if you also remove the black shell at the other end (this evidently helps provide some sort of electric field symmetry for input and output). You will hear this sonic difference, caused by symmetrically removing the black shell from the both ends instead of just one end, but whether you hear this difference as an improvement or as a degradation will depend on your system and on your listening preferences.
      Speaking of the RCA shell, each pair of Chinchillas comes standard with a red ring on the outside of the shells of one of the two cables in the pair, in order to indicate channels (red ring on the black shell for one channel, plain black shell for the other channel). Don't get this. Instead, you should special order your Chinchillas with plain outer shells on all the cables, without these red rings added. Chinchilla is so amazingly revelatory that it even reveals the presence of this red ring around the outside of the shell, in spite of this shell being a shield, which supposedly would contain the electrical field entirely within (the fact that the red ring makes a sonic difference would make sense if the shell provides less than complete shielding, which would also explain our interesting finding above that Chinchilla sounds more open and airy with the shell on rather than off, whereas complete shields usually sound more open and airy off rather than on). This red indicator ring noticeably degrades Chinchilla's magic sound (in many aspects, including transparency, speed, and imaging). And of course imaging suffers even further from the fact that the sonic performance of the two cables in each pair are not identical and symmetrical, the side with the red ring being slower and less transparent than the side without the red ring. If you delete the red rings on one cable, you only have to endure a slight inconvenience, to manually trace each cable to obtain correct channel matchup, and the better sound makes it easily worth your while. Also, for multichannel Chinchilla use, mere red vs. black color codings won't help you much, so you might as well get better sound by opting out of those red rings. If perchance you already have Chinchillas with the red ring, it's very easy for you to remove each red ring yourself, since it's merely a piece of vinyl tape, with low tack adhesive that peels off cleanly.
      Von Gaylord also offers an alternative version of Chinchilla especially for AV processors. This AV Chinchilla uses standard diameter WBT RCA plugs instead of the fat custom RCA plugs, so it easily fits the tight RCA jack spacing on AV processors. The cable itself of AV Chinchilla is also smaller in diameter, in order to fit into the smaller diameter WBT plugs. We evaluated this alternative AV version of Chinchilla, hoping it would give you the sonic magic of Chinchilla combined with the practicality of easy insertion for AV processors. Alas, it does not. The AV version is still a very good sounding cable, but it does not have the true Chinchilla sonic magic. In particular, the AV version imparts an artificial solid state sound, with some hardness and blocking glare, in the upper midrange and trebles. If you really like solid state sound instead of real live music, then you might like this AV version. It actually sounds similar to the very good Siltech interconnects, that also evince some artificial crispness and glare (which blocks subtle inner details at upper frequencies, including some spatial imaging and ambience information). But if you want the sound of real music, and you value the wealth of subtle musical and spatial information that the genuine full bore Chinchilla gives you, then you have to stick with the genuine article to get that Chinchilla magic, even if it means some tightly squeezed inconvenience with AV processors.
      Again, this proves how thoroughly and carefully the design of the genuine Chinchilla has been perfected. Take the same cable design, reduce its diameter slightly, put world class WBT plugs on it that are good enough for the best efforts by other cable brands, and it loses its sonic magic. Keep the large diameter, keep the custom fat diameter RCA plugs, and voila, the Chinchilla magic is back. For sonic perfection and perfectionism like this, Chinchilla's price is a bargain.
      Chinchilla analog interconnect also is spectacular as a digital interconnect. We directly compared it to the best digital interconnects we could find (including Von Gaylord's own Chinchilla expressly digital interconnect), and Chinchilla analog interconnect trounced them all as a digital interconnect. The sonic qualities in which Chinchilla analog triumphs as a digital interconnect mirror the sonic qualities discussed above in which Chinchilla analog triumphs as an analog interconnect. Compared to other digital interconnects (including Chinchilla digital interconnect), Chinchilla analog used as a digital interconnect is more transparently revealing of subtle inner detail, airier, more open, faster, with better imaging in all aspects, and with fewer artifacts such as corrupting energy storage, blocking glare, etc.
      At $1375 for a 1 metre pair, Chinchilla is a substantial investment, especially for all channels of a surround system. But Chinchilla is one of the best investments you can make toward truly achieving the musical and surround magic we all crave. You can easily pay even more for other expensive high end interconnects, and yet not get nearly as good sound. You can pay less for other interconnects, and get a lot less in sonic performance. If you want the real magic, Von Gaylord Chinchilla is the only choice. If your local dealer doesn't yet carry Chinchilla, you can visit Von Gaylord's website at www.vongaylordaudio.com.

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