Tellurium Q Black speaker cable - What's that about then?
I have been playing with Colin's new Tellurium Q Black speaker cables for a while, and I promised to share my thoughts here, so here goes nothing. If you want to know a bit about why TQ cable is apparently different from other cables, this page from Tq's website has some graphs and stuff, where they try to explain what's going on in layman's terms without actually telling you what's going on, if you get my drift.
TQ Black isn't just another cable, in my opinion. There is something of a split personality about it - as a basic cable only (leaving aside it's particular 'talents' for just a minute) its really very good, perhaps just a little warm. My normal speaker cable is also very good, extremely deep in the bass, high in the treble, etc etc. It is so clean, just getting out of the way of the music completely.
So on first listening to TQ I was left ambivalent; I thought that as a basic cable, TQ was not quite as stellar as the cable I'm used to, but close. So why the forum fuss? (You should understand my comments are in comparison to NVA LS5.) The treble seemed ever so slightly recessed in comparison to the NVA. The dynamics are just as strong, but the deepest bass seemed very slightly recessed also. A good start, but what's the fuss about?
Well, there is something interesting going on with TQ Black (the other side of the split personality), and it's taking me a while to put my finger on it (not quite there yet). To put it crudely, the 'shape' of the sounds is more clearly defined (I feel such a moron describing this stuff).
I think I am referring to the leading edge of each note, which includes (but isn't limited to) attack, and slam in the lower registers. Every note's position in space and time feel perfectly framed, each note is a separate event that can be analysed as a single thing, or takes as a whole within the music. The way notes tail off is finely portrayed, I used to hear that only when I played in ensembles myself at school. These effects are made all the more realistic through excellent imaging.
I am noticing texture that is utterly compelling, like the wood in
an acoustic guitar or a cello, or whether a drummer is using wood or nylon tip sticks, the timbre from the alloy the cymbals are made of, stuff like that... in particular the rasp of brass
instruments is brilliant.
Where TQ does really well is in things I really can't describe, like the musical and emotive information that has to be handled so sensitively. Somehow, I find myself kind of forgetting about the HiFi system. That has to be a good thing. That's also one reason why it's hard to reach a conclusion about it - I've listened to lots of music and almost forgotten to assess the stupid speaker wire!
TQ write about phase distortion on their website as being a big problem. I think I can understand why, having heard the Black cable for a week now. One other effect is that louder listening really is less fatiguing than before.
This is all very hard to qualify, far less quantify. No-one should really listen to what I have said here, as your room is very different to mine, as is your personal tastes, your system, and on top of that you might not hear any of what I have described in the same way as I. You might even hear something else and completely disagree with me, but I am confident in this: TQ speaker cable does something a bit different to other 'normal' cables and is worth a listen. Preferably in your own system, because the difference builds on what your system already does; nothing very drastic changes but what you have might well sound better. Its almost like upgrading an amp or a CD player/DAC, swapping it out for another one further up the same range. Its all good, just more of the same.
Sometime soon I will swap my LS5 back in to see whether or not I am missing anything without them. At the current state of play, I feel the LS5 maybe slightly better at certain things, but the magic the TQ Blacks bring to the party outweighs the difference in musical terms.
TQ Black isn't just another cable, in my opinion. There is something of a split personality about it - as a basic cable only (leaving aside it's particular 'talents' for just a minute) its really very good, perhaps just a little warm. My normal speaker cable is also very good, extremely deep in the bass, high in the treble, etc etc. It is so clean, just getting out of the way of the music completely.
So on first listening to TQ I was left ambivalent; I thought that as a basic cable, TQ was not quite as stellar as the cable I'm used to, but close. So why the forum fuss? (You should understand my comments are in comparison to NVA LS5.) The treble seemed ever so slightly recessed in comparison to the NVA. The dynamics are just as strong, but the deepest bass seemed very slightly recessed also. A good start, but what's the fuss about?
Well, there is something interesting going on with TQ Black (the other side of the split personality), and it's taking me a while to put my finger on it (not quite there yet). To put it crudely, the 'shape' of the sounds is more clearly defined (I feel such a moron describing this stuff).
I think I am referring to the leading edge of each note, which includes (but isn't limited to) attack, and slam in the lower registers. Every note's position in space and time feel perfectly framed, each note is a separate event that can be analysed as a single thing, or takes as a whole within the music. The way notes tail off is finely portrayed, I used to hear that only when I played in ensembles myself at school. These effects are made all the more realistic through excellent imaging.
I am noticing texture that is utterly compelling, like the wood in
an acoustic guitar or a cello, or whether a drummer is using wood or nylon tip sticks, the timbre from the alloy the cymbals are made of, stuff like that... in particular the rasp of brass
instruments is brilliant.
Where TQ does really well is in things I really can't describe, like the musical and emotive information that has to be handled so sensitively. Somehow, I find myself kind of forgetting about the HiFi system. That has to be a good thing. That's also one reason why it's hard to reach a conclusion about it - I've listened to lots of music and almost forgotten to assess the stupid speaker wire!
TQ write about phase distortion on their website as being a big problem. I think I can understand why, having heard the Black cable for a week now. One other effect is that louder listening really is less fatiguing than before.
This is all very hard to qualify, far less quantify. No-one should really listen to what I have said here, as your room is very different to mine, as is your personal tastes, your system, and on top of that you might not hear any of what I have described in the same way as I. You might even hear something else and completely disagree with me, but I am confident in this: TQ speaker cable does something a bit different to other 'normal' cables and is worth a listen. Preferably in your own system, because the difference builds on what your system already does; nothing very drastic changes but what you have might well sound better. Its almost like upgrading an amp or a CD player/DAC, swapping it out for another one further up the same range. Its all good, just more of the same.
Sometime soon I will swap my LS5 back in to see whether or not I am missing anything without them. At the current state of play, I feel the LS5 maybe slightly better at certain things, but the magic the TQ Blacks bring to the party outweighs the difference in musical terms.
Comments
"Cable directionality is a audible phenomenon. Indeed cable performance can vary with even more obscure factors than this. I have found with solid core cable it is possible to create directionality over a period of time. It's as if the cable beds-in when used aligned one way. If you then reverse one of the cables it can sound worse. But if left, it will bed-in once more over a period of time."
:-D
I think I understand - in the loosest possible sense - what you are talking about in the post about skin effect and silver on copper. When I swap the LS5 back in it will be interesting to see if I can observe that or not.
I did say I felt the TQ was somehow rolled off at the extremes, that perhaps the LS5 had wider bandwidth, and that although I preferred the TQ cable I still had this niggling doubt...
Well I don't doubt no more!
As for the rest of my ramblings, I am afraid I can't see how to make them make more sense (just can't express what I want to say properly without sounding all pretentious). How to explain what this cable does differently? The TQ cables have this knack of getting the dynamics spot on - dynamics of each individual instrument within the soundstage that is. In my opinion, these cables still do something pretty unique, or rather lets my equipment do it. Oddly, my amp ran hotter with LS5 (which it was designed for) than the TQ, perhaps it is just allowing my rig to sing.