Oyaide HS-CF Headshell – Silver Wires

At Mains Cables R Us, we use the Oyaide carbon-fibre headshell in our own reference system on a Jelco arm – and it sounds magnificent.

As vinyl enthusiasts for over 30 years, we are only too happy to offer help and advice on any turntable or vinyl matters, so please get in touch if you require help.

Oyaide’s rationale behind design and production of the HS-CF headshell:-

“In 2007, we created HS-CF especially for lovers of analogue audio. Its 4mm thick headshell is made of CFRP (carbon-fibre reinforced plastic), which is composed of seventeen layers of prepreg material. It smoothly attenuates interference from vibrations without altering the behaviour of the stylus. The socket is made of aluminium with resin press fitted inside.
The pins are gold-plated brass, and the lead wires are 5N pure silver that are insulated with a double-layered silk covering. The rhodium-plated lead tip is made of phosphor bronze.

CFRP (Carbon-Fibre Reinforced Plastic):

The most essential thing for any headshell is high structural rigidity, yet it must be lightweight and have the capability to attenuate unnecessary vibration. We selected CFRP, carbon-fibre reinforced plastic, for HS-CF as the material that best satisfies such requirements.

Its 4mm thick shell part is composed of seventeen layers of prepreg material (carbon-fibre). At the planning phase, we employed single directional alignment with an exception of the centre layer in order to gain vibration damping property maximum. By the application of epoxy resin as a matrix material, its mechanical strength property remains unchanged semi-permanently. It is brought to completion by angle-type casting to avoid adhesive joints and cutting operation by CNC machining.

The seventeen layers of prepreg material are made from T700, a highly rigid carbon-fibre (manufactured by Toray), and “1K cloth” is employed as its surface material, which is made from T300 carbon-fibre (also manufactured by Toray).

5N Silver lead wires:

0.2mm 5N pure silver wires are manufactured by advanced manufacturing processes such as continuous-casting process in a high-frequency electric furnace, cold-rolling process, annealing operation and drawing process. They are stranded in seven lines to insure enough cross-sectional area and minimize its conductor resistance.

The employment of a double-layered silk covering insulator realises clean signal transmission without static electrical charge. Although resin-type materials such as PVC or Teflon are easy to be negatively charge, in contrast silk has electric resistivity to static charge and an excellent electrical characteristic. Moreover, the glass-fibre sleeve also has high insulation property and resistance to electrical static charge.

The rhodium-plated lead tip is made of phosphor bronze and enhances a degree of adhesion with contact pins.”

You can learn more about Oyaide by using this link to visit their web site.