ACCESSORIES
When it comes to your hi-fi system, they’re hardly the most glamorous part – but these key components can make a huge difference to sound quality
Audioquest Rocket 11 £12.50/m
Audioquest seems to collect Product of the Year Awards the way a squirrel hoards nuts. And those gongs are well deserved, because the Rocket 11 is still the go-to speaker cable for us.
Let’s talk about how flexible it is. It’s easy to bend the cable around tricky tight corners to reach your kit without fear you’ll break or damage the cabling. It uses semi-solid concentric conductors and long-grain copper to improve performance and reduce any interference that might degrade the sound quality. Thoughtful touches such as marking the left and right cables, labelling which end goes into the amplifier and which end plugs into the speaker, and designing it so that you can use them in a singlewired or bi-wired configuration if your system demands it, make the Rocket 11 all the more easy and appealing to use.
But the best thing this Audioquest cable does is get out of the way and simply let you enjoy the music. Whatever song we play, our system sounds sparklingly clear, incredibly detailed and propelled by the kind of rhythm that keeps you toe-tapping all the way through an album. Leading edges are stunningly crisp and clean, and vocals are packed with nuance.
The Rocket 11 guides our reference system into performing with a pleasing and punchy sense of dynamism that’s a joy to listen to. The cable helps our system knit musical elements together with real confidence and alacrity, giving an impressive sense of space to boot.
It’s a touch pricey (it adds up when you take into account how much you’ll need), but if you’re spending hard-earned cash on hi-fi components, you’ll want cabling that doesn’t inhibit their performance.