I have been fortunate enough to have had two Vertere Acoustics turntables through my system for review, and found them both to be class leaders at their price point. I am a great admirer of Touraj Moghaddan, as a designer, as an engineer and as a brilliant ambassador for our sometimes erratic industry. Having founded Roksan and then moved on to start afresh with Vertere Acoustics, Touraj has expanded his horizons and in addition to four turntables, he has designed tone arms, cartridges, a phono pre-amplifier, equipment supports and three ranges of cables. These are HB (for hand-built -if you have to ask you can’t afford them), R (for Reference), Redline and D-Fi. He is a busy man.
The claim made for the Redline interconnects on the Vertere website is “Dynamic, complex and wideband audio signal is conducted from source to amplifier with clarity and superb low level detail. Redline stereo interconnect will enhance your system to perform with uncompromising musical experience.” I was intrigued to hear if that description would be justified in a real world system.
A few weeks ago a modest sized package arrived, contains a pair of RCA interconnects from the Redline series. The packaging is classy, as you would hope, and the cables themselves inspire confidence as soon as you examine them. Terminated in Vertere branded gold plated RCA connectors, with a fetching red outer sheath. Frankly they look gorgeous. They are not too fat and are very flexible, making installation a breeze. I have deployed them at various points in my system but have found that their best place in my set-up is between the Gold Note PH10 phono stage and whatever amplifier has been on duty.
As with anything that arrives here, I gave them plenty of time to really warm up before settling down to any critical listening. I should also mention that they replaced a fine pair of interconnects from a widely-respected American manufacturer which cost not far short of three times the price of the Redlines. Even during the initial run-in period I could hear that these comparatively modest Verteres were more than holding their own against their much more expensive predecessors, which was a good augury for what was to come.
During the course of the review period I have had two very different turntables feeding the PH10, a VPI Prime Signature which was here for review (to appear in The Ear very soon) and my own heavily modified Linn Sondek LP12. Cartridges used were a Gold Note Machiavelli Red moving coil and a Goldring 1042 moving magnet. Amplification was provided by my own Lyngdorf TDAI 3400, and at various times by a Naim Uniti Atom, a Lyngdorf TDAI 1120 and a Copland CSA100. Loudspeakers were either my own recently-arrived Harbeth C7 XDs, Kudos Titan 505s or Dynaudio Super Forty Anniversaries. Loudspeaker cables used at various times were Tellurium Q Ultra Black 2, Audioquest Robin Hood or Kudos KS1.
Sound quality
Once I started listening for review purposes, the first thing that struck me was that despite moving to a much less expensive cable, I was losing nothing from the music. In fact if anything the performances became more musically coherent. Certainly I heard all the micro-detail that was hidden in the grooves of the many records which came and went during the review period. Classic 60s rock from Love, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and others, right through to modern recording from George Ezra and Lana Del Rey, with forays into ECM jazz from Avishai Cohen, Wolfgang Muthspiel and Marcin Wasilewski and several classical pieces on DG and Decca were all presented with the same aplomb. There seemed to be nothing added and nothing taken away, so that the music lifted from the records’ grooves came to life in the room. Job done.
Several weeks have now passed and I have once again come to take musical pleasure from my vinyl replay rather for granted. These Vertere Acoustics cables should not be underestimated. If you are lucky enough to know a dealer who offers the Vertere brand make sure you ask to hear the Redlines when auditioning anything that requires RCA interconnects – you won’t be disappointed. Obviously if you are in the world of a six figure purchase price for a system you will not be looking at sub-£600 interconnects. But given that for the majority of us our sights are set a little lower, then the Redline series (there are mains cables, speaker cables and inevitably a turntable arm cable in the series as well as XLR and DIN interconnects) makes a huge amount of financial and musical sense. When removing a review product from the system becomes a wrench, then you can be sure that you have hosted something special. And that’s how I feel about the Redline interconnects – I shall really miss them when they are gone. They have done what was said on the (Vertere website) tin. Long may Mr. Moghaddan continue his ongoing and restless search for ideal audio components – we are all beneficiaries of his quest.