Chord unleashes ultra high quality RCA cable

[John Archer]

Following is the press release from The Chord Company about their new Indigo RCA interconnect…

”Indigo was designed in response to the extended bandwidth speakers that are becoming so common.

Indigo is produced to an extremely high tolerance and optimised for analogue signal transmission. It is a low capacitance design with extremely minimal high-frequency attenuation, making it ideal for accurate wide-bandwidth signal transfer.

The shielding system is similar to the award-winning Signature RCA cable but all components are silver-plated for improved conductivity. The central conductor is comprised of unique, stranded, silver-plated oxygen-free copper conductors and is surrounded by a Teflon dielectric.

The Indigo cable is a fully balanced configuration and is assembled in a way that optimises send/return signal transfer. It is constructed using a direct connected return and signal path. All signal path components are silver-plated and all the connections are made with a high silver content lead-free solder.

The impedance is completely stable along the length of the cable. The shield, based on the ideas used in Signature interconnects and speaker cable, has been left fully floating.

The most striking visual feature of the new Chord Indigo RCA is the unique machined acrylic plug casing. More than just a beautiful object, the plug casing is made from specially chosen acrylic plastics material that has truly outstanding vibration damping properties. Precision machined to an exacting tolerance from bonded solid acrylic block and diamond polished, the plug casing shrouds an ultra low-mass silver-plated earth connection and is designed to fit so that it damps any resonances.

The plug has a tapered strain relief profile which avoids any direct clamping pressure on the cable itself, crucial to obtaining the best possible performance and the most consistent impedance.

Overall the performance gain from the new RCA plug has been something of a revelation. It is a logical extension of Chord’s existing designs but the improvements in tonality and timing have taken even Chord by surprise.

Available from Chord stockists now at a suggested retail price of £925 for a 1m cable.”

[AndrewTheMuppet]

Yeah....
Think I'll get some of those for my 40 quid Bush CD Player....

NOT.

Anyone who pays a grand for an interconnect has lost it big time.
I bet they don't sound £850 better than a 50 quid pair.

[richie007bond]

i agree nearly 1k for a cord, thats total madness who in there right mind would fork out that kind of money.The difference would br subtle at best,seems to me that some people have more money than sense,1 metre.... sheer Madness

[MJG1985]

How can a review of a cable be that in-depth. CRAAAZZZZEEEYYYY
The worst thing is, it probably costs about £20 to make!

Certainly wouldn't want the cat to chew through it.

[niceguy235uk]

I have to say, that being a Chord user i cant really see that sort of money going into an interconnect. But then, i do know of someone on this forum who has gone for it, and likes it apparently!

[kishoo]

Likewise,

I too also took the plunge and 'Chorded' my system....

The Indigo is a superb cable and an advancement on the already superb Signature...

Just be warned your sources and amplification must be up to the challenge...


Kishoo

[RhythMick]

I have one of these cables for sale on ebay if interested.

[Peterkinxl5]

I was priveliged to actually audition the complete Chord range of speaker cables and interconnects last week. The nice thing was that I could hear a difference with every interconnect/speaker cable interconnect from the Crimson/Carnival Silver Screen right up to the Indigo Plus/Signature cable.

IMHO, Chord offer an incredibly detailed yet neutral presentation and better than my previous combination of VDH/QED.

Hardware was Roksan Kandy K2 Amp/CD and speakers were B+W 685's on FS700 speaker stands. Music was on CD via Michael Buble and Eva Cassidy.

No Mains conditioning nor audiophile power leads were used.

The most noticable difference was when upgrading the interconnect though an improvement did also come via the speaker cable.

A cost/quality peak was reached at the Anthem/Oddessy level and furthur improvements were less and less noticeable.

With more expensive equipment and perhaps a high quality SACD source those differences may have been more pronounced.

Even so it would be an idea to see if you could audition something like an Indigo before purchase...


But for those who thinks a Chord Indigo sounds the same as a £50 interconnect...

Well I suppose it does if you are a mile away, wearing earplugs and a crash helmet with your system turned off in the middle of a severe thunderstorm with roadworks right next to you.

But that is of course IMHO

[Phill1978]

Originally Posted by Peterkinxl5

I was priveliged to actually audition the complete Chord range of speaker cables and interconnects last week. The nice thing was that I could hear a difference with every interconnect/speaker cable interconnect from the Crimson/Carnival Silver Screen right up to the Indigo Plus/Signature cable.

IMHO, Chord offer an incredibly detailed yet neutral presentation and better than my previous combination of VDH/QED.

Hardware was Roksan Kandy K2 Amp/CD and speakers were B+W 685's on FS700 speaker stands. Music was on CD via Michael Buble and Eva Cassidy.

No Mains conditioning nor audiophile power leads were used.

The most noticable difference was when upgrading the interconnect though an improvement did also come via the speaker cable.

A cost/quality peak was reached at the Anthem/Oddessy level and furthur improvements were less and less noticeable.

With more expensive equipment and perhaps a high quality SACD source those differences may have been more pronounced.

Even so it would be an idea to see if you could audition something like an Indigo before purchase...


But for those who thinks a Chord Indigo sounds the same as a £50 interconnect...

Well I suppose it does if you are a mile away, wearing earplugs and a crash helmet with your system turned off in the middle of a severe thunderstorm with roadworks right next to you.

But that is of course IMHO

do you work chord

[sergiup]

I was going to mention the story about self-confessed audiophiles not noticing the difference between expensive Monster cables and coat-hangers, but I won't.

...wait, I just did. Boo me

[RoughRider]

What amuses me is what is inside the boxes (I mean amp, speakers etc), circuit boards made of tiny strips of tin on plastic stuck to capacitors with blobs of solder - or whatever they are - one thing's for sure, highcapacity lowcapacitance silverplated tefloncoated oxygen-free copper that ain't.

Still if £1k meant to me what £50 currently means to me (since that's what I would spend on an interconnect today) I would buy them anyway. If you're that rich / it's that important to you, why not?

[Peterkinxl5]

Originally Posted by Phill1978

do you work chord

I'm employed in HiFi/AV Retail and sell Chord products but sadly I'm not employed byThe Chord Company-at least not yet.

As for thinking a £50 cable will be as good as a Chord Indigo Plus...

I'm certainly not wealthy, bear in mind as I posted earlier, I'm on Minimum wage + commission but I would acquire several Indigo + interconnects if I could. That is based on merit alone which had been demonstrated to me last week and as posted earlier.

Again if you find a £50 interconnect works in your system then fine...