Top of the trio in Transparent's Premium series, and now in fifth generation guise, the (upgradable) Ultra combines a cable and filter network.
There's a very clear philosophy at work in all Transparent's cables: that 'wires' are unavoidable, so their bandwidth should be constrained to an appropriate range, banishing the egress of RF noise, and their lumped parameters – inductance, capacitance and resistance – be 'managed' to maintain a consistent and predictable performance regardless of the cable length. This, in a nutshell, is the rationale behind the in-line filter network that's part-and-parcel of every Transparent cable.
Cryogenic treatment, a patented demagnetisation process and silver/gold ‘dosing’ lie at the heart of Furutech’s latest flagship speaker cables
It’s all about the copper in Furutech’s cables. Even the geometry of this flagship NanoFlux design is fairly conventional, as is the multistrand conductor style and ‘audio grade’ PE (polyethylene) dielectric that binds it. The carbon-fibre sleeving of those bright, rhodium-plated plugs/spades and ferrite clamp certainly adds to the exquisite finish of these supremely well built cables, but it’s what you can’t see that really makes the difference – Furutech’s proprietary ‘Alpha Nano-Au-Ag OCC Pure Transmission Conductors’.
Naim’s meticulous engineering of its Statement amplifier did not stop with the bespoke alloy casework, but extended to the speaker cable itself.
During the development of its flagship Statement amplifiers [HFN Jun ’15], Naim Audio went into exquisite detail, even defining the silicon substrate and legs of its custom transistors. So while analysing every component and length of PCB track, Naim Audio also turned an engineering eye towards the cables that might accompany its ‘ultimate amplifier’. Its Super Lumina cable is the result, priced at £650 per terminated stereo metre (£3245 for a 5m stereo pair).
As one of the brands that kick-started the cable revolution, QED has always emphasised value in its designs. The Supremus flagship is no exception.
What began with its 42-strand and 79-strand speaker cables has seen QED on a journey of discovery culminating 40 years later in this flagship Supremus offering. Closer in physical bulk and generally unwieldiness to a hawser than a speaker cable, QED's new top-of-the range wire has almost nothing in common with the figure-of-eight-shaped 79-strand cable that was in the vanguard of that early subjective revolution.
Top of the trio in Transparent's Premium series, and now in fifth generation guise, the (upgradable) Ultra combines a cable and filter network.
Cryogenic treatment, a patented demagnetisation process and silver/gold ‘dosing’ lie at the heart of Furutech’s latest flagship speaker cables
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