Black Rhodium brand - any experience

[acalex]

Hello everybody,

Long time after my last post but I kept following the forum with interest!
I have been doing some restracturing in the apartment so I will need to move to 4.5mt cables instead of my old 2mt cables. At this subject I came across a nice shop in UK stocking and marketing an UK brand called Black Rhodium. Prices are interesting and the seller states it's very good quality for the price.

I was wondering if there is out there anyone who had occasion to try those speaker cables.

PLEASE note that I am not interested in any advice on the "usefulness" of high-end cables compared to standard cable, so please stay away from this thread if your only contribution would be to state that. Thanks a lot

Alessandro

 

[Jota180]

A friend had them (he's a musician) and couldn't tell which was which when you changed them with 'normal' inexpensive cables. Use the money you save to buy more music which, afterall, is what we enjoy.

 

[CnoEvil]

Acalex, my friend.....You have been missed, not least by me.

I can't help with your quesion, but would like to know how you've got on since we last saw you.

 

[acalex]

Cno,

glad to read from you! Here nothing really changed, I have been less and less involved in the hi-fi world as my job has started to take most of my time unfortunately. As a change, I let go the Akurate as I was using it very little and wasn't worth to keep unused such an expensive piece of kit. I have now a simple Sonos with a Spotify premium for digital, good enough for what I am looking for from digital source. When I want to do some serious listening I put my vinyls on...

What about you?

 

[CnoEvil]

So you still have the Jadis and the SFs......I thought Roby mentioned that you let the SFs go.

Nothing much has changed with me, except that I got some Kef LS50s to act as Front L & R for my AV system, allowing for the separation between it and my 2 channel system.

If you see Roby, try and get him back here as well.

 

[TrevC]

Rhodium is a poor conductor of electricity and the name is stupid.

 

[Macspur]

Alex!

This forum just hasn't been the same without you and Roby.

Sorry can't help with the cables either... you can ask the non believers to stay away, but they just can't help themselves.

Mac

www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net

 

[ellisdj]

Tin also seems to be used in the Black Rhodium cables as well whihc is also a bad conductor.

However one of the best demos at Bristol this year was using Black Rhodium cables throughout - that was the Harbeth / CAD room.

That was the cleanest imaging of the day for me - even it was lacking in fullness.

Furutechs top products all use Rhodium - this is because it does not tarnish and because in their words

Rhodium, a member of the exclusive platinum group, is the most costly and rare precious metal. It’s extremely hard and doesn’t corrode. Most people don’t think about it but most of world’s rhodium production goes into the catalytic converters under your car! Furutech chooses rhodium plating for their highest-performance cable lines. Numerous tests with different plating and treatments reveals that durable rhodium plating provides fast, powerful, controlled bass, an open and extremely palpable midrange with detailed and transparent mid- to upper-frequencies and a smooth, nuanced wideband tonal balance. Furutech recommends rhodium as the most refined plating metal.

 

[acalex]

Thanks for sharing your experience and giving some information on the rhodium!

 

[acalex]

Cno, I put on sale the SFs indeed cz I was needing smaller speakers. To be honest, they are always on sale but I am not willing to negotiate on price so if somebody with the right amount of money comes around, I MIGHT think about selling.

On the other hand, the product is discontinued and the new Guarneri Memento are not as good as the old ones, even if 50% more expensive. Also I much prefer the look of the ones I have. So they might be a collectable item one day...who knows

But as I said I have been away long time. Had occasion to try on several occasions an amp from a brand called Vitus Audio, very impressive amps in terms of delivery....but also quite costly. Another brand I discovered which is worth is Metronome technologie, a french brand producing high-end cd players. What a sound....

Will try to convince Roby to write a come-back post here also

 

[cheeseboy]

Rhodium, a member of the exclusive platinum group, is the most costly and rare precious metal. It’s extremely hard and doesn’t corrode. Most people don’t think about it but most of world’s rhodium production goes into the catalytic converters under your car! Furutech chooses rhodium plating for their highest-performance cable lines. Numerous tests with different plating and treatments reveals that durable rhodium plating provides fast, powerful, controlled bass, an open and extremely palpable midrange with detailed and transparent mid- to upper-frequencies and a smooth, nuanced wideband tonal balance. Furutech recommends rhodium as the most refined plating metal.

ellis - if you are going to copy paste from a sales website, please can you at least reference it/make it known where you got the info from, so that we know what's sales blurb and what's personal opinion? Just makes it easier. Cheers.

