Chord Signature speaker cable was the first shielded speaker cable that we produced and it’s been part of our range of speaker cables for the past ten years. The original Signature speaker cable is still as impressive as it ever was, but with the development of our flagship Sarum speaker cable we learnt so much that we’ve been able to completely re-design Signature speaker cable to produce Signature Reference speaker cable.
We’ve improved the shielding, we’ve made changes to the spacing between the conductors and the shield and we’ve changed all the materials. The new Signature Reference features silver-plated conductors in combination with PTFE insulation and the new shield is of a higher density.
The changes have brought all the improvements we were hoping for and more. It isn’t as though the original Signature was exactly lacking when it came to levels of detail with its ability to carry dynamic information and the coherence and involvement it brought to any system it was put into. The new Signature Reference though takes everything to another level and there’s more than a hint of the outstanding capabilities of Sarum speaker cable.
Extremely neutral, musically transparent and capable of producing profound improvements in all the systems we’ve tried it in.
Signature Reference is built in the same way as the original Signature. Each set is made to order and the two conductors are held in place with a precision machined aluminium clamp and twisted along their length to improve flexibility (Signature Reference is markedly more flexible than the original Signature). The aluminium clamp is designed to hold the cable securely but avoid any compression on the cable itself. Like Signature, Signature Reference is available in red and black and also in all black as well. We loved the look of the original Signature but we think that Signature Reference looks wonderful in all black.
Conductors: 2 x 10 AWG multi-strand silver-plated oxygen free copper.
Configuration: Individually shielded twisted pair configuration.
Conductor Insulation: PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene).
Shielding: Dual layer, high density, high frequency effective braid and overlapped foil.
Jacket: Translucent PVC used to minimise mechanically induced noise.
Diameter: 2 x 9mm.
Colour: Red/black or all black.
Terminations: Chord 24 karat gold-plated banana plugs, direct gold-plated copper spade connectors and BFA Camcon connectors. Because of the complexity of construction, Signature Reference speaker cable is only available in factory-terminated lengths. Shortest available length is 1.5 metres.
Every set of Signature Reference speaker cable is produced to order and although the conductors are separately shielded, the cable is arranged in twisted pair configuration to improve flexibility and ease of installation. Each end of the cable is secured with a precision machined aluminium clamp. This is designed to hold the cable securely but not to compress the conductors. Experiments showed that compression of the shield and insulation on either speaker or interconnect cables altered the performance characteristics of the cable.
Given its cost, the original Signature speaker cable found its way into some surprisingly reasonably priced systems. The combination of really effective shielding and heavy gauge conductors made it a cable that could bring drive and dynamics and coherence and detail to just about any system it was put into. Signature Reference has all those characteristics and more. We’ve used Signature Reference with all levels of systems (right now it’s connected to a set of Kef Blades in our dem room) but the improvements it brings are just as easy to hear with any decent set of speakers. There is so much control and definition and this really helps to bring music to life.