In 1974, Matthew Bond was already experimenting with wires as his younger teenage brother was building guitar amplifiers. He first re-wired a pair of Quad vacuum tube amplifiers, then a pair of Infinity speakers. He found re-wiring components to be a very audible and rewarding hobby that would eventually become a very noteworthy career.
A few years later, he was re-wiring Rega RB300 tone-arms and providing adjustable VTA for a Rega 3 turntable, along with RCA sockets fitted and implanted into the plinth of the turntable. His specialty was making better sounding turntables and speakers with better passive components and, of course, better wire.
What further convinced Matthew of the difference better wire could create in sound was a complete rewiring of an AC cable run from a breaker box to an upstairs sound room. “The sound changed completely,” and so he had discovered that different wire gauges sound different.
As early as the mid-1970s, Matthew had experimented with solid core conductors of different diameters. He was making hand-crafted speaker cables and AC power cords. He hypothesized that an “optimum diameter” of 18 AWG (American Wire Gauge) or 1 mm was ideal for audio frequencies because there was minimal high frequency attenuation caused by the principle known as “skin effect”.
“I spent my early years listening to the sound of literally hundreds of different conductors, and listening to the sound of different insulation materials too. Insulation materials have a technical name … dielectric. Dielectrics sound different because, when used with electrical conductors in a cable, the dielectric material stores and releases energy at different frequencies.” –Matthew Bond
In 1984, Matthew founded TARA Labs (The Absolute Reference Audio Labs) in Sydney, Australia, where he invented the first successful single solid core conductor for audio use. He proved to the world that solid-core conductors were the leading edge of audio cable design. The real awakening for the audio industry came in 1988, when TARA Labs’ Phase II solid-core speaker cable wiped every other product right off the map and re-wrote the rules of audio cable design.
Matthew invented all of the innovations in audio cable design for TARA Labs, including the original Phase II speaker cable, the ZERO Evolution Interconnect and the OMEGA speaker cable.
“What we want is a dielectric material that sounds like air. And with the chemical modification of the plastic or insulation material, we developed our own insulation or dielectric material to sound as neutral as air… or a vacuum. Some of you might remember that it was me who invented the world’s first vacuum dielectric audio cable, the original TARA Labs ZERO Interconnect.” –Matthew Bond
In 1990, Matthew Bond invented the world’s first cable to have a floating conductor unterminated at one end that would allow for an increased high-frequency bandwidth to be coupled to the signal carrying conductors (US patent No. 5033091). Later, a control device inside a box fitted to the cable (The Temporal Continuum) allowed the user to adjust the amount of high frequency bandwidth and definition to be heard.
In 1992, Matthew Bond introduced another of his inventions, Rectangular Solid Core Cables. These ribbon-like conductors were solid with a rectangular cross section. Rectangular conductors can be made in specific proportions (width and height), and this provides for the tuning of the frequency response of a conductor.
Now, Matthew Bond Audio presents the NEW state-of-the-art in audio cable design.
Matthew Bond Audio’s long awaited Cascade Noise Burn-In Disc, Version 2.0 is now available to help you get the most from your audio experience. Take your audio equipment break-in period seriously.
Analog Reference Interconnects from Matthew Bond Audio are introduced, featuring the lowest possible capacitance and inductance for a sound that is extremely extended in the high frequencies with the widest bandwidth possible.
“So… what will Matthew Bond Audio cables do for your audio system… In a few words… my cables will give you the most natural and lifelike reproduction of the music that you will ever hear.” –Matthew Bond
