Hi Watercooler friends, know I've been away a while (again) but I've been very busy with work and outside work, slowly working on polishing up my chains to be the best they can be. Part of this has been me exploring cables (since my sources are basically finalized) and thanks to Andrew, Leo and the rest of Musicteck I was able to demo the full line of Beat Audio cables, which can be found here on Musictecks website
here.
All of the cables I demo'd were the eight wire variants, 2 pin and 4.4mm termination. To quickly run through the line up of Beat Audios product line is the Orbit Saga, their flagship cable of silver/copper and other alloys mixed in, the Billow MKII (gold plated silver), Oslo MKIV (pure silver), Cyclone (pure copper) and the Emerald MKIII (silver plated copper).
Below I'm going to do an overview of all the Beat Audio cables, their sound signatures, strengths, weaknesses (if any) and overall tonal/technical benefits of each cable. To kick things off, I'll start with their flagship, the Orbit Saga and continue in price descending order.
Orbit Saga
The Orbit Saga is an impressive cable with 2 very specific goals in it's tuning direction and it accomplishes them with great strides and finesse. These are sub bass elevation and imparting a massive sense of air and space into the stage. I'd describe the overall tonality as a mild W shape, with sub bass (very lightly trailing into the lower bass), lower mids and air all excentuated. Before touching upon the tonality though, I want to stress the amount of airiness that this cable is able to impart into your iems stage, notes are all clearly discernable from eachother and spaced in a very wide soundstage without being reduced in overall imaging size, leading to a great sense of imaging and resolution. The soundstage of the Orbit Saga is very wide but not as deep or tall as others within the line up (Billow and Oslo) other flagship cables like the EA Centurion or Chiron are able to have a grander stage but don't have the same level of airiness. The bass control is great here, despite the elevation, I noticed no bleed from the lower bass into the mids while retaining a warm copper timbre through the vocals. Bass is tight and punchy but the decay is not the fastest, allowing for a more natural ALMOST copper-esque bloom to the bass, but right before it could potentially become intrusive, it prompty cuts off. I noticed this to be consistent in testing across my iems (Noble Ragnar, UM Indigo, Red Halo FE and Nostalgia Tesseract). The lower mid range through to the upper mid range is slightly warm and thick but still retains the great sense of air and detail, with great micro and macro detailing. The treble presentation is the weakest part of the Orbit Saga for me, being someone that prefers a brighter, well extended treble. The Orbit Saga will be much more in line with what most listeners prefer, a neatly controlled treble that leans toward the darker side with a light amount of sparkle and a slightly heavier note weight presented but the extension suffers in order to achieve this as well as to keep that sense of air imparted in tact. I would highly recommend the Orbit Saga to anyone who is looking to control their treble response but bring out a bit more warmth and oomph from the bass and vocals without losing great stage width, imaging and resolution all ontop of an airy and wispy open background.
Billow MKII
Bass, the first thing that slaps you in the face when you connect the Billow to your iem. There is a LOT of bass here, but impressively it's still amazing quality, tight, punchy and slams hard and fast. Decay is well controlled and allows the massive quantity of bass added to be present but not overwhelming to the entire sound. Despite all the bass quantity, not only is the quality outstanding as mentioned, but the technical performance is also unharmed. There is great extension on both ends with bass reaching deep and treble being sparkly and reverb nicely ringing through without being cut short. Soundstage is wide and deep but height could be a little better, if really nitpicking, overall the staging capabilities are excellent. The weaker point of the Billow comes in it's imaging and resolution, which are trade offs to allow such bass quantity and lush thick mids. Speaking of the mids and vocals, they are slightly recessed due to the bass quantity but despite this they remain clean and un-muddled by the bass quantity, an impressive feat that is accomplished with the aforementioned quick decay. There is an overall smoothness to the sound presented by this cable, taking any hard edges off of notes, lightly rounding them and creating a very cohesive and blended sound. This trait carries through to the treble region as well, creating a lightly sparkled and extended response that remains unfatiguing for even the most treble sensitive. I'd recommend the Billow to anyone looking to really boost their iems bass response or to smoothen the treble if it is tempermental for them.
