[daijobudes]

Perfect synergy of Duet and AuR Audio Ascension.
Duet is one of the best Silver based cables I owned. Very gentle yet with the proper iem it really shines without any harshness. In comparison Centurion cable by. EA is very harsh. Too bright and high.

 

[IgeNeLL]

Perfect synergy of Duet and AuR Audio Ascension.
Duet is one of the best Silver based cables I owned. Very gentle yet with the proper iem it really shines without any harshness. In comparison Centurion cable by. EA is very harsh. Too bright and high.

II had the opportunity to meet the co-founder of Aur and listen to some of the IEMs he brought. I found their product to be both safe and easy to listen to. If you are satisfied with the Duet, upgrading to the Dream Duet will enhance the performance in terms of treble extension while maintaining precision, speed, sparkle, and smoothness. In my opinion, choosing the furutech connector over the pentaconn connector is a better choice due to its durability and more open, extended sound signature. The Centurion is gold-plated silver, which should result in a tone that is less extended than a pure silver one. However, I have noticed that some brands like EA and PW tend to overemphasize the low treble region, regardless of the material used, in order to attract customers. The PW 1960, which is the stock cable of the Empire Odin, is made of copper but sounds thin and harsh, which I find to be quite strange.

 

[daijobudes]

II had the opportunity to meet the co-founder of Aur and listen to some of the IEMs he brought. I found their product to be both safe and easy to listen to. If you are satisfied with the Duet, upgrading to the Dream Duet will enhance the performance in terms of treble extension while maintaining precision, speed, sparkle, and smoothness. In my opinion, choosing the furutech connector over the pentaconn connector is a better choice due to its durability and more open, extended sound signature. The Centurion is gold-plated silver, which should result in a tone that is less extended than a pure silver one. However, I have noticed that some brands like EA and PW tend to overemphasize the low treble region, regardless of the material used, in order to attract customers. The PW 1960, which is the stock cable of the Empire Odin, is made of copper but sounds thin and harsh, which I find to be quite strange.

Good thing I tried Dream, it was different, closer to other endgame cable, Centurion:

Both were top upper mids centric, very harsh and not musical.
On the other hand - double duet is right in everything. Gentle, not exaggerated, clear, and probably sweet.

 

[IgeNeLL]

Good thing I tried Dream, it was different, closer to other endgame cable, Centurion:

Both were top upper mids centric, very harsh and not musical.
On the other hand - double duet is right in everything. Gentle, not exaggerated, clear, and probably sweet.

Yes. The problem is about the room for extension.
It is still depend on your source and IEMS so that the synergy will give some false conclusion.

When comparing the two, Double Duet is easier to listen to due to its reduced treble extension. The AUR connector is also easy to listen to and pairs well with Double Duet.

For Dream Duet, the connector option is important. You can customize the plug to Furutech or Pentaconn for an upgrade. The effects can be described as follows:
- Normal Oyaide reduces transparency, cuts down on extension, smoothness, and airiness, as well as time response. It adds thickness and midrange but lacks micro detail and introduces some harshness in the low treble region due to the brass material, which is not ideal for electrical conductivity.
- Pentaconn makes the sound thicker and smoother due to its high-purity copper alloy. It sacrifices some stage width but offers more depth.
- Furutech provides the most transparent, clean, and clear sound in the treble region, with precise and accurate reproduction of tonal and micro detail.

So, if you have chances, trying furutech or pentaconn is better. SP2k or Sp3k is more suitable source to match with Dream Duet than Chinese brand Dap.

I have tried both IE900 and JVC FW10K and the result is quite controveral.

• When trying IE9000 with Plussound gold plated silver, I can see up-lifted performance in all FR region. However, it reveal clearly that IE900 has too much bass. Heavy awg might not be matching with IE900.
• JVC FW10k is other interesting case too. Its bio cellulose driver gives distinctive taste but it is not good at low region extension and speed response( unclean impulse response). Paring with Dream Duet revealing its problem, such as it make it more clean than it should be then you suffer from less bass impact and more insensitive treble.

