What Hi-Fi? Verdict
One for long listening sessions, the Viper II sadly falls down a little when it comes to precision
Pros
- +
Smooth, easygoing sound
- +
reasonably engaging performance
Cons
- -
Doesn’t have the precision of the best
- -
dynamics a little lacking
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.
Solidly built, but no-nonsense. That’s how we’d sum up the TCI Viper II’s construction. And that’s a good thing – after all, we’d rather our money went on decent sound quality than bling…
We connected it between our reference Cyrus CD6 SE CD player and Roksan Caspian M2 integrated amp (with ATC SCM11 speakers completing the setup), set Joan Osborne’s One Of Us spinning and were immediately struck by its smoothness.
It delivers an easygoing performance that doesn’t grate in the high-frequencies, but doesn’t quite have the rhythmic or dynamic precision of the likes of Chord’s multi-Award-winning CrimsonPlus or Merlin’s Mozart interconnects.
That’s not to say it can’t do exciting, though – it might not be as on-the-money with rhythms as the Mozart, but it does counter this with a slightly more engaging performance.
If you’re not fussed about some slightly wayward timing, then give the Viper II a listen.
See all our hi-fi cable reviews
Follow whathifi.com on Twitter
