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Chord Company has upgraded its multi-Award-winning Clearway speaker cable.
The new ClearwayX is a direct replacement for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 'Best speaker cable' What Hi-Fi? Award winner, and has been predominantly advanced with the use of XLPE insulation.
XLPE technology has been rolled out to a number of Chord Company products in recent years, first to the high-end SignatureXL speaker cable and then onto the likes of its more wallet-friendly EpicX, RumourX and ShawlineX models and even its very affordable LeylineX cable. Now, with the ClearwayX, it's available at the £15-per-metre price point too (AU$36-per-metre in Australia).
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The company says the XLPE dielectric brings benefits in phase stability over the previously used material – which, in its own testing, has proven to deliver "noticeable" improvements in sound quality.
The two XLPE-insulated conductors are made from multi-strand oxygen-free copper, arranged in a twisted-pair configuration to reduce interference, and protected by a layer of soft PVC to correctly spread the shielding and thus minimise mechanically induced noise. To provide a level of shielding effective to high frequencies, the cable also utilises contra-wound high-density foil shields.
Has the Clearway family spawned another Award winner, then? We hope to find out how it fares against the AudioQuest Rocket 11, our current Award-winning cable, very soon.
Becky is a hi-fi, AV and technology journalist, formerly the Managing Editor at What Hi-Fi? and Editor of Australian Hi-Fi and Audio Esoterica magazines. With over twelve years of journalism experience in the hi-fi industry, she has reviewed all manner of audio gear, from budget amplifiers to high-end speakers, and particularly specialises in headphones and head-fi devices.
In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.
