What Hi-Fi? Verdict
An attractive price and pleasant way with treble and vocals can’t quite redeem that lazy approach to bass
Pros
- +
Nice treble
- +
decent performance with vocals
- +
good build quality
Cons
- -
Tubby quality to bass
- -
less rhythmic precision than some rivals
Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.
The Black Rhodium Disco’s hefty weight and construction belie its £3.95/m price. If its build is anything to go by, this no-frills cable should be promising.
We plugged it in to a reference system consisting of an Audiolab 8200CD player, Roksan Caspian M2 integrated amplifier, ATC SCM11 standmounters and Chord CrimsonPlus interconnects – every one a previous Award-winner – and fired up a few CDs.
At first listen with Nine Days’ open-sounding End Up Alone, the first impression is one of reasonable airiness and agility.
There’s definite ability here – but as our session goes on, through tracks such as Radiohead’s All I Need and Sibelius’ Symphony No.5 in E-flat, Op. 82: I it becomes apparent that the Disco has a slightly lazy approach bass. It’s on the tubby side, robbing tracks of attack and tempering that rather nice treble.
Overall, it’s not a bad cable – and you certainly can’t argue with the price. But if you want precision in your low frequencies, you can do better.
