News

New cable: River Cable has announced a new speaker cable called Flexygy 8, which employs eight conductors in a flat, flexible topology with "tremendous amounts of copper." Boasting a "unique ratio of low resistance-to-capacitance," Flexygy 8's capacitance is rated at 10pF/ft. Additionally, Flexygy 8 is touted as "an installation dream, [it goes] under carpets, along baseboards, with a super flexibility that can’t be beat in a cable with an aggregate AWG of 7."

Flexygy 8, like all other River Cables, "is individually tested and certified and is fully covered by a 30-day home trial guarantee and a lifetime warranty."

The Black Gate closes: As we reported, Rubycon (the sub-contract manufacturer) has ceased production of Black Gate capacitors. The Parts Connection had expressed some hope that Rubycon might be prevailed upon to continue production if sufficient demand was forthcoming. Unfortunately, this plan did not work out and pcX has announced that the final orders of Black Gate capacitors were made on August 5. The Parts Connection has been stockpiling quantities of the most popular values, but current stock will only last for so long. Audiophiles with a DIY habit should stock up while quantities last.

I-Sonic delayed: One of the more intriguing offerings at HE2005 was tabletop entertainment system with HD radio capabilities. Polk had initially projected that the I-Sonic "would be in stores for the 2005 holiday season," but their latest estimate is the first quarter of 2006. Why the delay? "It has taken longer than anticipated to work out a few technology integration issues. We feel it is more important that the user interface be seamless than to meet our original introduction date."

"Even with the introduction delay," says Polk, "we believe the I-Sonic will be the first product on the market to integrate HD Radio, XM Connect & Play, and a DVD/CD player." Stay, ahem tuned.