Furutech The Astoria Plus Pro Audio Power Cable

Furutech The Astoria Plus Pro Audio Power Cable

The Furutech Astoria Plus belongs to Furutech's Studio Power Series, a range developed in Tokyo with direct input from musicians and recording engineers rather than from domestic hi-fi listening alone. The brief for these cables is restraint: transmit the signal cleanly, without distortion, and avoid adding colouration of their own, so that what a studio hears is what was actually recorded. The Astoria is characterised by Furutech as the natural-sounding and fast-responding cable of the pair, easy to match and not fussy about the equipment it is used with. The Plus revision retunes the original and adds a new non-magnetic stainless steel main cable fixing clamp in place of the previous resin part, giving a firmer mechanical grip and reducing mechanically and electrically induced distortion.

The conductor is Alpha PC Triple C, a material formed by repeated forging in one direction so the crystal boundaries are aligned along the conductor rather than across it, used here in three cores of 80 strands each. Insulation is audio grade flexible PVC, colour coded brown, blue and green with a yellow stripe, at roughly 3.5mm across each core. Around that sits a two-layer sheath system: an inner layer of audio grade flexible PVC compounded with carbon powder for damping, then an OFC braided shield of nine groups of 24 strands, then an outer PVC sheath, bringing the cable to approximately 12.8mm overall. The finish is a two-colour braided nylon sleeve, and the whole construction is RoHS compliant.

Two details separate it from a conventional power lead. The connectors are special versions of Furutech's FI-11M and FI-11, machined in pure copper and then given an additional copper plating, a two-layer treatment aimed at conductivity rather than appearance, where most connectors use nickel or gold over brass. The cable also carries Furutech's patented earth jumper system, covered by US patent 6,669,491. Supplied length is 1.8 metres.

What Furutech say about The Astoria Plus

The new Astoria Plus and Empire Plus have been meticulously re-tuned by Furutech's skilled cable makers to deliver even greater musical refinement, dynamic balance, and emotional engagement. Every note emerges from a deeper silence, with enhanced focus and coherence from top to bottom.

Now featuring a new nonmagnetic stainless steel main cable fixing clamp, the updated design provides a firmer mechanical grip and further reduces mechanically and electrically induced distortion - ensuring an even purer, more stable signal path for your music.

If you're a musician or a recording professional, ask yourself the following question: Do your current power cords make sense?

They might make sense to your budget or in the context of your recording and playback equipment, but are they making sense to your brain? Does the music you create in the studio sound like the music in your head, natural and inviting and emotional? Or do you listen to your music with an imaginary clipboard in your lap, checking off what's right about the sound you're getting - and what isn't so right?

The new Furutech Astoria Plus and Empire Plus power cords were designed for demanding professionals just like you. Developed in Tokyo with extensive feedback from musicians and recording professionals, the Astoria Plus and Empire Plus power cords have been specifically tuned and balanced to deliver greater punch and dynamics to your sound—more of what you’re hearing in your head and in your heart.

In fact, choosing between the Astoria Plus and the Empire Plus provides you with even greater control over the type of sound you’re trying to achieve. Pick the Astoria Plus if you’re aiming for quick response and natural speed, mated with deep and powerful bass. The Empire Plus, on the other hand, offers a well-balanced sound with incredible resolution so that you hear every detail and nuance. It’s up to you.

Just replace the existing power cords for your amplifiers, mixing consoles, microphone preamps and even your entire recording and playback system, and you’ll immediately hear more top-to-bottom coherence in the sound. Dynamic range will be greater than ever before, and the music will sound effortless and expansive instead of congested, edgy or muddy.

Your music will start to make more sense where it counts—in your brain.

The legendary design team at Furutech are experts when it comes to preserving the signal path and delivering an end result that’s accurate, honest and uncompromised. Our innovative (Alpha) PC-Triple C power cable, used in both the Astoria Plus and the Empire Plus, is the result of a proprietary forging process that involved repeated rounds of metal folding—the same method used to create the katana, the sword used by Samurai warriors!

We’ve taken that art of sword-making to new levels, however, by applying variable high pressures to high-purity oxygen-free copper. This creates a forging process that is identical to folding the steel of a katana tens of thousands of times. This ensures that the crystal grain boundaries deep inside the copper are rearranged so that electrical current travels through the signal path more smoothly than ever before.

Add our renowned gold-plated connectors, our noise-reducing (Alpha) conductor shielding, our vibration-controlling RoHS-compliant flexible PVC sheath and our patented Floating Field Damper grounding system and you’ll have a razor-sharp tool for extracting the finest results– both in the studio and on the stage.

Use Furutech’s Astoria Plus and Empire Plus power cords for all your recording and playback needs and the end result will not be subtle.

Specifications

About Furutech

Furutech, founded in 1988, designs and manufactures an extraordinary range of A/V cables made with extremely high purity OCC single-crystal oxygen-free copper. Furutech have several complete lines of analog and digital, power and coaxial cables available in terminated and bulk quantities. Furutech make a wide range of highest quality OEM A/V connectors and other signal transfer parts including power, speaker, IEC and specialized Hyper Audio Quality outlet receptacles. All metal components are treated with Furutech’s proprietary 2-Stage Alpha Cryogenic and Ring Demagnetization Process during manufacture that ensures the lowest achievable levels of distortion and noise.

Furutech offers a full line of elegantly engineered and designed power distribution and filter components made with an attention to detail found nowhere elsewhere. Furutech knows each and every part of the chain, no matter how small, is as important as the next, so they lavish maximum attention on all aspects of AC power transfer. As with cables, the separate parts go through the complete Alpha Process, and also benefit from the effects of GC-303, an applied material that absorbs EMI (Electromagnetic Interference). Furutech's Reference Line of cables and interconnects also include this anti-EMI technology.

Furutech's multistep and highly specialized techniques result in extremely low-noise, fast and undistorted signal transfer that begins with the incoming AC mains power, an important factor overlooked by many.

At Furutech, everyone there is passionately devoted to reaching the highest watermark in reference-grade A/V cables, OEM parts and accessories for home and car audio where Furutech maintain a very strong presence. Furutech's mission is building the absolutely best products imaginable whatever the effort involved, and offering them at a price/performance ratio that deeply satisfies every purchaser. Furutech’s Pure Transmission Design Concept improves every element of signal transmission, from the AC to the speaker.