ChordMusic Digital 1XLR to 1XLR AES/EBU 1m

AES/EBU is the one digital interface in a domestic system that did not begin life in one. It was written for broadcast and studio work, where balanced lines run a great deal further and through far more electrical noise than anything in a listening room, and it reached hi-fi because the people building serious transports and converters already had the parts and the habit. Plenty of DACs do not have the socket at all. Where both boxes do, it is worth trying.

Worth trying, note, rather than automatically better. The Chord Company are unusually blunt about that on their own page for this cable: results vary with the equipment and the combination, and it is a good idea to compare AES/EBU performance against a standard RCA digital coaxial interconnect. A cable maker suggesting you audition their flagship digital lead against a different format entirely is not the usual posture, and it is the right advice. Balanced is not a synonym for superior — it is a different interface, implemented differently in every DAC that offers it, and some manufacturers clearly put more effort into one input than the other.

Taylon® and the ChordMusic argument

ChordMusic is the range built around Taylon®, which The Chord Company describe as a material upgrade to the widely used PTFE. Their stated case for it is phase stability at room temperature — PTFE has a well-documented structural transition close to normal room temperatures, and Taylon® does not. Whether that is audible is a question you settle by listening rather than by reading, but it is at least a specific, checkable claim about a material, which puts it ahead of most of what gets written about dielectrics.

The conductor arrangement is Super ARAY, Chord's own geometry, with what they describe as advanced shielding around it. Beyond that they publish very little about this cable, and we would rather say so than pad the specification out with figures nobody has confirmed.

Technical Specifications

Who Is It For?

Someone running a separate transport or streamer into an outboard DAC, where both units carry AES/EBU XLR sockets, and who has already spent seriously on both. This is the top of The Chord Company's range and it belongs at the top of a system; fitting it between two mid-priced boxes is not a proportionate use of money, and we will say so.

Check the sockets before you order. An AES/EBU output is a three-pin XLR and looks exactly like a balanced analogue output, so on a machine that has both, read the labelling rather than the connector. If your DAC has phono sockets only, this is the wrong cable and no adapter will make it the right one. One tier down, the Chord Signature Super ARAY AES/EBU covers the same connection, and the rest of the range sits on our Chord Company collection page.

Buying from Martins Hi-Fi

The useful thing about a digital interconnect is that it can be swapped in seconds without disturbing anything else in the system, which makes Chord's own suggestion — compare AES/EBU against coaxial in your own equipment — a practical exercise rather than a theoretical one. Our home evaluation service covers cables of this kind. Tell us the make and model of both boxes and we will confirm the sockets before anything is ordered.

When you get in touch, you'll be speaking with Dave, Chris and Tim at info@martinshifi.co.uk, call 01603 627010, or WhatsApp on 07554 687137. You can read more about how we work on our Why Martins page. We are at 85–91 Ber Street, Norwich, NR1 3EY.