The £4 (£2) Interconnect That Saw Off A £500 Set.

[icehockeyboy]

Some years ago, on a different planet, well, a different forum to be more precise I posted about an amazing "find"

Perusing the junk box in an Empire store in Derby as it was just about to close down, I happened across a pair of non descript ic's for the princely sum of £2, half price in fact.

I bought them in case I ever needed to be without the quality ones I had at the time, which were £600 Black Rhodium Oratorio's.

Having decided to sell the BR's a month or three later (can't recall what was to replace them) and a sale agreed, I brought out the £2 jobs, assuming they would be only just better than the freebie ones normally supplied with the relevant kit.

To say I was gobsmacked would be an understatement!
I could not believe the sound via these stupidly priced and not very sexy to look at ic's could sound so good, so being mates with the team at the now sadly closed Sevenoaks in Nottingham, I took them in un announced, and asked if we could do a blind test, (in as much as only I knew which cables were in use at the time.)

Their most expensive Chord Signatures at well over £500 were connected between some top end MF kit, into some equally expensive speakers, Spendors possibly, can't recall!

Three people were in the shop, two staff, and a Sevenoaks guy from Sheffield I think it was.

Music was played, cables were swapped over, more music played, making sure that the volume was constant at a certain setting, and more swapping and listening took place over the next hour.

The conclusion? Well I'm sure you can guess, otherwise you didn't read the header of the post!

All of them picked my £2 ic over the Chord Siggy, with the usual "air around the instruments" type of talk only we of the slightly mental hifi ilk use!

Why have I decided to recall this story? I just found them again, and decided to see if I believed they still cut the mustard......pleased to report they do, albeit the fact I am "only" using Silver High Breed Quintessence ic's at around £80/100 a set, and not the much more expensive BR's or Siggys as before.

I am now of course wondering if I had done this a few weeks ago if my recent purchase would have gone ahead..........

[Reid Malenfant]

Soooooo......

What the hell are they then?

[icehockeyboy]

Dunno Mark!

A guy over at that other forum had some that looked very similar, and I believe his findings were similar to mine.

They are attached, as opposed to "real" ones being two runs, a pale grey colour, and metallic coloured plugs.

That's all I can tell you without ars*ng around behind the rack to......Oh..hang on...let me turn the Touch around........Hmmm...all they say is AUDIO R and surprisingly AUDIO L on them.

[Reid Malenfant]

Ah well, can't say I didn't try

[Audio Al]

Soooooo......

What the hell are they then?

+1

[icehockeyboy]

I suppose the lack of identification on them is down to the fact they are just dirt cheap generic ic's!

One thing I noticed before, not that it makes a jott of difference as I have enough headroom, is that I need to up the volume a bit to achieve a similar level to when I use the other ones.

I now recall the other guy bought his for about £6.75 from an online supplier......rich bugger!

[Fi-Wi]

If they sound(ed) so much better than the Chord Signatures, why didn't you replace the latter ones for the superior cheapos?

Same thing for the Silver High Breed Quintessence.

[DaveK]

If they sound(ed) so much better than the Chord Signatures, why didn't you replace the latter ones for the superior cheapos?

Same thing for the Silver High Breed Quintessence.

Yep, I was thinking the same thing - if you found them to be so good when they were all you had, what did you replace them with and why?

[webby]

I just found them again, and decided to see if I believed they still cut the mustard

Hmmm, why aren't you using them?

[seoirse2002]

Hi Craig,
I think you'd better send them to me as they seem to be much better than the ones you sold me!