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Sep 25, 2023

QED's Golden Anniversary XT Speaker Cable Featuring X

Does the price of high-end loudspeaker cables tick you off? QED’s Golden Anniversary XT Speaker Cable is $40 per meter. Incredible bargain. By Published Flipboard Reddit Pinterest Whatsapp Whatsapp

Does the price of high-end loudspeaker cables tick you off? QED’s Golden Anniversary XT Speaker Cable is $40 per meter. Incredible bargain.

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$40 per meter. You read that correctly. Not $400 or $4,000. Don’t spend $4,000 per meter on loudspeaker cables. Think about how many records or CDs that represents. QED has been my preferred cable brand of choice for over a decade for the simple reason that it sounds great with almost every brand that I have tried it with and it’s so bloody affordable. We use QED cables for almost every review and whilst I still like a few other cables from Kimber and Analysis Plus — they are all very affordable by high-end standards. The new QED Golden Anniversary XT Loudspeaker cables are $40 for a single meter. Borscht!

British audio specialist QED is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style, with the introduction of its Golden Anniversary XT speaker cable. Representing the culmination of five decades of dedicated and extensive research, engineering and audio expertise, the Golden Anniversary XT speaker cable is the ideal upgrade for any hi-fi enthusiast who wants to experience the sonic benefits of a high-end speaker cable – but at a real-world price.

QED has been designing and engineering class-leading and award-winning analogue and digital cables for five decades – and the Golden Anniversary XT is the latest demonstration of the company’s expertise.

Quality Electronic Design (QED) was formed in 1973 by forward-thinking hi-fi enthusiasts, Bob Abraham and Ian Vine. The company is now considered the original cable brand, having released QED 79 Strand, widely recognized as the world’s first “specialist” loudspeaker cable. This product demonstrated how cables could have a tangible impact on audio performance.

QED’s Genesis Report on loudspeaker cable design followed. This research established scientifically proven principles, which are as valid today as they were 28 years ago and informs all QED cable designs, including the pioneering X-Tube™ technology that enables precise and consistent signal delivery across the entire frequency range.

QED’s innovative and proven X-Tube™ technology places a cable’s conductive material around a central hollow insulating rod – and the result is the elimination of the ‘skin effect’ that would otherwise force high-frequency analogue music signals to the outside of the conductor. And by combining X-Tube™ technology with its equally effective Aircore™ technology, QED also reduces the ‘proximity effect’ that can disrupt current distribution in a speaker cable. The result is X-Tube™ Plus: a ground-breaking cable geometry that ensures Golden Anniversary XT is a speaker cable with even, consistent performance across the entire audible frequency range.

Golden Anniversary XT uses a unique hybrid blend of 99.99% oxygen-free copper (‘OFC’) and Ultra-Pure Ohno Continuous Cast Copper (‘UP-OCC’) to give the improved signal path and outstanding signal retention of ultra-pure copper conductors – but at a fraction of the price. Thanks to class-leading research and engineering, QED Golden Anniversary XT is the most affordable and attainable speaker cable to exploit the advantages of the continuous-casting process, with this hybrid theoretically improving the path for transients and high frequency detail not available using just OFC alone.

If a speaker cable is to perform to its maximum potential, it’s important that the dielectric material which insulates and protects the central conductors of the cable does so efficiently. Golden Anniversary XT uses a specially developed and formulated low-density polyethylene (‘LDPE’), which works in unison with the cable’s X-Tube Plus configuration to deliver a speaker cable that has high-efficiency and a dissipation factor that is barely measurable.

Airloc™ is a specially developed cold-weld system for permanently attaching QED Forté banana plugs to the company’s entire range of speaker cables, Golden Anniversary XT included. The most vulnerable area of the speaker cable chain is the physical interface between the cable and the speaker or amplifier to which it’s connected – without effective termination, oxidation can occur, degrading the cable’s performance. By using a cold weld crimp-type termination, Forté banana plugs offer maximum resistance to oxidation – for the lifetime of the cable – by effectively turning the cable and the plug into a single, unified object.

QED Golden Anniversary XT is available in June 2023 from QED retailers priced: £27 / €35 / $40 per meter.

QED Golden Anniversary XT will be making its debut at the High End Show 2023 in Munich (18th– 21st May) and will be on demo in room A (Atrium) 4.1, F110.

Learn more at www.qed.co.uk.

Home > Latest > New Products > Home Theater > A/V Furniture & Accessories > QED’s Golden Anniversary XT Speaker Cable Featuring X-Tube Plus Technology Is $40: High-End Munich 2023

David Petersen

May 9, 2023 at 2:27 pm

Looks like a nicely cable for a reasonable price that most of us could afford.Mr. Pete—–>aging hippie

Ian White

May 9, 2023 at 2:49 pm

David,

Will have a review the end of next week.

Best,

Ian White

RB

May 9, 2023 at 7:59 pm

What about spades for those of us who cannot use banana plugs… I would definitely try this speaker cable if that were available.

Ian White

May 10, 2023 at 1:38 pm

RB,

Banana plugs only at this point but that might change because QED does offer spades on everything else.

Best,

Ian White

ORT

May 10, 2023 at 3:12 am

These look good. That is really all a speaker cable need do. Think of it as a twisted pair of Jayne Mansfield. It doesn’t have to make a sound, just be there.

OOOooooo…How turgid with testosterone am I? Very. I’ve been watching reruns of “The Nanny”.

Oy…

ORT

Ian White

May 10, 2023 at 1:18 pm

ORT,

Leave poor Jayne Mansfield out of the conversation. RIP.

I do wish that they offered a bi-wired set but there is no plan for that. I asked.

Review next week.

Sir Ian of Jersey

ORT

May 10, 2023 at 5:48 pm

Ian, sorry…I had recently finished viewing “The Girl Can’t Hep It” (Little Richard was so GREAT!) and so she was on my mind…Her former husband, Mickey Hargitay was one of my early physique inspirations.

Ramblin’ but with reason. She was gone too soon but mayhap not as Hollyweird treats women exponentially worse as they age. Damn them! Damn them all to Hell!

And as always, ’tis a crime we age.

Cool lookin’ wires. I may break down one day and get some as I do like the look!

ORT

Ian White

May 10, 2023 at 5:57 pm

ORT,

She died such a horrible death. With young Mariska in the backseat. Brutal. I am a L&O lifer and was fortunate to meet her during filming in NYC once. Even nicer and more beautiful than her late mother.

I have a set inbound by Sunday. I hope to have the review done by next Friday.

Judge White

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