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Empirical Design Cables

Prices Vary

Empirical Design is probably the most under-the-radar, over-the-top-performing high-end cable company in existence. It’s been my reference for nearly 20 years, along the way winning two previous Golden Ear Awards. But those were back in the aughts. It’s worth noting that, through constant incremental evolution, these cables and power cords have retained what originally set them apart: top-notch parts-quality, straightforward topologies, hand-built construction, and a price roughly one-tenth that of cables of comparable merit. Recently, two events reminded of these cables’ unique attributes. First, the sonics of a review component were transformed—no exaggeration—by the insertion of a $240 Empirical Design power cord. Second, some fancy-pants speaker cable recommended by the speaker’s manufacturer was shown up by the far more neutral ED wire. At prices in the hundreds rather than the thousands, these cables are a no-brainer investment for most systems.

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$3616/2.5m 

When it comes to loudspeaker cables, I have a strong bias that I will share with you…I despise thick, inflexible, “fire-hose” cables. Large-diameter speaker cable, when subjected to regular installation, de-installation, and re-installation, often eventually breaks (or suffers damage to the terminals it is attached to). Been there, and instead of a tee shirt I’ve acquired boxes of broken cables over the years. I look for, and have found, a cable that sounds like it isn’t there and is easy to work with due to its flexibility, and I’ve been using it (or an earlier version, the Au24SE) as my reference for several years. The Au24 SX speaker cables’ terminations utilize a new, proprietary, solder-free design. Audience describes the Au24 SX as a “low mass and low eddy current resistance design with minimal jacketing materials.” Made of six-nines OCC copper with an XLPE dielectric and a double cryogenic treatment, the Au24 SX, Audience believes, is its finest cables ever. I can’t disagree. 

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YG Acoustics Sonja 2.2 loudspeaker
$76,800/pr.
I reviewed the original Sonja 1.2 in 2015 and gave it a GEA last year. As good as the 1.2 still is, the current 2.2 improves upon that speaker in dynamic ease, bass weight, soundstage continuousness, and resolution of fine detail. The main technical improvement comes from a brand-new kind of tweeter that combines a soft-dome membrane with a very lightweight, strong, and acoustically transparent supporting “air frame.” The result is a remarkably articulate tweeter capable of withstanding G-forces similar to those of good metal domes but without the oft-associated telltale metallic ringing. The bass module cabinet, binding-post arrangement, and crossover have also been updated, including a YG-made “ViceCoil” inductor for greater accuracy and efficiency in the low end. The 2.2’s inter-driver and dynamic coherency are exemplary, as are its resolution of fine details and transparency to sources. It recreates a very large, focused soundscape, and its overall presentation allows musicians’ artistic expressiveness to come through—to thrilling effect on good recordings. As a sealed-enclosure design, the bass extends deeply but does not “bass load” the room like some ported speakers of similar size do—an advantage in small to medium-sized rooms. An easy GEA this year.

Shunyata Research Sigma signal cables
$4000/1m interconnect; $7500/2m speaker cable
Shunyata has developed some fantastic new signal cables. Sigma carries over some features from previous designs: OCC OFE101-grade copper conductors, a virtual hollow tube wire configuration (VTX), and a passive circuit (ZiTron) that cancels out an electromagnetic field that can build up in the dielectric. Sigma adds the following, mostly proprietary new features: Kinetic Phase Inversion Process (KPIP), a treatment that essentially eliminates the need for break-in and determines a cable’s optimal signal direction, sonic welding to eliminate distortion-inducing solder; a Transverse Axial Polarizer (TAP) unit on the interconnect to filter out glare-causing longitudinal electromagnetic waves; and HARP, a unit on the speaker cable to reduce what is known in physics as “current drift.” HARP, in particular, is remarkably effective at improving overall system performance. Build-quality is excellent as is sonic performance, allowing the deployed system to sound highly resolving of fine details with a large open soundstage and focused images. Dynamic precision, overall coherence, and natural timbre are also strong points. Sigma reduces noise, glare, and apparent time smear to levels that allow more of music’s appeal to come through better than with any similarly priced cables I know of—and by a shockingly wide margin.

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Transparent Opus Generation 5
$22,000 meter pair (balanced interconnect), $39,000 8′ speaker cable
Transparent’s reference line of networked interconnects and speaker cables sets a very high bar indeed for sonic performance. It builds upon the earlier Transparent Opus line to offer a seamless midrange and silky highs. Most distinctive about the Generation 5 cables are their cavernous soundstage, in many ways a product of their ability to provide an almost unrivaled bass foundation, and their superbly natural tonality. Other cables may be faster or more detailed, but Transparent offers a mesmerizing blend of virtues that add up to a larger musical whole. Believe it or not, there is a Magnum line that pushes the frontiers one step further, but the Opus Gen 5 should be more than satisfactory for all but the most fastidious audiophiles.

