Analysis Plus Speaker cables

Please correct me if this is wrong, Sean, but based on AP's Web site you have the designs mixed up. The Oval 9 and 12 are (and to my knowledge always were) stacked designs and the Silver 12 is "coaxial". The Oval 9 and 12 came first, so the Silver 12 is actually the deviant child. Pondering the questions you posed, is it possible that the Silver 12 is coaxial because a) it is their flagship product b) it *is* a slightly better design, but more difficult/expensive to manufacture and c) these are why it was the later entrant of the three? The Oval 14 looks to be a stacked design (cheaper to make than the coax?) like the rest of the Oval series except that each leg is sheathed separately and both are encased in a common outer sheath. My guess is this is to meet the CL-3 (in-wall) code, so the third design change would be to both to offer a lower cost product (than the Silver series) and for the intended application? Notice that these are posed as questions because they are simply ideas as to why the design varies slightly from product to product, not actual answers. For those we'll have to go to the manufacturer. I have and will share the result if they respond.

Here's Analysis Plus' response: Thank you for bringing this discussion to our attention, and also for your very eloquent replies to Sean. You are certainly correct in your response, the copper Oval 9 and Oval 12 were the original designs, and have not been changed. When we added the Oval Theater 14 to our line, we used the same hollow oval geometry as our other copper products, but as you correctly state, requirements for the CL-3 rating required the use of insulation around both conductors. Sean is simply wrong in saying we don't employ hollow oval technology in the home theater cables. The Silver Oval was a later design than the Oval 9 or Oval 12, and uses a different conductor material. We had the opportunity to run further simulations and experiment with other geometries and concluded that due to some of silver's properties, a coaxial configuration would be a better choice for that conductor material. The coaxial geometry increases the cost of the cable itself, and also increases the labor involved in terminating the cable, so this geometry is only used in our flagship model, where the conductor material and cable price justify its use. To address another of Sean's misconceptions, the conductor gauge of both inner and outer conductors of the Silver Oval is in fact the same. Since it is a braided design, the way the cable is wound can be altered, so that the same number of strands are used in both conductors, resulting in equivalent gauge. Thank you again for your responses to Sean, and for trying our products. We wish you many enjoyable years of listening. Mark Markel and Steve Pennock Analysis-Plus, Inc. inquiry@analysis-plus.com

Like you I'm just trying to be helpful, Sean. Considering all the great info I've gleaned from this site it's nice to be able to add a little something to the discourse. BTW, AP is now aware of AA's faux pas on the cable images.