In the various systems that I have tried them, with Exposure, Naim and Musical Fidelity, I have always found that they have little brightness and that they lack extension of treble, masking the treble; but, anyway, for tastes, colors…
Thank you.
On the TQ Silver Diamond jumpers, I will think around it, although, as I mention above, it will be in any case later.
Regarding feeding the tweeter/midrange inputs with the cables instead of the woofer input, it’s something I’ve already tried, though not with the TQs but with the Chords, and it didn’t convince me, with a feeling that it was lost fast on the bass; I prefer the sound with the cable directly powering the woofers, but I may end up testing it if, or when, I decide on the TQ SD jumpers.
So, the cables have now around 90 hours run in and settlement, and have gone through several phases, one of them with a slight soundstage emboting, some kind of overlapping of elements and smearing of details due to the immense sonic scale they introduce, but they are now opening up and showing their potencial, and I am increasingly convinced of the great, last and definitive upgrade, with a greater extension and precision in the entire range of frequencies.
I’ll meet for next Monday with a couple of well-heard colleagues, and who have experienced with me all the evolution of this system since 2014 and know it well in their multiple iterations, to perform with them the last test and gather their impressions.
After the critical test I will publish my final verdict, although I think I can already anticipate that the Silver Diamonds are totally neutral cables, which, therefore, allow you to listen to the black boxes as they sound and to acces to the master recording intentions, so I believe I would not recommend them for simple systems or for systems with pronounced imbalances, but in quality systems provide that special quality of “put nothing nor remove anything”.
To be continue…
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Very nice indeed. I just checked the prices for a 3m pair of these Silver Diamonds on Futureshop UK. A 3m pair costs £5,374.80. It’s more than double the price of my 4m pair Chord Signature XL, and I thought I have overspent on cables. Your system must be top-notch to be able to accommodate the Silver Diamonds.
Well, you can see it on my profile; after a lot of spins, effort and sacrifice, I really think it is.
But fate takes us through unpredictable paths, and I am experiencing strange sensations, more after reading this other experience…
I’m now really experiencing something similar: the Silver Diamond is running in and it sounds better and better, so balanced, so neutral, so tremendously controlled, with the bass so articulated, the mids so controlled and integrated, and the treble so widespread and without a hint of hardness, everything so perfect…, that really, at times and with some tracks, especially vocals, I get to miss the forwarded mids and the bulging bass that produces the Epic.
Yesterday I was telling it to my wife: “I don’t know if I like the sound of Epic Performance more, which makes up veri well for the room modes, which pull bright; or the Silver Diamond so neutral and perfect that sometimes it seems like it will steal a little soul from the music. Anyway, in any case, nothing that could not be resolved; but damn the grace, with the money that the Silver Diamond cost me, to have to sell it…”
Anyway, I’ll go on for a one more extended period with the Silver Diamond, which is still a hard cable that requires a lot of run in time, around 200 good hours, to see how it ends up settling; but right now, I don’t discard going back to the Epics Perfomance, which go really well in this system and in this room.
Well, right now the cables have around 120 hours run in time…, and the fact is I miss the previous Chord Epic Performance that they have replaced (which I have always found good cables and, fortunately, I have not sold and have saved safely).
I can’t say the TQ Silver Diamond are bad speaker cables, because they accumulate a big list of awards and in all the reviews they’ve made them are blown up, and they don’t sound bad in the system.
Compared to the Chord Epic Performance, they are faster, some more detailed, and seem more balanced; but it’s as if the system has lost its “magic” a little bit, with a less organic and less realistic sound, and the bass tend to get a little dull on some tracks and records.
With the Chord Epic Performance, the sound was very good, with very present and forward mids, and very full and articulate bass, a very organic and realistic sound, almost like having the musicians, especially the vocals, pianos, guitars, in the room.
With the TQ SD, the organic and realistic sound is lost a little, they have more detail in the microdynamics, but the sound does not have the “magic” and the “punch” I expected and thought they would bring, above all with vocals, pianos and electric guitars, with much more weight and a better tone with the Epics, which surprises me a lot given the difference in range and price of both, since the Silver Diamonds are five steps above the Epics Performance. One thing that especially displeases me about TQ SD is that they need a lot of time to warm up and start sounding good, at least a good hour if not a couple of them, which makes it very difficult to listen to music, having to plan it well in advance.
I have already pointed out on several occasions that the room is large (about 45 m2) with high ceilings (3’6 m), and, although it is perfectly furnished and partially conditioned, it has always thrown bright, and several different complete systems have passed through it, up to 5 (with 4 different amplifications and sources, and up to five different speaker pairs) always trying to look for that organic sound, realistic, full and balanced at the same time, which I thought I had already achieved with the latest and current equipment, and I lacked the update of the speaker cables, which I thought would be the icing on the cake, but no…
I also think that, perhaps, the Epics’ colored point, which have very full bass and forward and present mids, at the cost of not entirely extended treble, could be providing a good synergy with the system and, above all, with the room modes, compensating a little its brightness and balancing everything well.
