The Article

PERFORMANCE SERIES BY QED

1st October 2026

A set of speakers cables and an interconnect pairing, by QED, under the Performance banner by Paul Rigby. That’s it

QED’s Performance cables are low resistance designs with a small cross section that makes them rather svelte and flexible which means they go anywhere. They are light so they won’t pull your DAC over when hanging off the rear.

Using 99.999% (which really is a lot of nines) oxygen-free copper, the inside uses something called XTube Plus which apparently evens out cable impedance across the audio bandwidth. Supposedly reducing distortion.

Termination includes QED Airloc plugs and/or spades, which protect the speaker connection from longterm oxidation using a coldweld termination process.

I could ramble on about other bits of tech but that’s basically it.

How do they sound? That’s the most important thing.

SOUND QUALITY

I already had Seal’s self-titled CD in my Audiolab 6000CDT plus Benchmark DAC from an earlier review so I ran with that. In fact, I plugged the Performance interconnects from my DAC to my amplifier while using a pair of similarly priced TCI Storms as my reference.

QED INTERCONNECTS

And from second No.1, no exaggeration, the first second, I stopped the music to write a note. Spacious mids. There was a whole heap of space, newly emerged, that the music now had roam to move within, adding atmosphere and emotion.

This also meant that bass no longer had a claustrophobic presentation. The bass had a much more organic feel to it with actual reverb tails when required plus greater character.

I like using this CD as a test vehicle, especially the track Crazy because, when playing, it shouts at you about vocals and bass and percussion, “Here! Here! Look here! Me, Me, Me! Bass! Vocals! Helloooo!” And so that’s where your ears travel go. Thing is, there’s at least two rhythm guitars in there, secondary percussion and a distinct suite of ride cymbal taps that easily escape unless you listen for them.

For the QED Performance interconnects, that search was not only made easier by the instrumental separation, where information was simpler to find but also the transparency which meant it was a breeze to hear events at the rear of the mix. The subtle stuff.

Moving to vinyl and Sarah Vaughan’s Beatles covers album Songs of the Beatles, what I was happy to hear was a sort of democratisation of detail and frequencies. Nothing dominated. Bass never swamped the mix, treble didn’t pinch and mids never smeared. There was a wholesome balance to the presentation, a rich neutrality, if that isn’t a contradiction in terms. That is, voices and instrumentation kept their place, never bullied other areas of the mix and allowed even shy noises to be heard.

QED SPEAKER CABLES

I then switched to the speaker cables using a pair of QED’s own XT40 speaker cables as a reference.

For the Seal CD, I noted how the Performance cables offered just as much space and air around all frequencies as the XT40s but there was a stronger foundation to those frequencies from the Performance designs.

Bass weighted the track giving it more power and impact. Guitars sounded like there was more effort behind the strums, vocals had a greater determination and solidity but there was also plenty of finesse around the upper mids and treble. A finer precision kept control of those upper frequencies. A firm discipline, in other words, was imposed.

This effect could be further heard on the Sarah Vaughan vinyl disc.

So yes you got delicacy and expression but the upper frequencies flowed with inherent control, keeping them on the straight and narrow.

CONCLUSION

Offering some of the best blending of price and performance on the market at a respectable price, these QED cables are highly recommended as an upgrade from budget fare or, if you are buying a new system, grab them now and you may never need to upgrade ever again.

QED PERFORMANCE AUDIO INTERCONNECTS & SPEAKER CABLES

Prices:

QED Performance Speaker

QED Performance 2M speaker cable: £119/€159

QED Performance 3M speaker cable: £139/€179

QED Performance 5M speaker cable: £179/€239

QED Performance Audiohttps://theaudiophileman.com/wp-admin/index.php

QED Performance Audio 0.75M interconnect: £49/€69

QED Performance Audio 1.5M interconnect: £59/€79

QED Performance Audio 3M interconnect: £89/€119

Website: www.qed.co.uk

GOOD: spacious mids, meaty bass, disciplined detail, flexible build