Review: CH Technologies X15 power cord


Category: Cables

CH Technologies is owned by Craig Hampel in Champaign, Illinois. I've known Craig for about four years now. At the time I met him, Craig was working for Geoff Poor in Geoff's audio shop. As many people know, Geoff is a partner in BAT (Balanced Audio Technology).

I hadn't seen Craig for about a year when I sold my Wadia 581se CD Player to an Audiogoner also living in Champaign, Illinois. He told me that Craig had perfected his cable line and was now selling them. Dale's system sounded really good and Dale suggested that I try them. I was pretty busy and never got around to giving Craig a call.

About four months later, I sold my HRS SX rack to another Audiogoner in Champaign, Illinois. Tom has a Wadia 781i CD Player like I have, and he said that he was also using CH Technologies cables. He told me that I should call Craig and give them a try. This time I did.

Craig sent me two X15 power cords ($1,250.00 each) and one set of X10 interconnects ($2,100.00) and one set of X20 interconnects ($5,000.00). They took me completely by surprise! After all of the power cords and interconnects I've had ranging from $1,500.00 to $5,000.00, none do what Craig's power cords and interconnects do in my system.

The CH Technologies power cords and interconnects are the closest cables I've ever heard that don't have a sound at all. I heard more of music than I've ever heard coming out of my system, and it flows in the most natural state I've ever heard. I hear more minute details because it's so quiet. Along with this, those details seem to make every instrument sound more authentic than I've ever heard it in my system.

If you're looking to get closer to your music than you ever have before, I'd strongly recommend sendng Craig an email. Here's the email address of CH Technologies: c.hampel@comcast.net

Chuck

Associated gear
Please see my Virtual System

Similar products
Dream State Epic Gold, Veridical, Lucid and Dream Catcher
Stealth Dream power cords and Indra interconnects
Silent Source Music Reference power cords and interconnects
Acapella High LaMusika interconnects
krell_man
John,

I can't disagree with you. I don't know what the web designer was doing.

The only informative page is the "Philosophy" page. The "Products" page is lacking. It doesn't show the interconnects or speaker cables when you click there, and tells nothing about the cables themselves.

It's a shame, because these cables are the most special cables I've ever had in my system. They can't even be described because there's no sound that I can hear from them, only the components.

They're so nothing that I just spent $6,000.00 upgrading my Spectron amp, preparing it for the $12,000.00 upgrade I'm making to my Wadia S7i right now. I think that investing $18,000.00 in upgrading two components says quite a bit about the cables' ability to convey those upgrades.

Unfortunately, the website does nothing to convince someone to just take a little bit of time and audition the cables. Until they're actually heard, nothing anyone can say can do them justice. If you'll email Craig and audition the cables you'll see what I'm trying to say.

Chuck
Chuck,
I do appreciate your review. CH Technologies should really appreciate it too, because it is only through word of mouth that companies in the brutally competitive cable game are going to prosper if they don't develop informative, easy to use websites.
It always surprises me. Even some larger companies like ProAc have very poor visual presentations, and less information than you would expect.

Thanks
Regrettably, our website is still unfinished and we acknowledge that there is not much to it at this point.
Our web developer has been waiting on us to provide more pictures and information to work with but we've been too busy with other matters so far. We hope to have something more appealing within a few weeks.

Krell_Man mentioned the "Philosophy" section. That really should be renamed "A Brief History". But it does give a hint of what separates us from the rest of the field. We will be providing more information eventually. We're still just deciding on the best way to go about that.
What we won't be doing is getting heavy into specifics on "technology". And I'll just briefly state a few reasons why.
1) Most importantly, no amount of "techno" talk will give you an indication of what the cables will sound like in your system.
2) Many companies rely on these types of techno claims in order to sound competent but if you look long enough you will invariably find a competitor who will make the exact opposite claims. This only serves to confuse and will not tell you how our cables will sound in your system. (Plus, there is far too much marketing information out there that is just plain false. We'd rather not get caught up in the endless bog of defending what we do against these types claims. To do so would require many pages of boring technical information. Honestly, we'd rather just listen to music. And we're hoping you do to.)
3) We are in the process of patenting some of the unique qualities of our design. So, for the time being, we'd simply rather not give away too much information.

However, we do love working with fellow audiophiles and doing what we can to help them experience the emotional impact of their favorite music. We find it endlessly gratifying.

So in the meantime, we are taking the time to answer emails with requests for more information and with pictures if so desired. The one listed in the review is still the best place to contact us.

I should also note. The X15 power cable that Krell_Man (Chuck) talks about in this review is no longer available. It has been replaced by the significantly better X20, which is what he is now happily using.
If you have applied for a patent then your design is protected
by the date of the application at the US Patent Office. You may have to defend that patent application before the actual patent is granted (when exposed to the public} but then you may have to defend the same patent after the grant date. All a part of the disclosure and publication process. Have you applied for a utility patent or a design patent? Good luck in the market place. Tom
Tom, thank you for the well wishes. What you say is certainly true. And as scientists in the real world, so to speak, we are accustomed to working with the types of patents that serve to protect true technological breakthroughs. This is not to make light of what we have done here and certainly not to make light of the high end audio industry. We are, after all, fans. But in the grand scheme of things, it barely registers a blip on the radar of electronics technology.

What started as a simple exercise in problem solving lead to a rather remarkable product. But if it weren't for the overwhelming enthusiasm of audiophiles like Chuck there still wouldn't be a commercially available product.

So it's not so much the "what" that we do as it is the "why" that we aren't in a hurry to reveal. But to the right person, too much of the "what" might easily reveal the "why".
The types of discoveries we made could easily translate into benefits for our competition. In fact, there is a major cable company that, in the last couple of years, has begun to become aware of the same things we've measured from the beginning. But, by their own admission, they still don't know the "why" aspect of the things they are measuring. At this point, we'd rather not help them.

Having said all that, it really comes down to this, no amount of talk will give you a true sense of what our cables will do in your system. Chuck will definitely attest to that. And since it was the enthusiastic word of mouth from the likes of Chuck that dragged us into this endeavor, we think them talking holds a lot more weight than us talking.