[Roasty]

I've had my Gladius cable since December.

I had just bought a ZMF Caldera, and was comparing the various cables that I had on hand. My favorites were an OCC silver DHC Prion4, which I'd borrowed, and my own OCC copper Arctic Cuprum cable. Although I liked the Prion4 cable a little more, the Cuprum still sounded great to me, at a fraction of the cost.

When the DHC cable went back to it's owner, I contacted Val at Arctic and asked what I should get if I wanted a "better Cuprum", and he recommended the Gladius. I ordered one with upgraded Furutech mini-xlr connectors at the headphone end and an Aeco XLR connector on the amp end. I wasn't sure what splitter to get, and Val patiently sent me many photos to help me get the one I wanted.

For anyone who's never dealt with Arctic before, I really recommend reaching out to them before you buy, to get some recommendations within your budget - in my experience, they never try to upsell you, and in fact when I started veering over the edge of my budget to ask about cables above my budget, Val was very good about gently pulling me back, explaining that I didn't need to spend more money. It's that kind of behavior that builds trust, and is one of the reasons I've returned to them whenever I've needed a new cable.

The cable is a beautiful two-tone color, due to the mixture of darker copper and copper/silver wire woven together. It feels very supple, and is not microphonic.

It is my favorite copper cable. Despite having some silver in it, it sounds more on the copper end of the spectrum than silver, if you know what I mean. It indeed sounds like a much much better Cuprum, with more detail, texture and stage than the cheaper cable, but still keeping the slightly warm of neutral sound of the Cuprum.

My other favorite copper cable that I own is the DHC Complement-C, which has wonderfully warm and liquid mids, as if Peter from DHC somehow inserted a tube into his cable. However, the Complement-C doesn't quite have enough treble for me, and I've found that I prefer to use it when the headphone is brighter sounding, e.g. I use it with my ZMF Verite and the brighter BE2 pads and the resulting sound is stunning IMO. In comparison, the Gladius appears to be more neutral than the Complement-C, with no obvious emphasis anywhere in the frequency curve, although it does have greater treble extension than the DHC cable. This made the Gladius a no-brainer to pair with my Caldera, because they both get out of the way of the music, without tinkering with the sound.

I did get the chance to borrow a DHC Complement C15, which is an OCC copper cable with some silver woven in. I thought the Gladius and C15 were pretty equal in terms of quality, but once again, I preferred the extra bite in the Gladius' treble, and also preferred the slightly forward mids of the Gladius. (This was relatively speaking, I have no idea if the Gladius' mids were slightly forward or the C15's mids were slightly recessed).

At this level of cable, being "good" or "excellent" is an expectation, so one cable isn't necessarily better or worse than another. What I'm looking for is synergy with the rest of my chain, helping the headphone to sound exactly the way I want it. As I said before, the magical quality of the Gladius is that it gets out of the way of the music. It's become my go-to cable for both my Caldera and also a recently purchased ZMF Atrium Closed. I did try it with my Focal Utopia 2022, and the synergy wasn't there, but I don't see that as a negative for either the cable or the headphone. For my preferences, I prefer the Utopia 2022 with silver cables.

In conclusion, I'm all set with the Gladius as my go-to copper cable. When I saw the Arctic Sonoro that @Sound Eq bought, I have to admit my resolve wavered, because the Sonoro looks like a turbocharged Gladius, with a lot of silver thrown into the mix. I'm sure the Sonoro sounds awesome, but I decided that my next Arctic purchase (and yes, my experience with Arctic is so wonderful that why would I not make my next purchase from them?) would be in a slightly different direction. More to come...

That sounds like a great buying experience. the folks at Arctic are simply amazing! and the cable looks great too.

 

[PaisleyUnderground]

Here is my follow up on the Arctic Cables- Sonoro

So how did it affect the Caldera, well I will not write big long articles about how each song will now sound and make the reader of my impression get lost in words. I will keep things simple and straight to the point

Bass: the bass of the Caldera is great but I felt it could be more refined and shine through and have more impact, and that is what the Sonoro brought to the table, a better bass experience and definition of notes and I can tell you the punch and impact of the bass is what will draw your attention from the first time you will experience this cable

