If you are going to obtain the best performance from a hi-fi or home cinema system then speaker cable is as important as any other component in the set-up. One of the real problems with a lot of hi-fi systems is that because of the lengths involved, not enough will be spent on the speaker cable. This is like buying a high performance car and fitting the cheapest tyres you can find.

The materials used in the construction of speaker cable are the same as those found in interconnects. Oxygen free copper, silver and silver plated copper are used as conductors for the vast majority of speaker cables. Carbon fibre has been used, as have hybrids of other materials. The conductors can be either stranded or solid core but whilst we have been able to successfully use solid core conductors in the construction of interconnects, we have yet to be able to do so in speaker cables. Solid core speaker cables tend to cut off the leading and trailing edges of musical notes and produce a slightly lean bass sound. This can lead to an apparently cleaner and less muddled sound but at the expense of accuracy. All Chord Company speaker cables use stranded conductors and our research has shown that it is better to use fewer heavier gauge conductors than lots of lighter gauge conductors. Lighter gauge conductors get used in a lot of budget speaker cables simply because they make for a more flexible cable.

Another crucial point about speaker cables is the tendency for them to introduce phase distortion into the signal. It would appear that human beings are extremely sensitive to even quite small shifts in phase and these have an extremely detrimental effect on the accurate reproduction of music. Chord speaker cables have all been designed to minimise phase shift.

Choice of insulation material is, if anything, more critical in its effect on the performance of speaker cable than it is with interconnects. As a general rule, silver and silver plated conductors will perform better when used with Teflon® insulation and copper will perform with polyethylene.

Chord speaker cables are designed to be extremely compatible and to maintain signal quality over long runs. Once again, as with the Chord interconnect range, there are no particularly unusual electrical measurements.

Speaker cables, like interconnects, require some running in time and it is very difficult to be precise about how long this actually is. Our research shows that this is not only dependent on the equipment the cable is used with but also on the type of music predominantly played. Should you wish to speed the burn in time appreciably, hard-core trance will produce quicker results than choral music! It would be fair to speculate that this has something to do with the amount of high frequency signal passing along the cable. As a general rule and based on the average time spent listening to a system, three to four weeks is enough for 90% of the changes that are going to occur to do so. However, smaller more subtle changes can be noticed over several months.
When it comes to terminating speaker cable Chord favour the use of gold plated 4mm banana plugs wherever possible. The one we prefer to use is a very simple design but provides an extremely good interference fit and like the vast majority of Chord products, was chosen during blind testing. We feel this plug offers the best and most consistent performance.

Chord's range of interconnects started with the Chrysalis and as we learnt more about what made an interconnect work, so the range developed. There is a real consistency to the range and our customers comment on the fact that it is very easy to hear exactly what it is they are getting for their extra money. Chord's speaker cable range began with Chord Rumour and this has been a big influence on the rest of the range.

We have been able to use the lessons learnt during the development of Rumour and apply them to both the cheaper and more expensive cables. Once again there is a real consistency to the range and it is very easy to hear exactly what you are getting for your money.

CHORD CARNIVAL SILVER PLUS

What is it?

On the face of it, Carnival Silver plus breaks one our firmly held design principles, namely "the
performance of a conductor is critically affected by the choice of dielectric". Up until now The Chord Company have always used Teflon® as a dielectric with silver plated conductors; this is because we believe that other materials adversely affect the sound quality.

Carnival Silver Plus uses Polyethylene in a very clever way that minimises conductor/dielectric contact, overcoming the sound quality issues we usually encounter when using silver with anything other than Teflon®. Using a variation on Chord's current twisted pair design, Carnival Silver Plus features two sets of six identical heavy gauge silver plated oxygen free copper wires, (four sets in the bi-wire version). These wires are wrapped around a circular polyethylene dielectric in a spiral and each wire is held in place and prevented from touching each other with another circular polyethylene spacer between each conductor.

The diameter of the spacers is crucial to the cable's performance, as the spacers minimise conductor/dielectric contact and in effect produce a semi air-spaced cable, (a first at this price level). They also ensure that conductor spacing remains consistent regardless of the curvature of the cable and prevent the outer jacket from affecting performance. The outer jacket is clear PVC, which is a good choice being both flexible and strong.

Terminations
Despite the complexity of the design, Carnival Silver Plus is no more difficult to terminate than any other speaker cable. The central polyethylene section is easily removed, as are the polyethylene spacers separating the conductors. Once this is done, the cable can be terminated with any available termination. See web site for details

It is worth pointing out that although Silver oxidises, the oxides it produces are barely less conductive than the Silver itself, so there is not a problem with stripping the cable so that it can be fitted to a binding post if necessary.

Uses
Carnival Silver Plus has been developed for the hi-fi and home cinema enthusiast who demands real value for money performance. Long runs are not a problem and the cable is flexible enough to route discreetly. This is a genuinely affordable option for a high performance multi-speaker set up.

