Most of a hi-fi budget goes on the boxes. The connections between them are usually an afterthought. The Performance Series is QED's answer to that gap: the tier where the engineering from the Reference range filters down far enough to matter, priced to sit sensibly alongside the equipment it is joining.
It covers the whole chain. Source into amplifier, amplifier out to speakers, and every digital link in between — coaxial, optical, HDMI, USB and Ethernet. One range, one design philosophy, and no point in the signal path where you have to drop back to something generic from the drawer.
The engineering is inherited rather than invented for the price. Performance interconnects run 99.999% oxygen-free copper in a quasi-balanced twisted pair with a low-density polyethylene dielectric, terminated in QED's own 24k gold-plated six-leaf RCA plugs. The optical cables use the PMMA acrylic fibre that was previously Reference-only. The digital coaxial holds a true 75 Ω characteristic impedance. These are Reference ideas, built for the systems they will actually go into.
No cable rescues a badly matched system or an untreated room, and the Performance Series is not sold on that promise. What it does is take the connection out of the list of variables. QED has been building cable in the UK since 1973 and publishes the numbers on what it makes — the technical table below is theirs, not ours.
| ITEM | DESCRIPTION |
| Main Features | |
| Reference-derived design | Conductor geometry, dielectric materials and optical fibre developed for QED's Reference range, applied across the Performance tier. |
| Quasi-balanced twisted pair | Analogue interconnect geometry that rejects common-mode noise picked up where signal cables share a rack with mains and power supplies. |
| Directional electrostatic screening | Aluminium/Mylar wrap with an oxygen-free copper drain wire grounded at the source end only, giving screen noise a single exit route. |
| QED six-leaf RCA plugs | 24k gold-plated sprung ground ring in a sculptured alloy barrel, for a contact that stays tight through repeated re-patching. |
| Full signal-path coverage | Analogue, coaxial, optical, HDMI, USB, Ethernet and speaker cable specified as one family, so a system can be wired end to end in a single range. |
| Long-run HDMI options | Active and active-optical HDMI versions carry Ultra High Speed video over runs up to 15 m, for projector drops and rack-to-screen installations. |
| DETAIL | VALUE |
| Range Position | |
| Manufacturer | QED, United Kingdom, established 1973 |
| Sits above | Connect Series |
| Sits below | Reference, Signature and Supremus Series |
| Range Coverage | |
| Analogue interconnects | Performance Audio Graphite, Performance Audio 40i, Performance Audio J2J, Performance J2P Graphite |
| Headphone extensions | Performance 3.5 mm, Performance 6.35 mm |
| Digital coaxial | Performance Digital Audio |
| Digital optical | Performance Optical Graphite (stepped-index PMMA fibre) |
| HDMI | Performance Premium, Performance Active, Performance HDMI Active Optical, Performance Ultra High Speed, Performance Optical Ultra High Speed |
| Data and streaming | Performance USB A-B Graphite, Performance Ethernet Graphite |
| Speaker cable | Original, Original Bi-Wire, Micro, Silver Micro, XT25, XT25 Bi-Wire |
| Measured Data – Performance Audio Graphite | |
| Conductors | 99.999% oxygen-free copper |
| Dielectric | Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) |
| Geometry | Quasi-balanced twisted pair |
| Capacitance | 115 pF/m |
| Inductance | 0.74 µH/m |
| Loop resistance | 0.160 Ω/m |
| Dissipation factor | 0.0012 |
| Connectors | 24k gold-plated QED six-leaf RCA plugs |
| Available lengths | 0.6 m, 1 m, 3 m, 5 m |
| Measured Data – Performance Digital Audio | |
| Characteristic impedance | True 75 Ω ±2% co-axial construction |
| Jitter | Typically 50 ps |
| Conductors | 99.999% oxygen-free copper |
| Screening | Twin electrical screening |
| Connectors | Six-leaf 24k gold RCA with stable ground ring |
| Best Suited For | |
| Two-channel stereo systems, dedicated cinema rooms, DAC and streaming setups, and rack installations where HDMI has to reach a projector. | |
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