If you interested in dynamic IEMS, Final A8000 is my recommend to pair with Dream Duet to explore ultra fast transient response, clean envelope and ethereal feeling stage. They have some analogy in characteristic and resonate well with each other. BTW, happy listening

 

[daijobudes]

A pleasure meeting you!
It’s a shame not many people on Headfi try these cables and usually opt out for Peter Wong works, or choose Suyang cables. I don’t like neither of them, having tried different ape designs I find them quite difficult to handle, or very muted sounding. suyang on the other side has some good designs but newer connectors are a big problem due to its nature.
I really enjoyed Brise cables, but Yatono is quite hard to handle, though sound quality that it gives is very good (for some earphones)
I really enjoyed SP3000, it was a terrific dap but I had to let it go, due to some financial reasons.
Most Chinese daps truly are victims of poor design and conveyor production.
Had DX320X and would never buy iBasso product again. Firmware issues, poorly optimized hardware and software.
Of all the daps I tried , with all the respect - none of them are perfect and none of them won my wallet. I find RU7 to be more suitable than most modern current daps with a choice of source - laptop, iMac, steam Deck, iPhone.. it works just fine.
Just a side note, Quality of Crystal Cables are superb. I wish I could find and try previous gen of their item cables that they made for Astell &Kern collab.

 

[IgeNeLL]

A pleasure meeting you!
It’s a shame not many people on Headfi try these cables and usually opt out for Peter Wong works, or choose Suyang cables. I don’t like neither of them, having tried different ape designs I find them quite difficult to handle, or very muted sounding. suyang on the other side has some good designs but newer connectors are a big problem due to its nature.
I really enjoyed Brise cables, but Yatono is quite hard to handle, though sound quality that it gives is very good (for some earphones)
I really enjoyed SP3000, it was a terrific dap but I had to let it go, due to some financial reasons.
Most Chinese daps truly are victims of poor design and conveyor production.
Had DX320X and would never buy iBasso product again. Firmware issues, poorly optimized hardware and software.
Of all the daps I tried , with all the respect - none of them are perfect and none of them won my wallet. I find RU7 to be more suitable than most modern current daps with a choice of source - laptop, iMac, steam Deck, iPhone.. it works just fine.
Just a side note, Quality of Crystal Cables are superb. I wish I could find and try previous gen of their item cables that they made for Astell &Kern collab.

I have good impression with Brise Audio cable, used to have yatono OG and it sound nice and polite. Good showcase for how proper cooper cable should sound.
Most Chinese DAP use android OS, but out of them, Hiby give me the most satisfied UI, UX.
I used to heard PEF29 cable, the finish and appearance is quite same as original crystal speaker cable due to silver looking shielding. But for sound quality, the material is the same as Duet, silver/gold alloy then it should be equal.

 

[IgeNeLL]

After registering by mail, Crystal did not reply to me. The portable series does not have the NFC tag, so I cannot register through the app.
After three months, suddenly, it happened.

 

[Tanalasta]

My local dealership loaned me the cables for the weekend with the purpose of auditioning as I am looking at IEM cables/interconnects. They had the Furutech mini-XLR/4.4mm cable compatible with the Audeze LCD-5.

ROON -> SP3000 -> line out -> Cayin C9 on high gain | Solid State | Class A -> LCD-5 (with the MB convolution filter)


Crystal cable Duet.

Appearance: At a glance, nothing pretentious. White on black. Simple, but tight braid. Minimal microphonic. Furutech connectors on both ends. Hmm... this isn't a budget cable.

First impressions: I like these. Clean and without excessive warmth (probably the opposite) or colouring. Plenty of space and separation. Wide soundstage. horizontal more than vertical. Sparkle and extension in the treble ; quality resolution and detail. Features traditionally associated with a 'silver' sound. I haven't looked up the cable specs. But it's a clear tier up from the stock cable.

Hans Zimmer. A Watchful Guardian. A Dark Knight OST. Bass is also clean, tight. Well defined, lean. Quality over Quantity.

Seeing where Roon takes me. TRON - Legacy. Overture. Brass on the brighter side of neutral.

Next track. ENYA. May it Be. Vocals and treble still just a little sharp. Slightly forward. Musical, has that ethereal characteristic. Flicked the C9 to tube mode.

Just for kicks. Destination. A state of trance 2024. Sharp, well defined. Bass and synth notes very tight. Sharp decay. Imaging and layering ; wide but deep. Sonically this is definitely not a budget cable.

Final Notes: Would put money on this being a silver cable. It exemplifies characteristics of precious metal sonics. A tad bright and will cater for those who prefer that style or have the source/music that will synergise with it. Now to stop my 2 year old reaching for them.

Dream Duet

Brief impressions: Much prefer the tonality of the Dream Duet in the set-up. Less bright and more comfortable (warm side of neutral). Soundstage, resolution and technicals not as proficient as the Crystal. More intimate presentation. However, I enjoy it more.

Stock Audeze LCD-5 cable Unfortunately my version of the cable is terminated in 1/4" and I haven't had it changed to 4.4mm to plug into my C9.