Tellurium Q Statement II

I wish I could tell you what has changed between Tellurium Q’s Mk I and Mk II versions of its Statement cable. They have audibly changed for the better, and the reasons for that change are a complete mystery. It’s all secret. I’ve been told it’s because the company made a pact with the Dwarf Lords of Somerton. You don’t want to mess with them.

What I can tell you is Geoff Merrigan of Tellurium Q won’t say anything about the materials or construction of any Tellurium Q cable. He feels those design aspects get in the way of the discussion about the cable’s sonic performance. He has a point… we’re using cables based on their sonic properties, not because they use the correct grade of prefabulated amulite. Those who don’t know about ‘prefabulated amulite’ should search for ‘turbo encabulator.’ It’s a spoof engineering concept that has been running since the mid-1940s. It’s proof that audio reviewers aren’t the only experts in technobabble.

Not a filter

Merrigan also says the Tellurium Q line is designed to not act as a filter. While this sounds obvious, the reverse is more often the case. We almost unconsciously try to compensate for peaks and troughs in a system’s performance with cables. Choosing a cable that is a bit warm and bass-heavy can help balance out a stark and bass-light system.

In fact, it’s not so simple; you choose a loudspeaker cable that filters one set of frequencies, and the others become more noticeable. It’s like balancing a recipe. Perhaps you used too much salt, so you compensate by adding sugar. Then, you add something bitter to mask the sweetness and cut it with acidic food to tame the bitterness. This is amplified by the salt, like the lime in a margarita.

No really, not a filter

If Tellurium Q makes cables designed not to act as filters, the problem becomes letting in too much information relative to the cost of the other products in the chain. You want to bring out the musical information without exposing the weaknesses of the equipment. Tellurium Q cables are not filters; some are more ‘filter-y’ than others. Of course, when you get to Statement II, the implication is the cable is going into a system of such poise and resolving power that you need the least filter-y, non-filter, unfiltering cable it’s possible to make. This happens only because Geoff Merrigan spends thousands of hours listening to different conductor materials, dielectrics, and solders. And he has produced what many have found to be extremely good cables.

With all this listening under his belt, perhaps it’s no surprise that he has little time for those who haven’t done that listening but still think silver cable sounds shiny just because it’s silver… and red cars go faster!

Old v New

To test Statement II, we asked for the original Statement and Statement II in as many different cable formats as possible. In essence, we got two looms of top Tellurium Q.

The first thing to note about both of them is that they are phenomenally well made, in a ‘belt and braces’ approach. They are nicely packaged, too, but in a functional manner rather than something that looks like it should be in a pale blue Tiffany box. As to the cables, the black braid, the well-made connectors… everything screams ‘understated elegance’. There’s also a reassuring chunkiness about the cables, but not anacondas of sound.

It was time for listening, and in the case of the OG Statement, it was also time for cross-referencing against the original review. In that review, we praised the Tellurium Q Statement for having no sound of its own, but the problem now is that the Statement has even less of a sound of its own.

Merrigan might be doing his brand no favours by saying this, but he seems to consider each cable up the Tellurium Q line ‘less worse’ than the last. And Statement II is the least worst of all of them.

Plasticity

In truth, a big part of the problem with describing just how good TQ is (aside from the whole ‘no tech talk’ bit) comes down to the plasticity of English. The exact terms can be read in a positive or negative light (for example, ‘tasteless’ has different connotations depending on whether you are discussing a medicine, a curry, or a television programme). So, when describing Statement II as saying that it has a complete absence of tonality, timbre or coloration, that should be read as intensely positive things and not as describing something ultimately bland and insipid.

I encountered the problem of trying to frame Statement in the context of other cables. I now have the problem of trying to frame Statement II in the context of Statement. But this highlights the great difference in Tellurium Q Statement II; when you put it up against other cables—including its predecessor—the other cables sound like they impose their characteristics on the sound.

This means that if I were to sum up Statement II in a word, it would be ‘colourless’. And that hits the problem of dual meanings in English. People ascribe ‘colourless’ to mean ‘pale’ or ‘insipid’, but in the case of cables, we should think of ‘colourless’ in the same positive way we would if we were ascribing the term to potable water. Let’s face it: you want the water you drink to be colourless.

I could torture that analogy and start comparing Statement II to mountain springs, crisp, clear air, and, in some ways, that analogy holds. The absence of character that Statement II has is like a breath of fresh air. But it ends there; there’s none of the coolness and coldness to Tellurium Q’s sound—just honesty.

To thine own amp be true

If the great benefit to Statement II is its absence of character imposed on the audio system, then that does come with a reasonably obvious caveat: your system needs to be able to cope with that level of clarity in its cables. Tellurium Q Statement II can expose weaknesses in your system. It’s like putting your kit under a microscope. A slight soundstage foreshortening that comes from not the best mix of preamp and power amplifier is easy to hear. But when you have all your audio ducks in a row, Statement II shows you why a cable this transparent is so valuable.

Everything good about your system is left alone to shine. A system that resolves excellent inner detail gives even greater insight. It’s not simply about vocal articulation. Statement II lets you drill down to the microphone choices made by the engineer. With Statement II – and a system designed to be suitably neutral – in a matter of seconds, you’ll hear which of the current crop of singers is talented and which ones have been subtly tweaked by a bit of judicious compression in the high frequencies. And that’s a real shock!

No FUD

The worry with a cable this revealing is that it sows FUD (‘fear, uncertainty, doubt’) in the listener. Curiously, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The cable’s revealing quality doesn’t come with a harsh edge. It shows what your system does, but it doesn’t push you to change that system. To invite Statement II into your system isn’t the start of a complete system re-design.

Having old and new Statements in your system invites a final question: should you change them? If you have Statement, should you buy Statement II? Usually, this is time for fence-sitting, but here it’s an emphatic ‘yes’! Tellurium Q Statement was a revelation. It opens the sound of your music in a way you might not have thought possible before. If you liked what Statement does, Statement II does it better. There’s even less of the cable on show. That means more profound insight into the goings on inside your system and the studio! That insight alone is worth its weight in whatever metal is inside Tellurium Q Statement II.

Prices and contact details

• Type RCA Interconnect
• Price £4,320, $5,200/1m pair
• Type XLR Interconnect
• Price £4,740, $5,750/1m pair
• Type Power cord
• Price £4,740, $5,750/1.5m cable
• Type Loudspeaker with silver plated 4mm locking terminations
• Length 5m pair
• Price £1,740, $2,110 /mono metre

Manufacturer

Tellurium Q

statement.telluriumq.com

UK distributor

Kog Audio

www.kogaudio.com

+44 (0)24 7722 0650

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