True innovation in cable and AC distribution technology is rare. Most new cable companies seem to be rehashing existing concepts, then repackaging their product with a flashy exterior or slick name to make it sound fresh.

Some people believe audiophile cabling can make a difference in sound. Others contend that cables all sound the same and that the science behind electrical signal conductivity was mastered decades ago and can’t get better.

And there are people who went from being non-believers to believers in the potential of audiophile cabling, like electrical engineers who swore with their hand on the Science Bible that audiophile cables couldn’t possibly make a difference but then heard the difference and changed their tune. Some of these grads even went on to try their hand at creating their own cable or AC conditioner designs, telling themselves that if they could make something exceptional—something better than competing products—they might manufacture their own product line to sell.

One such person is university engineering graduate Daniel Robidoux, proprietor and chief designer at Quebec-based cable-maker DR Acoustics. For the more cynical among us who may be inclined to think Daniel is just another guy chasing high-profit margins in the audio cable industry, consider this: At 42 years old, Daniel retired a rich man with no need to work another day in his life. He is, as we say, living comfortably, as I can attest from my visit to his swanky, bright downtown Montreal condo to conduct this interview. So why, exactly, did Daniel turn to cable design? The answer, as he told me, laid in his love of audio and his expertise in signal processing—a combination that made the cable-making leap feel natural.

Just don’t suggest to him that DR Acoustics is some sort of hobby—something he bristled at when I did. “I don’t have hobbies. When I embark on a  project, it’s a serious attempt to succeed at it.”

Daniel traces his first attempt at building an audio product back to third grade, when, at age eight, and with no money to buy real speakers, he scavenged discarded radios and TVs from the curb side on his early-morning paper route, and stripped them of their drivers to build his own speakers with Coca-Cola cartons as cabinets. When as a teen a store refused to install his new SME Series III tonearm on his turntable, he taught himself the skill, and turned it into a small business. He designed an anti-vibration turntable platform made with sand and pine when turntable bases weren’t a thing, and made money selling a few. “I was always a bit of an entrepreneur,” he said.

He honed his talents at Montreal’s École Polytechnique university, thriving in a rigorous electronics program known for its high failure rate—three out of four students typically didn’t make it. Later, at UCLA, he studied under electrical engineering legend Bernard Widrow, deepening his expertise in signal processing.

Daniel’s professional career took off when he developed communication protocols for a major telecommunications firm and became director of modem technology at MuxLab.

Three years later, in 1988, Daniel left Muxlab and, with a friend, founded Trisignal Communications with the idea of creating a new type of modem, one based entirely on DSP (Digital Signal Processing) rather than analogue circuitry. The goal was to license technologies to the growing number of modem manufacturers. Uniquely on the market, the company was offering a complete turnkey solution—the printed circuit board (PCB), the choice of  parts, everything—which the manufacturers could simply insert into a plastic or metal box and call it their own.

In 1994, employing over 60 research engineers, Trisignal was the lead modem design house in the world. The team grew and so did the number of projects it undertook, when, in the winter of 1999, the company was bought by Eicon Corporation, where Daniel became Director of Technologies for five divisions.

There, he led a team that popularized modems for portable computers. “We were the champions of the small modem,” he told me. When that market became saturated, Daniel’s team shifted its focus on developing pocket-sized modems, which caught the attention of the Chinese government and led to a major contract to supply modems worldwide. And when online gaming was created, Daniel’s team was tasked to put a modem inside the Sega console, so gamers could play “live”. At 42, his mandate completed, Daniel semi-retired to become a consultant for other technology-based companies and, analogous to that, manage his new private equity portfolio company.

The thing with Daniel is that his mind doesn’t seem to shut off. From what I gleaned during our interview, his brain is constantly in engineering mode. I could practically see the wheels turning in his brain as he described what his processes were for tackling a problem in search of a solution. It became evident to me that Daniel has a burning need to understand how things work and that sometimes he’s driven to try to make those things work better—he is, I assure you, a perfectionist. He seems to need to be doing something to satisfy his restless intellectual curiosity.

It’s that restless curiosity that convinced him to get into audio cable design. Equipped with a deep understanding of Shannon’s information-vs.-noise theorem—so much so that he discovered a way to mathematically optimize it—he began crafting cables, starting with power cords.

What followed was an exhaustive process of testing and refinement. A breakthrough came when Daniel inserted three four-gauge conductors into industrial tubing filled with quartz—a mineral that reduced vibrations and enhanced electromagnetic properties. This was just the beginning.

Fast forward a few months when high-end electronics company Classé Audio, having been floored by the performance of Daniel’s finished designs, partnered with his company to use its cable in their amplifiers, making it the second most expensive part in each amp after the transformer. While the profit margin made on each cable was slim, the partnership gave DR Acoustics international recognition and helped Daniel refine his designs further, from power cords to interconnects and, eventually, to groundbreaking AC conditioners.

Unlike traditional AC conditioners that rely on current-limiting capacitors or inductors, Daniel’s designs use neither. Instead, they harness the power of electromagnetism, using the polarization of quartz—of molecules—to make them more efficient as the demand for current increases. “A capacitor will choke high currents, which will squash the music’s dynamics”, he explained. “With my conditioners, it’s the current that polarizes, so the more current there is, the better they work.” Not only that, but his AC conditioners incorporate their own internal virtual grounding system, which lowers the noise floor to a level Daniel said, “made all the difference.”

So, how do Daniel’s creations sound? Stay tuned to find out in an upcoming PMA Magazine article.

https://www.dracoustics.com