Having become a "cable believer" when I first heard a QED Qnekt 3 (forerunner of the current one) compared to the freebie in the box one, I moved up, firstly through that brand, and then across to Chord, owning in my time the Silver Siren, Chameleon Silver Plus, ands then Anthems in both rca and xlr, believing i was going in the right direction, hey, if it cost more it should be better right? (The answer to this comes later.

In between this time, I also owned a £600 Black Rhodium Oratorio, which, when it was sold on, left me without a decent cable, so I had to use some I picked up for £2, reduced from £4 at a local shop

Thinking they would be sh*t, I was amazed at their quality, how could this be? A £2/4 ic that didnt disgrace itself following on from £600 worth of wire.

Telling people in hifi shops prompted replies of me being deaf and similar, so I took them to a local respected franchised chain.

A blind test against Chord Signatures at £525......and guess what........mine were preferred over them!

Anyway, ive only mentioned all that to lead up to the next bit, proving you dont need to spend hundreds on cables to achieve a quality sound.    Having swopped my xlr cdp for an rca only one, i did a deal for a set of the NVA Sound Cords, which at the moment are sold on e bay through the manufacturers shop for the princely sum of £9.99 for 0.7m.

I believe for what is the price of 3 coffees at Starbucks, they are amazing ic's, standing toe to toe against very much costlier wires, if you dont believe me, try some,  they offer a money back guarantee so you cant lose.

Have recently had a pair of the Cords more expensive big brothers, the Sound Pipes, in the system, and, due to them being too short, possibly a knock on effect too that theyre of a solid construction,  I decided to sell them on and get a longer pair,  except when I re instaled the cheaper Sound Cords, to my ears they just sounded a better cable.

Now, maybe synergy is responsible for this, but the effect of sticking them back in was wanting to listen to more music, which I must admit I didnt do with the Pipes.

Im pleased to say the guy who bought the Pipes from me is as pleased with them as I am with the Cords, a good result all round!

Of course now my curiosity is making me wonder if the Super sound Pipes would be any better.........?

Having spoken to NVA owner Richard Dunn, he was surprised that the Sp's didnt sound as good, and suggested they might be faulty, iI passed on this info to their new owner, who is now in the throws of sending them nack for checking.

Stay tuned for the conclusion, which will probably put me back on the "find a better cable" merry go round!

Ok, I should have posted this a while back........the conclusion then...................in my system, which wasnt cheap, the Sound Cords at less than a tenner get pride of place!

Try a pair I believe you will be pleasantly surprised