Vertere is a new company, barely a year old. The driving force behind it is Touraj Moghaddam, founder of Roksan Audio, and for the moment it specialises in audio cables, though there are a number of digital and analogue components in development.
The company has taken a back-to-basics approach, examining the exact job a cable has to do and how a signal travels through it – this intriguing design is the result of that research.
The Pulse-X speaker cable has a similar layout to the Vertere Pulse-B interconnect, but uses three sets of Teflon-insulated conductors, each made up of 11 conductors of different sizes and construction).
Being a speaker cable, it is also designed to work at far higher voltages and currents. It doesn't look expensive, but it's made well, without exuding any glitz or glamour.
Start listening, however, and that simply won’t matter.
Fine performers with everything
We used the cable over a number of months, trying them with everything from budget systems based around Marantz 6004 kit (around £310 a pop) up to some tasty set-ups including the likes of Burmester’s £50,000 077/911 MkIII monobloc combination, Naim’s CDS3 and NDX streamer (with 555PS outboard power supplies) and ATC SCM 50 speakers.
Cables, of course, can make the music signal only worse, never better. The best cable is the one that degrades the signal least, and this Vertere is all about preservation of musical energy. What's more its sonic signature remained truly consistent throughout.
In every system we tried, the effect was the same. The leading edges of notes were as sharply defined as you like, and packed a mighty punch when the music demanded.
More than that, the sound delivered was timed immaculately. This means not only that the hard-charging rhythms of Radiohead’s Kid A were punched out in all their glory, but also that the interplay between instruments was preserved and easy to appreciate.
This cable majors on control, insight and agility, not on making things sound nicer. It'll help a system communicate the drive and enthusiasm of a recording – it’s all about communicating the drama and passion of music.
Some will never be able to get past the price, and we can respect that, but those who can should try to hear the Pulse X in an appropriate system. If our experience is anything to go by, we think they’ll be mightily impressed.
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