RSX Technologies Benchmark ER-20 power cord

This review is easy to write. If you need a solid and reliable yet eminently affordable, er, benchmark in power cords, the RSX Technologies Benchmark ER-20 fits the bill. It takes much of the technology that makes high-end RSX cables successful, boils those concepts down to the key salient points and retains many sonic benefits in the process. Job done!

RSX Technologies – brainchild of the originator of XLO cables, Roger Skoff – aims for maximum neutrality in all its cables; they should add nothing and subtract as little as possible while doing so. Many, many cable brands make the same claim, but it often ends as just that… a claim. Skoff’s designs remain secret but attempt to combat changes in cable capacitance and inductance caused by the geometry and insulation of the cable, and these changes to the base parameters of a cable alter both the phase and transient response of a system, and at worse can even distort the signal at source. Given that the root of all modern audio is effectively modulated current, whatever does the least harm, wins!

Automated assembly

In making Benchmark ER-20, RSX Technologies automated its conductor assembly instead of a more labour-intensive hand-building process, meaning it can make a cable that gets within striking distance of its more upscale cables at a fraction of the cost. Benchmark ER-20 uses ‘laboratory-grade’ copper, with what the company describes as ‘Balanced-Field’ geometry. This is met by a low dielectric constant, high dump-rate primary insulation, full coverage shielding, a special outer jacketing, and high-quality gold-over-pure-copper connectors.

The ’first, do no harm’ rule really does apply here. There’s a strong sense of the power supplies of your equipment having more scope to get out of the way of the music, letting that music have unattenuated dynamic and tonal accuracy. This brings out a lot in the music itself, from the harmonic structure of a piano piece through to those subtle string-squeaks and noises heard in classical guitar parts right through to some extra heft and drive when playing some cobweb-blowing Tool at a healthy level.

There are two stand-out aspects of performance here: solidity and detail. Sure, the solidity is wrapped up in the presentation of a good soundstage, but there’s something more to it than that. Instruments don’t just have a solid foundation, they appear more as physical entities in the room, relative to your standard system. If that system throws out a wide soundstage, it will be wide and solidly underpinned. If it’s narrower but deeper, that ‘solid underpinning’ applies equally. And it’s much the same with detail levels; unless you already have very high-end power cables, the Benchmark ER‑20 is your system, with more information on tap.

The downsides? You must like minty-green power cords and you don’t get the woven luxury of RSX’s more esoteric designs. You also need to factor a long weekend of bedding in before the Benchmark ER-20 lets you into its deepest caverns of bass. If you do some very tight-knit listening between this and those more exotic designs – through a suitably up-scale system – you’ll hear why spending more money is money well spent. Next, if you already have good, relatively esoteric power cords, you might get upset at how this relatively affordable cable wiped the floor with them. Especially as there’s a cryo-treated one coming that should be even better!

Yes, the RSX Technologies Benchmark ER-20 really is that good. Not just ‘good for the money’… just good, pure and simple.

Price and Contact Details

• Price as tested £295/6ft

Manufacturer

RSX Technologies

www.rsxtech.com

UK distributor

Wollaton Audio

www.wollatonaudio.com

+44(0) 115 958 4404

Back to Reviews