New flagship

QED have announced a new flagship loudspeaker cable the Supremus Zr.

Its built using QED technologies but the new Zr has high-quality zirconia plugs and barrels, the same quality material used in watches and fountain pens and in automotive and aerospace industries. This ceramic material is used for its durability and high resistance to wear, temperature and eddy currents says QED.

Core technologies

Zirconia Airloc™ design with new Zirconia barrels and boots

Zirconia give shte connectors high durability great for long life of looking very nice. QED say the material makes them electrically inert as eddy currents cannot become established and therefore plug-induced distortion remains vanishingly low.

Airloc™ cold weld system

QED use a  high-pressure termination process to compresses the cable conductors and plug together, creating a cold-welded area, rather them using a traditional hot solder joint.  This is said to remove air from the joint, so no oxidisation or degradation in conductivity can occur over its entire lifetime.

Rhodium-plated locking design

QED say rhodium makes the surface of the Supremus Zr connectors very smooth, increasing the contact area and reducing resistance. Designed specifically for Supremus Zr cable, use rhodium-plated beryllium copper pins that will fit snigly into the speaker terminals, and the contact area is increased by twisting the plug barrel to make the fit tigher

Aircore™ Cordage

Aircore technology

QED say loudspeaker cables with large cross-sectional areas are prone to skin effect, where high-frequency analogue music signals are forced to the outside of the conductor, and proximity effect that disrupts current distribution. QED’s use a technology they call Aircore that combines hollow tubular conductors with polyester insulation and a special spiral construction to reduce the proximity effect and skin effect

6.2 mm2 ultra-low resistance conductors

The Zr has a large cross-sectional area, QED say this creates an ultra-low resistance and the conductors are silver-plated, oxygen-free copper.

Cryogenic treatment

QED say they are cryogenically treating the Zr to improve the microstructure of the copper core by eliminating crystalline dislocations.

Price and availability

QED Supremus Zr is available in July in pre-terminated length options

QED Supremus Zr 2.0 m £1,399 / € 1,749 / $2,100

QED Supremus Zr 2.5 m £1,599 / € 1,999 / $2,400

QED Supremus Zr 3.0 m £1,799 / € 2,249 / $2,700

QED Supremus Zr 4.0 m £2,199 / € 2,749 / $3,300

QED Supremus Zr 5.0 m £2,599 / € 3,249 / $3,900