CFM Cables for Music

UNCOMPROMISING AUDIO QUALITY

At CFM our mission is do our utmost to bring music enthusiasts an enhanced and unparalleled audio experience. I established CFM Cables for Music Limited (CFM) in 2016 with this goal in mind. After observing the wide range of different audio cables available on the market, I realised that the majority of them tended to focus on particular popular sound characteristics, but often ended up causing deterioration to the performance of music components, resulting in sound lacking in detail and rich musicality. Tonal imbalance issues were common, which further impacted the sound quality and also made the cables  incompatible with listeners’ entire audio systems.

To tackle these problems, we meticulously researched and developed our patented technology, generating design processes to address tonal imbalance and also to ensure an incredible sound delivery from the entire audio system. What makes CFM cables so unique is that our audio cables are perfectly tonally balanced, which allows the true quality of your audio components to be realised and ensures your entire audio system can maximise its full potential, resulting in an incredible sound from your system that you will never have experienced before.

Our vision is not merely to provide listeners with cables that connect and enhance their components, but with cables that actively work to provide the best possible sound. I believe that exceptional, high-end, impeccably tonally balanced audio cables play the key role in taking an enjoyable listening experience to that next level.

In the simplicity of our company name lies our core concept – We design audio cables with music in mind

Calvin Law, Founder of CFM Cables for Music Limited

The Ultimate Cable Design Concept…

Design for Faithful Transmission

Over recent years there has been considerable focus on the use of different kinds of conductors in the design of audio cables. However, during our years of research and development, we have found that using the same type of conductor with different cable structures can deliver very different sound quality, proving the core importance of cable designs regardless of the type of conductors used. We have found that effective shielding is the key role to good cable design. While shielding design aims to keep the electrical signal or electric current undisturbed from EMI during its transmission, the technology in relation to audio cable design has stagnated over the years.

To maximize the effectiveness of shielding for the conductors inside the cables, CFM has successfully developed the Third Generation patented Optimised Shielding Plus (OS+), an uncompromising shielding technology that achieves exceptional electrical signal or current transmission, unlocking the true potential of audio components in audio systems with exceptionally balanced tonal quality. As a result, the sound on your audio system is enhanced to an entirely new level.

It’s time to redefine your audio system

Achieving tonal balance with an audio system might seem a basic and simple concept, but in actuality it is very difficult to realize. The major reason for this is often due to the unbalanced tonal characteristics of the audio cables. We must understand first that a cable itself is only a tool for a signal or current transmission; it cannot improve the transmission quality itself. As such, just because a cable may have a relatively better high-frequency range performance, it does not mean that it can improve the quality of the high-frequency response. It might still provide an unsatisfactory performance in other, lower frequency ranges. This is an example of tonal imbalance.

Sometimes when users come across this issue with their audio systems, they may try to rectify it by mixing other cables possessing different tonal characteristics with their audio systems. Unfortunately, this will not fix the problem, because when tonal imbalance occurs in a cable, the information that has been lost can no longer be retrieved subsequently by another cable. As a result, this will bring about a comprehensive structural tonal imbalance where nearly all music information in the full frequency range has deteriorated. The consequence is that the sound field is blurred, the details are not clear, and all sound images become large and overlapped, resulting in a soundstage that is almost two dimensional.

The design concept and vision at CFM Cables for Music ensures that our designs are dedicated to producing audio cables with an extremely well-balanced tonal sound through proprietary technology and a precise calibration process.  As such, listeners can freely use the cables on their entire audio systems, resulting in an unprecedented audio performance.

Shielding technology plays a key role nowadays in reducing the electromagnetic field interference when designing analogue, digital and power cables. The most frequently adopted approach is to use grounded metal braids to entirely cover the conductors. However, although EMI is reduced, this does not automatically ensure that the shielding is as effective as it can be. Conventional audio cables are typically designed with the use of a single metal shielding braid layer that has a woven density normally varied between 70% – 90%, and this is not always enough to fulfil the high-end audio reproduction requirements expected today. In addition, electrical signals and electric currents passing through the conductors can also cause unwanted electrical capacitance and inductance to the shielding metal along the propagation path, causing deteriorated audio characteristics in the conductors during signal and current transmission. Users might have to choose different audio cables to rectify the imbalanced tonal characteristics of their sound systems, and, as a result, most of their audio equipment will not operate at peak audio performance.