 

[acalex]

Alex!

This forum just hasn't been the same without you and Roby.

Sorry can't help with the cables either... you can ask the non believers to stay away, but they just can't help themselves.

Mac

www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net

Glad to read from you again! How are things going with you?

I know, but I have decided to report every post which is off-topic. And I stated clearly that the objective of my thread is to gather experience from people who had a direct experience wuth rhodium and with this brand in particular. The shop that has proposed those to me is Musicarch. He uses BR and Tellurium Q and states that BR are a better value for money.

I have tried the Graphite speaker cables from Tellurium Q and they were indeed one of the best cables in my system.

 

[ellisdj]

Furutechs top products all use Rhodium - this is because it does not tarnish and because in their words

I did - its from the Furutech website

 

[cheeseboy]

Furutechs top products all use Rhodium - this is because it does not tarnish and because in their words

I did - its from the Furutech website

yeh, sorry, missed that, my bad

 

[ellisdj]

it wasnt that clear though cheeseboy - I admit to that

 

[Gazzip]

Tin also seems to be used in the Black Rhodium cables as well whihc is also a bad conductor.

However one of the best demos at Bristol this year was using Black Rhodium cables throughout - that was the Harbeth / CAD room.

That was the cleanest imaging of the day for me - even it was lacking in fullness.

Furutechs top products all use Rhodium - this is because it does not tarnish and because in their words

Rhodium, a member of the exclusive platinum group, is the most costly and rare precious metal. It’s extremely hard and doesn’t corrode. Most people don’t think about it but most of world’s rhodium production goes into the catalytic converters under your car! Furutech chooses rhodium plating for their highest-performance cable lines. Numerous tests with different plating and treatments reveals that durable rhodium plating provides fast, powerful, controlled bass, an open and extremely palpable midrange with detailed and transparent mid- to upper-frequencies and a smooth, nuanced wideband tonal balance. Furutech recommends rhodium as the most refined plating metal.

I posted my theory on this earlier but in case you missed it:

We all know that any correctly sized and terminated low oxygen copper cable will sound the same as the next. It is a matter of scientific fact. However, what if it is the very fact that exotic aftersales cables are not “correctly” sized/terminated/materialed that is causing these detectably audible differences? Such an affect would of course be a degradation. A reduction in signal quality from that provided by a correctly sized and terminated low oxygen copper cable, but does that really matter?

I currently run an Audio Research front end to my system. It is not hifi and it is not accurate. It is mid 20th Century technology that was surpassed by its Solid State brethren many years ago. It does however sound wonderful and (to my ears) better than any SS electronics I have heard which on paper has technologically usurped it. Why is this? I believe it is because sometimes "perfection" can be improved upon.

I have previously owned Bryston and Chord Electronics front ends and they, especially the latter, are Hifi. They are accurate. They are audibly "perfect". They are also (to my ears) difficult to listen to. Sometimes too much to engage with and other times completely unengaging. High fidelity and accuracy do not necessarily translate in to musicality.

So here’s my point: Perhaps exotic after sales cables are actually designed to degrade the sound a little. To take some of the harshness out of the “HiFi” signal. Is there anything wrong with that? I don’t think there is.

If you crave absolutely accuracy and the highest fidelity in your music then go for the correctly sized and terminated low oxygen copper cable because Trev C et al are completely correct about that. If however you prefer a little jam in porridge then why not dabble in the dark arts and take the proverbial edges off…..

 

[ellisdj]

My Experience has been different to the above.

I have found that oxygen free type cabling gets you so far in terms of sound quality.

Companies that have taken this much further to using OCC copper used in certain ways multiple solid core runs for example XLO - gets you much closer to the music than I ever did with OFC based solutions of different types - so I dont think they are adding sauce to the mix, if anything reducing it.

Now I also experienced a completey different approach in Entreq Cabling - which is completely different - they use thin cabling, different materials for +ve and -ve conductors also different lengths and reduce metal usage to a minimum and screen to an external ground not back to earth.

These are bloody expensive solutions. My experience of them , I only tested the speaker cable when my system wasnt ready and its still doesnt warrant them now - but it was interesting the biggest change I heard was in acoustic or studio live type music such as Radio 1 live lounge CD. This sounded a Lot more smooth and natural to what I was using before

Is this solution adding to the mix or is reducing more still...

This is just my experiences but I have a slightly different take on it to gazzip and thought it was worth sharing it too

 

[SteveR750]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen-free_copper

and...

