[MN8372]

Just taken delivery of a new Apeiron cable for my Susvaras. It’s incredibly heavy and quite stiff - lots of copper (15.5 AWG). Very well made. I’ve been using an older AC silver/palladium cable and the new copper cable changes the sound a significant amount. It actually makes my Susvaras sound like my Calderas. Warmer, more bass punch and a more natural tone. It’s a very good cable but for certain music I think I prefer my silver hybrid (more air, transponder and larger soundstage). But it’s nice to have options and I need to spend more time with it. Highly recommended if you find Susvaras to be a bit bright/thin. And good value too.

 

[Roasty]

Just taken delivery of a new Apeiron cable for my Susvaras. It’s incredibly heavy and quite stiff - lots of copper (15.5 AWG). Very well made. I’ve been using an older AC silver/palladium cable and the new copper cable changes the sound a significant amount. It actually makes my Susvaras sound like my Calderas. Warmer, more bass punch and a more natural tone. It’s a very good cable but for certain music I think I prefer my silver hybrid (more air, transponder and larger soundstage). But it’s nice to have options and I need to spend more time with it. Highly recommended if you find Susvaras to be a bit bright/thin. And good value too.

Just placed an order for an Apeiron, to pair with the Caldera. it's been a while since I've ordered anything from Arctic. shot over a request and Roy replied super quick, payment sent and waiting begins!

 

[ARCXENOS]

Roy has definitely been a joy to work with, can't wait for my first non-stock set of cables + adapters to arrive

 

[OM hawk]

I just exchanged a few emails with Roy, and he says Arctic Cables is up to the challenge of building me a true high end cable compatible with my Neumann NDH20 Black Edition's cruel and unusual 2.5mm single entry connector. I've become obsessed with this headphone lately since I discovered it's awesome synergy with my iFi Go Bar (specifically with the Go Bar's Xbass function, an analog bass boosting feature). It's now my profile picture as you can see. I've never enjoyed bass this much before, not even close, the slam and extension and control are all to die for.

Roy says they can make a custom-finaggled version of the Opus IEM cable for my NDH20 (it would have to be twisted rather than braided), that "should be a night and day difference" in sound quality from the 300 dollar Cardas copper cable I'm currently using from Fog City Audio (which already sounds incredible to me). My understanding of Cardas copper is that it definitely adds a little bit of bass and smooths over the treble a bit, creating a more euphonic than neutral sound, and the Opus is probably dead neutral, so there will be at least a small change in tonality from what I'm currently used to. But I think most of the treble smoothness I'm hearing is probably from the Go Bar, and most of the (rather beastly) bass quantity is from the Xbass, plus the fact that the NDH20 Black Edition has more bass than the original NDH20.

So the most striking part of that night and day change will probably be the improvement in clarity and detail retrieval. I'm just blown away because I've already heard 3 noticeable improvements in the NDH20's detail retrieval with the Go Bar: first upgrading the USB cable (not cheap!), then moving from the stock cable to Mogami copper, and then going from Mogami up to the Cardas copper cable that I'm rocking out with right now. I'm going to have to have to wait a month or so before I'll have the funds to order my glorious Twisted Opus, but I'll certainly post pics and impressions here as soon as I get ahold of it! Here you can see just how tiny the NDH20's 2.5mm plug is compared to a 4.4mm.

 

[PaisleyUnderground]

I've owned a Euphoria cable for a couple of months, and I thought it was about time to do a proper comparison between my all-silver Euphoria and my copper and copper-silver hybrid Gladius.

My listening chain was:

DAC: Mojo Audio Mystique X SE
Amp: LTA Ultralinear+
Headphones: ZMF Caldera, Focal Utopia 2022 (using adapters, since the cables are terminated in mini-XLR), Rosson RAD-0 (using adapters), ZMF Atrium Closed
Cables: Focal/ZMF/Rosson stock cables (copper), Arctic Gladius (OCC copper and copper/silver hybrid), Arctic Euphoria (OCC silver)


Before I talk about how they sound, I want to address the size and weight of both the Gladius and Euphoria. They’re both very thick and heavy, so probably not fit for purpose for iems, but at the same time, they’re both soft and supple, and drape really well, so I didn’t really notice the weight.

