Moving to the mains cables, I tested both over different parts of my hi-fi system using the reissue of the Kansas LP, Leftoverture, via Speakers Corner. Overall, for the price, the block offered decent value. The overall soundstage sounded fairly balanced in terms of the organisation and discipline of the instruments. As I say, though, a budget system will benefit by allowing the cable to dig into the mix, extracting detail for the ear’s benefit. Yet there was a slightly clinical aspect to the sound which will enhance a budget system but could, also sound a little mechanical. The focus and precision were there, detail was present in an etched fashion without being grievous or nasty in any way. It sounded like the music now featured a touch of compression. Using the same music on the Emerald power block, I noticed more detail in comparison with the Herald with the brass being insightful, vocals offering great levels of diction and bass being rounded and bouncy. While the air and space might have been a touch choked, the bass did offer much that could be admired such as a rhythmic bounce to the lower frequencies and it allowed the pace of the double bass to be tracked easily by the ear without any blur while all of the music’s basic detail was on show and could be picked up by the ear. In that sense, the Herald was very disciplined and kept a pretty tight order on the overall sound. There was never any sense of upper midrange glare from brass crescendos or barking from wayward frequencies. That said, the practical nature of this slight warming was to produce a slight restriction in space and air. In fact, it was quite attractive and, for the price, admirable. What I heard was a warming over the upper frequencies which was not at all unpleasant. Heraldīeginning with the Herald power block, despite a slight upper midrange veiling which dulled the Vaughan delivery a touch and damped the brass a little, I was still happy to hear the even tone over the entire soundstage. I decided to test both power blocks initially using Sarah Vaughan and the Mercury original LP, Sassy Swings Again. So how do they all sound? Will they all exhibit sonic fangs or will any of them squeeze sound quality to death? SOUND QUALITY Which is all well and good but the truth for any cable is in the listening. It feature an “aerospace” PC-OFC copper alloy conductor, twin screens and lead-free, high purity silver solder. Onto a pair of interconnects now and the Cobra II SE is constructed of SP-OFC silver-plated “aerospace grade” alloy conductor, PTFE “aerospace grade” Kapton tape, high density double braided PC-OFC screen, silver-plated Tellurium copper centre pin and silver plated True-Plug RCA plugs.įinally, the Mamba also has True-Plug connections but with gold-plated locking. You’ll find True-Plug Plated mains connectors, a split-braid multi-earth construction and 24 PTFE insulated silver-plated copper conductors. The Boa Constrictor mains lead itself uses silver and a thicker cross-sectional area. With the addition of a rhodium-plated IEC plug and 16 PTFE insulated silver-plated copper conductors. The King Constrictor features the same cable as the Temple Constrictor (not reviewed here) but with a split-braid construction used in the top of the range Boa Constrictor. I wanted to provide a broad overview of where the company is ‘at’ in terms of its product range.įirst up are two power blocks: the Herald Constrictor and the Emerald Constrictor.īoth include eight cores of XPLE (on the Herald) and PTFE (on the Emerald) insulated silver-plated copper with a braided design, none-inductive, self screening construction PVC (on the Herald) and Polyolefin (on the Emerald) general insulation.Īssociated with the power blocks are the mains cables. Been a while since Paul Rigby looked at any cables and associated products from TCI so he has decided to tackle a bunch in one go: Herald Constrictor and Emerald Constrictor mains blocks, Mamba and Cobra II SE interconnects and Boa Constrictor II and King Constrictor II mains cablesĪs I’m sure you’ve already seen, there’s a decidedly snake-like aspect to this series of cables and related products from TCI, a company that has been producing cables since 1993.
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