2026 Awards – Cable System

The Red Dawn 3 interconnect, power cord and speaker cable sit at the top of Nordost’s four-layer entry-level Leif family and stand as an entirely valid and sensible entry point to the brand’s ecosystem.

The loudspeaker cable retains the familiar ribbon topology that has defined Nordost’s speaker cables since the early Red Dawn from decades ago, though the Leif cables (save for the power cord) eschew the complex, costly micro mono-filament construction of the ranges above it. Instead, they favour a more conventional FEP insulation/dielectric layout, in physical contact with the manufacturer’s own silver-plated OFC copper conductors.

The analogue interconnects use the same Neutrik connectors as the range-up Norse series, while the speaker cable uses more robust versions of the Z-plug banana or spade connectors for more consistent termination. These all add up to a major improvement.

Coherence and cohesiveness

At odds with the conventional internet ‘wisdom’ that Nordost cables are bright, with spotlit treble and lightweight bass, the Red Dawn 3 cables sound solid, hearty and cohesive, with a level of subtlety and insight beyond what reviewer Steve Dickinson expected. “The Red Dawn 3 delivers a feeling of musical intent and integrity,” he notes. “You’re never left feeling that the cable has somehow ‘edited’ your musical experience.”

He praises the range as a whole, calling out the speaker cable’s “grainless, even-handed quality” and “level of coherence that, at this price and even considerably beyond it, cannot be taken for granted”. Using the power cord via Nordost’s QB6v3 mains block, “music is presented without artifice or preference, whether classical, jazz, ‘girl-and-guitar’ or electronica; all were rendered with equal finesse and assuredness.”

Reviewed in Issue 240

Nordost • nordost.com

Read more Nordost reviews here

This one is a long time coming. We have been looking at Chord Company’s ARAY concept for some time, from its first appearance in Sarum and then the company’s current ChordMusic flagship and more recently into the brand’s Signature cable system. And now, wiith its additional range of GroundARAY and PowerARAY products (whether UK plugs or devices that operate in parallel with the electric supply and is designed to plug into the adjacent socket on the wall outlet a system is plugged into), the concept has blossomed out into a complete system, that stretches to every aspect of system performance. 

We’d normally say something like ‘But, at its core’ now, but the joy of Chord’s ARAY concept is it is inherently multi-pronged; you can approach ARAY from the cable system, from a device that plugs into another cable, and all roads lead to the same place.

Sharper, cleaner, more focused

“No matter which ARAY products I plugged into my system, how it improved sound quality was always the same – sharper, cleaner, better focused and easier to hear what each musician is playing and how,” reports Chris. To give two examples, with two GroundARAY XLR devices plugged into two spare XLR balanced output connectors on his Audio Note DAC 5 Special, he plays Ben Sidran’s Times Gettin’ Tougher Than Tough, and “Sidran’s piano was more solid with more note detail, while his vocals were more open and expressive”; and with the PhonoARAY in circuit, “bass was tighter, more nimble with more fingering detail” when playing Fergus McCreadie’s Sun Pillars. 

Chord Company’s ARAY products deliver worthwhile improvements, and keep on delivering as you add more.

Reviewed in Issue 247

Chord Company • chord.co.uk

Read more Chord Company reviews here

Espirit Audio cables are both consistent and consistently excellent, and the one-below-flagship Lumina range goes up against the audio industry’s finest without fear. All Esprit cables, which are hand-assembled in Colofens in south-west France, use multi-strand, high-purity copper conductors throughout, but the number and layout of those strands define the Espirit sound across its lineup.

In the Lumina interconnects are 6N purity OCC copper conductors, with a 20-micrometre silver plating and a symmetrical star layout. It uses two different dielectrics (PVC and silicone) for send and return conductors; that polarisation is a core element of the design. The speaker cable, meanwhile, employs an impressive 6,800 strands of 0.08mm 6N purity OCC copper, with the dielectric again asymmetrical. The cable is semi-shielded to reduce capacitance, too.

‘Aaaahh!’ quality

Given proper time to run in, the Lumina cables are exceptionally good, doing a stellar job not to alter the sound of the devices they are connected to. “If it’s on the recording and the system can reproduce it, Lumina will reveal it,” says Alan Sircom of the cables’ transparency. Soundstage size and precision are notable, as is their lyrical sense of musical articulation and exceptional dynamic range. But what Alan admires most is how their sense of calm puts you in a good frame of mind for listening to music. “You could play some rough-and-ready punk through these cables, and they would deliver a performance as energetic as a string quartet is cerebral,” he says. “But that ‘aaaahh!’ quality that puts you in a good musical frame of mind was ever-present.”

Esprit cables deserve much more fanfare.

Reviewed in Issue 241

Espirit Audio • esprit-audio.fr

Read more Esprit Audio reviews here