I put my Utopia 22 on and started playing “Strange Fruit” by Dominique Fils-Aimé. This is a great track to test female vocals, as Dominique puts her phenomenal voice front and center, and then layers of harmonizing vocals are layered around her. Moving from the stock cable to the Gladius, the tonality was similar but the Gladius had a little more treble extension and more texture in her voice. The biggest change from one cable in the next was the stage getting wider. I’ve been a tonality-first person in the past when it came to new audio equipment, not caring that much about stage. This time, however, I became captivated by all the backing vocals spread around me.

Excitedly, I tried the same stock-to-Gladius comparison with my RAD-0, another headphone with an intimate stage. With the Gladius, it was intimate no more. Moving onto “W.M.A.” by Pearl Jam, it was wonderful to listen to the drum beats all around my head.

Switching from the Gladius to the Euphoria, I was pleasantly surprised to find the stage becoming even bigger, vertically and horizontally.

From a frequency response perspective, the Euphoria sounds more neutral/less warm than the Gladius. Playing my brightness test track, “Kill V. Maim” by Grimes, my headphones didn’t sound brighter, but rather there was a layer of warmth removed from the mids, which actually made the music sound more natural.

This reminded me of my previous go-to silver cable, the Double Helix Molecule Elite, which I had been using with both the Utopia 22 and RAD-0, to reign in some of the warmth of those headphones. There was a very similar tone between the Molecule Elite and the Euphoria in the mids and treble, but similar to my experience with the stock cables, the stage became much smaller with the Molecule Elite. It makes me wonder if the weight of the mids and the expansive stage are caused by the massive amounts of wire in both the Gladius and the Euphoria.

Wondering what other differences I would find between my silver cables, I tried “Ooh La La” by Goldfrapp. As soon as the pulsing synths kicked in, I was shocked at how much more body I could hear in the mids when using the Euphoria. Not sure which was more natural, but who cares, being hit by the wall of synths was something special, and I immediately started playing more and more synth-based tracks, from Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric” to Daft Punk’s “Giorgio By Moroder”.

Playing the same tracks on the Gladius, I got a similar sensation of more body in the synths than both the stock cables and the Molecule Elite, but less than the Euphoria.

And it was the same story when it came to guitar music. Listening to “Wah-Wah” by George Harrison was wonderful using the Gladius, but when I switched to the Euphoria, the guitars became visceral, with added detail and texture, and I forgot that I was testing cables and spent an hour just playing guitar music through the Euphoria.

Once I recovered, I decided to try some bass tracks, starting with “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads and “Bullet In The Head” by Rage Against The Machine. In both cases, the Gladius had more texture than the stock cable, and the Euphoria had more texture than the Gladius. Interestingly, the bass lines with the Euphoria were not just more detailed, but they also had more weight than with any of the other cables. The Euphoria destroys the myth that silver cables are thin and bright.

Moving onto everyone’s favorite sub-bass track, “Chameleon” by Trentemøller, both the Gladius and the Euphoria went as low as could be, and once again, the Euphoria had just a touch more weight and texture in the sub-bass.

My findings were pretty similar for the Utopia 22, Caldera and RAD-0, where the Gladius had more treble extension and more weight/body in the mids than the stock cable, and the Euphoria had even more of everything. Unsurprisingly, I preferred the Euphoria with all of those headphones.

However, when I switched to the Atrium Closed, even though my test results were the same across all the cables, I found that I preferred the Gladius, and I think that’s because I don’t want to diminish the AC’s warmth or tighten up its laid back sound, so I didn’t appreciate the extra detail and neutrality of the Euphoria as much. One of those YMMV moments, where "better" is whatever makes you happy.

All in all, I’m glad I have both the Gladius and the Euphoria, because they sound different enough from each other that I can try both with a pair of headphones to see which one sounds just right. If I had to pick just one, I would of course pick the Euphoria but that’s because I directly compared them. Without that A-B comparison, I would have been very happy with the musicality of the Gladius, and I think it’s a bargain compared to many other much higher priced cables.

