Chord Epic Analogue subwoofer cable

Mains hum lives at 50Hz and its harmonics. A subwoofer's passband is roughly 30Hz to 100Hz. Those two facts sit awkwardly together, and they explain why the least glamorous interconnect in the house is also the one with the least margin for error. Noise picked up by a full-range interconnect at least has to compete with everything else in the music; noise picked up by a subwoofer lead lands squarely inside the only band the device is built to reproduce, and is then handed to a power amplifier tuned to make exactly those frequencies loud. The crossover will not filter it out. It is on the wrong side of the crossover.

The Chord Company build this cable for that job, and — as of their current listing — call it the EpicX ARAY Analogue subwoofer cable. It uses the ARAY conductor geometry originally developed for the Sarum range, which is not what you expect to find on a cable most systems treat as an afterthought.

Tri-conductor construction

The conductors are silver-plated, insulated with XLPE, in a tri-conductor configuration. Around them sits an internal PVC jacket, which The Chord Company describe as doing two jobs at once: combating mechanical noise, and holding the correct spacing for the high-frequency dual-layer combination shield outside it. The spacing point is the less obvious of the two. A shield's effectiveness depends on its geometry relative to the conductors, and a cable that changes shape every time it is pulled around a piece of furniture is a cable whose shielding performance changes with it. A jacket that holds the assembly rigid keeps the electrical behaviour consistent along the run and after the next time the room gets rearranged.

Plugs

Chord VEE 3RCA plugs with ChorAlloy™ plating, built by hand at The Chord Company. Standard lengths are 3m and 5m, with custom lengths made to order — which is the right way round for this application, since almost nobody puts a subwoofer within a metre of the amplifier driving it.

Technical Specifications

Who Is It For?

Two kinds of system. The first is a two-channel setup where a subwoofer has been integrated properly and is being asked to do musical work — following a bass line rather than adding weight — which is a much harder job than film effects and much less forgiving of a noisy feed. The second is a home cinema serious enough that the subwoofer is a considered component rather than whatever came in the package.

What it will not do is rescue a badly placed subwoofer. Room position, crossover frequency, phase and level between them account for far more than any cable, and if those have not been sorted out this is money spent in the wrong order. Get the sub in the right place, then look at the lead. Below this in the range are the Chord ClearwayX Analogue subwoofer cable and, for longer runs on a tighter budget, the Chord C-Sub Analogue Subwoofer Cable. The whole range is on our Chord Company collection page.

Buying from Martins Hi-Fi

Measure the route the cable will actually take — around the furniture and along the skirting rather than diagonally across the carpet — before choosing between 3m, 5m and a custom length. A cable pulled taut is a cable that will fail at the plug eventually, and one coiled into a two-metre loop behind the rack is not doing itself any favours either.

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.