Mids: fuller mids with more resolution and clarity. You will feel that the Mids have a more accurate presence and are allowed to shine through with such a grand experience. The notes are more natural and rounded. It’s difficult to say in words that experience. The mids are showcased with more fullness and more resolution. The vocals whether male or female vocals simply became more natural and had this great texture shining through with grandiose feeling. I am a person who simply cannot tolerate a headphone that does have issues in the mid range at all. As such my tonality chasing journey is all about the mid range experience. And I can tell you this, the Sonoro simply took the Caldera to another resolute level in the mids. Simply full, organic, natural with a lot of texture

Highs: As some experienced that treble issue in Caldera, I did too, but not that it bothered me at all, but it was there. Here comes in the Sonoro and it just irons out those imperfections, So that any treble peaks are now rounded and smoothed out with great extension. It is an absolute noticeable effect that you will hear so clearly how the highs are so well addressed

Stage: Well, dare I say that the Caldera went from good stage to really wide and holographic. Yes. I dare and that is something all my friends who auditioned the Sonoro and Caldera agreed on. It simply allowed the stage to take a bigger dimension which was a bit confined with the stock cable or some of the other aftermarket cables I experienced. The stage became deeper, wider and fuller. That stage simply made me now declare that the Caldera has a bigger stage than my Susvara for now. I do not know if I will use a Sonoro cable or any other suggested cable by Arctic cable on my Susvara what will happen, that is something that I will try next.

I wanted to add how much I enjoyed @Sound Eq 's review. If my write-up was missing the usual bass/mids/highs descriptions, it's mainly because my findings mirrored his when I paired my Caldera with the Gladius, and it was hard not to write anything without plagiarizing him.

Like @Sound Eq , I am a tonality chaser above everything else, and Arctic cables appear to be made for my preferences.

 

[PaisleyUnderground]

That sounds like a great buying experience. the folks at Arctic are simply amazing! and the cable looks great too.

Thanks, I've now bought 3 cables from Arctic and the buying experience is the opposite of going to Amazon and clicking on "buy" (although you can do that, if you really know what you want). I enjoy the back and forth with Val, and even when I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted, Val gave me invaluable advice.

 

[Sound Eq]

I wanted to add how much I enjoyed @Sound Eq 's review. If my write-up was missing the usual bass/mids/highs descriptions, it's mainly because my findings mirrored his when I paired my Caldera with the Gladius, and it was hard not to write anything without plagiarizing him.

Like @Sound Eq , I am a tonality chaser above everything else, and Arctic cables appear to be made for my preferences.

These impressions I wrote mirror my experience and made me a big fan of their cables, so I can totally vouch for Arctic Cables, and this is why I am getting 2 new cables one for susvara and one for utopia 2022

 

[Sound Eq]

I've had my Gladius cable since December.

I had just bought a ZMF Caldera, and was comparing the various cables that I had on hand. My favorites were an OCC silver DHC Prion4, which I'd borrowed, and my own OCC copper Arctic Cuprum cable. Although I liked the Prion4 cable a little more, the Cuprum still sounded great to me, at a fraction of the cost.

When the DHC cable went back to it's owner, I contacted Val at Arctic and asked what I should get if I wanted a "better Cuprum", and he recommended the Gladius. I ordered one with upgraded Furutech mini-xlr connectors at the headphone end and an Aeco XLR connector on the amp end. I wasn't sure what splitter to get, and Val patiently sent me many photos to help me get the one I wanted.

For anyone who's never dealt with Arctic before, I really recommend reaching out to them before you buy, to get some recommendations within your budget - in my experience, they never try to upsell you, and in fact when I started veering over the edge of my budget to ask about cables above my budget, Val was very good about gently pulling me back, explaining that I didn't need to spend more money. It's that kind of behavior that builds trust, and is one of the reasons I've returned to them whenever I've needed a new cable.

The cable is a beautiful two-tone color, due to the mixture of darker copper and copper/silver wire woven together. It feels very supple, and is not microphonic.

It is my favorite copper cable. Despite having some silver in it, it sounds more on the copper end of the spectrum than silver, if you know what I mean. It indeed sounds like a much much better Cuprum, with more detail, texture and stage than the cheaper cable, but still keeping the slightly warm of neutral sound of the Cuprum.

