The English company Tellurium Q does not make life easy for us reviewers. They do publish absolutely nothing, nada, nil, zero of the tricks they use when designing and manufacturing cables.
Of course, there are some trade secrets that they don’t wanna share, but hey just a tiny information passing our way, dear Tellurium? Nope, not a single word.
OK, we just have to use our imagination then, and our ears, which off course could do it I guess. I am used to them at all, those ears that is ;)
Tellurium Q has also succeeded in building amplifiers, though they are not mentioned on their website at the time of writing, and the brand now designed 9 different speaker cables, two Power Cables, and of course loads of digital and analog RCA, XLR, DIN, USB, and Phono cables.
The Tellurium guys can also show off with six products of the year in 2014. And also Hi-Fi World Globes in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010. And also Hi-Fi Plus´ Product of the Year in 2010. Not bad for a relatively new company on the market for cables, which many people still call a snake-oil-business. The distribution now is on the good side of approx. 30 countries, and still counting.
Of course, there are some trade secrets that they don’t wanna share, but hey just a tiny information passing our way, dear Tellurium? Nope, not a single word.
OK, we just have to use our imagination then, and our ears, which off course could do it I guess. I am used to them at all, those ears that is ;)
Tellurium Q has also succeeded in building amplifiers, though they are not mentioned on their website at the time of writing, and the brand now designed 9 different speaker cables, two Power Cables, and of course loads of digital and analog RCA, XLR, DIN, USB, and Phono cables.
The Tellurium guys can also show off with six products of the year in 2014. And also Hi-Fi World Globes in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010. And also Hi-Fi Plus´ Product of the Year in 2010. Not bad for a relatively new company on the market for cables, which many people still call a snake-oil-business. The distribution now is on the good side of approx. 30 countries, and still counting.
Inside
A little insight do we get though, from TQ´s homepage: “To minimise vibration and noise, each RCA connector is sealed with an anti micro-phone compound to damp excess vibration in that part of the signal path. This helps to enhance the silent background in your system.”
“Just like all our cables the Digital RCA cables are hand built for performance in the UK. The idea that improving the digital signal path affects digital sound was frankly, laughable but is just now becoming more accepted as people hear the results. A digital signal is not just an immediate on or off, 1 or 0 as you would expect. Yes that is the way that the digital signal is read but to turn a signal on and off takes minute amounts of time and any inaccuracy in the signal path can affect this on / off information because it affects the rise time of the waveform and this is one factor that leads to errors.
We are so pleased with our research into this phenomenon that we have applied for a patent on the series called “Waveform II”. It’s this that takes these cables to new levels in digital RCA/BNC. We recommend the use of BNC adaptors with this cable for BNC connection. Hopefully this development underlines the wrong headed idea that a digital signal is either a 1 or 0 (on or off) which completely forgets how and why a digital signal works. It is not a magical switch that flips from one state to another instantaneously with no regard for the laws of physics, these “1s” and “0s” are electrical signals which are affected in many of the same ways that other signals can be affected.”
Burning down the house
Tellurium Q have also just have released their first CD. But it´s not music as you know it, it´s a Burn-in-CD with three tracks, meaning to give your HiFi system a good work out. And does it work (out)? You bet it does. Not only me, but also some of my HiFi buddies where very, very impressed with what happened. The tracks are mostly sounding like some quite New Age music playing, and are giving your stereo some real exercise. It takes about an hour to play track 2 which is the main track for burning in. Track 3 is for the weekly exercise, and takes approx. 10 minutes. And track 1 is a simple (but useful) test for identifying your left and right speaker (and cabling off course). So while you have to walk the dog (or wife, or both) anyway, you can put the disc on repeat while you are out. And I promise you, you definitely think you got your ears cleaned when you come back. And the CD also works wonders in a computer system. It seems as just every component in the HiFi system favours of this exercise. The sound is absolutely more open and flows just more easy all the way from the source to the speakers. Weird, but true. And as the “Cable and System Preparation / Refresh” CD is just ideal for burning in cables, we really, really recommend you to spend the 20 English Pounds extra while shopping for cables.
This Ultra Silver Cable is the replacement for the Graphite which is about 740 UK Pounds. How good is this piece of wire/art you might ask. I am from the south of the western part in Denmark called Jutland. Those people previous working hard as fishermen and farmers are not easy to impress. So when they say: “it could be worse”, they actually mean it’s very, very good. And when they say: “it’s not bad” they in between the lines say: it’s world class. So when I tell you: “this is very, very good” I hope you draw your own conclusions. Or let me translate to proper language known by the most of us: this is the most precise, musical, enjoying digital cable I have ever heard. Period!
