What Hi-Fi? Verdict
This provides worthwhile gains in performance – and plenty of them
Pros
- +
An effective upgrade for both audio and video equipment
Cons
- -
Won’t suit every product
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‘Big Orange' turns out not to be Dale Winton after all. It's an Ecosse mains cable so virulently orange that it looks like it might have been nicked from a Flymo.
In that respect it's not dissimilar to the original Big Orange mains lead we awarded four stars to more than half a decade ago.
In the intervening time, Ecosse has fiddled with many aspects of the content and construction of the cable – the number and arrangement of conductors, the insulation, the mains plug at one end and the three-pin connection at the other.
The result is this Mk2+. The benefits over a standard, free-in-the-box mains cable are abundant.
Used in a video discipline, the Ecosse offers greater certainty where movement and edges are concerned, deepens black shades and offers great punch to high-contrast scenes. Colours are bolder, details more numerous.
Benefits with video and audio
Gains are of a similar order when the Big Orange Mk2+ is introduced to audio equipment.
General clarity and midrange bite are improved, while low frequencies dig a little deeper and hit a little more solidly.
There's a hint of hardness to high-volume high frequencies – just a suggestion that the Ecosse won't suit more strident-sounding equipment – but this caveat doesn't spoil the overall performance.
So, while the Mk2+ isn't cheap, it's an upgrade more cost-effective than most.
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