My other favorite copper cable that I own is the DHC Complement-C, which has wonderfully warm and liquid mids, as if Peter from DHC somehow inserted a tube into his cable. However, the Complement-C doesn't quite have enough treble for me, and I've found that I prefer to use it when the headphone is brighter sounding, e.g. I use it with my ZMF Verite and the brighter BE2 pads and the resulting sound is stunning IMO. In comparison, the Gladius appears to be more neutral than the Complement-C, with no obvious emphasis anywhere in the frequency curve, although it does have greater treble extension than the DHC cable. This made the Gladius a no-brainer to pair with my Caldera, because they both get out of the way of the music, without tinkering with the sound.

I did get the chance to borrow a DHC Complement C15, which is an OCC copper cable with some silver woven in. I thought the Gladius and C15 were pretty equal in terms of quality, but once again, I preferred the extra bite in the Gladius' treble, and also preferred the slightly forward mids of the Gladius. (This was relatively speaking, I have no idea if the Gladius' mids were slightly forward or the C15's mids were slightly recessed).

At this level of cable, being "good" or "excellent" is an expectation, so one cable isn't necessarily better or worse than another. What I'm looking for is synergy with the rest of my chain, helping the headphone to sound exactly the way I want it. As I said before, the magical quality of the Gladius is that it gets out of the way of the music. It's become my go-to cable for both my Caldera and also a recently purchased ZMF Atrium Closed. I did try it with my Focal Utopia 2022, and the synergy wasn't there, but I don't see that as a negative for either the cable or the headphone. For my preferences, I prefer the Utopia 2022 with silver cables.

In conclusion, I'm all set with the Gladius as my go-to copper cable. When I saw the Arctic Sonoro that @Sound Eq bought, I have to admit my resolve wavered, because the Sonoro looks like a turbocharged Gladius, with a lot of silver thrown into the mix. I'm sure the Sonoro sounds awesome, but I decided that my next Arctic purchase (and yes, my experience with Arctic is so wonderful that why would I not make my next purchase from them?) would be in a slightly different direction. More to come...

great feedback and stunning pics

I hope within few weeks I will share my utopia 2022 with a matching Arctic Cable, followed by susvara and then will think bout some iem cables

 

[ARCXENOS]

I actually haven't changed out of stock cables for all my cans, you can imagine a caveman using the stock surgical Susvara cable for years

But reading the past few pages, and the following on the site :

All of our custom-made cables come with a hassle-free lifetime warranty.
Our warranty is fully transferable.

Arctic Cables provides replacements, repairs, and re-termination services free of labor costs.

it seems like Arctic Cables would be the right choice to start with. What a way to stand by your product!

I am wondering are short adapters for the headphone end orderable? A goal I have is to minimize the amount of cables I have around me, it would be most pleasant if I could have a matching set of LEMO and Mini XLR to dual 3.5mm adapters to go with a cable I order

 

[PaisleyUnderground]

I am wondering are short adapters for the headphone end orderable? A goal I have is to minimize the amount of cables I have around me, it would be most pleasant if I could have a matching set of LEMO and Mini XLR to dual 3.5mm adapters to go with a cable I order

That's exactly what I've done, ordered cables with mini xlr connectors, and then used adapters for other headphones, which saves a lot of money. All the boutique cable companies should be able to make them, so if you're ordering a cable from Arctic, just let them know what you need.

Another option is Affinity Adapters, an eBay store who makes headphone adapters. I recently got one to connect my mini-XLR cables to my Utopia 2022. Note that they label mini-XLR as "Audeze". I also plan on getting one from Arctic, just to see if I can tell the difference.

 

[Roasty]

I actually haven't changed out of stock cables for all my cans, you can imagine a caveman using the stock surgical Susvara cable for years

But reading the past few pages, and the following on the site :

it seems like Arctic Cables would be the right choice to start with. What a way to stand by your product!

I am wondering are short adapters for the headphone end orderable? A goal I have is to minimize the amount of cables I have around me, it would be most pleasant if I could have a matching set of LEMO and Mini XLR to dual 3.5mm adapters to go with a cable I order

Yep they can build adaptors for your main cable. I spec my cables for Utopia with the Lemo connectors. then
I use a few short adaptors from Arctic for my other headphones.

All with Lemo on one end, and then have mini xlr, 3.5mm plugs and hd800/solP connectors on the other. tbh I don't know if short adaptors of different cabling to the main cable make a huge difference, but I prefer to keep them of the same make (eg Aeris main cable, with short adaptors using Aeris cabling).

