Canare LV-77S Precision "Spec Your Own" Cable

Canare LV-77S Precision "Spec Your Own" Cable - Custom cable in your choice of ten different boot colors , twelve different strain relief options, and three different connector types!

This Canare LV-77S Precision "Spec Your Own" Cable offers a custom-configured, Canare precision cable, with your choice of 12 different strain-relief options, and three different connector options -- RCA, RCA-female, or BNC,.  The cables are suitable for many kinds of video and audio applications.

For example, use a single cable for SPDIF Digital audio applications, such as Dolby Digital or DTS.  Alternately, a single cable also makes an ideal composite video cable.  Terminated with BNC connectors, they are ideal for test equipment.  Use a pair for analog audio interconnects, three for component video, five for RGBHV video, six for SACD audio...the possibilities are almost endless.

For RCA-male or BNC connectors, you may specify flexible silicone boots in any of the ten colors shown above.  These Pro-Series boots enhance the appearance of the cable, while avoiding sharp bends at the connectors, and providing visual identification of the channels.   The cable can also be made with no boots - required for lengths less than 0.5 meter, and some customers prefer the streamlined appearance, and shorter profile.  The RCA-female terminations are completed with heat-shrink only.

The Cable

With cable design, it is certainly true that there are many compromises to be made.  That is why some cables may be good at audio, but not good for video.  Likewise, cables that are good for video are often poor for audio.  That is why it may be hard to understand how Canare LV-77S can be so good at so many things.

Nonetheless, LV-77S has plenty of bandwidth for all kinds of video, including both composite and component video, right up to 1080p and beyond.  We have customers using these cables for component video runs in the hundreds of feet with excellent results.

Audio presents its own set of challenges, so it is somewhat surprising that a cable that works so well for video also excels with audio signals.  More about audio later!

These Canare cables are lightweight and extremely flexible.  They have PVC jackets with a smooth, non-glare finish.  They are smooth and pleasing to the touch.  They even stay flexible in sub-zero weather!  Hopefully, your equipment will never be subjected to such an extreme temperature, but the point is that the cables really are made of high-quality materials. Here are some specs on the cable:

• Outside diameter, 7.7mm (.303 in.)
• Low loss - less than .034 dB per meter at 10 MHz, and less than 3.4 dB even at 1 GHz!
• Double tightly woven all-copper shields with greater than 92% (inner) plus 95% (outer) coverage
• Nominal capacitance, 67 pF per meter at 1 KHz
• Nominal impedance, 75 ohms
• Velocity of propagation, 66%

In our experience, LV-77S offers a nice performance upgrade from Canare's own LV-61S, which is arguably, one of the finest all-around coaxial cables available at any price.  For patch cables and other relatively short runs, we prefer it even to other offerings from Canare, such as the CFB series cables (which we also offer), for several important reasons.  Compared to the CFB series cable, LV-77S is much more flexible and is easier to work with.  It also stands up better to handling and bending.

The Connectors

In our experience, the key to great cables lies in the connectors. Exotic conductors and shielding are fine, but it's the connectors that really make the difference.

Canare RCA Connectors

It is hard to imagine a finer RCA connector than Canare's.  They are precision machined to maintain a constant 75 Ohm impedance.  We install them using a Canare tool that always prepares the cable ends, just right.  The connectors are crimped in place, using heavy, precision-machined dies.  The crimps are so tight that oxygen is excluded, and thus corrosion is prevented.  It's an awesome system, and the resulting terminations are in a class of their own.

Generic RCA audio plugs and cables have been around since the 1940s, but the old solder-type plugs typically have an impedance of about 25 Ohms.  They exhibit extremely poor return loss performance, even when mated to high-quality cable.  Some of the so-called "high end" cables use exotic-sounding materials and make unsupportable claims, but still fail to solve this very real and important problem.

Canare's innovative 75 Ohm RCA crimp plugs solve these problems.  Their impedance-matched design achieves excellent digital and analog performance, with a usable bandwidth to 200 MHz!  The connector design ensures consistent and extremely reliable terminations.  VSWR is typically less than 1.1 from DC to 200 MHz.  The crimp design excludes oxygen, preventing corrosion associated with dissimilar metals, which can degrade even the best soldered connections.

