Howdy, back again with some more cable impressions. I tried all of the bespoke Effect Audio 8-wire cables yesterday with the Phantom and wrote down some thoughts.
Starting with the Ares II 8-wire, which has received a lot of attention recently. The Ares II maintains a similar tone, but expands the stage a bit further. In addition, its vocals seemed to improve in power, sounding more convincing. The performance and resolution and transparency might have remained on a roughly similar level. Overall, I think the pairing was good, but it was not what I seeked in terms of improvement. The problem is that both my SP1000 Cu and Phantom have a rather relaxed upper treble and lifted mid-bass, so the Phantom tends to mostly benefit from brighter cables that lift the upper treble when paired with the AK. I think I would have enjoyed the full reach of its scalability with my modded WM1Z for instance.
The Eros II 8-wire was a very pleasing combination, that improved its signature to a more neutral/natural sound. I listened to it after Thor II, so there was a slight drop in transparency compared to a pure silver. However, I preferred the tonality of this pairing. For lack of a better word, there's more of a natural 'copper' tone mixed in, without the warmth dominating the sound, while it similarly improves the clarity, without artificially brightening the tone. Silvers as Thor and Leo have a type of 'uncolored' sound which can equally be interesting, but simultaneously don't seem to exactly fit my preconception of natural. The improvement in performance might not be super large, but neither is the shift in signature - in a good way. The airiness of the stage improved, along with its separation, while the imaging became a bit more precise. There was an increase in clarity, while maintaining the timbre. Overall this was of of my favourite combos, even though it wasn't the most technical. But the balance between tone and performance was very good.
The Lionheart 8-wire has a slightly prominent mid-bass, with a slower decay. Most noticeably, this adds a thickness to the note, and a slight veil over the vocals. Even so, its tone is relatively neutral, even though the treble is not enhanced. It's smooth, though not particularly warm. However, while it wasn't bright per se, there was a dryness in its tone; I preferred the tone of Eros II for instance. In addition, its performance was better than the Ares II 8-wire, but not at the level of the silver alloy cables. This was perhaps mostly because the separation tended to suffer from the mid-bass presentation. Altogether, I was not particularly impressed by the pairing with the Phantom, maybe my least favourite.
The Thor II 8-Wire has a silver tone that is similar to Leonidas; a clear sound with a smooth, refined treble. It offers great balance throughout the spectrum, while offering a significant improvement in resolution. The Phantom shakes off a bit of its warmth, but retains a relaxed, natural feel. By comparison, it is a bit smoother than the 2.98 and its stage perhaps more spacious. It is also a bit warmer, with the 2.98's brighter upper mids in turn offering a bit more sparkle. As the bass has sufficient power but is not dominating in the sound, the stage is slightly cleaner than Leonidas 4-wire, which offers an impressive impact, but can affect the separation. Altogether, the Thor II provides a cleaner and more resolved sound, while remaining particularly smooth.
The Leonidas 8-wire in turn has a similar tone as Thor, as both are slightly warm silvers, that offer high resolution and increased detail, presented in a relatively smooth manner. There is a slight increase in performance between the two, such as a greater sense of depth, and accordingly, more holographic feel of Leonidas. In addition, Leonidas' bass seemed a bit more impactful. I would need more time than I had to delve into their differences.
I would have liked to A) compare them with the 4-wires, and B) test them with the Legend-X, but my time was fairly limited as is. I will say, that I preferred the type of sound of Thor II and Leonidas with the Legend-X, and the Phantom with the Eros II and Ares II due to the more natural tone. This is partially due to the different types of music I listen to with the two iems: more synthetic-based genres like EDM, pop, and hip hop with the Legend, and easy-listening band-based music with the Phantom. However, Thor and Leo were also very impressive with Phantom in terms of performance, as well as creating a more neutral yet effortless and smooth sound. In the end it comes down to what type of tonality you like for it, besides how much you value performance of course.