As mentioned above, Affinity can make ultra short adaptors without any cabling in between the adaptor ends.

 

[PaisleyUnderground]

My new Euphoria cable came today. I know it's all about the sound, but this is an exceptionally pretty cable. I especially like how the headphone connectors, amp connector and splitter all match.

I'm going let it burn in for a bit before posting impressions but having tested it on both my Caldera and Utopia 2022, it sounds pretty great out of the box.

The Utopia 2022 is a good barometer tonality-wise, because the only cable I've liked with it so far has been my silver DHC Molecule Elite. The Euphoria pairs nicely with the U22 - a huge sigh of relief.

 

[Rhodey]

I'll second that. I have a review or two to come - Ingens and Opera - but a preview is this: Yes, the Opera and Ingens are pure luxury goods, technically remarkable and aesthetically very pleasing. The Ingens belongs to my Abyss 1266 Phi TC, and the midrange and subjective sense of richness very noticeably improved over the Abyss/JPS Labs Superconductor I'd been using. Ive decided that obeying this century's opprobrium for exploring and describing meaningful differences between wires is an utter waste of time. Deferring to a narrow set of positivist principles in matters of beauty and love - no more. I'm here to experience, not to subject my experience to an outside rigor-inspector. It's very freeing, and far less confused and bogged down in shame over the untidiness of emotional surrender to music. But I digress. The Ingens don't simply sound great - and they do, consistently more engaging than the equally costly JPS cables. Ingens is a neatly woven beast, beautiful to look at in its spiraling iterations of copper and silver. And, yes, it's very pleasant to touch, and the surface and the drape of it makes its mass palpably no big deal, even comfy.

The Opera are a kind of discovery. I'd been fascinated at what mysterious benefit a low-conductivity metal plating like palladium over first-rate silver provides. I can smell a new theoretical approach, and a broader paradigm which can incorporate pending discoveries in metal boundaries and signal probation, and their dynamic relationship with the human auditory-synthetic-interpretive Hat Trick. I hear cool things. But I can't prove a damn thing. And I have no idea if what I just wrote is more than gibberish. I can tell you that Val at Arctic described the Opera as having most of the virtues of the Aeris' pure silver, but that the palladium combination confers a harmonic completeness and holographic qualities of space and physicality, or some such.

And the nice thing is, the 3.5mm pins they use perfectly fit both my Final D8000 Pros (my current headphone crush - there's a truly seductive quality to them, almost beyond words to describe) and my Susvara. Val let me know that the Final pins would fit the Susvara but also make a deeper connection than the Eidolics on another brand of flagship cable... which enabled me - with more of Val's assistance, to diagnose a slippery intermittent signal as being the fault of another flagship cable, saving me from having to bundle the Susvara back to Hifiman for an unnecessary warranty checkup and repair.

Beautiful, sublimely performing cables, good guidance with the selection process, and technical help with an issue having nothing to do with his product.

Customer service doesn't get much better than this.

This beautifully-made cable, woven delicately, slender yet substantial, does indeed bring out a clarifying, 3 and 4D specificity to the stage and the palpable presence of players and their instruments. And it may not emphasize speed or slam, but it does not suppress them either. The Opera's dynamic range is immense, and it is sufficiently textureless to be effectively liquid. Combined with the Holo Bliss KTE's signal and the May KTE conversion. My first audition of thees cables was an ear opener. Yup, expensive headphone cables. I'm sure there are diminishing returns, and modest correlation between price and improvement at best, and that expectation bias among other leanings might have influenced my listening and conclusions. But, again, I'm not here to defer to the hegemony of positivist, 20th century principles.... even if they're correct. I'm here to have experiences, and share and question them.

Oh - and Val has gone out of his way to help me solve problems and make choices on his cables, of course, but also on matters barely related to his products. This is personable, quick, generous customer service, and it matches the classiness of the cables themselves.

I’m thinking about getting one of my cables reterminated for the D8KP and was wondering if they had a 3.5 connector that seats all the way in? These look like they hang out a little. Anyone here have any experience?

 

[OM hawk]

So I got my Opera cable (v1) reterminated for my new main headphone, the Rosson Rad-0 a couple months ago, and have since used it extensively for music, videogames and movies. The picture above is the Opera and Signum Plus (a non palladium coated silver cable) side by side. I will most assuredly post pictures here of the actual Rad-0 with the Opera cable after I get my custom grills for the Rad-0, cause it's gonna be more beautiful than mortal eyeballs deserve.

