Received a shiny new pair of Chord Shawline analogue interconnects today to replace my aging chameleon VEE3s.
The interconnects are in use between my chord qutest to my naim nait XS2.
TBH they have only been run in for a couple of hours.
But A/Bing with my old chameleons, and i now its too early to make a real judgement. But the shawlines so far are a little disappointing.
The Shawlines sound dull.
The overall sound is slightly warmer than the chameleons, but all excitement has been lost.
Vocals are recessed and lost a little in the overall picture, bass guitar in particular is barely audible.
A lot of fine detail has been lost too.
Switching to the chameleons gives me a vibrant dynamic exciting sound with bags of detail and larger vocal presence.
Of course I will continue to run in the shawlines over the next few days and see how things develop.
But at present I am a little concerned on whether there will be a big enough change in the shawlines to compete with the chameleons.
Maybe try the signature if your budget permits ? I just bought an ex demo signature super tuned Aray with a bnc connection to connect my core to an NDX . It’s made a big difference. I wasn’t impressed initially but it takes around 25 hours of playback before you start noticing an improvement . But give the shawline a chance, you may well end up loving it …
Now after over 12 hours of burn in, I am beginning to hear the characteristics of the shawline.
All focus appears to be in the midrange especially vocals, having a warm rich tone, very likeable but at the expense of minor details and overall dynamics and separation.
This characteristic excells when playing the likes of Nora Jones or Ray lamontagne, but switch to a little ACDC and all sounds a little flat and uninvolving.
I will persist with the shawline, and see if there is any further change overnight.
I’m no fan of Chord Company cables with Chord Electronics as they seem to impart a sonic signature. I found using neutral sounding Canare cables (very low RFI) with my Chord Electronics kit was ideal. I’m unsure if these are available with DIN (not an issue for me), but may be worth enquiring (they are inexpensive).
I ran a variety of Chord cables for about 12 years and was very happy until I bought a secondhand Phono stage which came with the Shawline. Couldn’t get on with it so bought a WitcHat cable to experiment as they are relatively cheap. I then realised how Chord products stamp a certain signature on presentation, mainly a bias towards mid-range and vocals. Maybe the higher end products arw more balanced but I don’t have pockets that deep. I have now replaced all my cables over a 4 month period and overall I am very pleased.
The shawline and my chameleon VEE3 both have VERY different sound signatures.
The shawlines do favour midrange with their thick warm vocal textures with a more subdued velvety sound, would probably be ideal in an overly bright system.
The chameleons on the other hand have a extremely dynamic, fast and highly detailed airiness about them.
I am glad I got to compare my old chameleons with chords new shawline offerings.
They are a really good sounding cable in their own right, just not for me in my particular system with my varied musical preferences.
Interesting, my comparison was with very old Chord Cobra cables maybe 15-20 years old - they might have been around £70 then so potentially a few hundred in today’s money.
It may simply be that Shawline is a bit of a sideways step with different sonic character to our older cables and something better is needed.
I think the older generation are far superior and anything new is a cost reduced version, peppered with buzz words from the old generation and the price hiked.
That said i personally heard (not myself) good things about the Shawline and its use of Taylon, but again as mentioned it’s a drip feed from the Sarum T and Music range.
I am starting to believe that myself, lately I have been looking S/H and have purchased an old chord signature digital coaxial cable which sounds amazing, even without “Tuned Aray”
