Pricelist 2025 / 2026

At Tonmeister, we prioritize crafting high-quality audio cables that offer exceptional performance without complexity or excessive cost.

Our straightforward, transparent design philosophy ensures cables act as neutral conduits, faithfully transmitting audio signals while preserving the original recording's integrity.

The Tonmeister Cable line incorporates advanced EMI and RFI shielding, and where necessary, we eliminate cable-generated and airborne ESD to deliver the cleanest signal possible.

Each cable is meticulously handcrafted in the Netherlands to your precise specifications, creating a truly bespoke product with inherently limited availability.

We believe consistent, high-quality cabling is crucial for achieving the optimal sonic balance and performance your system deserves. For this reason, we do not sell our products without first engaging in a personal dialogue. Every system and listener is unique, and we consider careful consultation essential in order to provide the right advice and the most suitable solution.

All our cables are available in various custom lengths. Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions or for personalized advice.

Effective Shielding for Audio Cables

Audio cables are vital for transmitting signals with minimal loss or distortion in sound systems. However, they are susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI) from nearby devices, power lines, wireless networks, or environmental factors like fluorescent lights. Effective shielding is crucial to maintain signal integrity and deliver pristine audio. Our cables use advanced shielding materials and techniques to minimize interference, reduce crosstalk and ensure reliability for professional and high-end audio systems.

Importance of Shielding

Shielding acts as a barrier to prevent external noise from infiltrating the signal path and reduces crosstalk, where signals from adjacent conductors interfere in multichannel cables. Without proper shielding, audio signals may suffer from noise, hum, distortion, or loss of clarity, degrading the listening experience. For professional environments like recording studios or live sound setups, and high-end home audio, robust shielding is essential for precision and fidelity.

Shielding Techniques

• Multi-Layered Shielding: Stacking conductive and ferromagnetic materials enhances attenuation by absorbing and reflecting interference signals.
• Twisted Pair Geometry: Twisting two conductors cancels out magnetic fields, reducing inductive coupling from external EMI.
• Star-Quad Configuration: Four conductors in a quad pattern improve noise rejection, ideal for sensitive signal transmission.
• Drain Wires: Provide a ground path for shield currents, redirecting unwanted electromagnetic energy.
• Dielectric Insulation: Prevents galvanic corrosion and electrical conduction, ensuring mechanical and electrical integrity.

These techniques are integrated to optimize attenuation, suppress a wide range of interference frequencies, and balance factors like cable weight, flexibility, and cost.

Shielding Materials

• Copper Braiding: Excellent conductivity and durability for flexible EMI shielding.
• Tinned/Silver-Plated Braiding: Enhanced corrosion resistance and conductivity for improved shielding and reliability.
• Aluminum and Mylar Foil: Lightweight conductive barrier with a dielectric layer for effective, thin shielding.
• Conductive Layers: Metalized polymers or conductive paints tailor shielding to specific environmental and frequency requirements.

By combining these materials and techniques, engineers address complex EMI challenges, ensuring signal integrity and system performance in modern audio systems.

The Bigger Picture

High definition alone doesn't guarantee musical truth. Audio fidelity is about balance. Each instrument's timbre must be preserved without glare or artificiality. Timing, micro-dynamics and phase coherence allow music to breathe and flow. Above all, signal integrity must remain intact, ensuring what comes out faithfully represents what went in.

When topology, construction, and connector assembly are mastered and aligned, the result is not only technical excellence but musical coherence. Without this, even the highest-resolution systems may sound sharp but soulless.

Conductive Materials: Copper, Silver, and Carbon Nanotubes

Copper

Copper is the industry standard for good reason: exceptional conductivity, durability, and cost-effectiveness. Its conductivity approaches silver's but at a fraction of the cost. Copper's physical robustness and corrosion resistance ensure reliable, long-lasting performance.

Silver

Silver offers slightly higher conductivity than copper, potentially resulting in marginally better transmission. However, this difference is often negligible in practice, especially given silver's higher cost and susceptibility to oxidation. It can enhance treble, making music sound crisper, but excessive boost can result in "glare," where high frequencies sound piercing or fatiguing.

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)

Carbon Nanotubes are cutting-edge, lightweight materials with excellent conductivity and strength but come with high production costs and limited availability.

Copper: The Practical and Musical Choice

Among common audio cable materials, copper remains most versatile and sound. Though silver's approximately 5% conductivity advantage may be appealing theoretically, it's often inconsequential in typical setups with proper geometry and shielding.

All our raw materials, including our copper, are carefully and responsibly sourced to ensure quality and sustainability. When insulated and terminated properly, copper ensures low-loss transmission, low resistance, consistent impedance, ductility, mechanical robustness, minimal dielectric interaction, and negligible skin effect and phase shift in the audio band \u2014 preserving timing, dynamics, and tonal accuracy.

This results in superior audio clarity and fidelity. Our commitment to ethical sourcing and precision manufacturing delivers reliable, high-performance cables for audiophiles and professionals.

For all these reasons, copper is the reference standard: a mature, reliable, cost-effective solution prioritising neutrality and signal purity over marketing-driven exotic materials. It's preferred by professionals and critical listeners alike.

Specialized Use of Silver-Plated Copper

In our S/PDIF cables, we employ silver-plated copper conductors to achieve precise impedance control \u2014 a choice refined through extensive listening tests and measurements. For our other digital designs, such as the TM-CAT-MN Ethernet/LAN and TM-USB+, we rely on high-grade copper, which consistently delivers superior musical fidelity. In these cases, silver plating was not required to achieve perfect impedance and electrical parameters, with pure copper proving superior in sheer musical quality.

Our Philosophy

Tonmeister cables are designed with care and simplicity to transmit sound as neutrally as possible. Our goal is to provide a clean, uncoloured signal, preserving the original audio without added distortion or alteration.

We select copper for its proven reliability, good conductivity, and cost-effectiveness. This practical choice supports consistent performance without relying on costly or unproven materials.

By prioritising function over unnecessary features, our cables reduce signal loss and noise. This helps your audio equipment perform as intended, delivering clear and faithful sound.

Simply put, Tonmeister aims to offer dependable cables that support accurate sound reproduction through careful engineering and straightforward design.

Cable Care

• When plugging or unplugging, never pull the cable itself \u2014 always pull the plug barrel.
• Avoid exposing cables to direct heat sources (heaters, halogen lights, etc.).
• For locking mechanisms and terminals, do not over-tighten, as it may damage connectors or terminals.
• To clean the cable exterior, use a microfiber damp cloth or mild wet wipes; wipe gently in one direction.
• For dust removal, a compressed-air blower (used for electronics) is ideal.
• Occasionally, clean cable contacts and equipment terminals (gold plating is preferred for corrosion resistance and conductivity).
• For cleaning connectors and terminals, we recommend DeoxIT® D-Series: spray lightly, clean with a cotton swab while unplugged, and follow with DeoxIT® Shield S-Series.
• Use contact cleaners sparingly to avoid residue build-up, which attracts dust and compromises signal integrity and long-term performance.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or call +31 6 304 873 38.