If anyone has gotten this far and is doubting everything I wrote above because “all cables sound the same”, I’ll finish up with a story about a meet I went to a few weeks ago, where I went to a friend’s house with a bunch of other friends. We all brought various pieces of equipment but I also brought the Gladius and Euphoria with me. It was enjoyable to watch their faces go from surprise to a big smile when they switched from the stock cable to either the Gladius or Euphoria, followed by the comment of “how does the cable do that?”.

 

[Rhodey]

I've owned a Euphoria cable for a couple of months, and I thought it was about time to do a proper comparison between my all-silver Euphoria and my copper and copper-silver hybrid Gladius.

My listening chain was:

DAC: Mojo Audio Mystique X SE
Amp: LTA Ultralinear+
Headphones: ZMF Caldera, Focal Utopia 2022 (using adapters, since the cables are terminated in mini-XLR), Rosson RAD-0 (using adapters), ZMF Atrium Closed
Cables: Focal/ZMF/Rosson stock cables (copper), Arctic Gladius (OCC copper and copper/silver hybrid), Arctic Euphoria (OCC silver)


Before I talk about how they sound, I want to address the size and weight of both the Gladius and Euphoria. They’re both very thick and heavy, so probably not fit for purpose for iems, but at the same time, they’re both soft and supple, and drape really well, so I didn’t really notice the weight.

I put my Utopia 22 on and started playing “Strange Fruit” by Dominique Fils-Aimé. This is a great track to test female vocals, as Dominique puts her phenomenal voice front and center, and then layers of harmonizing vocals are layered around her. Moving from the stock cable to the Gladius, the tonality was similar but the Gladius had a little more treble extension and more texture in her voice. The biggest change from one cable in the next was the stage getting wider. I’ve been a tonality-first person in the past when it came to new audio equipment, not caring that much about stage. This time, however, I became captivated by all the backing vocals spread around me.

Excitedly, I tried the same stock-to-Gladius comparison with my RAD-0, another headphone with an intimate stage. With the Gladius, it was intimate no more. Moving onto “W.M.A.” by Pearl Jam, it was wonderful to have the drums all around me.

Switching from the Gladius to the Euphoria, I was pleasantly surprised to find the stage becoming even bigger, vertically and horizontally.

From a frequency response perspective, the Euphoria sounds more neutral/less warm than the Gladius. Playing my brightness test track, “Kill V. Maim” by Grimes, my headphones didn’t sound brighter, but rather there was a layer of warmth removed from the mids, which actually made the music sound more natural.

This reminded me of my previous go-to silver cable, the Double Helix Molecule Elite, which I had been using with both the Utopia 22 and RAD-0, to reign in some of the warmth of those headphones. There was a very similar tone between the Molecule Elite and the Euphoria in the mids and treble, but similar to my experience with the stock cables, the stage became much smaller with the Molecule Elite. It makes me wonder if the weight of the mids and the expansive stage are caused by the massive amounts of wire in both the Gladius and the Euphoria.

Wondering what other differences I would find between my silver cables, I tried “Ooh La La” by Goldfrapp. As soon as the pulsing synths kicked in, I was shocked at how much more body I could hear in the mids when using the Euphoria. Not sure which was more natural, but who cares, being hit by the wall of synths was something special, and I immediately started playing more and more synth-based tracks, from Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric” to Daft Punk’s “Giorgio By Moroder”.

Playing the same tracks on the Gladius, I got a similar sensation of more body in the synths than both the stock cables and the Molecule Elite, but less than the Euphoria.

And it was the same story when it came to guitar music. Listening to “Wah-Wah” by George Harrison was wonderful using the Gladius, but when I switched to the Euphoria, the guitars became visceral, with added detail and texture, and I forgot that I was testing cables and spent an hour just playing guitar music through the Euphoria.

Once I recovered, I decided to try some bass tracks, starting with “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads and “Bullet In The Head” by Rage Against The Machine. In both cases, the Gladius had more texture than the stock cable, and the Euphoria had more texture than the Gladius. Interestingly, the bass lines with the Euphoria were not just more detailed, but they also had more weight than with any of the other cables. The Euphoria destroys the myth that silver cables are thin and bright.

