WK Audio TheRed power cord

WK Audio is a Polish brand making power cords and equipment-support platforms. The company’s TheRed is the top model in its line of power cords. Components of the highest calibre are the natural home for TheRed. But, WK Audio TheRed power cord also has game-raising properties. As a result, it brings out the best in any audio product.

According to Witold ‘Witek’ Kamiñski, the architect-turned-audiophile behind WK Audio, TheRed is the product of a year spent designing and listening to the cable, testing and rejecting many solutions. Because of this, I’d class TheRed as one of the more successful lockdown projects.

Our chief weapon is surprise!

I will struggle not to channel the Spanish Inquisition sketch by Monty Python’s Flying Circus here. WK Audio TheRed’s chief weapon is its structure. Structure and geometry. Its two main weapons are structure, geometry, and well-chosen materials… among its arsenal are such diverse weapons as mechanical structure, geometry, materials, socketry, and nice red jackets.

Joking aside, this hand-made cable is most easily recognised by those red jackets and three aluminium spacer beams that help entirely separate live, neutral, and earth conductors. WK Audio TheRed’s spacers add a degree of vibration damping to the whole power cord. In creating three separated and parallel conductors, the cable’s basic electrical parameters – resistance, capacitance, and inductance – are less prone to variation due to layout when compared to conductors coiled around one another. Of course, using high-purity copper conductors with an 18mm² gauge (roughly five gauge in Imperial measurements) dramatically helps.

Parallel Lines

The parallel conductors only connect at the terminations. As a result, if you live outside of the UK, that means high-grade Furutech connectors at each cable end. Regrettably, Furutech doesn’t make a UK equivalent to the FI-E50 used in the EU or the FI-50M used in the US, but Witek has sourced a fairly good alternative. But that plug represents a sonic log jam, and the EU or US versions of WK Audio TheRed sounds even better!  

That must make the EU version of this cable damn special, because – even with the UK plug in place – the biggest criticism of WK Audio TheRed is grammatical. Do I call it ‘The TheRed’ or just ‘TheRed’? Regardless, it’s a cable that combines all the elements of a power cord. Many power cords are best used with big power amps or smaller streamers or preamps; TheRed is best used with ‘audio equipment’ of any kind. That’s rare at this level of performance.

It’s among the least ‘hi-fi’ sounding power cords around. However, WK Audio TheRed also retains all those key aspects audiophiles crave. We want that articulate detail, good soundstaging, and large-scale and small-scale dynamic range and shade from our systems. But by not drawing attention to itself or to the product to which it’s connected, it makes that product seem more natural and musical. 

The flair for no glare

What I like about WK Audio TheRed sound is its absence of glare or high-frequency emphasis. It won’t tame bright-sounding systems; after all, it’s a cable, not a tone control. However, it will bring out bass depth and energy with freedom and effortlessness. And that reflects how music sounds in the wild. 

That richness to the sound of WK Audio TheRed shines through as a sense of harmonic structure to the sound. It’s as if the musicians rehearsed more and tuned up more accurately!

Good power cords show their worth, even outside their comfort zone. The best WK Audio power cord works with equipment costing a King’s Ransom or cheaper than TheRed because it shines regardless. Excellent! 

Price and contact details

Price (as reviewed): €4,500/1.5 m

Manufacturer

WK Audio

www.wkaudio.com

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