As mentioned before, one of the problems with multi-channel systems is that the cost of speaker cable starts to look prohibitive. Carnival Silver Plus, by virtue of clever and innovative design, offers a really affordable high performance choice.

How does it sound?
Speaker cable can have a profound effect on the overall dynamic performance of a system. During the design process of the Carnival Silver Plus, emphasis was put on obtaining equal and realistic dynamics throughout the frequency range to ensure that musical rhythm was not squashed or lost. Bass is controlled, powerful and tuneful and the midrange and treble are open and expressive.

CHORD RUMOUR SPEAKER CABLE

What is it?

Chord Rumour speaker cable was the first speaker cable that Chord designed. We were already aware of the real benefits to be had from using silver plated conductors in conjunction with Teflon® insulation. In the course of experimentation, we found that twisting the two conductors together bought some real and dramatic improvements. There is nothing new about the use of twisted conductors in the manufacture of speaker cable, but at the time, this approach had fallen out of fashion in favour of heavy gauge parallel conductors. A lot of work was carried out to establish the number of twists required in order to optimise the performance. Rumour uses 19 strands of silver plated oxygen free copper per conductor, surrounded by Teflon® insulation. The conductors are 16 gauge and although this appears to be surprisingly small for a speaker cable, its performance is anything but and its current capabilities surprisingly high. The original version of Rumour was simply the above cable with no outer jacket. Later on we were able to extrude a silicon jacket over the twisted Teflon® insulated conductors. Because of this jacket we now refer to this as Rumour 2 and the original version as Rumour Install.

Teflon® and silver used in the construction of speaker cables have some real benefits. Teflon® will withstand very high temperatures and is resistant to most solvents. It is also extremely good at preventing air from reaching the conductors it surrounds and because of this, oxidisation of the conductors ceases to be a real problem. Further to this, although silver does oxidise, the oxides it produces are barely less conductive than the silver. This means that the performance of the cable will remain consistent for many, many years.

Copper PVC cables will degrade quite severely over the years. PVC is hydroscopic, or put another way can be seen as a fairly porous material. Cheap speaker cables often use clear or translucent PVC as an insulator and if you look carefully, you will be able to see signs of oxidisation along the length of the cable.

Silicon was chosen as an outer jacket partly for its flexibility and partly for its excellent mechanical damping. The outer jacket also helps to hold the twists of the cable firmly together and allows us to produce an excellent bi-wire version of Rumour. This is called Rumour 4 and simply uses two pairs of evenly spaced twisted conductors in a larger jacket. Bi-wire cables can be problematic and often, because of the way they are constructed, sound completely different to the standard dual conductor version. By using the same twisted pair design, the performance remains remarkably consistent.

Theoretically the silicon outer jacket should help to produce a better performance from the cable, but in fact, opinion is divided fairly equally as to which is better. For what it is worth, the designer, if aware of what he is listening to, prefers the performance of the silicon jacket version but whilst listening blind, is not always able to identify whether he is listening to the jacketed or install version.

Terminations

Rumour speaker cable is extremely easy to fit to almost any type of termination, and of a small enough gauge to fit the spring clip sockets found on some amplifiers and speakers. Chord's standard termination is either 4mm Banana Plugs or the BFA Plug as used by some amplifier manufacturers. It is worth mentioning again that as this cable has silver plated conductors, there is no reason that bare ends should not be used in a binding post.

Uses

Rumour really is a jack-of-all-trades speaker cable and has been used in everything from mini systems right up to full-blown active systems. The size of the cable makes it a very attractive proposition for anyone wanting to get really good sound quality from a near-invisible cable. It is discreet enough in its installation version to tuck between a carpet and skirting board. Even with the outer jacket, Rumour 2 is only around 5mm diameter.

How does it sound?

Rumour is a very clean, neutral sounding cable. It is remarkably coherent and helps to produce a
surprisingly deep but very well controlled bass. As mentioned above, Rumour really does work very well in all levels of systems and many dealers use this cable with all levels of equipment, simply because it produces a very musical and enjoyable sound and is extremely easy to install tidily.

Rumour is very difficult to directionalise during blind testing. We recommend that the cable is fitted so that the print on the cable runs from the amplifier towards the speakers, but should this not happen, it is best to leave the cable as installed. The direction that Rumour is installed in when new has very little effect on sound quality. However, with cables that show very few directional characteristics, this can change as a current is passed through them. Once Rumour has been installed in the system, whether in the correct direction or not, changing the direction will be detrimental to the sound of the system. There is not really a good explanation for this but as a statement, it could be said that "Cables that are not particularly directional from new will become so when used, and cables that are very directional will not sound right if installed in the wrong direction".

CHORD ODYSSEY SPEAKER CABLE

What Is It?

