The Black Octagon BOS4 3.5mm to 3.5mm Interconnect

The Black Octagon BOS4 Interconnect

          One of our first products and one of our best sellers, the BOS4 is a 3.5mm to 3.5mm or mini to mini interconnect cable. In its first incarnation, the BOS4 came with grey sleeving and black shrinks covering the connectors. The latest and current version of the BOS4 is all black while still using the REAN NYS231BG connectors by Neutrik.


          The BOS4 employs a starquad configuration which is great for RF rejection. It also has a double copper shield which further helps with noise rejection.

REAN by Neutrik NYS231BG

Key Features:

• Gold plated contacts on both ends
• Braided sleeving to protect cable and also enhance the look
• Terminated with 2% Silver Solder as standard

What Our Customers Have To Say:

"...there is a difference in bass performance and sound separation. The "boomy-ness" has been knocked down a notch and the quality has improved..." - Dae

"...soundstage becomes wider, treble and details are more emphasized..." - Azri from Perak, Malaysia



Applications:

• To connect anything with a 3.5mm output (iPod, iPhone, mobile phone, media player, mp3 player) to an amplifier with a 3.5mm input.
• To connect a laptop to an amplifier with a 3.5mm input.

Price:

• 20cm and below = RM65.00 / USD$20.10

Customized lengths are available. Lengths refer to the length of the cable before connectors are soldered on. Use the Contact Form on the upper right hand of the screen to ask us for a quote and postage rates to your area.

Postage within Malaysia is via Pos Laju and the rates are as follows:

• Anywhere in West Malaysia = RM8.00 / USD$2.43
• Anywhere in East Malaysia = RM10.00 / USD$3.04

Remembering Ray Dolby

       

          The audio visual world has lost one of it's patrons in the passing of Ray Milton Dolby OBE on the 12th of September 2013. Dolby was the founder of Dolby Laboratories, an American company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encoding/compression. 

          What better way to remember a man than by the way he thought and lived his life. Here are some quotes by Ray Dolby.

- "I think I was both lucky and I was also straightforward with people, and I think they liked that attitude"

- "You can't imagine the amount of snickering that went on in that late 1952 period when we were trying to build our first video tape recorder. Let's say we'd go into the lunch room or the coffee room to get a cup of coffee, and the other engineers would say 'he's still working on that stuff? It's never gonna work.' "

- "Inventing is a skill that some people have and some people don't. But you can learn how to invent."

- "There is no major next step. It's a matter of constantly being aware of one's environment, of keeping track of what's happening in the various industries that we're operating in and just sort of sensing what's possible and what's not possible, what's needed, what's not needed - just having all your antennae going, sensitized to all the signals that are out there."

- "I wanted the experience of travelling to many parts of the world. Inventions were part of my life, but they didn't overtake everything that I was doing."

          Great man, great contributions. We can all take away something from the way this man conducted himself and the way he lived his life.

The Black Octagon 3.5mm to Stereo RCA MkII Cable

The Black Octagon 3.5mm to Stereo RCA MkII

          The Black Octagon 3.5mm male to Stereo RCA male MkII cable. Built to the highest standard, this interconnect was designed to be an upgrade over a basic interconnect and to perform beyond its price range. Performance, durability and pricing were key factors that went into the thought process of designing and producing the final product.

Amphenol Connectors

Key Features:

• Gold plated contacts all round
• Reinforced split to two RCAs
• Braided sleeving covers shrink covered cable insulation for RCA connections making it more durable to wear
• Terminated with 2% Silver Solder as standard

What our customers have to say:

"...Solid construction and heavier than expected..." - C.S. Ng

"...the Black Octagon 3.5mm to RCA was a pretty good buy. It brought out what I exactly wanted in my audio which is the slight bit of sparkle to the treble and a tighter low frequency range..." - Benjamin

"...I do have to say that the cables are really good quality cables..." - Anonymous

Braided Sleeving

Applications:

• To connect anything with a 3.5mm headphone output (iPod, iPhone, mobile phone, mp3 player, etc) to an amplifier with an RCA input.
• To connect a laptop or desktop to a headphone amplifier, hi-fi amplifier or AV receiver. 