This Ultra Silver Cable is the replacement for the Graphite which is about 740 UK Pounds. How good is this piece of wire/art you might ask. I am from the south of the western part in Denmark called Jutland. Those people previous working hard as fishermen and farmers are not easy to impress. So when they say: “it could be worse”, they actually mean it’s very, very good. And when they say: “it’s not bad” they in between the lines say: it’s world class. So when I tell you: “this is very, very good” I hope you draw your own conclusions. Or let me translate to proper language known by the most of us: this is the most precise, musical, enjoying digital cable I have ever heard. Period!
Mus!c
When I listen to the beautiful song “Hard Headed Woman” from Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman, (24/192) I hear a wide soundstage. The guitar to the right is just … right! The strings and the deep cello do come from within deep inside of the soundstage, and when the drums set in in the middle of the song, I am one big smile. This album was recorded when I still was a teenager, and still the sound is just awesome. The TQ reveals just about everything of this album, soft strings, deep electric bass, Stevens (he later changed his name to Yusuf Islam) wonderful voice. It’s a very wide (now listening to the track Wide World!) soundstage, with the sounds panned to the extreme left/right. This cables spatial sound image is more wide open then any other cable I have put my ears on. It’s just beautifully sounding, with loads of details and music flowing from the speakers. Give me more, more I pray, even if I know that the listening session soon will be over. But I just have to listen to every track on this album because this cable does something very great for the good-feeling … And for the give-me-more-music type of guy in front of my hifi system. One thing I suddenly was aware of during this listening sessions, was that I absolutely did not wanted to go out for a coffee, a walk or just some time off in front of the iPad … I just wanted to sit and enjoy music, for hours and hours (now my clock says 21:09, when I started to listen today it was about 9’ o clock). And still my ears are not tired or damaged as they sometimes can be with too many hours of critically HiFi judging.
The next guest in my room was Paul Simon (you know, I often just let the great software ROON decide the tracks I listen too), he was singing “Love And Hard Times”. Again the acoustic strings on the song was just soft, yet precise so they don’t get lost in the big soundstage. And Simons voice was presented perfect and rock solid just in front of the speakers.
In my left speaker then another acoustic guitar arrived, ROON had chosen “Madman Across The Water” performed by Sir Elton John. This album is from 1970, the sound is quite good, not perfect though.
I needed some more up to date music, I told to myself. “Hedonism” with Skunk Anansie was randomly chosen from my hard disc. Not exactly modern, but a very good track to judge the TQ cables way to deal with high energy music. The music has some strong passages where the band plays quite heavy, the last seconds of the song is soft again. And the sound never got the “to much” feeling where you just want to turn down the volume, or even worse, shut down the HiFi system.
And now to something completely different. Norwegian 2L makes some VERY good sounding classical recordings. I cued up a track @ 352 kHz and 24 bit. And I just sat there staring at the “orchestra”. Haydn´s String Quartet in D. Op. 76, No.5 - Finale, Presto was this track, performed by Engegaard Quartet. A wonderful timbral balance and a homogenous sound was emerging from the speakers. Bravissimo!
And also the Vivaldi Aria from Cantata RV 679 (192/24) was rendered just perfectly. The soprano singer Tone Wik slightly to the right, the strings playing as if it was a matter of course. The sound of envelopment is quite fascinating, I am drawn into the music. Again this is a 2L track, and as always beautifully recorded.
Also the Camerata Chamber Choir performing “Hark All Ye Lovely Saints” could create real goosebumps in my happy listeners seat.
I also would ask you to take a listen to the three guitar Gods who made the album “Friday Night In San Francisco” with this TQ cable. It’s an incredibly open and wide soundstage, with loads of dynamics. OMG I have to turn down the volume, maybe not all my neighbours wants to hear what I hear. On the other hand, this sounds so great, maybe my nearby resident will love the music and the sound too?
With this TQ cable you can look into and right through the artists performance. And that’s what’s it all about, if you ask me. This cable is doing everything just right - though I don’t know how it is constructed and designed. What I know is that the sound is more lively, more intriguing and more open wide in all directions, so you as the listener just want more and more of this beautiful rendered music.
I’ll give this TQ cable 6 out of 5 stars, my dear friends.
Please don’t just take my word for it, go get it for yourself and give this Tellurium Q Ultra Silver Digital Cable a thorough listen. This is GOOD!!!
Some extra bonus notes for our readers:
A very nice quote from TQ´s website: “Research is our passion and our customers are the beneficiaries of this.”
2. Even the name was new to me, I had to look it up, and found this information on good ol´ Wiki: link
3. monoandstereo.com has done a review of the TQ´s loudspeaker cable too:
http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/06/tellurium-q-silver-diamond-speaker.html
Tellurium Q Ultra Silver Digital Cable
https://www.telluriumq.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1458 251 997
Approx. £740
https://www.telluriumq.com
Tel: +44 (0) 1458 251 997
Approx. £740
Text and photos: Kurt Lassen