What Hi-Fi? Verdict
Agile, fun and nuanced, the QED would do well in pretty much any system
Pros
- +
Entertaining, energetic sound
- +
detail and nuance abound
Cons
- -
Slightly lean bass robs midrange of body
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We’ve long been fans of QED’s interconnects, so we were interested to see how this previous five-star product stacked up against our current Award-winner, Chord’s CrimsonPlus interconnect, in our listening rooms.
So, we duly hooked it up between a Cyrus CD 6 SE CD player and Roksan Caspian M2 integrated amp, with ATC SCM11 stand-mounted speakers completing the system, and set Radiohead’s In Rainbows spinning.
Compared with the Chord there’s less immediate composure, but what you lose in precision you gain in bounce. Where the CrimsonPlus keeps dynamics under tight (if still expressive) control, the QED lets the music bound along with more agility.
There’s bags of detail on offer, too, and vocals chime through clearly on a track such as Stacey Kent’s Postcard Lovers. There’s no disputing this cable’s facility with subtlety.
What stops it getting the full five stars, however, is a slightly lean quality to its bass performance. True, this is the spring from which all that agility emerges – bit it robs the midrange of some body, which can get tiring to listen to at times.
Overall, though, this is a very capable interconnect.
See all our analogue interconnect reviews
