This is a review for the Medusa first gen. I asked for a 8-braid.
Well first off, I'm a terrible reviewer and head-fier. I told the guys at Satin Audio I would write them an honest review back in September '19 after I asked them to do something special for my order (yep, I bought the cable, it's not free in exchange for review or anything like that, I'm not a reviewer or anyone with head-fi clout ether, I just asked for some free branded stickers in my shipping box).
I never actually sat down and properly did it. Something bad happened to me recently and I figured it's probably Karma so I start to follow through with all the stuffs I said I would do years ago, starting with this review.
When I started this, it's a blind test and I thought it might not be a good review if my ear can't hear anything different. I'd post anonymously in the forum without naming the brand in that case. But it turned out my ears can really drain my bank account... so here it goes, a review.
The setup:
Over the Memorial weekend of 2020, locked at home and had some quiet time, I asked my roommate to assist me in a series of blind audio tests spanning over 3 days, every day I had a blind listening session to a cable with the same IEM and source in the afternoon, with tea. I have a series of specific things and feels I look out for in the selected playlist, and make note if those things register with my ear. The blind test was done with what I have (left). It's not a fair comparison in anyway but I just wanted to see if I could really hear the differences between cables.
Source is an SP2000Cu, IEM is a Spiral Ear SE6
The cables up for blind test are:
1) a plain black cable I probably got from one of the Noble IEMs, single end.
2) The silver cable included with the SE6, also single end. These two cables are in a controlled group to see if my ear can hear anything different at all between them before judging the Medusa.
3) Medusa first gen - a custom 8 braid 26 AWG Litz type-4 pure OCC silver balanced cable that is the center of this blind test, I used an Eidolic 2.5mm Balance to 3.5mm single end adaptor to make it comparable with the other two single end cables. I was thinking this adaptor here might screw my whole experiment but whatever, I just went for it. *shrug*
Because the braid and weight of the cables are all different, me and my helper paper taped them with some yarns to inflate them to the same size of a twizzler, lay them out behind my head on a table so no weight feel either. I kept guessing which is which based on the feel and retape/retry until I'm wrong twice, then my helper kept them all and plug one into the IEM for me each day to run the afternoon test session.
(This is an audio test, don't ask about the feel, although the cable is rather soft, customizing a 8x braid for an IEM was a terrible idea in the first place...)
Let's call Friday session is cable A, Saturday B, Sunday C.
The playlist:
Amber Rubarth - Sessions from the 17th ward
- Washing Day
- Sneak
- Full Moon in Paris
This album is a classic audiophile album. It's probably a bit considered as a cheat since it's a binaural recording, but to test soundstage, imaging and so and so, it must exists in the recording in the first place right? so I picked it for the test.
The thing I'm looking for: if I listen while being distracted doing something else (brewing my tea in this case) does it hit me that it feel like the songs were recorded during the day or at night?
Saturday, Cable A.
I didn't pickup any micro detail, it sound like a night session just because of the Full Moon in Paris lyric. Nothing to say about the first two songs either. I enjoyed my tea throughout. Meh.
Sunday, Cable B:
The first two song didn't catch my attention, but I could pickup the wind wooshing during Full Moon in Paris, I stopped my tea session when that happened. Pretty good. It's an overwhelmingly dark night.
Monday, Cable C:
I feel that 3 songs are all recorded during the day in one go. There's a fricking bird somewhere outside the left window and some car running behind me (probably sound coming through the door/exit?). That damn bird keep tweeting and chirping every now and then throughout the 3 songs especially when the instruments played softly, and the wind wooshing become less or just equally noticeable. The atmosphere is as bright and busy as day. It's good that I heard things, but to be honest, if I just listen to the song and not care much about the realism, I might prefer yesterday experience.
Next:
Olivia Ong - Best of Olivia.
First of May
Sometimes When We Touch
Catchy songs, but unfortunately this album audio mix is my litmus test for sibilance.
Saturday, Cable A.
I enjoyed the song with my tea throughout. Catchy tunes, no issue.
Enjoyable, but it's a bit of masking the problem I guess?
Sunday, Cable B.
Borderline bothered during First of May, had to stop & skip to next test during Sometimes When We touch. Sibilance.
Too sharp it cuts, but it reveals what's wrong.
Sunday, Cable C.
Borderline bothered throughout both song, didn't quite enjoy song nor tea, but wasn't bad enough to stop.
Bad in a good way because it's transparent and still tolerable (somewhat).
Next:
Yosi Horikawa - Vapor
Wandering.
Saturday, Cable A.
Enjoyed the song throughout, very engaging atmosphere and beats that drew me in. Nothing to complain about. Did not noticed my tea.
Sunday, Cable B.