Price and Postage:

• 1 meter  = RM75.00 / USD$23.01
• 2 meters = RM85.00 / USD$26.08
• 3 meters = RM95.00 / USD$29.15

Customized lengths are available. Use the Contact Form on the upper right hand of the screen to ask us for a quote and postage rates to your area. 

Postage within Malaysia is via Pos Laju and rates are as follows:

• Anywhere in West Malaysia = RM8.00 / USD$2.43
• Anywhere in East Malaysia = RM10.00 / USD$3.04

*Many thanks to SSJBen for the brilliant pictures*

Why We Did It?

                    France? China? Malaysia? Can you tell the difference? 

          Truth be told when we started Black Octagon Solutions a year ago, we had a few things in mind. Remember how I said we had 30 years between us? Well, in those years we saw what the market was like and where it was headed. With the influx of Chinese made products into Malaysia, we saw a decline in quality goods. Also the line between imitation and genuine goods was blurred. In the AV rental market for example, big companies couldn't cope with the sudden appearance of new rental companies offering rock bottom prices with China made gear. The clients didn't know the difference between a "Made In France" Nexo PS15 loudspeaker and a "Made In Balakong" Nexo PS15. Which leads us to another point...

          With the advent of Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and the growing popularity of social media, one would be inclined to think that people grew more knowledgeable and wouldn't fall for false marketing/advertising but this couldn't be further from the truth. We know for a fact that just about anyone with internet access can write about anything, post it on the web, claim it to be true and there will be those out there who will take it as the honest truth.

          We see it in forums, websites and even videos where unsubstantiated facts are simply put out there for anyone seeking information to gobble it up. And these people who put these "facts" out there can be called false prophets if it were not for the sad truth that even they believed some of the stuff they "preach". I guess in some ways, this would apply to any industry out there so before I get sidetracked, let's get back to the reasons we're here.

          At Black Octagon Solutions, our objectives are pretty simple:

• We want to educate to the best of our knowledge and to provide facts which are backed up with results. We won't claim to know everything because just like everyone else, we are continuously learning and improving ourselves as well. So if we make a mistake and you spot it, let us know.
• We want to provide products which are made to last, to perform to expectations and surpass those expectations.
• We're all for making a profit but a profit within reason. Part of those profits will go into development of new products so that the trial and error process for our customers is reduced.
• We love what we do hence we want to share it with everyone. We believe good sound is affordable and is within reach of the average Joe and you do NOT(!) have to settle for mediocrity. 

Call this our objectives, our mission statement, whatever...fact is this, we want to make a difference. We may not always succeed and we may not make a big impact in the giant world of sound but we're sure as hell gonna try to at least create a dent. Thanks for reading.

Yup...that picture up there was a cheap plug again. Seeing a pattern forming here? ;)

Black Octagon Solutions - An Introduction

Here's How It All Started

          Where do I begin? I'd love to say that the company was born because two brilliant individuals decided to put their years in the audio industry to good use and improve on what was already out there but then it would be a blatant lie. Truth be told, this company was born at a regular "warung makan" in Kajang (in 2012) where two individuals with about 30 years in the industry between them were having a conversation about...well, nothing to be honest. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing where it was decided we should start a company.

          We got the necessary documentation. Went home, thought about a few names and my better half said why not go for shapes and a color? So after more mind-numbing thought, I said; "it shall be called...Silver Decagon!" Filled out the forms and back we went to get it registered. Well, the name was taken, can you believe that?! Silver Decagon?! Really?!! Well, we changed it on the spot to Black Octagon and the name was available so it stuck. 

          All that was about a year ago and it actually doesn't seem that far back which makes you think about how fast time flies. What do we actually do? Well, we got a small line of audio cables, a hi-fi repair service and we do sell some audio gear as well....yup, that's it...Ok Ok, there's more; On to the next post about Why We Did It (?) ! 

Cheap Cable Plug Below!! 

                           Black Octagon 1 meter RCA Interconnects

Musings... : Saying Cheap Cable Plug would probably get some people confused into thinking that the plugs and cable used for the Black Octagon RCA Interconnects are actually cheap...the Black Octagon RCA Interconnects go for RM150 for a 1 meter Stereo pair by the way...anyway...

Here's something I got from Yahoo! Answers: 

A "plug" is usually referred to as a form of advertisement or commercial comment. "Cheap" simply means the person saying it is getting his ad in free or very "Cheap"

Sigh...its no fun when you have to explain it...