Following on from the launch of Furutech’s accessory, the NCF Booster, the company has introduced a second companion edition, the new NCF Booster-Signal. Japanese cable and accessories brand Furutech have spent decades investigating the effects of cables and connectors on a Hifi system, in pursuit of what they call ‘pure transmission’ – how to transmit an audio signal from A to B in its most unadulterated form, neither adding anything nor taking anything away.

With their latest duo of accessories, the NCF Booster and new NCF Booster-Signal, Furutech tackle the issue on a different level by addressing the interaction between cables and connectors and their immediate environment. Both devices take the relatively common idea of cable support, lifting audio cables off the floor to better align them with sockets, they also, say Furutech, provide damping for both cables and connectors.

While the original NCF Booster was primarily designed for power cables and connectors, the new NCF Booster-Signal has been tailored for speaker and interconnect cables and connectors. The key ingredient in both products is Furutech’s proprietary Nano Crystal² Formula (NCF) which features a special crystalline material with, claim Furutech, two active properties. First, they say, it generates negative ions that eliminate static. Second, it converts thermal energy into far infrared. Furutech combine this crystalline material with nano-sized ceramic particles and carbon powder for their additional piezoelectric damping capabilities. “These are not ‘magic’ crystals,” Furutech emphasizes. “There is nothing mysterious about the way they work – quite simply, they improve audio performance in a very specific and measurable way.” The new NCF Booster-Signal features an internal construction quite different to that of the NCF Booster, designed to deliver a more finely-tuned and subtle damping effect for signal cables (as distinct from higher voltage power cables).

Furutech went on to explain further. “In practice, the two are best used in tandem since much will depend on your particular system, its individual components, your specific cables and connectors, and your flooring materials (in the latter case think radiated resonance and floating static fields on synthetic materials). The most striking results can be achieved through practical experimentation. Consider the NCF Booster and Booster-Signal as a duo of tuning devices. Multiple units of each placed at various points along cables will deliver clear results and the more units placed, the more changes will be heard in playback. Hitting the real ‘sweet spot’ is all about discovering the various units’ optimum placement. Electrical and mechanical resonance can be focused at certain points (connectors, points where cables contact flooring or racks, points where cables are under stress – tight bends, sagging cables, etc). Placement of NCF Boosters and Booster-Signals at such key points will tend to deliver optimal results. To aid experimentation, both units are constructed to be flexible. The NCF Booster comes with a top clamp (designed for power cables) which can be removed if an alternative position works better in practice. The NCF Booster-Signal comes without a top clamp (designed for signal cables) but with the option to add one, again according to what works best in situ. Additional extension clamps and lower cradles are available as optional extras, allowing for multi-level support structures”.

The Furutech NCF Booster and NCF Booster-Signal are available now. Prices include VAT.

NCF Booster £290

NCF Booster-Signal £175

Optional top clamp for NCF Booster-Signal £122

Additional extension shafts (per 10) £30

Additional NCF Booster-Signal lower cradle £106

Additional NCF Booster lower cradle £110

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