Chord Odyssey speaker cable is almost identical to Rumour. It features 19 strands of silver plated oxygen free copper per conductor surrounded by Teflon® insulation and twisted together; the major difference being the overall gauge of the conductors. Whereas Rumour uses 16 gauge conductors, Odyssey has altogether more substantial 12 gauge conductors and will carry significantly higher currents. Like Rumour, Odyssey was initially only available as a simple twisted pair design and it was only later that the silicon jacket was added. Odyssey is available as an installation product without the silicon jacket and in a two (Odyssey 2) and four core (Odyssey 4) version with the silicon jacket.

Terminations

Odyssey can be terminated with almost any style of termination. Chord's standard is either gold plated 4mm Banana Plugs or BFA (Camcon) connectors

Uses

Like Rumour, Odyssey is extremely compatible and is used across a wide range of systems. Because of its compact construction, Odyssey is a great favourite with people installing high-end audio and home cinema systems. As a point of interest, for reasons of cost, people who need extremely long runs of speaker cable tend to fit cheaper cables because of the cost involved. Better quality cables can really come into their own when the lengths required are longer than average. It is worth encouraging customers to spend as much as they can in order to get the best performance from their system. With the increasing interest in multi-channel systems, one of the more common approaches is to use Chord Odyssey on the front left and right and centre channels and Chord Rumour or Chord Carnival Silver Plus for the surround speakers. Because of the strong family resemblance in all the cables, this is an entirely reasonable option.

How does it sound?

Odyssey brings real improvements to the dynamics of the sound, particularly in the bass, both in terms of weight and attack. This is also true of the mid and treble as well. Cymbals are noticeably more realistic and have greater weight and authority. The same is true of acoustic guitars and also pianos. The lower resistance of Odyssey also makes it a particularly good choice for longer runs.

Odyssey 4 was designed not only as a bi-wireable cable but also as a high performance cable for use with single input speakers. In this case the two sets of conductors are connected together at each end. This produces a very powerful and dynamic sounding cable with real gains in the mid range. This is particularly impressive with pianos, saxophones and human voice. Detail and realism in this area are dramatically improved.

CHORD SIGNATURE SPEAKER CABLE

What is it?

Chord Signature speaker cable is the result of several years' experimentation. We had known for some time that theoretically there should be a real benefit to shielding speaker cable. Twisted pair design, as found in Rumour and Odyssey, offers the first step towards interference rejection and the next logical step was to experiment with shielding. Shielded speaker cables are not new. Many companies have experimented with this. However, the results have been somewhat erratic, as were our initial attempts.

The prototype of Signature speaker cable, whilst performing extremely well, was so stiff as to be almost completely unusable. A great deal of work was put in to finding a more flexible alternative. It is worth pointing out that although Chord Signature speaker cable looks initially to be large and stiff, it can in fact be bent comfortably through a tight 90-degree radius without any loss of performance and will remain bent until straightened again, whereupon it will return to its original shape.

The conductors consist of 9 strands of high purity copper and total about 3mm diameter, making a 10 gauge conductor. The insulation material is gas foamed polyethylene. This has several major advantages. This type of dielectric produces better phase stability than solid polyethylene. The gas foaming process helps to maintain the flexibility of the cable and at the same time, gas foamed polyethylene has a better (lower) dielectric value than solid polyethylene. The shield is a dual layer foil/woven braid with a RF shielding effectiveness of better than 90 dB.

Signature, like Rumour and Odyssey, is a twisted pair design. Unlike Rumour and Odyssey however, the twist does not contribute to noise reduction but it does give the cable a degree of flexibility and helps to make it simpler to route and install. Each length of cable is finished in a red and black braid (the cable is also available in black). Each end of the cable is clamped with a specially designed aluminium clamp. A lot of work was put into the construction of this. We wished to hold the cable securely but not to compress the cable in any way, since doing so would result in a loss of performance.

Termination

The termination process for Signature speaker cable is both complex and difficult and because of this, Signature is only available in factory-terminated lengths. As with Chord's other speaker cables, Signature can be fitted with 4mm Banana plugs, BFA (Camcon) or Spade connectors.

Uses

Chord Signature speaker cable has been designed to work in conjunction with the Signature interconnect. Both share very similar design principles but differ in the materials used in their construction. Nonetheless, the two products were developed to complement each other and there are real benefits to be gained from using both interconnect and speaker cable within a system. Signature speaker cable will work well with a huge variety of amplifiers and speakers. Its unique construction means that you can hear the benefits it brings in surprisingly modest systems, and unlike a lot of high end cables, it is not "ruthlessly revealing". There is an assumption that expensive cables belong with expensive systems. This is not necessarily the case. One of the most compelling demonstrations we have heard came from a system where the Signature interconnect and speaker cable came to almost half the total cost of the system. So this is a cable that you really must experiment with.

How does it sound?

Fitting and listening to Signature speaker cable for the first time will come as quite a surprise. There are remarkable improvements in all areas but transparency and presence are quite stunning, as are the improvements in dynamics. Image also improves dramatically with real depth. For all of this, the immediacy and musical presence are what makes the Signature speaker cable so very enjoyable and so much of a revelation to people hearing it for the first time.

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