Oh dear.

The metallurgical principles might indeed be correct, and it's fine up to the bit where they inserted this huge leap of assumption.

The benefits are obvious, with almost no crystal boundaries, the audio signal is no longer impeded down the copper wire and more information and detail is delivered faithfully to the receiving equipment.[/b]

 

[steve_1979]

I have decided to report every post which is off-topic. And I stated clearly that the objective of my thread is to gather experience from people who had a direct experience wuth rhodium and with this brand in particular.

I ate three packets of crisps yesterday which is about 27% of the recommended daily allowence of sodium.

 

[lindsayt]

...I have previously owned Bryston and Chord Electronics front ends and they, especially the latter, are Hifi. They are accurate. They are audibly "perfect". They are also (to my ears) difficult to listen to. Sometimes too much to engage with and other times completely unengaging. High fidelity and accuracy do not necessarily translate in to musicality...

Gazzip, do you ever find profesional live acoustic concerts difficult to listen to or completely unengaging?

Do you find profesional live acoustic recordings difficult to listen to on your Bryston and Chord front ends?

If the answer to the first question is "no" or "rarely" and the answer to the second question is "yes" or "more often than rarely" then there's a high chance that the fidelity of the Bryston and Chord is lacking in at least one key respect. And therefore neither of them is audibly perfect.

 

[ellisdj]

[/quote]

Gazzip, do you ever find profesional live acoustic concerts difficult to listen to or completely unengaging?

[/quote]

He might do if he was sitting on his own is his listening room with the perosn playing - this is 2 different things - and pa rarely uses just stereo speakers so its adding its own ambience to the sound - as well as the rooms acoustic compared to a larger venue.

Bur I also agree that I doubt any audio product is perfect - he is just saying its perfect for him

 

[Gazzip]

...I have previously owned Bryston and Chord Electronics front ends and they, especially the latter, are Hifi. They are accurate. They are audibly "perfect". They are also (to my ears) difficult to listen to. Sometimes too much to engage with and other times completely unengaging. High fidelity and accuracy do not necessarily translate in to musicality...

Gazzip, do you ever find profesional live acoustic concerts difficult to listen to or completely unengaging?

Do you find profesional live acoustic recordings difficult to listen to on your Bryston and Chord front ends?

If the answer to the first question is "no" or "rarely" and the answer to the second question is "yes" or "more often than rarely" then there's a high chance that the fidelity of the Bryston and Chord is lacking in at least one key respect. And therefore neither of them is audibly perfect.

Perhaps I should have said that they are nearing a level where they are as revealing and as transparent as it is possible to achieve within the bounds of current technology. Not a sound I get on with particularly. The speech marks were supposed to imply that "perfect" did not literally mean perfect.

I don't think recorded music playback and live performance are comparable.

 

[lindsayt]

They can be, with the right recording on the right system. Apart from missing out on the visual spectacle, of course.

 

[ellisdj]

Never can be - because the acoustic of both environments are so wildly different it will never be the same - thats just one of the issues.

The recording would have to have been made in the exact room its being played back in or - the listening room would have no effect on the played back audio which is close to an impossible scenario.

Especially for domestic hifi.

Not saying great systems dont replicate it to varying degrees of course they do - but really you are replicating the mastering of the original - not the original itself

 

[SteveR750]

...I have previously owned Bryston and Chord Electronics front ends and they, especially the latter, are Hifi. They are accurate. They are audibly "perfect". They are also (to my ears) difficult to listen to. Sometimes too much to engage with and other times completely unengaging. High fidelity and accuracy do not necessarily translate in to musicality...

Gazzip, do you ever find profesional live acoustic concerts difficult to listen to or completely unengaging?

Do you find profesional live acoustic recordings difficult to listen to on your Bryston and Chord front ends?

If the answer to the first question is "no" or "rarely" and the answer to the second question is "yes" or "more often than rarely" then there's a high chance that the fidelity of the Bryston and Chord is lacking in at least one key respect. And therefore neither of them is audibly perfect.

Perhaps I should have said that they are nearing a level where they are as revealing and as transparent as it is possible to achieve within the bounds of current technology. Not a sound I get on with particularly. The speech marks were supposed to imply that "perfect" did not literally mean perfect.

I don't think recorded music playback and live performance are comparable.

Totally agree, re comments about soundstage on another thread. Few systems have anything like the dynamic swings and volume of real instruments either.