Future Shop, Cable Specialists for Hi-Fi, Home Cinema, Audio and Video, including HDMI Cables, Scart Leads, DVI, Chord, QED, IXOS Gefen and Atlas Cables

Fitting Chord Signature speaker cable to your system will come as quite a shock. You will find it hard to believe just how much noise your previous speaker cable was allowing to get in the way of the sound. You will be able to hear very fine and delicate detail that will sound unforced and natural. There will be more space around individual voices and instruments.

No matter how complex the music, you will be able to pick out individual instruments. Tonally, the cable is neutral and will portray the very subtle dynamic changes that are so vital to music reproduction. No matter what your system, the innovative design of Chord Signature speaker cable will transform the sound and really bring your music or soundtracks to life.

If you are passionate about your music, this is a cable you really must try

What is it?
Chord Signature speaker cable is the result of several years experimentation. We had known for some time that theoretically there should be a real benefit to shielding speaker cable. Twisted pair design, as found in Rumour and Odyssey, offers the first step towards interference rejection and the next logical step was to experiment with shielding. Shielded speaker cables are not new. Many companies have experimented with this. However, the results have been somewhat erratic, as were our initial attempts. Simply fitting a shield over Odyssey 2 produced a speaker cable with some benefits but far greater losses, and overall a less coherent and musical sound. The prototype of Signature speaker cable, whilst performing extremely well, was so stiff as to be almost completely unusable. A great deal of work was put in to finding a more flexible alternative. It is worth pointing out that although Chord Signature speaker cable looks initially to be large and stiff, it can in fact be bent comfortably through a tight 90-degree radius without any loss of performance and will remain bent until straightened again, whereupon it will return to its original shape.



The conductors consist of 9 strands of high purity copper and total about 3mm diameter, making a 10 gauge conductor. The insulation material is gas foamed polyethylene. This has several major advantages. This type of dielectric produces better phase stability than solid polyethylene. The gas foaming process helps to maintain the flexibility of the cable and at the same time, gas foamed polyethylene has a better (lower) dielectric value than solid polyethylene. The shield is a dual layer foil/woven braid with a RF shielding effectiveness of better than 90 dB. Signature, like Rumour and Odyssey, is a twisted pair design. Unlike Rumour and Odyssey however, the twist does not contribute to noise reduction but it does give the cable a degree of flexibility and helps to make it simpler to route and install. Each length of cable is finished in a red and black braid (the cable is also available in black). Each end of the cable is clamped with a specially designed aluminium clamp. A lot of work was put into the construction of this. We wished to hold the cable securely but not to compress the cable in any way, since doing so would result in a loss of performance.

Termination
The termination process for Signature speaker cable is both complex and difficult and because of this, Signature is only available in factory-terminated lengths. As with Chord's other speaker cables, Signature can be fitted with 4mm Banana plugs, BFA (Camcon) or Spade connectors.

Uses
Chord Signature speaker cable has been designed to work in conjunction with the Signature interconnect. Both share very similar design principles but differ in the materials used in their construction. Nonetheless, the two products were developed to complement each other and there are real benefits to be gained from using both interconnect and speaker cable within a system. Signature speaker cable will work well with a huge variety of amplifiers and speakers. Its unique construction means that you can hear the benefits it brings in surprisingly modest systems, and unlike a lot of high end cables, it is not “ruthlessly revealing”. There is an assumption that expensive cables belong with expensive systems. This is not necessarily the case. One of the most compelling demonstrations we have heard came from a system where the Signature interconnect and speaker cable came to almost half the total cost of the system. So this is a cable that you really must experiment with.

How does it sound?
Fitting and listening to Signature speaker cable for the first time will come as quite a surprise. There are remarkable improvements in all areas but transparency and presence are quite stunning, as are the improvements in dynamics. Image also improves dramatically with real depth. For all of this, the immediacy and musical presence are what makes the Signature speaker cable so very enjoyable and so much of a revelation to people hearing it for the first time.

“Awarded 5 Stars Jan 2007 - One of the most effective upgrades you will ever hear if you own expensive kit". What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision


“The perfect cable should be invisible; adding nothing to the sound nor taking anything away, and that is pretty much what these cables do". Your Guide To Hi-fi & Home Cinema issue 3

“Indeed, the Signatures are so good that they are pushing up towards the performance of the Nordost Valhallas that serve as a reference for cable quality". Hi-Fi+

Interconnect Cable Matches
Anthem 2 , Signature & Indigo

The Chord Signature Speaker Cable connects your Amplifier to your speakers.

SPECIFICATION

• Chord Signature Speaker Cable


• 4mm Diameter multi-strand oxygen-free copper conductors


• Gas foamed low density polyethylene insulation


• High frequency effective dual layer shielding system


• Non compression aluminium cable clamp


• High precision construction to minimise mechanically induced noise


• Ten Year Warranty