Chord ClearwayX Speaker Cable

The winner of What Hi-Fi's Best Speaker Cable award for 3 consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016), Chord's ClearwayX delivers exceptional performance at a very reasonable price. High Purity 14AWG OFC Conductors paired with silver-plated banana or spade plugs deliver remarkable clarity and detail, with a wide sound stage.

What Chord say

Delivering performance at a good price. Chord Company Clearway (now ClearwayX) speaker cable has won WHAT HIFI? Best Speaker Cable award 2015, 2016 and 2017. It uses a clever combination of materials to produce a speaker cable with a performance level that usually costs a lot more!

The ClearwayX uses 14 AWG multi-strand oxygen-free copper conductors – big enough to bring control and definition to both bookshelf and floor standing loudspeakers. The insulation has been recently upgraded from FEP to XLPE which has comparable performance to PTFE. Choice of insulation has a profound effect on a speaker cable and contributes to its neutrality. The wrong choice of insulation can produce unwanted tonal colourations.

The conductors are arranged in a twisted pair configuration before a soft PVC internal jacket is applied, this helps to minimise mechanical noise and also spaces the twin contra-wound foil shields in relation to the conductors.

Shielding a speaker cable brings subtle nuances that make music come alive. ClearwayX can transform the performance of your system particularly when it comes to coherence and timing. It will let you further into your favourite music.

"I compared ClearwayX with 2-core mains flex, of the sort you can buy at DIY stores. It is typically sold
for wiring indoor-lighting to mains plugs and covered by a white jacket. I chose it, because it’s cheap - just over 50p a metre - and I’ve actually witnessed some people use it in their budget hi-fi systems! So, do the audible benefits justify splashing out an extra £87 for 3m lengths of ClearwayX?

The improvements were 'night and day', especially with the higher-end Cambridge kit and 'speakers. Bass was more revealing and bestowed with tangible solidity, a sonic looseness of the cheaper wire disappearing altogether. Midrange clarity - strings and vocals in particular - was better, while previously-elusive treble details now burst out of the mix. The system also conveyed dynamic swings with greater ease, but the biggest advantage is that everything just sounds...more musical. Even with the cheaper system, many of these improvements could be heard - albeit to a lesser degree. If you’re still using bell-wire, give your ears a treat and ride the ClearwayX to better listening." (Read More)

Hi-Fi World - 5 World Review - 2020

"This Award is a kind of 30th birthday present for a company that has made this sort of sound its signature. It has been pipped marginally in this category in recent years, but the Clearway delivers so much that it's hard to look past it and find anything as good this year. Detail, space, frequency range - those things matter, and if the Clearway were lacking in those respects it wouldn't be given five starts. But what matters more is the knitting together and musicality, and that's where Chord has this right for the price. If you're investing your hard-earned in your hi-fi system, this is the kind of speaker cable it deserves." (Read More)

Best Speaker Cable - What Hi-Fi? Awards - 2015/2016/2017

"Chord hasn’t created a speaker cable that’ll make your system sound its cleanest or most detailed, but an understanding of what makes music enjoyable means the positives far outweigh that. Often, they tend to say cleaner, amounts to better detail, space, frequency range; those things matter, and if the Clearway were lacking in those respects it wouldn’t be given five stars." (Read More)

What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision - October 2015

"Listening to Hans Zimmer's 'Interstellar' OST, we can't help but be engaged by the vivid dynamics and punch on offer. There's an excellent level of insight and a sense of spaciousness that's impressive" (Read More)

What Hi-Fi 5 Star Review - September 2022