NEWS: The Chord Company's Silver Screen Carnival

The latest speaker cable from The Chord Company carries a familiar name – Carnival – but now comes with an extra.

Carnival Silver Screen, selling for £6/m, is claimed to be the first budget shielded speaker cable, the company saying the addition of an outer screen 'dramatically improves' the performance of its entry-level product.

The cable uses the same oxygen-free copper multistrand conductors, twisted-pair construction and polyethylene insulation as the original Carnival cable, now designated Chord Carnival Classic. But the soft PVC jacket the cable uses for mechanical damping is overlapped with a twin-foil shield, and this is turn is covered with a translucent outer cover.

The shield idea is carried over from Chord's upmarket Signature and Epic cables, and the company says it lowers the noise-floor by reducing interference, bringing "significant improvements to the entire frequency range of the system in which it is used.

"Timing improves, as does the dynamic performance. Levels of detail are increased but what really matters is the improvement in coherency, making listening more enjoyable and more involving."

It's also suggested that the cable is especially well-suited to use in home cinema system, since the number of components and complexity of cabling in such systems can create greater interference problems.

Technorati Tags: cable, Chord Company, Hi-fi, home cinema, speaker cable

Andrew has written about audio and video products for the past 20+ years, and been a consumer journalist for more than 30 years, starting his career on camera magazines. Andrew has contributed to titles including What Hi-Fi?, GramophoneJazzwise and Hi-Fi CriticHi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Choice. I’ve also written for a number of non-specialist and overseas magazines.