A Conversation with Sunny Cable’s Sunny Lo

                          


CP: Okay Sunny, tell me about Sunny Cable?
SL:Sunny Cable Technology specializes in the design and manufacture of the world’s most time-accurate cables and loudspeakers. Uh … what else can I tell you? Ask me another question please.


CP How new is Sunny Cable Company?
SL: Sunny Cable Technology was officially registered in Orinda, California in August 2004. However, my research on cables started some time ago in 1997. It takes a long time to first understand the basic science of cables and to find out what actually happens when electricity is passed through a conductor. Then I tried to develop solutions to the problems and ran experiments to see if my thinking was correct.

My initial solution was complicated, extremely labor intensive and also very expensive. So I spent many months trying to improve on my design. Once I was certain that I have a successful solution, I knew I had to patent it first before I bring it out on the market. Then I still needed to find ways to reduce cost and simplify the production process but without sacrificing performance. And that’s why it took so long. Anyway, we are here now!

CP: What makes Sunny Cables “Time Accuracy” sonically superior to others?
SL: Well, “Timing is everything!” Isn’t it? You see, a typical musical signal is actually comprised of high, mid and low frequency components. In order for us to hear this signal and feel that it does sound realistic and accurate, we have to hear ALL these frequency components at their PRECISE moments in time. In other words, each and every frequency components of the signal must be transmitted without timing error; otherwise we would hear a sound somewhat different than the original one in the recording.

Now, some people might argue that since electricity travels near the speed of light, why would there be a problem? Theoretically, this might sound correct. But what they don’t realize is that electricity needs a conductor for transmission, and all conductor materials have their own limitations in physical properties that prevent them from performing at their theoretical maximum capabilities. So those theoretically infinitesimal differences in time now are magnified into milliseconds of timing errors, which our brain could interpret.

My time-accurate cable design drastically reduces timing errors with my patent pending technology. That’s why our cables are sonically superior.

CP: I understand the Sunny Cable is a patent pending design. Without having to give away too much, can you describe why?
SL: I really don’t want to reveal the secrets and details of my design. You know. When the patent is finally issued, then you’ll know that it’s really different. The important thing is: does the design really work? If not, then even if the patent were issued, it would still be worthless.

There is a Theory section on our website. If your readers are interested in finding out more about my design, they can get rather detailed information from there.

CP: What are Sunny Cable’s sonic attributes? I can't detect any except for it leaning ever-so slightly on the warm side of neutral. Does this technology have a sound?
SL: Aha! The beauty of my cables is that they have no sound characteristics of their own. Some cable designs attenuate the highs and lows and call the remaining sound “musical”. But cables are supposed to be passive, not “colored”. If you prefer a certain characteristic sound, get an equalizer but insist on using the most neutral cable you could find.

Some other cable designs exaggerate the high end at the expense of the low, and they call it ”analytical”. Sure, it might seem that you are hearing more “details”; but should violins sound like they were played with steel strings? And what happens to bass music then? And home theater? No wonder explosions sound more like firecrackers! And do you want to change cables just to match the music you want to play? Every time?

And there are cable designs that emphasize the lows and attenuate the highs in order to make small, bookcase type speakers sound fuller in bass. But if you use these cables on larger speakers, they would sound boomy.

You see, you cannot create more music than there actually is. Look at it this way: you have a glass full of water, representing 100% of the music. Now, you are supposed to pour this water into three empty glasses labeled High, Med and Low – meaning frequencies of course. No matter how you pour the water, you cannot end up with more than one full glass of water that you started with. Well, you might not need to divide it exactly into one-third, one-third, one-third; maybe 35%, 33% and 32% or some minor variations would be fine, but certainly not 50%, 30% and 20%. You simply cannot get accurate and realistic reproduced sound with this kind of ratio.

Maybe I have given a long answer to your short question! Anyway, the best sonic attributes a cable should have are no attributes at all! If I were happy about “musical” or “analytical” cables, I would not have started my research. In fact, I could easily tune my cables to get these “sonic attributes”. I mean, it took me many, many months of testing and experimenting to find the right materials and their correct arrangement to get rid of “sonic attributes” and achieve the truly neutral quality I want for my design.

CP: Have you found no one else that uses this similar technology? If so, who?
SL: I haven’t found anybody using similar technology in this industry. I know for sure no one used it before I did; otherwise, my design would not be patent-able. And I don’t want to see anybody else uses it now because that would be an infringement on my patent rights.

CP: How then did you discover this technology?
SL: Like I said earlier, I did research starting with the basic understanding of what happens when electricity (signals are electrical in nature) passes through a conductor. Only with this completely open approach could I discover the real problem and its solution. Had I tried to follow the same path other cable designers did, I would have missed it too.

CP: There are many companies that boast low distortions through minimal capacitance, inductance and mechanical resonances. Why do you claim your designs to offer a greater significance in these areas?
SL: Well, boasting is one thing; delivering is another. First of all, I found that capacitance and mechanical resonance do play a part in affecting accuracy, but only to a lesser extent. Inductance is the main culprit! I would say that inductance probably accounts for about 80% of all problems affecting accuracy in signal transmission through a cable. If you can really eliminate inductance, you basically solved the problem. The rest is just icing on the cake.

The only effective way to drastically reduce inductance is with my design. I tried to keep capacitance low too, but it is not necessarily to go to the extreme. I also have my own proprietary ways to dampen vibration and control mechanical resonance.

Whether my ways are better is easy to prove with an A vs. B direct comparison. I’d welcome any challenge to compete in a fair and open competition.

CP: What other products can we expect from Sunny Lo as a result of this new invention?
SL: We already have three models of loudspeakers developed with the same time-accurate cable technology and design philosophy. I gather from people who have listened to my speakers at CEDIA, Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and also at CES that they were really amazed by the clarity, the accuracy and realism, and especially the dynamics and fast transit response. Some audiences have said that ours are the most realistic reproduction of sound that they have heard at the shows. My people told me that they saw some guys actually duck in response to what’s happening in the movie because our home theater demo is so realistic. Anyway, you can expect to see more models of loudspeakers from us this year.

CP: Where does Sunny Cable expect to see themselves in the next five years?
SL: Well, I do hope that more and more people will try our products. Especially when they see honest reviews from respected and open-minded critics like you, they might be more receptive of our new ideas and invention. And once they try our cables, chances are that they would appreciate them.

Where do I see us in the next five years? Probably expanding to Japan, Asia and in Europe.

CP: Personally, myself and fellow contributors Mike Wright and Key Kim found the Sunny Cables to be the best we’ve heard as well as among the most expensive. Why is the Supreme so pricey?

Thank you, Mike and Key too, for your kind words, Andre and I really appreciate it.

We do have more affordable reference cables – our 1000 and 600 Series. Of course when you compare our cables to each other, the Supreme Series will beat the 1000 Series, and the 1000s will beat the 600s. You really don’t need to use all Supreme cables, unless you insist on having only the best and are willing to pay for it. There are cables on the market with prices not much lower than our Supremes. When you compare the performance, it would make our Supreme cables seem like a bargain.

I estimate that our 1000 Series could achieve over 70% of the performance of our Supreme cables. In terms of performance per dollar, our 1000 Series is a best buy.

Now, I dare say that if used appropriately, our 600 Series cables would be enough to beat all other reference cables on the market. Again because of drastically reduced inductance the 600 Series is a really value-priced reference cable.

In future, if I can find ways to lower our production costs, I’d be happy to lower the prices of our cables. One thing is certain though: I will not cut costs if the performance of our cables would be affected by it.

CP: Thank you Mr. Lo.