Moving onto everyone’s favorite sub-bass track, “Chameleon” by Trentemøller, both the Gladius and the Euphoria went as low as could be, and once again, the Euphoria had just a touch more weight and texture in the sub-bass.

My findings were pretty similar for the Utopia 22, Caldera and RAD-0, where the Gladius had more treble extension and more weight/body in the mids than the stock cable, and the Euphoria had even more of everything. Unsurprisingly, I preferred the Euphoria with all of those headphones.

However, when I switched to the Atrium Closed, even though my test results were the same across all the cables, I found that I preferred the Gladius, and I think that’s because I don’t want to diminish the AC’s warmth or tighten up its laid back sound, so I didn’t appreciate the extra detail and neutrality of the Euphoria as much. One of those YMMV moments, where "better" is whatever makes you happy.

All in all, I’m glad I have both the Gladius and the Euphoria, because they sound different enough from each other that I can try both with a pair of headphones to see which one sounds just right. If I had to pick just one, I would of course pick the Euphoria but that’s because I directly compared them. Without that A-B comparison, I would have been very happy with the musicality of the Gladius, and I think it’s a bargain compared to many other much higher priced cables.

If anyone has gotten this far and is doubting everything I wrote above because “all cables sound the same”, I’ll finish up with a story about a meet I went to a few weeks ago, where I went to a friend’s house with a bunch of other friends. We all brought various pieces of equipment but I also brought the Gladius and Euphoria with me. It was enjoyable to watch their faces go from surprise to a big smile when they switched from the stock cable to either the Gladius or Euphoria, followed by the comment of “how does the cable do that?”.

Awesome write up/review. I’m really enjoying my Aeris cable for my Utopia 22 and really need to get around to providing some feedback. Really its been a refinement all around. I use it with my HD800S as well and it’s solid with it too.

Should mention, Roy was amazing to work with and he helped me out along the way. They also reterminated one of my existing cables for my D8KP LE. Great work and service.

 

[lator]

I've owned a Euphoria cable for a couple of months, and I thought it was about time to do a proper comparison between my all-silver Euphoria and my copper and copper-silver hybrid Gladius.

I only have stock cable for reference, but also identified the key elements of Euphoria you mentioned: bass weight, neutral tonality (not cold or warm), expansive soundstage. A lovely pairing with Audeze LCD-5.

 

[TooFrank]

I've owned a Euphoria cable for a couple of months, and I thought it was about time to do a proper comparison between my all-silver Euphoria and my copper and copper-silver hybrid Gladius.

My listening chain was:

DAC: Mojo Audio Mystique X SE
Amp: LTA Ultralinear+
Headphones: ZMF Caldera, Focal Utopia 2022 (using adapters, since the cables are terminated in mini-XLR), Rosson RAD-0 (using adapters), ZMF Atrium Closed
Cables: Focal/ZMF/Rosson stock cables (copper), Arctic Gladius (OCC copper and copper/silver hybrid), Arctic Euphoria (OCC silver)


Before I talk about how they sound, I want to address the size and weight of both the Gladius and Euphoria. They’re both very thick and heavy, so probably not fit for purpose for iems, but at the same time, they’re both soft and supple, and drape really well, so I didn’t really notice the weight.

I put my Utopia 22 on and started playing “Strange Fruit” by Dominique Fils-Aimé. This is a great track to test female vocals, as Dominique puts her phenomenal voice front and center, and then layers of harmonizing vocals are layered around her. Moving from the stock cable to the Gladius, the tonality was similar but the Gladius had a little more treble extension and more texture in her voice. The biggest change from one cable in the next was the stage getting wider. I’ve been a tonality-first person in the past when it came to new audio equipment, not caring that much about stage. This time, however, I became captivated by all the backing vocals spread around me.

Excitedly, I tried the same stock-to-Gladius comparison with my RAD-0, another headphone with an intimate stage. With the Gladius, it was intimate no more. Moving onto “W.M.A.” by Pearl Jam, it was wonderful to listen to the drum beats all around my head.

Switching from the Gladius to the Euphoria, I was pleasantly surprised to find the stage becoming even bigger, vertically and horizontally.

