I’ve actually had a chance previously to try the Ultra Blacks from Tellurium Q in my system, however it was at the same time as I had the opportunity to listen to the Iridium amp and so in all honesty everything else went out the window and my concentration was unintentionally fully focused on the Iridium and nothing else for the time I had with it.

So now with nothing else to stray my ears from the target I once again have the Ultra Black interconnects in for my undivided attention and review.

First of all I’ll pass judgement on their build quality which is very nice, flexible and they look sleek. I like the locking Tellurium Q TeCu RCAs as they are lightweight and low mass, something that some manufacturers fail to address all too often.

Routing them into the system is completely simple and I didn’t need to pull the rack out into the middle of the room to accommodate them or employ a two man team to bend them around to the neighbouring component.

Tellurium Q pride themselves on a simple “suck it and see” philosophy when offering their products rather than filling the mind with jargon and science to attain a somewhat preconceived idea of what to expects, so let’s switch on and have a listen…

The Sound

The first impression I had of the UB (Ultra Black) was how strong and focused the central focus was, how projected the vocals were and how clean the midrange was as a whole.

Bass notes are very full, a tad dry and with a great amount of weight. Bass extension rolls out separately to the punch, a beat can be heard and before you think “is that it” all of a sudden a rolling wave of extension spreads out across the room.

Top end is a little more relaxed than a lot of cables I’ve heard, it’s all there but the mids dominate a little more and there isn’t a complete evenness or balance from the treble through to the upper mids. The cables render vocals strongly and there isn’t that upper-mid treble harshness or glare that a lot of cables suffer from. It’s a very different presentation and my ears took a little while to get used to the sound as it’s so different to the Oriton Orange Symphonies that I use on a day to day basis (which have a far more relaxed midrange) but the UB really showed off some amazing details in the centre stage and completely placed the performance in front of the listener without an artificial spread or unnatural interpretation of the performance.

It’s easy to imagine a singer at the forefront of the stage and the band and/or speaker system being placed around the edges of the stage and further to the rear of the main focus of the vocalist.

I always have issues with cables that suck out the midrange and try to give an enhanced depth to the soundstage allowing for smaller finer details to sit closer to the listener to give an artificial “wow factor”. Personally I’d rather have the main artist at the forefront and be exposed as the star of the performance. Don’t get me wrong, there’s  bags of detail being conveyed by the cables here but not to the expense of over shadowing the vocals.

Also during first listening I kind of thought to my self “is this sounding a little disjointed”, but after exploring many different genres and vocals from both male and female artist I grew to appreciate what I was hearing.

There is a certain quality to the separation of the music with the Ultra Black interconnects – rather than having an overall wall of notes that blend into one another (with time smearing or added/extra decay) there were clear definitions and a quality of air and space around the individual sounds.

Vocals are strongly projected from centre stage, accompanying instruments have volume levels relative to their depth on the stage and lower bass notes have that slight delay before their respective sound waves roll out to the listener. I perceived some notes as being completely independent of the performance in various places in the room and they seemed to have little initial connection to the music but once adjusted I gained a respect for this completely spatial and defined effect –  if the notes were supposed to be over there then that’s where they were heard.

It seems as if the UB has such precision with regards to timing that it gives a presentation which is very different to virtually every cable I’ve ever heard, no bloom, added decay, colouration or drag.

It’s simply on point, to the point and all there for you to hear.

I’m not going to add a conclusion to this review, I will just add that the UB is a cable of very different characteristics to any I’ve ever heard and it took me a little adjusting to this sound, but I have a great respect for what they do and they certainly stand out from the crowd with their unique character.

Now if this sounds like something that would suit you then do what Tellurium Q suggest and try it for yourself.

Build Quality – 8.5/10
Sound Quality 8 /10
Value for Money 8.5/10
Overall – 8.3/10

Recommended for their bold and unique approach to reproducing music accurately and with great timing.

Price at time of review – £380 – 1m Pair

Author – Danny Worth

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