The Forte is a guitar cable that faithfully passes your music along without change in a flexible rugged design. Our proprietary IGL-ECS Increased Grain Linearity utilizes copper conductors for positive and negative runs for the signal path. The negative effects of strand interaction are eliminated from the guitar signal by putting an enamel coating over the individual strands of the conductors. This allows the conductors to measure and sound like a single solid-core conductor yet retain the flexibility and ruggedness of a cable using stranded conductors. The braided shield provides outstanding noise rejection and is attached at one end only to bleed interference to ground. These key differences in design allow what comes out of the cable to match what goes into the cable and feel completely flexible without any trade-offs in usability. DESIGN High-purity proprietary IGL-ECS copper conductors for distortion-free midrange and high frequencies. The negative effects of strand interaction on the guitar signal are eliminated by putting an enamel coating over the individual strands. Semi-balanced geometry with low capacitance offers greater dynamics and dimensionality over standard coaxial designs. 20 awg conductor size keeps skin-effect distortions outside the audio spectrum while offering ample cross-sectional area. High-density shielding blocks noise and bleeds to ground. Carbon-loaded extrusion for protection from triboelectric noise. CONNECTORS Forte comes standard with Neutrik straight or angled connectors when ordered for guitar. The connectors use a high-copper-content brass which has the perfect balance of conductivity and strength along with a unique chuck system to keep the cable mechanically attached to the cable for life. The brass contact points have a nickel plating which does a good job of protecting against corrosion. While gold plating has a higher perceived value than nickel plating gold offers no conductive advantage and is not worth the additional cost. The fact that gold plating is done on top of an existing nickel plate to look good only makes the connector sound worse by forcing the signal to transfer through the additional layers and impurities that collect between them. IMPORTANT Directionality: All cables are directional. Drawn copper elicits a grain structure with a chevron shape clearly visible under a microscope. Each run of Evidence Audio cable is listened to and tested for directionality. Once directionality is established a red boot is used on the output side of the cable. Between a guitar and amplifier connect the red boot to the amplifier. In addition the Forte uses a telescopic shield attached to one end: the output side of the cable. Between a guitar and anything else it is connected to this allows any noise picked up by the shield to bleed to the side with a lower ground potential. Break-In Cables sound best after carrying a signal for approximately 40 hours. This is due to the dielectric forming. As the conductors insulation material stores and releases an electric signal its molecular characteristics stabilize with regard to how they store and release the energy applied by the conductor. Expect any cable to sound its best only after passing...