Cinnamon Coax: digital coaxial cable with solid 1.25% silver-plated conductors
AudioQuest Cinnamon Coax is a coaxial cable built to carry digital audio from a source to a converter, an amplifier or any other component fitted with a coaxial input. Its construction brings, in an accessible form, the solutions the brand uses on its higher models: a solid conductor, silver on the surface, rigid foamed insulation and shielding that does more than simply cover the cable.
Solid silver-plated copper conductors
The conductor is a single wire of Long-Grain Copper (LGC) coated with a 1.25% layer of silver. Using one solid wire removes the electrical and magnetic interaction that arises between the strands of a stranded conductor. The silver sits on the outside for a specific reason: a digital signal runs at frequencies so high that it flows almost entirely along the metal's surface, so that is where the better material pays off most, at a contained cost.
Shielding and insulation
Covering 100% of the cable is not enough: radio-frequency noise picked up by an ordinary shield is drained into the component's ground and disturbs its reference, with consequences for the signal. The Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation system adds metal layers that absorb and reflect much of that energy before it gets to the layer tied to ground. The Hard-Cell Foam dielectric is a rigid foam injected with nitrogen: the gas pockets neither hold energy nor hand it back to the conductor, while the stiffness of the material keeps the geometry constant along the whole cable and steadies the impedance.
Terminations and lengths
The plugs are gold-plated and cold-welded: contact is made under high pressure, with no solder, which is a frequent cause of distortion. The ground shells are stamped rather than machined, so the metal is picked for its electrical qualities and not for ease of machining. Cinnamon Coax is offered in 0.75 m, 1.5 m, 3 m and 5 m lengths; each pack contains one cable.
Key features
- Solid LGC copper conductors with 1.25% silver plating
- Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation shielding
- Nitrogen-injected Hard-Cell Foam insulation
- Gold-plated, cold-welded plugs with no solder
- Lengths: 0.75 m, 1.5 m, 3 m, 5 m
