The Article

SIGNATUREXL SPEAKER CABLES FROM CHORD

13th February 2025

Featuring ChordOmnic plugs, Paul Rigby plugs in a pair of high-end SignatureXL speaker cables

If you like to keep up to date with these things, you will look at the title and wonder if you’ve seen mention of the SignatureXLs before (there’s no space between the word and the letters). And yes, you have. They first appeared in 2018.

This new model features a new dielectric, a new insulator in other words. The updated tech is called XLPE (Cross-linked PolyEthylene). It’s Chord’s alternative to the usual PTFE that you tend to see on many HiFi cables, these days.

XLPE uses something called Taylon insulation that targets temperature-related phase instability and mechanical variation that you can reportedly get with PTFE.

Offering a lifetime guarantee, these cables also arrive with updated termination plugs. The silver-plated ChordOhmic plugs can be yours in both banana and spade. These solderless crimp-fit connectors are designed thus to, says the company, to get the best joint and consistent performance.

So, how do these cables sound?

SOUND QUALITY

To begin, I reached for CD and Clannad’s 1989 compilation, PastPresent (again, without the gap…it’s that kind of review it seems) and the group’s big hit, Theme From Harry’s Game which, for testing purposes, is all about the voices. I also listened to Closer to Your Heart to better appreciate the organic instruments such as drums, acoustic, electric and bass guitars plus harmony vocals and secondary percussion.

I began by drafting in the TCI Cobra speaker cables which retail around the £600 mark. I wanted to see just what you would be expecting to hear for the extra cash spent on the XL cables.

And were are differences, all of them good I must say.

The Chord cables, right from the off, had a sense of quality. The lead vocal from Harry’s Game moved from a wall of sound to a more focused entity, surrounded by space with the accompanying synth sounding more precise, tighter in the mids with a greater resonance.

That harmony backing also now had a richer presentation because the voices sounded like individuals grouped together instead of a single mush.

TACKLING PEAK LIMITING

Moving to the rather more price comparable TCI cables, the King Cobras and running Closer to your Heart, I was impressed by the SignatureXL’s ability to deal with sonic issues. This track suffered rather from excessive peak limiting – it was a thing back then, an unfortunate fashion – so the drums sounded chrome plated, vocals were rather tense, guitars brittle and bass sounded like a rubber ball bouncing down a stone floor.

What I liked about the XL cables with this song was this, they turned the song from an edgy mess into a track with some cohesion and flow. I no longer pushed my fingers into my ears because the SignatureXLs lowered as much high-frequency noise as possible. Sure, you could still hear the sonic problems on this track, the Chord’s didn’t arrive with a built-in mastering engineer after all, but the SignatureXL cables did insert space to reduce the bright onslaught, pulled apart the guitars into their own areas to allow the cables to manage the clinical attack and drew a manner of complexity and information from the bass so the shiny chrome now had some texture.

Turning to vinyl now and playing Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s self-titled debut and the wonderful track, Electricity from 1980. Primitive – in a good way – yet well recorded combining a sparse presentation with plenty of energy across a neutral soundstage.

I then plugged in the terribly expensive Tellurium Q Statement cables which are basically five times the price of the Chords, sound absolutely terrific and should bury the Chords with a large shovel.

Instead, the Chords, even at the relatively lower price put up a great fight. Yes, the Statements provided a more complex and richer soundstage, delicate treble and upper mids and a well-integrated bass but the SignatureXL cables, in both mids and treble, were on that same pathway. That is, they might not have hit those same heady heights but they were on the way. They were doing the right things, offering the same type of insight and detail but just not as much. But hey, that’s why you’re spending all of that money on the Statements.

What did shock me was the bass performance from the Chords which, while not as integrated as that offered by the Statements, many will still prefer in terms of impact and power.

CONCLUSION

Yes, yes, yes these cables are not exactly, cheap. Yes, you can buy an entire HiFi system for the same money. Yes, you could grab an ageing second hand car for the same money. Yes, you could employ a hitman to take down that annoying guy at the office for a similar amount of cash. I know all of that. And if that’s your response then these cables are not for you.

If, on the other hand, you have a top quality HiFi already and you are feeling frustrated because you know that it has hidden capabilities and you’re just not hearing them, then look to your ancillaries such as shelving, isolation accessories and, above all, cabling.

For me? Ancillaries provide at least 40% of the sound quality in any one HiFi system. Probably more. They don’t necessarily add anything, they just allow that previously hidden sound to emerge, blinking into the sunlight. They might not create but they do facilitate. And the Chord SignatureXL cables do a superb job at just that.

And yes, because of those sonic improvements, for the right buyer and the right HiFi system, these cables also offer great value for money.

CHORD SIGNATUREXL SPEAKER CABLES

Price: £2,400 for 3m (varying lengths can be supplied)

Website: chord.co.uk

GOOD: low noise, midrange insight, tight bass, easy to install

BAD: nothing