Both the Opera cable and the Chord Hugo 2 dac/amp I'm plugging my Rad-0s into are in the category of "dead-honest detail beast" audio gear, yet even so, the Rad-0 doesn't show as much as a hint of "trying too hard" or "detail scalpel" sonic unpleasantness. This headphone rig is the most natural, versatile, and flawless sound I've ever heard, being generally excellent in every single category of sound characteristics. I know from my research that I could get a bigger soundstage and even more detail by upgrading to a better dac/amp, but even those aspects of the sound are already very good.

With the Opera cable, my straightforward but expensive little transportable headphone setup has achieved the most exquisite balance in its overall flavor of sound that I could possibly hope for, in terms of the Musical/Euphonic vs Analytical/Detail Beast dichotomy. It's completely sumptuous, slightly lush, but not actually creamy, and it's got a healthy, powerful yet always precise impact in the bass. It's completely accurate but never even slightly ruthless, a refined and classy delicately balanced sound which I would describe above all as "natural", or simply "real".

 

[alxrldn]

Hi guys, just wanted to know if I can order any cable with an 8 wire configuration instead of 4 if requested ? Or that’s just available for specific cables ? Thanks in advance

 

[PaisleyUnderground]

Hi guys, just wanted to know if I can order any cable with an 8 wire configuration instead of 4 if requested ? Or that’s just available for specific cables ? Thanks in advance

I'd recommend emailing them at info@arcticcables.com. I've found them to be pretty responsive.

Out of interest, which cable were you thinking of doubling up? They might already have a cable that uses a thicker wire which might be equivalent to doubling up another of their cables.

 

[alxrldn]

I'd recommend emailing them at info@arcticcables.com. I've found them to be pretty responsive.

Out of interest, which cable were you thinking of doubling up? They might already have a cable that uses a thicker wire which might be equivalent to doubling up another of their cables.

The cheapest one for iems, the cuprum if am not mistaken.

 

[RefleXicammie]

Here to review Talos Cable, 8 x 20 awg, which is my fourth cable from Arctic Cables.
I use this cable on an Audeze LCD-XC (2018) with an iFI Signature Amp/DAC with 3D+.

First of all the 8 x 20 awg Talos 'curls up' much less than my Magnus Cable, 4 x 18 awg,
due to it's 8 wire design. There also seems to be a noticeable resolution difference between
the two cables, even if they seem to have similiar copper content.. I don't know if this due to
geometry or what. After roughly 100 hours of burn in, Talos simply outperforms Magnus,
just as Magnus with 4 x 18 awg, significantly outperforms Cuprum with 8 x 26 awg.

In all cases, Audeze's stock cable and premium cable sound terrible when compared with any of these cables.
It feels like one is neutering one's drivers by using the stock cable. This is an entirely new 'holographic experience'.
You get more of the impression that 'beats' have a 3Dshape and these 3D shapes are moving through a 3d space.

It makes sense from a scientific perspective that the less defects in the copper crystal, the better the sound,
for this is same principle that defines the quality of a bell's sound. These cables seem expensive,
but the sound improvement fully justifies the cost. It is literally night and day. You will listen to
all of your music in a different way.

I test cables using Autechre's Live Sets (recorded directly from soundboard) in 24 Bit sound quality.
Autechre Live is basically 'peak sound design'. It is not entirely 'musical', but it provides a great test
of 'sound separation' as well as 'resolution', because Autechre Live has beats that move through the
entirety of the soundstage, and they bury sounds at different volumes(perceived at different depths).

There are sounds that stand out at 100 hours of burn in, that did not exist or did not stand out
with zero burn in or my fully burned in Magnus. At first cables seem stiff and sound separation
is not the best. After 100 hours, Autechre's beats cut through the soundstage like creamy butter.
There is very little resistance felt @ 100 hours. Sounds clearly exist at different d e p t h s, and one
is able to track sounds progressing from, say, the back left of the soundstage to the front right side
of the soundstage. Roy & Val are the Autechre(Sean & Rob) of cables.

One can test their cable to it's full potential by streaming Autechre's Live Sets here:

https://autechre.warp.net/ae_live

My next cable review will be on a copper version of 8 x 18 awg Euphoria (stay tuned)

Thanks,
Cameron : )