In some section of the song I could enjoy the added space, but the birbs sound a bit too far I can't tell where they were? Superb beats. The birds too far gave me a frown especially after Saturday session. Did not noticed my tea, probably I like this song too much and using it as a test song was a bad idea.
Monday, Cable C.
Same problem as yesterday, birbs are still a bit far, but I could generally tell where they were tweeting from, just not pinpoint. Beats still too good. Had to stop my tea and try my damnest to get a fix on the birbs. Relistened two more times.
Thinking back I enjoyed A best, I couldn't remember if I could pinpoint the birds, or I couldn't be bothered with such trivial because it was very fun.
Adele - 25
Hello
Million Years Ago
The gold standard experience for this test is my cheap HD6xx on a Mojopoly, the voice of Adele can wretch my heart.
Saturday, cable A:
Pretty good, but not to the emotional level.
Sunday, cable B:
Better than yesterday. Close, but no cigar. Listened twice.
Monday, cable C:
Probably best experience, but still not HD6xx, I guess comparing setting that kind of standard is pointless, especially if I just drill on vocal and vocal alone, there's other details too but this kind of song just overwhelmingly highlight the vocal.
Tally up:
There were difference. My bet is that A is probably the black (copper) cable, while B or C are the silvers, just base on the sibilance test.
B is the sharpest and most ruthless, probably too transparent and make things uninteresting. The birbs too far is still a problem that bother me till now (Tuesday). Or maybe the percussion and thumps didn't do enough for me to forget the birbs? I kept thinking about it.
C is transparent but more merciful in how it handle the sibilance and the distance.
The notes of B & C makes me rethink soundstage. Super large sound stage might not be a good thing if it's too far and I have a hard time telling where things were coming from.
(Well, if Im in a jungle and things are far, I probably can't pinpoint either...) I give C the edge up in this aspect since it shrink the sphere a bit to my comfort level, or it gives bit more detail, a bit more resolutions or imaging so to say.
Result & Takeaways:
I could tell the differences, my wallet is sad.
So the reveal is: A is black cable, B is the plain silver single end that comes with the SE6.
C is my Medusa 8 braid. *so my guesses were right*
I guess the takeaway from this is:
I either got lucky with my guesses or I could hear the difference between copper (or whatever material that black cable is?) and silver cables, so I actually can give my 2cents about cables.
The Satin Audio Medusa first gen is a transparent, but "merciful" cable.
Well first off, I'm a terrible reviewer and head-fier. I told the guys at Satin Audio I would write them an honest review back in September '19 after I asked them to do something special for my order (yep, I bought the cable, it's not free in exchange for review or anything like that, I'm not a reviewer or anyone with head-fi clout ether, I just asked for some free branded stickers in my shipping box).
I never actually sat down and properly did it. Something bad happened to me recently and I figured it's probably Karma so I start to follow through with all the stuffs I said I would do years ago, starting with this review.
When I started this, it's a blind test and I thought it might not be a good review if my ear can't hear anything different. I'd post anonymously in the forum without naming the brand in that case. But it turned out my ears can really drain my bank account... so here it goes, a review.
The setup:
Over the Memorial weekend of 2020, locked at home and had some quiet time, I asked my roommate to assist me in a series of blind audio tests spanning over 3 days, every day I had a blind listening session to a cable with the same IEM and source in the afternoon, with tea. I have a series of specific things and feels I look out for in the selected playlist, and make note if those things register with my ear. The blind test was done with what I have (left). It's not a fair comparison in anyway but I just wanted to see if I could really hear the differences between cables.
Source is an SP2000Cu, IEM is a Spiral Ear SE6
The cables up for blind test are:
1) a plain black cable I probably got from one of the Noble IEMs, single end.
2) The silver cable included with the SE6, also single end. These two cables are in a controlled group to see if my ear can hear anything different at all between them before judging the Medusa.
3) Medusa first gen - a custom 8 braid 26 AWG Litz type-4 pure OCC silver balanced cable that is the center of this blind test, I used an Eidolic 2.5mm Balance to 3.5mm single end adaptor to make it comparable with the other two single end cables. I was thinking this adaptor here might screw my whole experiment but whatever, I just went for it. *shrug*
Because the braid and weight of the cables are all different, me and my helper paper taped them with some yarns to inflate them to the same size of a twizzler, lay them out behind my head on a table so no weight feel either. I kept guessing which is which based on the feel and retape/retry until I'm wrong twice, then my helper kept them all and plug one into the IEM for me each day to run the afternoon test session.
(This is an audio test, don't ask about the feel, although the cable is rather soft, customizing a 8x braid for an IEM was a terrible idea in the first place...)
Let's call Friday session is cable A, Saturday B, Sunday C.
