The Article

ULTRA SILVER II CABLES FROM TELLURIUM Q

2nd May 2024

Testing the new Mk.II cables head on, Paul Rigby looks at the speaker, balanced and interconnect cables from this newly upgraded range

The last time I looked at Tellurium Q’s Ultra Silver cables was way back in, what was it now? Blimey, 2016! A lot of PTFE has flowed under the dielectric since then but I’m happy to revisit these cables because UK outfit, Tellurium Q has a new version of the range out and about. Called…Ultra Silver II (tell me you’re surprised, go on) the new cables don’t look very much different from the original designs.

According to the company, though, it’s all happening behind closed doors, as it where.

And what exactly are those enhancements? If you know the company then you know it’s pointless to ask, because it never tells you.

And I don’t blame the company, really. I’ve known some HiFi companies, over the years, to be ripped off by unscrupulous entities out there, which puts any honest and true HiFi company on their guard. So I’ll leave it be.

What you do need to know is this. Ultra Silver II cables are high-end products. Very high end. Rarified stuff, you might say.

I have three variants to review here: speaker cables, balanced cables and interconnects.

What I did was grab a set of original Ultra Silver I cables to see, well hear, if any improvement had actually occurred and, if so, by how much. Should you upgrade from Ultra Silver Is to the IIs? Then again, as the IIs are out, if the improvement is very small indeed, should you just hunt around for discounted Mk.I cabling instead? Although, saying that, as far as Tellurium Q is concerned, the price hasn’t moved. The Mk.I and Mk.II cables are priced at the same point. Which is a good thing, I reckon. You don’t often hear that a new variant is set at the same price. It’s normally an excuse for a price rise. So, well done TQ.

So how do they sound?

SOUND QUALITY

I started with some early 70s prog – 1972, actually – from Arthur Brown of all people and his proggy yet experimental Kingdom Come project and a soulful slow burn, rather gritty (in lyrical sentiment terms) rock outing, Love is a Spirit. A rather lovely song it is too.

INTERCONNECTS

First impressions when comparing the Ultra Silver I and II cables? There’s far more clarity from the IIs. You can really hear this effect in both the lead and backing vocals and the accompanying Hammond organ plus the cymbals. So, quite a lot of things, then.

For all of these features, the II cables give you everything the Ultra Silver I cables give you but the II cables push on down into the mix, opening up more detail. Adding detail to each area. So there appears to be more reverb attached to the vocals, evidence of double tracking even. Cymbals sound larger, richer in tone, the Hammond sits within a larger room, the complexity of the tones from the Hammond is also multiplied.

From the other side of the fence, as it where, it’s almost as if the Ultra Silver I cables cut off the information at Point X while the II cables add it all back, allowing the information to continue to both Y and Z. It’s very strange effect, actually. I asked myself, “Where did all THAT come from?”

SPEAKER CABLES

I then moved to the speaker cables and found the same effect.

A widening of the soundstage, more information and detailing flowing into the soundstage, extending the upper mids, adding depth to the bass regions, allowing the treble to extend and thus giving that upper frequency extra delicacy and fragility.

So much for analogue. I then moved to digital, CD to be specific, comparing the Ultra Silver I and Ultra Silver II balanced cables from the back end of my Benchmark DAC. I then played shoegaze outfit, Lush.

BALANCED XLR CABLES

The result? Blimey, the balanced cables are good. Gracious me. And I place emphasis here because I’ve heard many balanced cables that sit off the back of my Benchmark DAC that are…fine. Without being truly effective or in any way striking. These cables were both.

This track has a percussion solo as the start point. The Ultra Silver IIs added focus to give the bass more weight. Bass sounded dense. Heavy.

While the extra reverb layered on this introduction now offered an almost portentous feel to it. The reverb on the Ultra Silver Is were a little uncontrolled. Slighty messy? Certainly they sounded like that compared to the Ultra Silver IIs.

I was also impressed how these cables separated the information into their own pigeon holes. Shoegaze can sound like a wash of guitar noise, which is why I selected this CD as a review disc.

The Ultra Silver IIs packaged each piece of information, each instrument and then told you where each bit began and ended. Hence, that clarity (again) shot through the roof.

CONCLUSION

Tellurium Q call these cables Ultra Silver II cables which infers that they offer an incremental improvement on what has gone before, but really? Really? If the company had slapped a new range name on the cables themselves? I would have easily believed it.