There’s no denying QED’s leading role in the British cable market over the past 40 years – a whole nation of audiophiles grew up with QED 79-strand speaker cable in the eighties, likely between a NAD amp and a pair of KEF Codas! To commemorate its anniversary, it has a new range of interconnects. Between you and me dear reader, word is that they were developed after HFC’s epic 12-way interconnect Group Test that ran in issue 362 back in 2012; QED took a good listen to the winners and came back with this.

The Signature 40 is a beautifully packaged product, and immaculately turned out with its translucent sheathing showing the braided electromagnetic shielding around it. QED’s beautiful Rhodium-plated Analoc plugs look like jewellery, and are said to provide a high-purity copper connection without the use of bulky brass plug bodies.

They’re soldered to silver-plated 99.999% oxygen-free copper conductors in a Teflon dielectric, in an asymmetric twisted pair configuration and a Zn/ Mn ferrite jacket is used. Finally the whole cable is cryogenically treated.

Dressed to impress

Here’s a genuinely impressive sounding audio interconnect. Although not completely translucent, the new Signature is open and detailed like few others at the price, with a light, spry sort of sound that captures the energy of the music in its full glory. Tonally, it’s very close to neutral, but comes across as just a little ‘well lit’ in absolute terms, pepping up otherwise lacklustre recordings or systems by a fraction.

It has strong and taut bass,happily lacking in overhang or smear, and a crisp and incisive midband that lets the elements in the mix hang in their respective positions in space with ease. It doesn’t crowd out things, offering a nice spacious soundstage where there’s room for the music to breathe. Treble is sweet and airy, too. Overall then, this new cable is an excellent performer at the price, right across the board.