I don’t know, but the truth is that I’m quite confused with the matter, because the excellent TQs are not meeting my expectations, and I don’t finish hearing the improvement.
I think that, for now, I’ll keep them a little longer, maybe for a month or something longer, to see how they evolve, whatever they finally miss even hours and end up opening up and showing what would be expected. After this time and accustomed to the new sound, I will reinstall the Epic Performances, asses the impressions and make a final decision, either to maintain the Epic Performance and sell the TQ SD, or to keep the TQ SD (in which case I am clear that I will not get rid of the Chords).
My main conclusion at the moment would be this: a lot of warning with the speaker cables, because they seem to be tremendously system and, above all, room modes dependent, which makes, as in almost everything related to this world of HIFI, not always the most expensive or most rewarded will be the best, and therefore, always better to home demo, if you can, before committing.
In any case, I will update on the evolution and the decision in this same thread.
Greetings to the forum.
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Thanks for the detailed assessment which was certainly useful. Your experience just shows that expensive cables do not necessarily guarantee better results. Although I am aware the Epic Performance is a higher league cable than the Epic or Epic Twin, similarly I find the bass of the Epic to be very full with enveloping mids. After experiencing the Signature XL, the bass of the Epic sounds too full and lacks definition. But yes, the Epic has a very organic and lush sound.
I wonder how the Epic Performance sounds like in comparison to the Epic or Signature XL. Perhaps the sound is closer to the Signature XL than Epic.
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Before the Epic Performances I had the Epic Twins for 4 years; actually the distributor in Spain reconditioned my Epic Twins to Epic Performaces, simply putting together on the same cable a single connection, instead of the two of the Twin, and finishing them with bananas, which was possible since the previous speakers had them bi-amplified and therefore with two pairs of Epic Twins, from which came a single pair of Epic Performaces.
The sound of the Epic Performances is between that of the Epic Twin and the Signature, with the features and sound signature of the Epic Twins in terms of full bass and present and enveloping mids, but with the bass rather better solved, much more articulated and controlled, the mids somewhat more integrated into the frequency band, and the treble clearly more extended and widespread as well. IMHO, increasingly, seems to me the sweet spot in the Chord range (in the Performance version or in the current XL version, which they have surely tried to improve further), and a cable that in my system, in my room, and to my ears, adapts and integrates perfectly, with a value for money difficult to beat.
Update…
The truth is that the cables are settling and opening additionally, with a substantial improvement in the overall SQ. However, to try to finally tune the system, trying to slightly highlight the mids and bass without lossless of its current articulation, and to be able to make an informed decision, I will homedemo, without purchase commitment, three additional cables: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond jumpers, Tellurium Q Black Power Cable (from the IsoTek strip to the MF NuVista Integrated), and Tellurium Q Black Diamond RCA Interconnect (from NDX2 to the MF NuVista Integrated). They arrive next Wednesday…
To be continue…
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I was just wondering on the reason Chord Sarum T(or Music) is not in your list of cables to audition. I have read good things about the higher range Chord and the price of a 4m pair is around the Tellurium Q Silver Diamonds range.
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Why is it the same brands over and over? Is it the cost thing? I can think numerous cables that would be great to audition.
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Yes, a cost thing. Forget about the question.
I find it interesting to read experiences on other cables than Chord or Superlumina. Let’s encourage shared experience with other brands, specially if they work in synergy with Naim.
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When it comes to speaker cable, I’ve always found TQ to be really good… certainly better having it as an option than not.
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Yes, I also thought in the Chord Sarum T, they were in my short list, in fact the current jumpers, which have been working with the Chord Epic Performance, are Sarum T; but the problem was that they are run by another distributor, and there was no possibility to homedemo them. So, having to decide on the blind buy, it seemed to me that the Silver Diamonds were better and could do good synergy and integration in the system.
The Chord Music are very priced, which goes a little bit of what I think is more than reasonable, I could not homedemo them either, and it gives me the impression that their caliber 10 AWG with those tremendous T covers would give me problems for their installation (because they must make a couple of angles).
Here at least, it is not a cost thing, but rather of market and offer, because outside Chord, TQ, AudioQuest, Wireworld and Nordost, there is practically no easy access to anything else; and the ones that convince me the most in quality-price-synergy are Chord, TQ and AudioQuest, but the latter coming from the USA come with an important mark up that greatly raises its price.
The problem for speakers cables, for me, is that I need 2X 6 meters. I can’t order and return after.
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It’s the same case in here; very difficult to audition, and still more to homedemo.
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Have you tried contacting the distributor directly for a home demo of the chord cables? Gordon is really helpful, I would be surprised if he couldn’t hook you up.
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