TELOS Black Reference

TR19.11.2011

Speaker cables

The Telos Black Reference touches the highend ground and should easily harmonize withamps and speakers of any qualitative category. I assume that it may fix issues of an overly analytical or sterile system by bringing a bit of romantic flair and emotions to it.

Function and form

60%

Ease of use

45%

Sound

100%

Appearance

The Black Reference cables are, as usual with all Telos product, 100% hand made. It uses OFC copper conductors that are cryogenically and dampened by massive milled clamps. The Black Reference’s dielectric is antistatic PVC.
The good thing is that Telos burns in each cable for 12 hours in a cable cooker (similarly to what we did with all the cables in the test] so a listener can be sure that when auditioning a Telos’s cable at a dealer he/she listens to the not-so-handicapped piece of wire.

It is not easy to get the Black Reference’s spades to speaker and amplifier’s terminals as the cable is very stiff. We could do that as we were trained by the Golden Reference power cord but if you are a novice to Telos, you have to use some tricks to get the cables accommodated – make sure, however, not to bruise your components and furniture by heavy clamps. The bend radius of the cable is about 60mm, fortunately the last 100 milimeters are led as very flexible strands so the task is easier a bit.

I was wondering, however, why I could not fit the Black Reference’s spades into the speaker terminals of my Audio Physic Virgo V. Their size was bigger than the openings in WBT clamps – I recommend checking the compatibility with your speakers before you buy the cables.

Bass management

Weight

Slam

Articulation

This review is a part of The Low and Mid-tier Speaker Cables Megatest that includes 18 different speaker cables. The pilot article is available at SPECIAL EDITION REVIEWS section of Audiodrom.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail

Air

Transparency

Tonal accuracy

Timbre

Dynamics

Temporal resolution

The Telos Black Reference washes a listener with clean and well articulated sound. The piano and vocals in Barbra Streisand’s In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning were sound, lively palpable and spectrally correct. I liked the Telos’s imaging as it was comparable to my reference, the Krautwire Fractal; the cable was able to resolve continuous depth and width (the opposite of discrete layers) so I could finally relieve and enjoy the piano that was three-dimensional rather than a point-source of sound. No wonder that the choir of Gloucester Wassail was one of the best in the test.

Spatial resolution

Holography

Soundstage width

Soundstage depth

Similarly to the Telos Golden Reference, the Black Reference comes with a pitch black background. Unlike the former the latter does it in a more natural and transparent manner. True, I am comparing apples and pears as the Golden Reference was a power cord, however both the Telos cables share similar sound philosophy. Listening to the triangles in Star Wars revealed the Black Reference’s fast transient reactions but also few imperfections that were expected in this price category. For example, the harp glissandos or brushed cymbals are less resolved than with the Fractal, as well as dynamics is not so extended and stops at 80% of the reference.

Price as reviewed:18 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

Telos Audio, Praha

Manufacturer's website: http://www.telos-audio.com.tw

Associated components

Sources: Primare CD32, Luxman D-05 and Accuphase DP-510
Amplifiers: Primare I32, Luxman L-590AX a Accuphase E-560
Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Cardas Clear, Homegrown Audio DNA
Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Virgo V, Dynaudio Confidence C1 and Xavian Giulia, Chario Constellation, Xavian Preludio, Revel Ultima Studio2, B&W 805 Diamond and Atohm G 1.0
Power conditioning: Nordost Thor (modified), Snakeblock, Nordost Valhalla

Gallery

39%

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