From a frequency response perspective, the Euphoria sounds more neutral/less warm than the Gladius. Playing my brightness test track, “Kill V. Maim” by Grimes, my headphones didn’t sound brighter, but rather there was a layer of warmth removed from the mids, which actually made the music sound more natural.

This reminded me of my previous go-to silver cable, the Double Helix Molecule Elite, which I had been using with both the Utopia 22 and RAD-0, to reign in some of the warmth of those headphones. There was a very similar tone between the Molecule Elite and the Euphoria in the mids and treble, but similar to my experience with the stock cables, the stage became much smaller with the Molecule Elite. It makes me wonder if the weight of the mids and the expansive stage are caused by the massive amounts of wire in both the Gladius and the Euphoria.

Wondering what other differences I would find between my silver cables, I tried “Ooh La La” by Goldfrapp. As soon as the pulsing synths kicked in, I was shocked at how much more body I could hear in the mids when using the Euphoria. Not sure which was more natural, but who cares, being hit by the wall of synths was something special, and I immediately started playing more and more synth-based tracks, from Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric” to Daft Punk’s “Giorgio By Moroder”.

Playing the same tracks on the Gladius, I got a similar sensation of more body in the synths than both the stock cables and the Molecule Elite, but less than the Euphoria.

And it was the same story when it came to guitar music. Listening to “Wah-Wah” by George Harrison was wonderful using the Gladius, but when I switched to the Euphoria, the guitars became visceral, with added detail and texture, and I forgot that I was testing cables and spent an hour just playing guitar music through the Euphoria.

Once I recovered, I decided to try some bass tracks, starting with “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads and “Bullet In The Head” by Rage Against The Machine. In both cases, the Gladius had more texture than the stock cable, and the Euphoria had more texture than the Gladius. Interestingly, the bass lines with the Euphoria were not just more detailed, but they also had more weight than with any of the other cables. The Euphoria destroys the myth that silver cables are thin and bright.

Moving onto everyone’s favorite sub-bass track, “Chameleon” by Trentemøller, both the Gladius and the Euphoria went as low as could be, and once again, the Euphoria had just a touch more weight and texture in the sub-bass.

My findings were pretty similar for the Utopia 22, Caldera and RAD-0, where the Gladius had more treble extension and more weight/body in the mids than the stock cable, and the Euphoria had even more of everything. Unsurprisingly, I preferred the Euphoria with all of those headphones.

However, when I switched to the Atrium Closed, even though my test results were the same across all the cables, I found that I preferred the Gladius, and I think that’s because I don’t want to diminish the AC’s warmth or tighten up its laid back sound, so I didn’t appreciate the extra detail and neutrality of the Euphoria as much. One of those YMMV moments, where "better" is whatever makes you happy.

All in all, I’m glad I have both the Gladius and the Euphoria, because they sound different enough from each other that I can try both with a pair of headphones to see which one sounds just right. If I had to pick just one, I would of course pick the Euphoria but that’s because I directly compared them. Without that A-B comparison, I would have been very happy with the musicality of the Gladius, and I think it’s a bargain compared to many other much higher priced cables.

If anyone has gotten this far and is doubting everything I wrote above because “all cables sound the same”, I’ll finish up with a story about a meet I went to a few weeks ago, where I went to a friend’s house with a bunch of other friends. We all brought various pieces of equipment but I also brought the Gladius and Euphoria with me. It was enjoyable to watch their faces go from surprise to a big smile when they switched from the stock cable to either the Gladius or Euphoria, followed by the comment of “how does the cable do that?”.

Wauw - Thank you for an excellent review. I am happy that you came to the conclusion that the Gladius is a very good upgrade from the stock cable. I have the ZMF VC and am very happy with my new Gladius. No doubt that as you describe, there is more to be gained with the Euphoria, but apparently more so with open backs? And that is to a considerably higher cost for the Euphoria (way outside my budget)....

 

[PaisleyUnderground]

I am happy that you came to the conclusion that the Gladius is a very good upgrade from the stock cable. I have the ZMF VC and am very happy with my new Gladius. No doubt that as you describe, there is more to be gained with the Euphoria

The Gladius is an excellent cable and I'm going to use mine on a regular basis, it's not going to be thrown into the "box where cables go to die". The Euphoria gives you something different, which is only better if that is what you're looking for. By the way, I don't have a VC but I really enjoy the Gladius with my ZMF VO with BE2 pads - it's probably my favorite combination of cable and pads with the VO.

