There are Black - and then there's Ultra Black

By Nis Jensen

Tellurium can mean two different things - firstly it is a mechanical model of the Earth, Sun and Moon, which you can use to illustrate the days, seasons and moon phases. First, it is - at least in English - be a metal-like substance with the chemical name Te - but if that is what the name of the test objects, Tellurium Q Black and Ultra Black speaker cables alludes to is not entirely to find out yourself it seems quite obvious. In each case describe it as a semiconductor in the article on Wikipedia I found.
Tellurium Q is the name of a small British company that sent their first Cable, Black, on the market in January 2010. Their stated goal is to eliminate - or remove - phase distortion. It is a phenomenon which arises from the fact that different frequencies are said to "walk" through the cables with different speeds - low notes have a different speed than the high - and would then theoretically frame the speaker units with a certain delay (or the opposite .)
Phase Distortion - it's an ugly word! - And it sounds sørme like it's about time that someone tries to solve the problem for us troubled listeners!
Simple and straightforward

The cables arrived in a pair of identical and simple cardboard boxes - it was just marked with a tush though it was one or the other and with the termination. Tellurium Q has four speaker cables with different color codes, in each price category - it all seems quite simple and straightforward. There are (temporarily) a couple of signal cables with the same color codes and the company promises on their website that there are more wires coming.
The cables seem too simple and straightforward - they are flat and, respectively 1 cm and 4 cm wide. They behave a bit like pasta cooked perfectly al dente.
They were terminated with spade connectors - we reviewers prefer good enough usually bananas, but that's another story - we had no problems!
Actually, we had no problems in the physical department at all - but we would really like to know about how to really tackle the phase distortion?

Aces up its sleeve

It proved to be a little tricky. When you visit any of Tellurium Q's site you get lots of explanations of why they actually do what they claim to eliminate phase distortion, but not really anything about why they should do it. But nomono've met some nice people behind the company at the High End show in Munich, so the natural next step was obviously to write to Geoff Merrigan and see if he could not provide us with a little more background knowledge.
But unfortunately the result was also here a little disheartening, it was not because he was not friendly - quite the contrary - I got almost immediate response to my mail, but company policy is to simply not comment on the materials and construction principles behind their cables. Upon reflection, does it actually make much sense - the company has applied for patents on their designs, so it's clear that they need to keep cards close to your body.

Ro

The cables are so to speak, created "from scratch" and they resemble not so much any other cables I've ever met. Especially Ultra Black, who is distinguished by having a large piece of plastic material between the two leaders, so they sit far away from each other - the thinner Black looks a bit more of a plain, flat cable, but still has a slightly narrower piece of Directors . Did any of the secret of faseforvrængningen hidden here?
They have now played almost a month, a few days at a time, respectively, the small and large (this is where bananas are thus somewhat easier to handle than sod!).
As soon as you connect the cables into one notes a certain family similarity, both cables bring the music a unique tranquility. Whether it is because there is a distortion that just is NOT present, the more so not really confirmed, but why not just take the company's word for it? Maybe it really managed both locating a problem and simultaneously take a big step toward solving it? Something must in any event they do right!

Lots of more peace

For what is first and foremost characteristic of both cables is the calm, the music is served with. The ideal would of course be that a cable must not give its own imprint - and Tellurium Q's cable does not feel as if they do it. On the other hand, there is still a feeling that it's something special you hear.
Black is a cable that performs exceptionally well when you take price into account - it did a surprisingly good figure in my usual setup - and simply outplayed the nonsense my normal, or up to several times more expensive cables.
The sound is very detailed with excellent bass and Spatial felt both liberated and uncoloured. The dynamics enjoys particular advantage of the cables laid-back nature - this is not something that feels forced - with less production would have it, of course.

When you switch from Black to Ultra Black - yes, you get So just a lot more of everything - and that goes for all parameters - space bass, resolution, dynamics - and then lots of more quiet. It's quite an experience to hear Ultra Black - as it sometimes can be the to hear a high-end cable - when you hear a reference cable from Nordost first time, you will be amazed at the "rich black" background. When one hears Ultra, it does not feel as if peace comes from there, but from a relaxation in between not only the tone, but in the entire frequency range - it's always as if they get the best out of the speakers, they get excited for - it comes also speakers that are notoriously known for being very picky with what cables you tense in front of them.

A trend?

We have recently had some cables to test with some common features: the relationship between price and sound quality has been exceptionally good, the principles behind them have been surprisingly simple and the amount of crash talk about them rather limited. Through the years we have been presented with cables for hair-raising prices - and all too often the end result has not been able to live up to hype surrounding them. But if it is a trend that is upon us - that both cables will be simpler, cheaper and more honest at the same time and simultaneously can deliver the goods sonically pure, it's something we can only greet warmly.

When I ask myself whether I could live with the wires from Tellurium Q, I exclaim a resounding yes! The only inner Except maybe that the company might find to have something even better up in their otherwise very tight sleeves!

For the price, we strongly recommend Black to anyone who takes seriously his plant - and Ultra Black may well follow up in high-end classes, where the price almost seems anachronistic. They sound simply mad good!

Photo © Nis Jensen