TELLURIUM Q Silver Diamond XLR

MJ20.10.2019

Interconnects

With cables it is always about synergy. Inputs and outputs of audio devices have certain parameters and the cable, basically an RLC link, behaves depending on it. The act of disappearance asks for as low values of the RLC as possible for a cable to become non-existent and neutral. The Silver Diamond did not disappear, however.

Function and form

100%

Ease of use

74%

Sound

95%

Appearance

Like with any other Tellurium Q cable there is no single piece of information published on how they are built. Essentially there is nothing wrong with it as the sound should be the only crucial element, yet this black box approach is not appealing, at least to me. Do not get me wrong – I love to review a component without knowing anything about it, but finally I would like to put what I heard in context. Here I could only shrug my shoulders and go ahead with listening.

Tellurium Q Silver Diamond is a top-of-the-line Tellurium interconnect. No matter what is inside it is exquisitely built. It is quite thin and lightweight so you can twist it and bend it without any problems, terminations (custom carbon XLR) are also top grade, and the flat carton packaging lined with silky paper gives you a touch of luxury. The cable is directional which is clearly marked by arrows on its heatshrink, yet in case of a balanced cable I do not have a choice anyway.

Bass management

Weight

Slam

Articulation

The bass of the Silver Diamond had a beautiful sense of weight. If there is a single element of its sound that is outstanding this is it. I was savouring nicely delineated bass in David Bowie’s I Took a Trip on Gemini Spaceship from his Heathen album (Columbia) – the bass was taut, contoured and deep.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail

Air

Transparency

Like with the Ultra Silver speaker cable that I have reviewed recently one can easily feel the Tellurium Q family in the sound. The Bowie’s voice was less transparent then I am used to with my AudioQuest Wild interconnects and though the level of detail is similar I wiggled in my chair trying to remove the slight haze that was between my ears and speakers.

Tonal accuracy

Timbre

Dynamics

Temporal resolution

The Silver Diamond is a dynamic signal cable, much better in this respect than Tellurium Q Ultra Silver interconnect that was available for comparison. The dynamics are supported by aforementioned strong bass so the music has the drive and juiciness. I also liked that the Silver Diamond had eliminated the sibilance and bop sounds that the Ultra Silver suffered from.

Spatial resolution

Holography

Soundstage width

Soundstage depth

Tellurium Q Silver Diamond treats the soundstage in an unusual way. It sets the music well behind the plane of speakers and stretches it far to left and right. This gives me a more distant perspective than with any other cable that I’ve had in my system. The lateral imaging is top-notch, better than with the AudioQuest Wild or the Cardas Clear interconnects that used to be my long time reference. The problem is in the depth – apart from the music being set back behind the speakers the sound lacks the dimensionality. It is a kind of cinema sound where the depth is reduced to a single layer with no z-axis resolution and the experience is flat.

For its asking price that I learnt at the time of compiling this review I felt that the Tellurium Q Silver Diamond could do a lot more. It is a very musical cable, like all other Tellurium’s designs, yet I would expect more honesty from an interconnect that is supposed to become a part of high end audio systems.

Price as reviewed:72 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

Navrátil Audio, Havířov, +420 737 821 360

Manufacturer's website: http://telluriumq.com

Associated components

Sources: Accuphase DP-720, SPL Q2048 Mastering Equalizer
Amplifiers: TAD-M2500 MkII
Interconnects and speaker cables: Audioquest Redwood, Audioquest Wild, Ansuz C2, Ansuz D2, Tellurium Q Ultra Silver, Vovox Sonorus XL, Nordost Valhalla V2
Loudspeakers: TAD Evolution One E1
Power conditioning: Shunyata Research Denali, Nordost Valhalla, Ansuz C2, Pangea AC-9SEMKII, Roth Audio Orfeo + several other Roth Audio prototypes, Synergistic Research Atmosphere Level 2, Synergistic Research Euphoria Level 3, Synergistic Research Galileo SX, AudioQuest Hurricane

Gallery

89%

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