Should mention, Roy was amazing to work with and he helped me out along the way.

I agree with you @Rhodey, their customer service is pretty much the best I've encountered. I've always dealt with Val, not Roy, through 3 cable purchases. I wonder if they go that extra mile to make sure that each repeat customer deals with the same person. If so, that's a nice touch.

 

[ARCXENOS]

I bought a set of Talos V2 as my first set of "real" cables, been a stock guy all my life but I could not be happier receiving it. I always wanted a full set of AECO connectors, and what better time to get them than now.

My point of contact was Roy, and he has been most excellent from the start to the end, I love how personable the experience was, and would gladly recommend Arctic Cables anytime.

Sorry if the image quality and angles affect anyone negatively in advance


Firstly, I am very happy it was triple packed






One of my main motivations why I waited so long to get a custom cable, was because I wanted short adapters with a blue / red color scheme. I am happy that Arctic Cables was able to accommodate my request





The cable itself looks so much better in person! Before I even listened to it, I already noted that it feels alot more sturdier than the stock cables I am used to, just the right amount of thickness for me.

This is my main set of cables for a really long time, if not for life, with Arctic Cable's generous warranty terms. In a few years after I collected all the vacuum tubes I want in my life, and if I want to get a bigger set of cables for whatever reason, it will 100% be with Arctic Cables again.

 

[Sound Eq]

In anticipation of the upcoming holidays, I just pulled the trigger on getting the mighty Arctic Opera cable for my Utopia 2022. Its known how Utopia is among the most revealing headphones that detect any changes in your system. As such the Utopia will meet its mighty cable pairing very soon

It was such a great correspondence with Arctic Cable and I got advantage of a discount ahead of the holidays , and I will share my impressions with this pairing soon

 

[ECKHUAAA]

In anticipation of the upcoming holidays, I just pulled the trigger on getting the mighty Arctic Opera cable for my Utopia 2022. Its known how Utopia is among the most revealing headphones that detect any changes in your system. As such the Utopia will meet its mighty cable pairing very soon

It was such a great correspondence with Arctic Cable and I got advantage of a discount ahead of the holidays , and I will share my impressions with this pairing soon

I also use the Opera Cable. You will discover new things with your Utopia

 

[Frankie D]

Anyone using the Opera and the Opera V2 with the Susvara? Curious as to the match. Tks.

 

[Aetherhole]

Alright, I’m joining the ranks of AC owners.

About two weeks ago, I going back and forth on the many options the Arctic Cables website. I’ve been looking at premium cables to pair with my Susvara. Ultimately, I landed on ordering the Talos v2. I got them with Furutech terminations. Got email confirmation that they were shipping at the end of last week and should be here in the next day or two. Super stoked to say the least. Well, that’s not the end of the journey. Being eager with anticipation after ordering them, I began reading impressions in this thread, reading the last 35 or so pages.

While that was on order and reading through the impression after impression, I thought, why not take a look at what else I might be interested in on their website. The Sonoro - Limited Edition really caught my eye. Not much information was on the website, so I emailed them and asked my questions. Of course, Roy responded swiftly and he and I conversed back and forth. Well, he detailed the benefits of the Talos v2 that I had ordered and being at the top of the copper cable end, as well as the sonic differences/benefits to the Sonoro. I had stated that I was likely hoping to get something complimentary to the Talos v2. He then asked if I was wanting something different if I had considered the Opera. Of course I had… well, continuing to email back and forth, detailing the differences and benefits, it took little time before I decided to get the Opera, too, instead of the Sonoro. That should be arriving next week sometime.

So, not only going to be a new owner of an Arctic Cable product, I am going to be an owner, twice over, to two starkly different cables — Talos v2 and Opera v2. Eager to let the burn-in period commence.

 

[Aetherhole]

My Talos v2 arrived today!

Packaging, presentation, materials, craftsmanship… Arctic Cables is absolutely stellar on all fronts.

The burn-in process has begun…