As befits a company rapidly closing in on its fifth decade at the forefront of speaker cable design, QED’s brand new XT40i speaker cable builds on the formidable reputation of the XT40 cable it replaces and offers a decisive step up in sound quality.
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This pure oxygen-free copper cable uses an evolution of QED’s established X-Tube technology to guarantee superb timing and stereo imaging, and adds the brand new and highly innovative Air Gap dielectric to bring unheard-of rhythmic accuracy and musicality to a cable of this modest price. Very low DC resistance adds unrivalled frequency response to XT40i’s already potent audio capability. The result is a cable that advances on the class-leading standards set by its predecessor.
By increasing the separation of the conductors inside the cable, and therefore the amount of air between them, QED has created a low-loss Air Gap dielectric. This technology halves the dissipation and capacitance characteristics of the cable, and results in numerous audible improvements - particularly where timing and rhythmic accuracy are concerned. Despite this increased separation, though, XT40i retains the sort of cross-sectional area that makes it ideal for long cable runs.
The 4mm2 cross sectional area means XT40 exhibits very low resistance, allowing amplifiers to exert outstanding control over the speakers they are driving. In addition, its large cross sectional area makes it suitable for long cable runs.
At low frequencies both X-Tube™ and conventional stranded/solid core speaker cables convey signals in a linear way. However, at high frequencies, X-TubeTM retains a near-linear signal transfer, whereas the conventional cables fail to conduct uniformly across the entire conductor area.
In standard speaker cables at high frequencies current flow is highest at the periphery with rapidly deteriorating current density towards the centre of the conductor.
The effect of this is to reduce the actual cross sectional area of the cable at 15kHz to less than 75% of that at low frequencies. This results in higher distortion and compromises the performance of the cable.
X-TubeTM with polycore technology exhibits much lower self-inductance and is therefore less affected by this problem. The polycore technology reduces loop inductance to levels only achievable using more costly and difficult to terminate cables.
The result is more high frequency detail, less distortion and greater performance.
I have had a factory terminated pair of XT40Is for about 3 years now, and I can honestly say that at their price point, I have heard no other cable at their price (or even many times higher) that perform as well as these do. High points:-Very wide and deep soundstage-Image precisely-Excellent detail, texture and timbre-Never bright or splashy-Highly musical, rhythmically surefooted-Very natural and well balanced-At ease with any kind of musicLow points:At this price point, you'd just be quibblingMost recently, I bought a long unterminated piece to internally wire a pair of speakers that I'm building for all of the forementioned reasons.Please note, they do take about 150-200 hours to fully come on - but be patient - it is so worth the wait!Very highly recommended!
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i had cheap cables on my new rotel a13mkii and when these miracle cables arrived and i installed them, it was like a veil was lifted from my speakers, i cannot recommend these cables enough, don't hesitate to buy them if quality affordable priced cables is what you are looking for. A+++
Went from from those flat $$$ cables to these with no regrets. I also purchased the 40I interconnects and love the impact they have made on the sound quality. The term " Walk your talk " well QED dose it 100%.
The original QED XT40 is an excellent cable but this new version beats it by a very long chalk. Add to this the superb level of construction by Analogue Seduction and you have a lovely cable that won't break the bank and which will keep you satisfied for years to come - or until QED trump it with the next version !!!!
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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