Apr 16

Apr 16 Audio Art Cable Statement e Speaker Cable

Days before the World Health Organization proclaimed a pandemic in early March, 2020, I was introduced to Rob Fritz, Founder of Audio Art Cable, based in San Diego, CA; a company founded in 2005. After several emails and a phone conversation, I was impressed with what I learned and thus agreed to review from a variety of their very reasonably priced, high end, hand-made cables from among speaker, interconnect and power. The Audio Art Cable website also contained an intriguing statement that caught my eye and impressed me further:

There’s a good chance, after you’re done evaluating the performance improvement of Audio Art Cables in your system, that you’ll forget about your new cables—as you should. The music will captivate you, pull you into its magical spell, as you dance, or hum, or tap...and smile...

I would add after ‘smile’, ‘and distract you from worries’.

This review is of Audio Art Cable’s highest Statement level of speaker cables: their flagship Audio Art Statement e (SC Cryo) Speaker Cable. They come in either Gold or Rhodium plated termination, and with spades or banana plugs—your choice. Gold/Rhodium is only used in plating the pure copper spade/banana terminations—it is not used in the wires. The Rhodium is slightly more expensive than the Gold. Spades or banana termination option are the same price with either plating. For this review I used the Rhodium and with banana plugs for reasons that I will explain later. They retail for $1520/8 ft. pair. I needed 10 feet for my review; $1690/pair.

Given that I am now in lock-down mode here in NYC due to the pandemic, I have lots of time to listen to music and review audio equipment. I am very grateful to Fritz for sending me so efficiently at short notice a variety of cables simply and impeccably packaged for review. They were also kindly burned in before shipped out; I did not even have to ask.

After this initial speaker wire review, other reviews of the Statement series will follow of interconnects and then power.

How easy to connect? What’s up with Rhodium?

Audio Art Cable does not push one over the other (Gold/Rhodium). But it is known that Rhodium (Rh)—a silver-colored, rarest element of the Platinum family—is very durable, is harder than gold, does not tarnish or corrode and is quite resistant to oxidation. For better or for worse it also has a lower electrical resistance (about half so) than Gold. (Some people claim that Rh plating yields a neutral/cool sound while Gold a slightly warmer sound, so one can throw that in the mix, too.) Anyhow, I chose it for no serious reason—I just like the word ‘Rhodium’; it has a noble ring to it. If I get another pet for my kids we will name it Rhodium.

As for the banana plugs, there is a very practical reason why I chose them over spades for this review: My reference amps (Audio by Van Alstine DVA SET 600 Mono Block Solid State Amplifiers—my review here) are challenging to use spades on, but have the capability to easily use a banana connection. Moreover, I had recently upgraded my reference speakers (Alta Audio Celesta FRM-2) to a new version of them [review drops in three weeks-Ed] that did not require jumpers (that connection is internal), and they too can easily use a banana connection. So, I decided to use banana plugs if they were a serious option. I say ‘serious’ meaning that the plug is a quality component of the cable, not just an inexpensive and convenient afterthought. The ones that come with these speaker cables are Rhodium plated pure copper Furutech Ethereal FP-212(R) locking bananas; they are serious—and elegant looking.

I had the cables connected securely within 5 minutes—a pleasure that with spades has always remained elusive. And not once during this review did the connections come loose.

The cables themselves visually are an attractive grey with a braided Techflex sleeving and relatively easy to work with; not overly stiff, heavy or thick, 1/2 inch in diameter. They arrived (as a pair) in a clear plastic ziplock bag only 12” x 16”. They are described on the website as follows:

Our flagship speaker cable features a hybrid 11 gauge array of pure copper and silver plated copper “7 Nines” pure OHNO Single Crystal Continuous Cast Copper. “e Series” enhancements of deep cryogenic treatment, and solderless nano-liquid in-fused terminations, with high performance, pure copper low mass spades or locking bananas and Techflex sleeving. Single wire construction. Hand crafted one pair at a time in San Diego, California, USA.

Sound

The Audio Art Cable Statement e Speaker Cables delivered what they promised: They allowed the music to captivate me while they yielded a smooth, clear and detailed presentation. Although at first I paid close attention to differences that I perceived between them and other cables (the expression of bass, for example, was very powerful, but not at the expense of higher frequencies, but instead needing a dash of taming), and I thus made some very minor adjustments in my speaker stand positioning to get all worked out properly, I soon just left all alone, forgot about it, and enjoyed what I heard. For music I used Qobuz with Roon for streaming plus some of my own files; and of course some vinyl.

Musica Nuda, Verso sud (Live), FLAC 24/44.1, (2018), in particular Track 1 ‘I giorno di festa’. Only singing and double bass. I had only heard a studio album of them before. This displays the cable’s ability to get the bass down deep and powerful while allowing the singer to beautifully express herself with emotion and nuance. A ‘right up front’ kind of experience with no distortion.
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Moanin’, (1958). FLAC 24/192. I chose this in honour of the recent death (fortunately non-COVID 19 related; just old age) of their amazing bassist Jymie Merritt. Recorded in the earlier years of stereo, it was very ‘right/left’, but that helped me in my listening review by allowing me to separate different instruments to check for timbre; I was impressed by the way the speaker cables handled that.
Burl Ives, Burl Ives sings Little White Duck and Other Children’s Favorites. FLAC 16/44.1 (Simulated Stereo version from original mono). Recorded in the late 1940s and early 1950s, I grew up with these songs as a child, so why not entertain my young kids with the same given that they are locked in at home now without school because of the pandemic? ‘The Doughnut Song’ is priceless, with lyrics such as, I’m off to jolly England where bulldogs all wear pants, off to Bongo Bongo where alligators dance. His voice is a unique gentle blend of politeness, warmth and respectability, immediately recognizable—and kids can relate; like a friendly, loving grandfather. A winner. And don’t leave out the last track ‘Mother Goose Songs’ containing such classics as ‘Little Jack Horner’, ‘Pop Goes The Weasel’, ‘Three Blind Mice’ and others in which he weaves them all together with humor and wonderful sound effects such as (I think) flutes, piccolos and bassoons. A must hear. The Audio Art Cable pair honestly helped bring out the best of Burl Ives.
LP: Magnavox Presents....A Reprise Of Great Hits, 1973, Reprise Records, Pro 578. Starting with Frank Sinatra singing (Live, 1973) Track 1, ‘Come Fly With Me’, Track 2 , ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)’ performed by Harpers Bizzare, and Track 3, ‘Windy’, performed by The Association, this LP is still in pristine shape, given to me as a gift some months ago (used, with a very worn down cover; bought from a fair vendor). What an odd album in terms of the mix of songs and performers, but those first 3 tracks are great recordings, and each (so different) piece sounded superb and natural through the Audio Art Cables; singing, or instruments whether acoustic or electric. Although Frank Sinatra has his photo on the cover, the LP only has 4 pieces with him involved (and only this first track of his is of great recording quality; the other 3 are mediocre for reasons I do not know.) The album brought back many memories; I later dug up Simon and Garfunkel’s version of ‘Feeling’ Groovy’ ( they wrote it), from their live album, Live From New York City. What a pleasure.

Summary

Hand made with very high quality components and construction, tasteful looking and reasonably priced, easy to work with and connect—then seemingly to disappear while you listen—Audio Art Statement e (SC Cryo) Speaker Cables are surely worth seeking out. And their fine sound quality appears to be agnostic concerning genre of music. Will I forget about these cables as suggested? Probably not if and when they are returned to their owner.