of plating thickness, is a must for superior sound quality and improved clarity.

How do Oyaide connectors differ from typical “audio grade” connectors?

1.) Oyaide connectors use deoxidized phosphor bronze as a base material, which meets the first three criteria listed above almost perfectly (appropriate hardness, springiness and conductivity). Typical “audio grade” connectors use a brass formulation, which is not as resilient, lacks springiness, is generally not high-purity, and contains significant amounts of iron and lead. Copper, while having superior conductivity to brass, lacks appropriate hardness and springiness.

2.) Oyaide did exhaustive research, not only into which plating materials would be optimal, but also into which combinations and thicknesses would yield the best sonic result. Typical plating methods do not meet the laboratory grade standard necessary to achieve the most optimal contact. All Oyaide products are plated using the highly-precise hard-contact plating method, which is performed in their state-of-the-art facility. The use of nickel, which in some formulations can degrade sound quality, is avoided. We chose three equally valid and sonically superior combinations:

A) Silver-over-Rhodium -- vibrant, immediate, with strong pace and exquisite detail.

B) Direct gold -- smooth, sweet, rich and luxurious, with a very deep and wide soundstage.

C) Palladium-over-gold – the deep and wide soundstage of the Direct gold, but with a cooler and more-detailed presentation.

Safety and reliability: The quality of construction of all Oyaide products exceeds all requirements for trouble-free, long-term use.  Value: While the cost of Oyaide connectors and receptacles is in a similar range of competing products (and in some cases lower), our level of performance will far outperform the others.

Level of performance: Outfitting your system with Oyaide products allows you to enter into a new experience of sound and music. How could anyone have predicted that merely changing a plug or receptacle could so dramatically improve the sound of a hi-fi or home theatre system? In that respect alone, the value of our products is exceedingly high, considering the relationship of sound quality to the relative cost of new electronic components.