Chord Odyssey X uses the same materials as Rumour X. Odyssey’s heavier gauge conductors bring so much more detail and dynamics to a system, along with a degree of control and definition that can transform the performance of both floor and stand mounted loudspeakers. Odyssey was launched in 1998 and set a new standard of performance. It’s neutrality, its compatibility and consistency of performance from system to system made it very rapidly our most popular speaker cable.
Hi-Fi News magazine liked Chord Odyssey so much because of its performance and price that it won the best speaker cable award for five years in a row.
Over the years, changes have been cosmetic only. The current version has a white PVC outer jacket with a diameter of 8mm, still discrete in speaker cable terms and still good enough to let even the biggest of systems sing like they should.
Previous versions of Odyssey speaker cables used PTFE insulation (often referred to as Teflon™) and until the arrival of Taylon®, this was our “go to” material. Although expensive, PTFE offered the best performance.
Material technology is constantly developing and improving and alternatives to PTFE are now available. While the high cost of Taylon® prevents us from using this in all of our ranges, another insulator – XLPE (Cross-linked Polyethylene) came to our attention. One particular version of this material proved to be clearly better than PTFE, so Odyssey X was born.
The conductors used in Odyssey X are also found in Chord Epic and Epic XL speaker cables.