The Chord Company's Crimson interconnect has long been a budget favourite around these parts – now the company is upgrading the cable with the arrival of CrimsonPlus.Starting at £40 for a 1m stereo pair, the new cable features improved shielding – not only is each conductor in the twisted-pair configuration individually shielded, but there's now an additional heavy-gauge foil shield over the whole assembly. A hard PVC layer provides the final outer protection.The additional shielding is said to significantly reduce the noise floor, and also makes the cable even more suitable for use in long runs, for example between an amplifier and a subwoofer.The cable is fitted with Chord's own RCA plugs, hand-soldered in place, and uses the company's pseudo-balanced configuration, in which matched conductors are used rather than a single main conductor with the shield providing the return.The cable is available in a range of lengths, both with standard RCA plugs and DINs, and custom configurations can be made to order.Follow whathifi.com on Twitter