Oslo MKIV
My favorite of the Beat Audio line up, an extremely technical powerhouse of a cable. There are three major stand outs for me on the Oslo, one is the imaging, it is jaw droppingly impressive this is combined with an outstanding stage which is not only very wide, but deep and tall and last but not least, the resolution. Micro and macro details are discerned with ease and combining this with the other prominent traits of the Oslo, it is able to create amazing holographic stage and layered presentation with pin point accuracy. My two sound descriptors for the Oslo before jumping into overall tonality description are CRISP and CLEAN. Notes are defined so clearly and sharply vs a black background with quick decay and no adjustment to note size. This is an incisive cable which speed and clarity being it's focuses, but overall it's tonality actually remains incredibly neutral (with maybe the slightest sub bass bump and lower treble quantity addition) which lately has been my go-to for cables and sources. The bass is very quick, punchy and rumbly but without increasing quantity and has great extension into the lowest registers. When using this cable with the Indigo and Ragnar the ability to hear each and every exact location of a drum hit is addicting and many times I found myself saying just one more song, for 2 hours. The mids follow suit in pure neutrality, the vocal range is clean and highly micro and macro detailed and combined with the resolution and imaging properties, duets and other multi-singer or layered vocals are stand-out when using the Oslo. Last, but certainly not least, is the Oslo's treble. Notes are very well extended and hits reverb is able to be heard disappearing into the darkness as new notes appear and layer into eachother to create a perfect treble presentation (to me, anyway). As with the bass response, no weight is added, allowing EST drivers to sound properly wispy and extended while BA drivers are able to have their natural heft and weightiness. I found absolutely no faults in the Oslo and it's an excellent cable, even better when you consider the price to performance ratio of it, highly recommended from me!
Cyclone
Beat Audios pure copper cable, and as expected, retains what copper cable lovers (or haters) would come to expect. Overall, the technical capabilities are good for the cost and being copper, there is a moderately wide soundstage accompanied by a strong sense of depth with a fairly low level of height. The weaknesses of the Cyclone come in at the resolution and imaging capabilities, with a bass response that has a lot of added quantity but without the tightness and quick decay of the Billow, it was a bit much for me, but, others I know who own the Cyclone love it for exactly this quality. This is also a very dark sounding cable and the treble response is secondary to the rest, again, a quality owners I know bought this for, so these are strictly my personal preferences as a bit of a treblehead. I noticed across the FR, notes are rounded and slightly increased in boldness and size, lending to an overall fuller image with less micro detailing. Continuing on the bass, it has a rounded and full sound with great amounts of slam and punch with a little less rumble as the mid bass is not as boosted as the Billow. The lower mids and vocals are nicely placed and not recessed with a sense of warmth and fullness but not as far as the Billows, being slightly less lush. I felt the Cyclone played best with male vocals than it did female, adding a greater texture and grit. The treble is a lot like the Billows in terms of smoothness but there is less sparkle and extension, leading to a much darker and less airy sound. I'd recommend the Cyclone to bass lovers, much like the Billow, but ones who want a more slower decay alongside more neutrally placed mids and a darker treble region.
Emerald MKIII
The Emerald is an interesting cable, as one of Beat Audio's cheaper priced options, it is still impressive when compared to the competitions equally priced cables (such as the Code series from EA). Being a silver plated copper cable, it retains a nice warm glowy copper timbre through the bass and upper mids. The Emerald, comparative to the Cyclone, is a faster, more incisive sound with a sharper edge to notes while still being fairly rounded but less overall note weight and size. The staging is slightly wider than that of the Cyclone, with less depth and a bit better height. Due to the previously mentioned smaller note size and weight, imaging and resolution is a touch better than the Cyclones but falling very short of the Oslo, Billow and Orbit Saga. Tonally, the Emerald sits as more reserved Cyclone, it still has the copper timbral warmth and heightened bass quantity, but instead of taking it to 11, it sits more around a 7. Bass is still thicker than average and prominent but with the faster decay and smaller note sizing it has a better sense of resolution and micro detailing with less being obscured by a wall of bass as can happen in the Cyclone. I found the mids to be lightly colored and less overall warmth added through the range than the Cyclone, being airier and equally proficient in both male and female vocals. The Emerald's treble is a bit of a mix between that of the Orbit Saga and the Billow, it retains a nice sparkle and edge without being too rounded or weighty (like the billow), but has less extension (like the Orbit Saga). As far as more entry level priced cables go, the Emerald is very competent and competitive, giving a pleasent tonality that is inoffensive to any ear and pairs decently well with almost any IEM you'd throw it on, making it a good "one and done" for those who enjoy copper timbre but want a hair less warmth.
Thanks for reading and hope this gives a bit of insight and information to the Beat Audio line-up, as they're pretty "new" to the western market with Musicteck being the first time they've been easily available.