CFM’s proprietary OS+ technology effectively addresses these common shielding issues. Because CFM only uses ultra-high density woven bare copper metal shielding braids, our unique and proprietary technology allows the use of multiple metal shielding layers, namely OS+N, where N represents the number of braided metal layers used for ultra-effective shielding. For instance, a CFM Resonant cable product with our Advanced OS+3 technology has a total of three different high density woven copper shielding layers, and each layer is precisely tested and calibrated independently for achieving the best optimised shielding effects, reducing much of the internal interference to the electrical conductors. The overall shielding effectiveness is consequently greatly enhanced by this process.

One of the major differences between the latest 3rd generation and the 2ndt generation is to intensively increase the metal shielding layer physical density. However, it also leads to the subsequently increased adverse influence of the metal shielding layer on the conductor that creates the unwanted tonal imbalance to the cable. By increasing the effectiveness of OS+ technology up to 20%, it can effectively eliminate and optimise the negative impact on the conductor due to the enhanced shielding capability at the same time. Each of the latest 3rd generation CFM cable product therefore exhibits an incredible three-dimensional soundstage performance, ultra-wide dynamic and frequency range extension capabilities and rich musicality that brings about exceptional sound improvement to your audio system.

Solid-core pure copper or pure silver wire

Although stranded wires are widely used in the production of cables nowadays, here at CFM we found that these wires can possess obviously different tonal characteristics. This is due to a number of factors, such as different batches of raw materials used in the production stages, various metal annealing processes and  subtle differences in the thickness of the strands. It is almost impossible to ensure that all stranded wires produced from a vast number of rolls are identical in every way. In addition, during the signal or current transmission, electrons flow freely along the stranded wire interfaces, which causes unnecessary energy loss and signal deterioration. In order to be able to fully control the consistencies of copper or silver wires, the best solution is to use solid core pure copper or pure silver wires of suitable sizes for various cable designs and applications.

Absolute control of the sonic consistencies of materials used in production

At CFM, manufactured using our patented OS+ technology, our audio cables are designed to effectively restore the audio performance of your system with the best possible tonal balance characteristics.  Our patented technology and proprietary treatments also target the materials used in the manufacture of our cables, all of which undergo a series of meticulous test, precise calibration, and tonal direction characteristic treatments, creating consistent tonal direction characteristics within the body of each cable.

PATENTED 3rd Generation OS+ CALIBRATION, HANDMADE WITH PRECISION

Conventional audio cables are typically designed with the use of a single metal shielding layer, and are produced from a roll of finished cable in an industrial fashion. After cutting out the required lengths, connectors are then terminated to complete the cable production. This type of industrial approach however, limits the possibilities for further increasing the effectiveness of shielding as it makes it difficult to allow for further optimisation of the metal shielding layer.

At CFM we ensure all of our cable products are handmade with the utmost precision, allowing us to use multiple metal shielding layers and to apply our Third Generation patented Optimised Shielding Plus OS+ technology to each single layer. During this meticulous process, a series of independent measuring tests and precise calibration is carried out in order to successfully obtain the highest optimal shielding effects, ensuring we achieve a strong electrical signal and current transmission. This also helps to greatly reduce the break-in time in the initial stages of use.

precisely tuned

Premium OnEarth Upgrade

All the electrical current required for operating audio equipment due to its work done and energy loss will completely return to the ground reference point for completing its circuit, while the general audio cables are directly connected to the ground reference point of the equipment to carry out the ground shielding capabilityHowever, this will lead to transferring a lot of unavoidable interference generated on the equipment to the shielding structures of the cables, and directly interfere with the signal or electrical current transmission of the electrical conductor. This is also one of the major causes of the tonal imbalance to the audio cables. 

In order to properly solve this fundamental ground interference problem, CFM provides a thorough solution, using CFM’s optimised earth grounding cables connecting to the OnEarth upgraded version cables. These will ensure your audio cables are optimally grounded and benefit from the best possible shielding effects, isolating them from any unavoidable audio component interference. The proprietary shielding structures in these cables are optimised to unlock the full strength of the silver or copper conductor that connects to your audio system, delivering the sharpest audio performance, so we recommend using grounding cables from the same or higher series when upgrading for the best possible listening experience. 

 

ALL CFM AUDIO CABLE PRODUCTS ARE METICULOUSLY HANDMADE  IN HONG KONG