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Psychobabble: A study in musical integration

The Chord Signature interconnect

By John Groom

December 2004

Psychobabble is a column to explore the twilight zone of hi-fi. That strange place where the improbable meets the impossible, the fussy meets the obsessional, and the physical meets the psychological.

Well it is too late now, and my friends think I am crazy. Why did I spend $1200 on an interconnect, particularly to go with modest and elderly components? Maybe the column has been well named and I am just a psycho-babbler.

I have had an epiphany

How do I begin to explain when something just “sounds right”? The new Chord Signature interconnect is simply the best cable that I (personally) have heard. I can rave on about a gloriously open midrange, sparkling tops and a delicate but ooh-so-tuneful baseline. This would not be the point. Even if I got excited about the awesome tonal accuracy, the phenomenal speed and the pinpoint separation of the instruments, this would still not be the point.

What colour is God?

The problem is that I am trying to define the inherent “rightness” of the sound by breaking it down into its components. All of these components are in some way inherently “true” and yet they do not fully satisfy what the “rightness” is ultimately all about. Roy Gregory for example, writing for Hi-Fi Plus in his review of the Signature interconnect comments how the cable makes singers’ voices sound suddenly liberated, as though someone had been previously constricting their vocal chords. This is starting to get close but isn’t quite there.

Mother is at home

I did wonder if it might be to do with the Fletcher Munsen Curve that I have mentioned in a previous article, ie, if the brain is hard-wired to give special attention to the midrange then this cable is playing to that predisposition. There are for example cables that give a greater weight to the bass. This cable may be just a better match to our internal picture memory of how sound should be.

The whole is greater than…

I am also wondering if it might be to do with integration. There is a handling of dynamic range and leading edges that is fast but smooth, natural, relaxed and uncluttered. While I don’t have the technical knowledge, I wonder if it might have something to do with time alignment.

The cables are provided with an additional earthing lead to attach directly to the amplifier’s earthing post. When I used the earthing lead I thought the sound became slightly smeared and this could have reflected the dual earth tracks created. Without the lead the sound arrives at the ear in an even way across the whole musical spectrum. However it is done, the sound is perceived as a whole without emphasis on any one component.

Be gentle with me

I think that hi-fi happiness is, as in good relationships, about finding faults that you can live with. This cable has drawn more clearly to my awareness the slightly light and splashy quality of my CD player and it certainly lets me hear the enthusiasm of the amplifier. Its detailed and informative approach has even helped me make nit-picking decisions about the placement of power cables and the direction of fuses (yes, it does make a difference).

Being more myself

While the electronic components will be replaced over time, the cable does not turn a burning searchlight on the inadequacies; it just gently draws my attention to them. It doesn’t “harp on”, but simply and enjoyably gets on with the business of the music. In that way it is like a good friend who accepts our weaknesses and brings the conversation back to pleasanter things.

Maybe in the end that is what the sense of rightness is about. It is not about smearing or emphasising aspects of the music, but about, opening it up in a detailed, coherent and pleasant way. The music becomes simultaneously more accessible and yet easy to ignore.

Other Psychobabble columns

John Groom is a psychologist working in private practice on Auckland's North Shore. John has over three decades experience in both hi-fi and psychology.