The Van Damme UP-LCOFC Hi-Fi Grade speaker cable sits at the top of Van Damme's residential and audiophile range, above the Blue Series Studio Grade and Black Series Tour Grade lines. While the Blue and Black Series cables use standard oxygen-free copper, the Hi-Fi Grade uses Ultra-Pure Linear Crystal OFC (UP-LCOFC) — a higher-purity conductor with improved grain alignment that reduces barriers to electron flow across crystal boundaries.
Conductor and Construction
Each conductor in the 2.5mm² variant comprises seven bundles of 46 strands of 0.10mm ultra-fine copper wire, giving a total of 322 individual strands per conductor. This 7-way plait construction minimises the skin effect by keeping the individual strand diameter well below the skin depth at audio frequencies. The transparent PVC insulation allows visual identification of the conductors, and the shotgun (twin-run, no outer jacket) construction simplifies separation at termination points.
Practical Considerations
At 2.5mm² per conductor, the cable presents a resistance of 7.40 Ω/km — low enough for runs of 10m or more with typical 4–8Ω loudspeakers without meaningful signal loss. The overall dimensions of 12.00 x 4.00mm keep the cable manageable for routing along skirting boards and through cable trunking. Sold per metre for custom-length installations, allowing exact cable runs without waste.
Applications
Van Damme describes this cable as the speaker cable of choice for more than one high-end hi-fi equipment manufacturer, and notes that the 4.00mm² and 6.00mm² variants in the same range are used for critical near-field monitoring in world-class recording and mastering studios. The 2.5mm² variant is well suited to domestic hi-fi systems where moderate cable runs and standard loudspeaker impedances are the norm.