Excellently balanced with precise and strong bass, midrange second to none, and sweet treble. Insightful and involving.

none

This is the best cable for the price for sure!
It took 8 hours of burning in to open, and after 30 hours it really shines more than a diamond. Qed interconnects and speaker cables are ideal match for NAD and KEF! Try it and you won't be dissapointed!

Ballanced spectrally,detailed,lifelike mids

A bit rounded on the edges-lacks bass slam,rythmically can sond "waggon before the horses"

The most obvious to meet the ears after plugging them in is the musical details "lost in the croud" become evident again.
Voices sound very realistic if slightly colored and the overall presentation is musical and well portraied.
This product is highly recommended for those who gave up the search for upgrading cd within budget limmits.
Onthe down side they can sound a little bit narrow from soundstaging point of view and lacking slam on base and highs, abit of refinement wouldn't go amiss as well given the over tempo feeling at times.
Overall it is a good mid range product do give it a try.

Similar Products Used:

Cam aud studio mon.,VDH102 mk3

Open and detailed sound
Well-engineered connectors

The QED Qnect-2 provides an audible upgrade on the IXOS 104 which I used previously. My system now sounds better than ever before: an open, detailed and fluid sound. The Qnect also appears to be better shielded than the IXOS. It is excellent value when compared to "lunatic fringe" interconnects.

The phono connectors on the Qnect are an excellent piece of design. They provide a secure connection without the need for ridiculous insertion forces, and completely without damage to the phono socket. The outer shield connector fingers have an internal stress-relief cutout which ensures a positive "wiping" action as the contact is made. Contrast this with the IXOS 104 (and many other interconnects) which have a simple cylindrical design for the shield connector. When these are forced over the phono socket on the amplifier/source they will provide a less well defined and smaller contact area.

The Qnect connectors also have elegant ergonomically-sculpted alloy barrels: admittedly not a contributor to the sound itself, but they make the process of connecting and disconnecting the interconnect very straightforward and look superb!

Similar Products Used:

IXOS 104

Clarity, midrange warmth

Some details are lost in comparison with more expensive cables.

This cable is very good, especially taking its price into account.

I compared it in my system with a Cable Talk Monitor 3 which I have been borrowing for a while from my friend.

And to my surprise the difference was quite perceptible.
Even my wife, not really a music fan was able to hear the difference.
It was very subtle but it was there.
In fact, the Cable Talk costs twice the money of QED 2 here, so you'd assume it should sound better.
Yes, it was slightly better in the resolution of very subtle details, such as for example, when a drummer is quietly sweeping his brush over a cymbal on a nearly silent background. You know that "shhhhwwwsshhhkkk" kind of sound, don't you?
With QED it was more like a simple uniform hiss (like "shhhhhhh..."), with Cable Talk you'd hear the non-uniformness of a sound ("shwwkshhwk"), somewhat more details with more metallic colour, closer to how it actually sounds live.
But that's about it. Overall QED sounded brighter and warmer, especially in the midrange, e.g. female voices and piano sounds were particularly focused and pleasant.
So, my overall impression was in favour of the QED, as I always thought that my system lacks a bit of warmth and brightness and sounds rather cold, clynical and laid-back, due mostly to the character of Dynaudio Contours.
So the warmth and brightness brought by the QED seemed as an improvement to my ears so that I could even forgive it the loss of some details in comparison with the Cable Talk.

What's interesting is the fact that I wrote that review before I went to hifichoice.co.uk website where I read a review on Qnect 2.
To my surprice hifichoice mentioned exactly those two characteristics of this cable as I noticed in my own auditioning tests (quoting hifichoice):
a) slight loss of "delicacy" in HF details - e.g. on light cymbal strikes
b) some coloration in the mid range
I was surprised how close my judgements were to those of the Hifichoice, even the sample musical fragments were the same!

In the end, for me the details for the sake of details is more "audiophilia" than a "melomania" to which I belong. On that basis QED wins over the Cable Talk.

Equipment used:
Rotel RCD-991
Rotel RA-980BX
Dynaudio Contour 1.1

Similar Products Used:

Cable Talk Monitor 3

Stunning performance in traditional audiophile areas (detail, depth, treble clarity, bass control, etc.)

Too little "musicality" (pace, timing, bass agility, etc).

The Qnect 2 has now changed its name to Qunos 2 (same cable), because of legal issues.

People have already spoken in lengths about the virtues of this cable. I can only say that the descriptions are correct.

However, I would strongly recommend people interested in this cable to seek out the Sonic Link Silver Pink (also from the UK) in the same price range. That cable, while sharing some of the QED's virtues, is more colored, but, on the other hand, has a more driving, dynamically sensitive (fingersnapping) bass and is overall more emotionally involving. Further up in the Sonic Link line, you get much more neutrality and a more controlled treble, but the fundamentals of the music, as I see them, are in place already with the Silver Pink. In contrast, the Qunos 2 sounds more like a boring "audiophile" cable (thus deserving "only" four stars).

I tried the Qunos 2 between a good, old NAD 5440 CD player and a Rega Elex integrated amp, as well as between a Denon TU-1500RD tuner (which showed itself capable of revealing differences between cables) and an Exposure Super XV integrated. The Denon has a lush, if clear, sound, and unlike the other cables I've tried (cheaper or significantly more expensive), the Qunos 2 made spoken voices sound strangely muffled (or in whatever way I should express this), as if they had a layer of felt or something on them. I didn't notice anything suspicious on vocals, though.

Similar Products Used:

See review

everything!!build quality,sound quality.....

nothing!

i just bought my first 'hi fi ' system and im still getting over this huge change from my aiwa !
i never realized that an interconnect could make so much of a difference as this has!i had only read about this but u have to hear this interconnect to believe it!
u have to buy this-i couldnt recommend it higher-suddenly my system sounds far better with the high and low end extending and clarity has really become better-u dont need any tone controls or bass boost...THIS IS THE BEST AT ITS PRICE period.
my system
nakamichi re 10 reicever
nakamichi mb 10 cd changer
yamaha ns 55 floorstanders

Similar Products Used:

ixos gamma 1002 ,freebies from nakamichi

Tonal balance

I read about this cable and wanted to try it. It is not easy to get it here in the US, but I maneged to buy at ebay from England. I have to say that it was worth trying. This cable has a perfect, musical, evry listenable tonal balance, and I enjoy it very much. In my system it replaced AudioQuest Topaz - a very dull (should be called Grey Brick) cable. I have know idea why Stereophile Magazine likes it.

Similar Products Used:

AQ Topaz