When the noise is gone,
the music flows.

01 — Distance + Angle

Separating the live conductor from the neutral and ground is an important step toward minimizing induced currents and noise between conductors. Arranging them at close to 90 degrees from each other continues to reduce induction.

Take a look at the top of a tube amp sometime. Notice how the transformers are assembled at right angles to each other? Speaker designers do this in crossovers as well: if one inductor is flat, another inductor is made to stand on its side to minimize interference.

This tactic pays dividends for power cables, naturally cleaning out more potential noise than any material choice or other shielding method could accomplish.

02 — The Right Shield

Most RF shields on power cables are made of aluminum foil or tinned braided copper sleeving. Other designs add a ferrite bead near the IEC end to further help reject wideband RF. Unfortunately for the listener, these materials and approaches will rob the sound of available dynamics, tonality and low level grip.

THE WHISPER power cable takes a different approach. As explained in the About RF section, taming and using RF waves involves manipulation of conductor attributes like length and thickness. THE WHISPER uses specific lengths, gauges and twist rate of its shield to effectively tame RF without affecting the sound.

Skin effect is taken into account, and much of the captured RF travels down the outside of the shield’s solid conductors. That is precisely why thin gauge conductors with a specially chosen polished surface and a fluoropolymer dielectric are used for this purpose.

03 — Better Plating

What’s amazing about an excellent-sounding power cable is that a large percentage of what you’re hearing is the high quality connectors used.

This head-scratching observation was repeatedly borne out in listening tests during the R&D process for THE WHISPER.

But it makes sense. In high current situations, the slightest resistive element can wreck the smooth RF path to ground.

Many aftermarket plug and IEC makers exist to serve a healthy DIY sector in hifi audio, and it seems that each brand has a number of tenets they believe in, while ignoring the rest.

One may lavish attention on the plating process for the plugs, while ignoring the hysteresis distortion effects of using ferric metals for screws and connections.

THE WHISPER’s connectors were chosen because they satisfied a number of points, and most importantly, sounded the best in subjective tests.

04 — Trading Ultimate Durability For Best Sound

THE WHISPER has more potential to change your system than a tube change. An excellent power cable should be thought of just like a valuable NOS tube.

You don’t walk on your tubes, do you?

In order to sell out for best sound, THE WHISPER eschews “filler” material in the design, which separates CommonGround Cables from nearly every other brand.

There is no good reason, if a power cord is to be used correctly and responsibly, to make it capable of withstanding being run over by a firetruck.

THE WHISPER is a component just as much as any streamer or DAC in a hifi system, and should be treated with the same care and protection.