Ibis is Zu Audio's top loudspeaker cable. It rivals the most exotic, most elaborate and most expensive cables conceive--and by comparison Ibis is a bargain. It’s like having the performance of a full tilt Ferrari F1 for the price of a pickup without sacrificing build quality, performance, service... there is one drawback, they are relatively small in size, if you are looking for a firehose (fIREHOSE, great music from Mike Watt) as a reason to justify the cost, you’re looking at the wrong brand.
Features of the Ibis speaker cable include 100% silver alloy conductors in a multiple conductor exclusively Zu B3 electromagnetic field geometry. Zu B3 is a cable archetype specific to the E&M of the cable. It is not about special materials, chemistry or treatment processes. The technology was invented by Zu Audio in 2001. B3 technology allows signal and power to be transmitted with increased immunity from RF while lowering reactance compared to cables of similar conductance. Zu B3 archetype does not resemble any known geometry. To further clarify, Zu B3 is not a straight or twisted pair, quad, Gore quad, Litz, braid, interleave, full or sectional coax, ribbon, sectional ribbon, radial, concentric or any other known cable format. Insulation is exclusively white TFEP. Zu B3 design, manufacturing process and correlative electrodynamic relationships are the intellectual property of Zu Audio.
Zu Ibis Loudspeaker Cable Specifications
DUT: Zu IBIS 10’ (3.05m) terminated with Zu 1/4” spade lugs
Directional: yes, direction indicated on both source and load blocks
Conducting Area (+): 0.0098”2, ≈ 9 AWG (6.323 mm2)
Conducting Area (–): 0.0098”2, ≈ 9 AWG (6.323 mm2)
Cable Geometry: Zu B3
Conductor: silver alloy in all conducting circuits
Dielectrics: Teflon
Rs: 0.017 Ohm
Cp: 600 pF
Ls: 3.0 uH
Bend Radius: 2" (51mm)
Cable Diameter: 13/32" (10mm)
Shielding: B3 exhibits a natural lack of RF susceptibility
Matched Tolerance: 0.1%
Zu Ibis Loudspeaker Cable Terminal Options
The connectors offered as standard on Ibis include Zu's solderless, cold-forged pure copper spade lugs in three sizes: barrier strip, standard 1/4”, and oversized 5/16”. Locking-type banana plugs are also available. Operation of the locking banana plug illustrated:
Zu Ibis, despite its normal cable size, is a very high conductance loudspeaker cable intended to be used for all loudspeaker / amplifier applications, from low power / high efficiency audio systems to very power hungry loudspeakers. And despite their nearly universal application proposition, Zu Ibis speaker cables excel in very low power vacuum tube audio setups, as well as ultra power hungry high current combinations. Zu Ibis has a very linear and uniform tone response, note however that due to its high resolution it may reveal problems in your sound system that are being masked by your current speaker cable. If you are very satisfied with the sound and timbre of your playback system but would like the to find the limits of full bandwidth resolution, better stereophonic recreation, and possibly increased dynamics and texture, you should give Ibis a try.
Note: switch your power amp off prior to disconnecting or connecting your loudspeaker cables.
Burn-in
Ibis is uses Teflon insulation in its circuits and therefore requires a significant amount of play before it’s fully burned in, between 350 and 500 hours. We do not recommend any burn-in devices or special recordings. We do recommend music you enjoy, preferably upbeat full spectrum recordings. Rock, roots, full orchestra, most music scores, big band.... For the possible hows and whys about burn-in please see our FAQ section of ZuAudio.com.
A common abuse in hi-fi audio is to use cable as a form of tone control. Doing so leads to frustration, further loss of real fidelity, and missing cash. When audio cables affects timbre they affect timing, phase, frequency response, and so on. Timbre problems are usually solved with good, properly setup loudspeakers, driven by an amp that mates well with them—as well as your room. If the cable has good properties relative to phase, gain, group delay, impedance, and bandwidth, it will likely convey with fidelity the transmitted emotion and color from the amp to the loudspeaker, what our loudspeaker does with it is anyone’s guess. Improvements that will be noticed from well engineered cables should include bass depth and resolution, system noise floor, drive, harmonic structure and timbre, attack, stereophonic realism, easy of listening—simply a lot closer to the music. If you can hear the effect of your cable from recording to recording, you have a cable problem. Effects are for guitarist, DJs, and mastering engineers.
Zu Ibis Instillation Notes
First, wash your hands with soap prior to handling any cable with bare metal. You don’t want to push halides and other subtle tone robbers into the amp, cable, or loudspeaker connectors. And if you can, avoid touching the contact points of the exposed metal parts all together. If you do touch the exposed connectors, polish with a clean cotton rag or old tee-shirt, maybe using a small amount of rubbing alcohol on part of the cloth as a solvent. Keeping the contacts free of contaminants ensures a long-term and trouble free connection.
To clean plated connectors, shinny bright gold or silver color, just use rubbing alcohol on a cotton cloth and some cotton swabs to get into the tight parts. If the connector being cleaned is bare copper or silver we recommend cleaning them with our favorite polish, Cape Cod™.
Anytime you are making an electrical connection make it a habit to inspect the contacts and clean them if they are tarnished or dirty. Our bare copper spade lugs may need to be cleaned every year, depending on how clean they are when connected and your environment. Most any copper polish will work well for this, we have found Cape Cod™ to be excellent. Brasso™ is also very good. Acid based cleaners are tricky, if you don’t have experience cleaning copper with acid we wouldn’t recommend that you start with your audio gear. Most of the time your terminals are going to be in good condition and just need a little buffing, and for that you can use a bit of alcohol and a cotton cloth.
Direction of Cable & Signal Propagation
Zu Ibis loudspeaker cable is directional. Engraved arrows on both source and load blocks indicate direction of signal flow. Connecting them incorrectly will not harm the cable. Proper directional orientation does ensure matching channel fidelity and better ultimate resolution of your music playback system.
RoHS compliant
Limited Lifetime warranty
Made by Zu Audio in Ogden, Utah—USA
