Tried a New Budget Cable Today

Chord Leyline X, as recommended by Richer Sounds (I'm paraphrasing, but 'wipes the floor with your usual cable' was pretty much the advice, so in the interest of experimenting - hey, why not).

I wanted to bi wire my Dentons. Tried to order my usual Symphony 400 but it looks like they stopped making it. In comparison, the Leyline X was twice as much (still dirt cheap), so I gave it try.

Both are copper cables (silver doesn't work for this system - tried a run of QED Silver XT, which was a mistake).

So I decided to A/B both of the above. I didn't burn anything in because I don't have the 100 hours per set this month, etc, but I used new cuts of both the Leyline X and Symphony 400 (the 400 I had bundled up as spare - too short for a full bi-wire set, unfortunately).

I tried both sets out via the same gear, same room, same well-chosen records.

The Symphony 400 won out (at least, in my system - which is a shame, as I was hoping that the Leyline X would be a nice little upgrade).

The Chord may have had 5% more clarity, in some respects (??), but was quite polite sounding (pleasant, in a way), however with a sizable loss in authority and resolution. Not a terrible cable, but not one for me. So I plugged the Symphony back in and ... phew, there's that realistic mid range again, living vocals, realistic strings and acoustic guitars.

I'm tempted to keep switching back and forth between the two, at least for a while, but I get the impression that The Leyline X just isn't for me.

 

I'd give the Leyline X between 100 - 200 hours to be certain it's broken in before judging by comparing to be 100% certain it was not what you're after.

 

Given that both sets of cable were new, but the Symphony outperformed in my set up, I can't see the Leyline beating it.
But hey, who knows.
I'll play around some more and see if they change.

 

Oh ok, I missed that they were both new. Who knows how they'll both play out until broken in. Let us know when you're able to get the hours in on both and have fun.

 

Will do
I've been using a set of the Symphony 400 for seven years now.
Always been great, but I haven't really compared them to that many other cables during that time.
What I will say, is that the new Symphony I installed today sounded a touch brighter and peakier than my old set, but apart from that still delivered the goods.
I'll play with the Chords some more when I get time, though I suspect that the Symphony are better suited to my system.

 

You may be right and once they settle in that touch brighter/peakier scenario may just be history.

 

Yeah, I'm sure it will - I remember going through that short period last time I replaced the Symphony 400s, coupla years back.