Lyra Etna SL Cartridge
$9999
Lyra cartridges have always excelled at slam, dynamics, and sheer musical excitement. The Etna SL does not move away from those qualities so much as mark a salubrious evolution towards a more refined and agreeable sound. Gone is any lingering sense of zippiness or etch that occasionally reared its head with the Etna’s lineal predecessors. The super-low-output designation (SL), which refers to the fewer coil windings, appears to result in a cartridge that unites an extremely low noise floor with amazing transient precision. The Etna is able to render everything from piano to trumpets with superb fidelity, almost as though it could discern the healthy part of the vinyl. The Etna is a surpassingly winning cartridge, one that is so evenhanded throughout the frequency spectrum that it is always a delight to audition.

dCS Vivaldi 2.0 Digital Source
$41,999 (Transport), $35,999 (DAC), $21,999 (Upsampler), $14,999 (Clock)
The Vivaldi first appeared several years ago and featured excellent soundstaging and dynamics. But the new 2.0 version, which features software and internal hardware changes, truly catapults its performance into the stratosphere. Some of the most notable improvements occur in the treble region, where for the first time digital playback seems to obtain the air that is so palpable on vinyl sources. There is also audibly more detail in the treble and midrange areas, allowing the tonality of individual instruments to emerge in a much more striking fashion. Piano trills are enunciated with a shocking finesse and clarity. The bass lines are also palpably tighter and deeper. Overall, the presentation isn’t simply more dynamic, but also supplies a lot more weight to instruments such as piano or trumpet. With its latest version of the Vivaldi, dCS has hit it out of the park.

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Magico S7 Loudspeaker
$64,000
An extraordinarily revealing speaker that has very neutral timbre, and does not exaggerate or fail to reproduce any aspect of sound quality. Deeply extended but very uncolored bass can seem slightly weak until you realize how far down the low end goes, and how clean and tight it is. Dynamics are truly excellent, although the S7 does need real power to show how good it can be at the most demanding dynamic peaks. The only drawbacks are that this level of quality is anything but cheap, and the S7 offers accuracy, not romance or euphonic coloration. Here, however, its lack of any trace of hardness in the upper octaves makes its accuracy as musical as the recording, the rest of the system, and the listening room allow. A great speaker.

PS Audio BHK Signature 300 Mono Amplifier
$14,998
The PS Audio BHK Signature 300 monoblock amp—and its less expensive partner, the BHK Signature 250 stereo amplifier—are both hybrid designs that use a pair of vacuum tubes in their inputs with a double set of parallel MOSFET outputs. They compete in sound quality with far more expensive designs, and deliver real power. The mono amp is capable of 300 watts into 8 ohms, 600 watts into 4 ohms, and more than 1000 watts into 2 ohms. The BK has a very lifelike and open sound that is voiced in ways that make it sound a bit more “forward” in listening position than the more mid-hall sound of my Pass XA160s. However, both forms of voicing prove truly competitive in musical realism. The PS Audio BHK Signature 300 also has very detailed imaging, excellent soundstage width and depth, superior low-level detail, and equally good peak dynamics. In many ways, the BHK Signature 300 provides the best tube sound with all of the control and power of the best solid-state.

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Elac B5/F5 Loudspeakers
$229/$560
The two-hundred-buck small speaker category will never be the same again. Just spend a few minutes listening to Elac’s two-way compact and you’ll understand why so many are singing its praises. Touching the bases in virtually every criteria, the Andrew Jones-designed B5 is robust in the mid and upper bass with little in the way of box/port colorations. However, it’s the speaker’s straight-talking midrange that conveys a thrilling musical truth so compelling that all who encounter the B5 simply shake their heads and murmur, “How much did you say these are?” And the same holds true for the floorstanding F5. With its additional woofers it leverages the key strengths of the B5 then significantly builds on them by adding extension and ambience and flat-out dynamic slam. While not flawless, the B5 and F5 are as faultless as speakers are likely to get at these prices.

REL S/5 Subwoofer
$2500
When I make a mental list of all the attributes I want in a subwoofer, I keep returning to the REL S/5. Equipped with a 12″ woofer mated with a 12″ downward-firing passive radiator, the S/5 is capable of spine-tingling seismic stirrings and majestic musicality. It’s beautifully finished and accented, of reasonable size, and easy to configure to a room with its finely-honed variable crossover and output adjustments. And then there’s its performance envelope, which extends deeply and sometimes terrifyingly into the mid-20Hz range, yet manifests the tuneful dexterity to become one with the music. And it does so seamlessly and invisibly and without coloring the character and transparency of even the most vaunted main speaker system.

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