coolshot
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2006
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i had a chance to listen to Ayt999's cables before he started wyvern audio and i was curious. So now i get a chance to own my very own. These are my impressions on the Cyprium line as well as a preproduction model yet to be named (orgentiem 00 maybe?). I wanted to shed some light on a few things as well as evaluate the cables to myself. There are alot of people out there who believe nothing is right, only what sounds best to your ears. IMO i believe most of it as things are a matter of preference but theres got to be some general standards to where you can start enjoying your music.
I wanted to bench these cables using the lowest common denominator because i wanted to see if personally, ICs really do make a difference. Listening to Alex's ICs definately makes a believer, even using what some people would consider, low-fi gear. For my lowfi set up, if you would, i'm using the headphone out my ipod mini. 192mp3s>ipod mini>cmoy>[TEST IC]>sportapros. They say that lower end equipment cant benefit from quality ICs, i say they can considerably.
testing cables are Cyprium One, the copper based design of wyvern audio. Its aimed at being reference quality at reasonable cost. Its a solid core copper strand.
*excuse the photos, my camera doesnt do floresent lighting good at all. no matter what settings
next up is the pre-production cable based on a multi-strand copper braid. I will call this 00s since there is no name for it.
these two will be benched against my DIY cables made by a well known DIYer
here on head-fi. These are your basic cables based on canare starquad cable and nuetrik plugs.
so how do they stack up? I will just say they are better then my benchmark cable in every respect hands down. The shocker though is that each of the wyvern audio cables bring something different to the table. Both cables inprove SQ across the board, bass, highs, mids as well as relief in the congestion. It lets the sound flow through naturally, letting the sound become more full and pleasant. Sound is more demensional where before alot of things were one noted. This improvement in quality gives an impression of an improvement in quantity as well especially in bass, since now the bass reverberates you get a feeling of twice as much.
For those of who dont know, Alex is a fan of silver and detail, as represented in the flagship line of cables, the Argentum series. I would consider the Cyprium to be the little brother as it follows in bringing reference style detail with copper. The most notable trait of the Cyperium is that its image seperation is superb. It doesnt increase the soundstage, rather the space that is inbetween each note is pitch back. For those of you who enjoy critical listening or enjoy focusing on one aspect of the track(such as a guitar solo), this is your IC.
The 00s, as i like to call it, is definately the 'bottleneck remover'. It lets your gear sound better by not holding anything back. Where is the cyprium is the the tree, the 00s are the forest. It brings everything together is warm, fun signature. Definately the cable to groove with. Sound is very balanced and blended very well. Listening to AFI's "paper airplanes makes makeshift wings", the guitar rift is very overpowering, on top of that the drummer is knocking his cymbals all day long on the track. If you arent paying attention, those cymbal crashes get drowned out by the guitars and the davey havoc's vocals. Not in this case, the cymbals shine through, bringing everything back into perspective.
so there you have it. If you are skeptical about ICs, I think either of the copper ones will make you a believer. If have reservations about silver and how it can sometimes be harsh, this is a great introduction and the price is a reasonable entry into custom ICs. Personally i will be using the Cyprium for home where i can sit in my big chair in private and really listen. I will keep the 00s for my portable rig for music to groove to on the go like at school,gym etc. For kicks i hooked it up to my main rig using apple lossless> x-fi plat> IC>cmoy>ad2000 and suprise, even more of an improvement. I look forward to saving up cash for some RCA-mini cables for my millet.
I wanted to bench these cables using the lowest common denominator because i wanted to see if personally, ICs really do make a difference. Listening to Alex's ICs definately makes a believer, even using what some people would consider, low-fi gear. For my lowfi set up, if you would, i'm using the headphone out my ipod mini. 192mp3s>ipod mini>cmoy>[TEST IC]>sportapros. They say that lower end equipment cant benefit from quality ICs, i say they can considerably.
testing cables are Cyprium One, the copper based design of wyvern audio. Its aimed at being reference quality at reasonable cost. Its a solid core copper strand.
*excuse the photos, my camera doesnt do floresent lighting good at all. no matter what settings
next up is the pre-production cable based on a multi-strand copper braid. I will call this 00s since there is no name for it.
these two will be benched against my DIY cables made by a well known DIYer
here on head-fi. These are your basic cables based on canare starquad cable and nuetrik plugs.
so how do they stack up? I will just say they are better then my benchmark cable in every respect hands down. The shocker though is that each of the wyvern audio cables bring something different to the table. Both cables inprove SQ across the board, bass, highs, mids as well as relief in the congestion. It lets the sound flow through naturally, letting the sound become more full and pleasant. Sound is more demensional where before alot of things were one noted. This improvement in quality gives an impression of an improvement in quantity as well especially in bass, since now the bass reverberates you get a feeling of twice as much.
For those of who dont know, Alex is a fan of silver and detail, as represented in the flagship line of cables, the Argentum series. I would consider the Cyprium to be the little brother as it follows in bringing reference style detail with copper. The most notable trait of the Cyperium is that its image seperation is superb. It doesnt increase the soundstage, rather the space that is inbetween each note is pitch back. For those of you who enjoy critical listening or enjoy focusing on one aspect of the track(such as a guitar solo), this is your IC.
The 00s, as i like to call it, is definately the 'bottleneck remover'. It lets your gear sound better by not holding anything back. Where is the cyprium is the the tree, the 00s are the forest. It brings everything together is warm, fun signature. Definately the cable to groove with. Sound is very balanced and blended very well. Listening to AFI's "paper airplanes makes makeshift wings", the guitar rift is very overpowering, on top of that the drummer is knocking his cymbals all day long on the track. If you arent paying attention, those cymbal crashes get drowned out by the guitars and the davey havoc's vocals. Not in this case, the cymbals shine through, bringing everything back into perspective.
so there you have it. If you are skeptical about ICs, I think either of the copper ones will make you a believer. If have reservations about silver and how it can sometimes be harsh, this is a great introduction and the price is a reasonable entry into custom ICs. Personally i will be using the Cyprium for home where i can sit in my big chair in private and really listen. I will keep the 00s for my portable rig for music to groove to on the go like at school,gym etc. For kicks i hooked it up to my main rig using apple lossless> x-fi plat> IC>cmoy>ad2000 and suprise, even more of an improvement. I look forward to saving up cash for some RCA-mini cables for my millet.
