Max Townshend is one of the stalwarts of the UK (and beyond) audio scene and is one of
the industry’s great characters. Over the years he and his company have introduced a number of innovative products, and not always without a degree of controversy. Here Janine Elliot takes a listen to the company’s Isolda loudspeaker cable costing £1141 for a pair of 3m lengths. 
Gryphon says that Vanta is “a new evolutionary step in Gryphon Cable production”.
Black Cat Cable’s standard termination for loudspeaker cables will be the new banana design by Chris Sommovigo for the sub-brand, XOX.
Continuing the introduction of the Carbon Series, to mark the Kimber Kable 40th anniversary, Russ Andrews brings the flagship Carbon 18XL loudspeaker cable to the UK.
HIFI PIG ADVERTISING PROMOTION
Hifi Pig brings you a series of promotional articles about the essential brands to have on your ‘go visit’ list at High End Munich 2019. Read on for more about their philosophy, their products and, of course, where they will be at this year’s High End Show.
Tellurium Q. 2019 – What a year… so far
British Cable manufacturer are calling their new cables ‘Affordcables’ because they say you can ‘wire a music system (paired with Minuet interconnects) and get change from £500’.
Chord Company has introduced an upgrade to two of its most popular loudspeaker cables. They have upgraded the two-decade-strong Rumour and popular Shawline, with the introduction of a new insulation material, XLPE. More »
Almost 20 years ago, AudioQuest introduced the first models of the Flat Rock Series of speaker cables: Slate, Bedrock, Granite and Gibraltar. Later AQ designed a series of similar concept models, but smaller and less expensive – using the in-house bridge name “Rockettes” for smaller Rocks. The series name evolved to simply Rocket, and in honour of a very famous Oldsmobile, Rocket 88 became the top model. Now AudioQuest have introduced a new line of cables. More »
For more than 30 years, TARA Labs has been manufacturing audio cables in Oregon, USA. They now are releasing their Apollo Extreme series which includes an interconnect and speaker cables, which are available in both stereo and bi-wire models. More »
Hifi Pig review of the latest cable from innovative UK company Wire On Wire. This time it is their 660 speaker cable that has, to say the least, an interesting, and configurable, geometry. Contains a video of the owner of Wire On Wire explaining the concept behind his cables. More »
Albedo are a Poland based company that go to great lengths (excuse the pun) with their cables’ manufacture. This goes all the way back to smelting the metals and drawing their own conductors. Dominic Marsh listens to their Monolith Reference Speaker and Interconnect cables to see if is all worth their effort. More »
The new speaker cable from Wire on Wire, with asymmetry at the heart of its design, is to launch at the North West Audio Show, 24-25th June, at Cranage Hall, Cheshire. More »
The Chord Company, will be demonstrating the benefits of its proprietary ARAY construction and its Taylon® insulation technology, at High End, Munich. More »
British cable manufacturer Tellurium Q got in touch to let us know why they have upgraded their Black speaker cable to the new Black II. More »
TARA Labs Design Team (TLDT) has worked over a year to come up with their new cable series, The Muse, which they say is “specifically designed for audiophiles who crave “musicality” in their audio system’s sound performance”. More »
As a French player in high fidelity for more than 35 years, Triangle has introduced a new collection of cables, which they say is “dedicated to optimising the performance of the loudspeakers, while guaranteeing the emblematic Triangle sound characteristics of extraordinary openness and dynamics. All LeCable products provide an excellent conductivity, ensuring a perfect and balanced transmission”. More »
UK based Black Rhodium, whose interconnects we reviewed previously, have released Rumba and Salsa loudspeaker cables which are based on design features of Black Rhodium’s Thunder, the highest quality loudspeaker cable in the Black Rhodium range. The special design features of Rumba and Salsa include the following. VS-4 vibration stabilisers to reduce distortion due to mechanical vibration. Mechanical vibration suppression materials used in construction. Silicone rubber insulation for low dielectric absorption. Thick wall insulation for lower ‘Proximity Effect’ magnetic distortion. Conductors wired in opposing direction for lower noise floor. Twisted conductors for low RFI, with additional RFI suppression. High quality rhodium plated connectors, plus they are all hand built at the Black Rhodium factory in Derby.
Specification of Black Rhodium Rumba Loudspeaker Cable
Outer diameter of cores 6.1mm
2.5 sq. mm plated copper cores
Silicone rubber insulation thickness: 1.4mm
Capacitance for 3m length: 90pF
Specification of Black Rhodium Salsa Loudspeaker Cable
Outer diameter of cores 5.9mm
4 sq. mm plated copper cores
Silicone rubber insulation thickness: 1.0mm
Capacitance for 3m length: 100pF
Rumba and Salsa will be available at these Retail Prices:
3m pair Rumba Loudspeaker Cable £700.00
5m pair Rumba Loudspeaker Cable £800.00
3m pair Salsa Loudspeaker Cable £950.00
5m pair Salsa Loudspeaker Cable £1150.00
Other lengths can be supplied to order with prices pro rata.
Leema Acoustics has launched a range of high-performance analogue and digital cables designed to complement its Welsh-built electronics. The new Reference 1 and Reference 2 ranges, comprise speaker cables plus several digital and analogue interconnects, all carefully built to specification. The range has been designed to ‘deliver incredible performance while offering striking value for money’. The cable configurations have been carefully specified by the ex-BBC sound engineers behind Leema Acoustics: Lee Taylor and Mallory Nicholls. Features include advanced continuously cast mono-crystal 6N-purity copper conductors, Teflon-insulation and Beryllium-copper plugs. The range includes the Reference 1 and Reference 2 interconnects, which comprise analogue cables in RCA and XLR terminations, digital cables in RCA, TOSLINK and USB configuration and loudspeaker cables.
All cables are available now, pricing in £ as follows:
Reference I interconnects
50 cm RCA-RCA 249.00
1m RCA-RCA 295.00
50cm XLR-XLR 295.00
1m XLR-XLR 345.00
Digital Optical 1m 175.00
50 cm Digital RCA 125.00
1m Digital RCA 150.00
USB cable 1m 145.00
Reference I speaker cable
3m pair terminated 445.00
5m pair terminated 549.00
Extra 1m (pair) 90.00
Reference II interconnects
50cm RCA 449.00
1m RCA 495.00
50cm XLR 495.00
1m XLR 549.00
USB cable 1m 485.00
Reference II speaker cable
3m pair terminated 900.00
5m pair terminated 1,500.00
Extra 1m (pair) 280.00
British audio cable manufacturer Atlas Cables had announced the launch of its Hyper 3.5 speaker cable. Engineered 
using similar principles learnt during the development their Mavros and recently launched Ascent cables, Hyper 3.5 is said to give a significant upgrade to users who wish to retain the overall character of their system yet improve the clarity, openness and accuracy normally associated with a component change.
Hyper 3.5 employs 72 x 0.25mm high-purity OFC conductor stands encapsulated within a carefully selected high efficiency PTFE (Teflon) dielectric coating. The resultant conductor is embedded within an anti-vibration filler and finished in the same gloss black sleeve in keeping with the Hyper family design.
Available in the UK now, the Atlas Hyper 3.5 speaker cable is priced at £40.00 inc. VAT per meter un-terminated. 2m factory-terminated pair (using Atlas’ 4mm Z-plugs or spades) has a UK SRP inc. VAT of £280.00.
