What cable is this?

Hi-Fi Corner
1

Can someone with more experience than me tell if this is an actual Chord Chrysalis DIN-RCA or a butchered Naim DIN cable with the the RCA connectors retrofitted?

The reason I ask is that I recently started using it to connect my streamer to my amp in place of a Chord Clearway cable and much preferred the SQ (a bit more “oomph” and dynamics). However, after a week or so the left channel failed. No idea why, other than it had been unused for a few years.

Thanks.

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Yes. Chord chrysalis. I have the same.
Maybe the solder joints on the DIN side need to be redone.
I had a similar issue with a DIN to DIN 5 pin lavender interconnect for the NAT05

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4

Yep, agree with @anon17458420, I have an identical one connecting a Hugo to XS3. It is almost certainly a genuine Chord chrysalis cable. Hope you work out what’s up.

…with added photo

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Ok, thanks a lot. Good to find out and I’ll investigate repairing.

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Excellent. Two hits for Chrysalis in the first two replies so I can be pretty confident I know it’s a Chrysalis! Thank you.

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Ah yes, that looks the same. Do you happen to know what “level” cable this was in the Chord range? Or what would be the equivalent now?

I couldn’t find much about it and I didn’t buy it in the first place. It was given to me by a dealer so I assume it is entry level.

Thanks.

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I’m not sure to be honest. Given I’ve owned it since my more financially insecure days, I strongly suspect entry level :wink:

IIRC though the cable and termination/plugs is equivalent to the Naim standard supplied “lavender” interconnect, and sounds great to me.

Check out the Naim equivalent on this thread:

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9

Back when the Chrysalis was current, it was an entry level cable but they also didn’t have the extensive high end range they do now. It was about GBP 40 and considered on par or a bit better than Naim lavender or the stock Linn interconnects. It was considered the “correct” 3rd party interconnect of choice if you had Naim or Linn in the 90s.

I had a few RCA-DIN I used with an A60 and a bunch of RCA-RCA I used in an AV setup and felt it was extremely good for the money.

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I have both Chrysalis and Cobra din to rca examples.

Which of the two was considered the better cable in the hierarchy?

I like the “solidity” of the Cobra, but might prefer the
high end of the Chrysalis.

Thanks

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I remember the Cobra by name only sorry.

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Yup, that’s definitely a legit Chord Chrysalis - a later one too judging by the RCA phono plugs.

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In the context of a Naim system, late Chrysalis is hard to beat.

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14

Looks like genuine Chord to me

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15

Thanks for all the replies. It is clearly well regarded so perhaps worth seeing if it can be repaired.

16

In my chrysalis failure in one channel was due to a break inside the offending channel’s phono plug, DIN was ok.

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17

I’m still running Chrysalis between Qutest and SN1, sounding superb.

18

May I ask what is the benefit of an RCA to DIN cable vs an RCA to RCA cable?

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I did not have the option to use RCA to RCA on my NAIT 3. The CD player I ran only had RCA, the amp only DIN, so I had to run a RCA to DIN cable. I could run RCA to RCA now, between Hugo and XS3, but that would mean buying a new cable, so I run the RCA to DIN.

DIN does have advantages over RCA, I’m not sure if the advantages remain if you do not run DIN at both ends. But here comes an expert… :slight_smile:

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20

Have a read of the FAQ about why Naim favour the use of DINs:

There are performance advantages even when only one end uses the DIN connector.

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21

Thanks!
Interesting read.
For an RCA to DIN wouldn’t it be better to have a a DIN cable (single cable) ending with a split to 2 RCA plugs, rather then the other way round like in the exampled Chord cable above, where it looks like a double RCA cable that is joined at one end into a DIN connector. ?

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