The playlist:
Amber Rubarth - Sessions from the 17th ward
- Washing Day
- Sneak
- Full Moon in Paris
This album is a classic audiophile album. It's probably a bit considered as a cheat since it's a binaural recording, but to test soundstage, imaging and so and so, it must exists in the recording in the first place right? so I picked it for the test.
The thing I'm looking for: if I listen while being distracted doing something else (brewing my tea in this case) does it hit me that it feel like the songs were recorded during the day or at night?
Saturday, Cable A.
I didn't pickup any micro detail, it sound like a night session just because of the Full Moon in Paris lyric. Nothing to say about the first two songs either. I enjoyed my tea throughout. Meh.
Sunday, Cable B:
The first two song didn't catch my attention, but I could pickup the wind wooshing during Full Moon in Paris, I stopped my tea session when that happened. Pretty good. It's an overwhelmingly dark night.
Monday, Cable C:
I feel that 3 songs are all recorded during the day in one go. There's a fricking bird somewhere outside the left window and some car running behind me (probably sound coming through the door/exit?). That damn bird keep tweeting and chirping every now and then throughout the 3 songs especially when the instruments played softly, and the wind wooshing become less or just equally noticeable. The atmosphere is as bright and busy as day. It's good that I heard things, but to be honest, if I just listen to the song and not care much about the realism, I might prefer yesterday experience.
Next:
Olivia Ong - Best of Olivia.
First of May
Sometimes When We Touch
Catchy songs, but unfortunately this album audio mix is my litmus test for sibilance.
Saturday, Cable A.
I enjoyed the song with my tea throughout. Catchy tunes, no issue.
Enjoyable, but it's a bit of masking the problem I guess?
Sunday, Cable B.
Borderline bothered during First of May, had to stop & skip to next test during Sometimes When We touch. Sibilance.
Too sharp it cuts, but it reveals what's wrong.
Sunday, Cable C.
Borderline bothered throughout both song, didn't quite enjoy song nor tea, but wasn't bad enough to stop.
Bad in a good way because it's transparent and still tolerable (somewhat).
Next:
Yosi Horikawa - Vapor
Wandering.
Saturday, Cable A.
Enjoyed the song throughout, very engaging atmosphere and beats that drew me in. Nothing to complain about. Did not noticed my tea.
Sunday, Cable B.
In some section of the song I could enjoy the added space, but the birbs sound a bit too far I can't tell where they were? Superb beats. The birds too far gave me a frown especially after Saturday session. Did not noticed my tea, probably I like this song too much and using it as a test song was a bad idea.
Monday, Cable C.
Same problem as yesterday, birbs are still a bit far, but I could generally tell where they were tweeting from, just not pinpoint. Beats still too good. Had to stop my tea and try my damnest to get a fix on the birbs. Relistened two more times.
Thinking back I enjoyed A best, I couldn't remember if I could pinpoint the birds, or I couldn't be bothered with such trivial because it was very fun.
Adele - 25
Hello
Million Years Ago
The gold standard experience for this test is my cheap HD6xx on a Mojopoly, the voice of Adele can wretch my heart.
Saturday, cable A:
Pretty good, but not to the emotional level.
Sunday, cable B:
Better than yesterday. Close, but no cigar. Listened twice.
Monday, cable C:
Probably best experience, but still not HD6xx, I guess comparing setting that kind of standard is pointless, especially if I just drill on vocal and vocal alone, there's other details too but this kind of song just overwhelmingly highlight the vocal.
Tally up:
There were difference. My bet is that A is probably the black (copper) cable, while B or C are the silvers, just base on the sibilance test.
B is the sharpest and most ruthless, probably too transparent and make things uninteresting. The birbs too far is still a problem that bother me till now (Tuesday). Or maybe the percussion and thumps didn't do enough for me to forget the birbs? I kept thinking about it.
C is transparent but more merciful in how it handle the sibilance and the distance.
The notes of B & C makes me rethink soundstage. Super large sound stage might not be a good thing if it's too far and I have a hard time telling where things were coming from.
(Well, if Im in a jungle and things are far, I probably can't pinpoint either...) I give C the edge up in this aspect since it shrink the sphere a bit to my comfort level, or it gives bit more detail, a bit more resolutions or imaging so to say.
Result & Takeaways:
I could tell the differences, my wallet is sad.
So the reveal is: A is black cable, B is the plain silver single end that comes with the SE6.
C is my Medusa 8 braid. *so my guesses were right*
I guess the takeaway from this is:
I either got lucky with my guesses or I could hear the difference between copper (or whatever material that black cable is?) and silver cables, so I actually can give my 2cents about cables.
The Satin Audio Medusa first gen is a transparent, but "merciful" cable.