TQ Ultra Black impressions
I thought I might add something to the already favourable comments in one or two of the other TQ threads, regarding the Ultra Black speaker cables. Thanks to David Brook at MCRU, I've had a pair on loan for about three weeks .
I originally bought a pair of 'Blues' to try , and found them quite interesting, as they were rather better than my existing home-made cables ( 140/40 litz in cotton ) in the bass , with more extension and with a nice focus and 'togetherness' of the mids and bass . So, I loaned some 'Black' and this was significantly better with more low bass and better mid transparency . The top-end was still not quite on a par with the litz, however, despite quite a bit of running in .
So anyway, then I suddenly ended-up with some UB back at the house after our amateur meet in Owston , Doncaster. In the meeting, in good but non-optimal systems we could hear the difference , but back home here it was a lot more obvious . It is clear the UB is really a LOT better than the Black, the treble in particular is really clean and extended with lots of non-aggressive detail and tone , and surprisingly, better than my litz cables. Funnily enough, we noticed this at Owston, when we swapped about 4 cables around on an analogue system. I was in charge of putting the needle down on the test track each time . When I put the UB cables in, and put the needle down on the slightly crackly lead-in grooves of Jeff Beck's 'Blow by Blow' , my friend Nick ( Gorham ) was walking back to his chair and said "the crackles sound better - more tone" . I like products where you can do a quick review !
So anyway, since then it's been a 'new record collection' period . It works brilliantly on most things , particularly well recorded live LPs where it throws a huge wide and deep soundstage , plus you get the big room presence from the extended low-bass. It has the rare ability to have great dynamics and work well on rock, but also there's good tonal colour from bass to HF which allows it to work really well on all the nice folk/singer-songwriter/classical stuff too .There are a few times when I wince on some recordings, this being a product of the extreme transparency , plus the use of a compression driver ( Altec 288-H ) on one channel ( don't ask ! ) which doesn't take any prisoners , but really I can barely find anything to criticise, except that the price is a bit steep for most people - including me !
Unfortunately I'll have to return it soon, but I think there will be UB in my system at some stage in the next year or two - for now I'm likely to fall back to a set of the 'Green' , could be helpful while I get the three-way horn system sorted .
Comments
I have also heard UBs, and would dearly love to get my mits on a set. I suspect that wont happen though, but they were brilliant IMO. Even putting my speakers closer together wont make them doable!
I have never heard of a cable not performing at it's best at a shorter length (except for an S/PDIF cable). Why do you suppose that is?