
Surprisingly, given the nature of the signal a digital cable carries, the choice of material used to carry the signal has a marked effect on overall tonal quality. Given the company's predilection for the use of silver as a conductor material, the decision to use copper as the signal conductor for the Prodac Pro Digital might appear slightly surprising (especially given the fact that the Codac Silver Plus uses a silver plated signal conductor). The copper used to create the conductor in the Prodac Pro Digital is oxygen free copper that has been re-cast to ensure minimum impurity content. Experiments carried out to compare the ultra cast conductor against a more conventional oxygen free copper conductor, showed that the ultra cast conductor brought an extremely neutral and very natural tonal quality to the systems it was fitted to. Whilst the conductor is undoubtedly responsible for some of this, the combined shield system, utilising a semi conductive carbon shield along with a high-density oxygen free copper braid is also important.
The Prodac Pro Digital is the only cable currently in the Chord range to use this combination, and whilst tests made using the same materials to transfer analogue signals have not been entirely successful, the results with digital signal transfer are outstanding.