The center shaft is gold plated.  If you look closely at the picture at the right, you can see the internal pressure fingers, which ensure good contact, while solving the "grip of death" problem, which has been a issue with Monster's connectors.  The "grip of death" connectors put unnecessary strain on your equipment.  Canare connectors connect up smoothly, and maintain good contact, while protecting your equipment investment.

Canare RCA-Female Connectors

Canare does not offer an RCA-female connector, as such, but we have come up with a very good work-around.  We start with Canare's excellent BNC connector (described below), then add a high-quality Canare BNC/RCA-female adapter.  These are not your average adapters - these are Canare adapters, and they are about as good as such an adapter can possibly be.  As you may notice, the high quality of the adapters is reflected in their cost.  We then heat-shrink the complete assembly to maintain excellent electrical and mechanical integrity.  You can see how the finished assembly looks in the picture at the right.

Canare BNC Connectors

The BNC-type connector is the best connector that is commonly available for applications of this type.  In general, it is both mechanically and electrically superior to an RCA connector.  It has a twist-lock mechanism to ensure that the connection is mechanically secure, and the electrical design of the connector does a good job of maintaining constant impedance at the connector.

Canare takes this inherent superiority to the next level.  For example, many BNC connectors have a characteristic impedance of only 50 Ohms, but Canare connectors are engineered to maintain a constant impedance of 75 Ohms.  This make a lot of sense because virtually all A/V equipment is designed to work best with 75 Ohm cables.  It follows that if you want the best performance your equipment can deliver, you will need cables and connectors that maintain this impedance.

This electrical superiority is the result of superior mechanical design, high-quality materials and precision manufacturing.  Canare's BNC connectors are almost artful in their design...and they work very well indeed.

See For Yourself !

In some ways, it's easier to see the difference that video cables can make, than it is to hear a difference with audio cables.  We have tested these Canare cables in video applications against Monster, and some other more esoteric video cables.  In our test setup, the Canare cables always produced a visibly superior picture.  If you don't believe it, you can try it yourself.  If you don't already have it, get a copy of the Video Essentials or Avia test disks for your DVD or Blu-ray player, and take a look at the test patterns.  Look for ghost images and "ringing" that are visible with lesser cables, then switch to the Canare cables and see the difference that constant impedance can make.  The difference ranges from visible to dramatic.  We have tested cables ranging in length from 1 meter to 100 meters.  The Canare cables, without exception, always looked the best to us.  Some of the cables that we tested had better specs for loss than the Canare cables, but we never actually saw any cable produce a better picture than Canare.

Some of the same characteristics that ensure great video performance are also desirable for great audio.  With analog audio, constant impedance helps to avoid non-linearity in your amplifiers, and the lack of reflected energy in the cable ensures maximum signal transfer.  Muddiness and distortion are avoided.  High quality precision cable protects you from audible hum and interference.  Your sound will be clear and clean.

Digital audio presents a different set of challenges, but the same rules apply.  Constant impedance eliminates ringing, echo, and signal delays which may cause decoder errors.  Extraneous noise is excluded, so your digital signal gets to the decoder intact.  The end result is the same in either application -- great sound.

Ordering Notes

For lengths of 3 meters or less, we try for a finished tip-to-tip length that is exactly the same as the nominal length.  For example, if you order a 0.5 meter cable, we cut the cable shorter than 0.5 meter so that once the connectors have been installed, the finished cable will actually measure 0.5 meter from connector tip to connector tip.  This is typically not an issue with longer cables, but for very short cables, an inch or two can be important, so we want you to be aware.  Our method ensures the greatest consistency for shorter cables, but since some shops just cut the cables to length and then add connectors, we thought it might be worth mentioning.

For lengths over 3 meters, we cut the cable to the nominal length and then install the connectors, which results in a finished cable that is slightly longer than the nominal length.