REPRODUCED FROM HI-FICRITIC
“W e’ve alwaysstuck with silver-plated copperfor the conductors, which gives you a beter bandwidth,and we also use thatforthe shieldsin ourtop cables.Asyou go down the range,they are alum inium foils with m agnesium ,and al of these are trying to give you the benefits ofthe shielding butwithoutthe financialhit.” Gibb’s role is now es entialy to look afterR&D: “That’swhatIm ainly do now:Doug and Richard lookaftereverything else.A lotofitisjustkeeping abreast of m aterials, im provem ents, trying stuf out,fixing problem sand finding suppliers.” O ne thing Iam very keen to quizGibb on isthe new GroundARAY high-frequencynoise-reduction device the com pany firstlaunched a yearago in Japan.Butbefore geting into that,Iwantto get som e insightsfrom him abouthow theyapproach cable m anufacturing and design.
yearsand he knowswe don’twant‘bestprice’,we want‘thisquality’and wilpayforthat.” Furtherup the range,it’susing suppliersin Europe and the UK and,forthe realy high-end stuf,the wire ism anufactured in the USA.And thisispurely down to “finding com panies that can m eet the specsthatwe are looking for”. Of the six people on the Chord Com pany’s production line,al bar one have been with the com panyforalong tim e,and can end up m aking a varietyofcablesin one day.Gibb explainsthatthe top cables place higherdem ands on the skils of the technician and can take up to an hourto m ake; aClearwaycable takesaround eightm inutes. 100% listening Forthe top-of-the-line M usiccables,everysingle cable islistened to before itgoesout:“That’swhat the end user is paying that kind of m oney for: they’re not casual listeners and won’t be using them forbackground m usic.Thisissom eone who’s invested aconsiderable am ountoftim e,efortand m oneyto getasm uchaspos iblefrom apieceof recorded m usic,to enjoythe feeling and em otional content.If it doesn’t sound right,it’s not fit for purpose,and these people wilbe veryquickto tel you ifitdoesn’tsound the sam e as the one they heard in the shop.W e can’talow thatto happen.” But what are the m agic ingredients involved in m aking agood cable? Gibb kicks of with an obvious caveat, but one worth stating:“The m ostfundam entalthing isthat it’sgotto play m usic.” Then he adds:“That’show the com panystarted,notin akind ofgrand m aster way,and overthe years you startto realise ‘Aha! Every tim e you do this,itworks beter’and then you have to connectthatto the science behind it. “W iresines encearepas ivedevices,so theycan’t give you anything apart from interference and noise.Buttheylose signal,the sm alstuf first.And unfortunately,the sm al stuf givesyou the tim ing, the rhythm ,the intonation –althe tonesand sm al details.So it’sbeenapursuitto preserveasm uchof thatasyou can withoutpicking up extra nasties.”
M ostofthe cablesfrom The Chord Com panyare asembled in its own factory, but Gibb acknowledgesit’sa sm al com pany and there are only so m any m inutes in a day. He continues: “Som etim esthatm eansyou have to go abroad if you are trying to m ake a cable to a price,such as the C Range.You have to go to Taiwan orthe Far East,purely and sim ply because there isnobody leftin the UK doing that.W e have been working with ourC Range supplierin China forover20
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