Audience AU24SX Speaker Cable Review – USA Golden Standard Flagship
Audience AU24SX is a $3932 USD pair of Speaker cables part of the AU24SX cables designed by Audience, which include multiple analog and digital cables, including power, speaker, interconnect and USB cables. Today we review and explore the effects Audience AU 24 SX has on the sound of your speakers, and how it compares to other high-end flagship cables including Audience Studio One Speaker Cables (2899 USD), and Ricable Invictus Speaker Reference (1738 USD).
Introduction
Audience is a high-end cable manufacturer from the USA best known for creating the cables for many studios across the world. We have explored their unique approach to cables in past reviews, but none of them was quite on the flagship level of the AU24SX, a cable known to have received praise in the world’s best audiophile magazines, but at the same time staying popular and relevant since 2016. This is a cable that I was curious about for years, and it will be interesting reporting what it does to the sound and how it influences a system, especially combined with high-end speakers.
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Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/48BbuEi
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3HLKvh5
Build Quality – Design
While we’ve already reviewed some of the more affordable cables for speakers from Audience, AU24 SX continues the same tradition of being a flexible, light cable, but this time with a slightly different inner construction. Refined for transparent and richness, dynamic and realism, AU24 SX is a Ultra-Pure OCC Copper, refined to six-nines purity, or 99.9999% pure copper, which dramatically reduces signal distortion and improves conductivity.
Using high-quality XLPE Cross-Lined Polyethylene dielectric, AU24SX takes the advances of this ultra-low dielectric constant and minimal signal absorption which allows for enhanced timing, imaging and tonal accuracy. The internal geometry has been refined to lower the eddy current resistance and to maximize bandwidth and to increase phase accuracy across the entire frequency range.
To achieve the sound that AU24 SX series is known for, Audience puts them through the exclusive Cryo2 Process, a two-stage cryogenic treatment performed in-house. Each individual component, including conductors, connectors and dielectrics are treated first, then the final assembly is cryogenically treated again, after the proper testing takes place. The theory is that this process aligns the molecular structure improving signal integrity, resolution and long-term stability of the cable.
Subjectively, Audience AU24 SX is a flexible, slightly springy, reliable cable. It is extremely resistant to interference and I have them running behind my desk, above my computer, amplifiers, and multiple speakers, before reaching the final speakers, with zero interference. This is the only cable I would actually trust to purchase in longer than needed quantities because it is so flexible, it allows you to coil and bend it so that just in case later on you need a longer variant, you can keep using it longer, there will be zero signal degradation. I also recommend getting the audience connectors and not bare wire, Audience uses high-end connectors treated in the same way as the cable which keeps the whole sound consistent.
Sound Quality
Pairings – Most Speakers and amplifiers we’ve reviewed are compatible with the Audience AU24 SX Speaker Cables, including those fork connectors, so for the DAC part I’ve used either FiiO K17, Luxsin X9, or Rose Technics RT-5000. I’ve used Feliks Echo 2 and Feliks Euforia Evo as a Preamplifier, just to fine tune the sound, and for amplifiers I’ve used Topping B100 Monoblocks, Keces S300+, Burson Funk or I also have tried using the ECDesign PowerDAC-SX, but this one in particular is not compatible with the fork connectors, so I had to get creative and get some adapters.
For the speaker list, I’ve combined the cables with Pylon Audio Jasper Monitor 18, Audience 1+1 V5, Pylon Audio Jasper 23, and Elipson XLS 7 Bookshelf Speakers. Audience Au24SX is the kind of cable that has absolute synergy with all the speakers I pair with it, it delivers a vivid sound, and there ain’t a single pair of speakers I wouldn’t pair with it out there.
Overall Signature – It all boils down to the sound of the Audience AU24SX cables, this is the most dynamic, most vivid sounding cable I heard to date, with no exception. In fact, going from most cables straight to AU24SX is enlightening, you hear a huge improvement instantly, it is not a nuanced thing, the drastic difference in resolution, dynamic range and clarity is immediate and acute. Most cables bring in an improvement that feels nuanced, or in the last few percentiles, but AU24SX almost redefines a system, it gives all speakers I tried with it a huge boost in the dynamic range, and clarity, and the effect is consistent across all speakers. It sounds organic, rich and musically pleasing, while improving the resolution. It is bright, brilliant up top and punchy, with a string kick in the bass. The overall sound is engaging and not laid back or relaxing at all.
Tonality – It is good to start with mentioning that while most cables will respond flat on a frequency response graph, most of them have a difference in how they render each frequency range, how each gives bass treble and mids a place in the scene and which they make more evident, without increasing the quantity for the FR to become tilted. AU24SX for example, has a strong sub-bass punch and kick, a recessed mid bass and recessed upper bass, a neutral lower midrange, and an enthusiastic and emotional upper midrange. Treble is all bright, clean and crisp, with a delightful air and brilliance to it. It is basically the kind of cable that gives life and power to female voices, to violins, pianos and strength to all instruments, all while reducing the bloom and toning down on the warmth of a system.
Dynamics And Textures – Give the AU24SX a chance to integrate in your system and it will seriously increase the dynamic range and open up the sound. I feel like this effect is an antagonist compression effect – a cable couldn’t theoretically open up the dynamic range, but it all the other reference cables were limiting the dynamic range, then AU24SX opens it up completely, allowing for a higher level of contrast, difference between the quiet and the loud parts of each song and increasing the perceived liveliness of each song. This is an effect that makes music more engaging and more open. The texture presentation is generally a clean – organic – rich one, with a character that is on the wet and fluid side of things, keeping music enjoyable, groovy and flowing instead of the dry and analytical ultra-detailed type. This is not to say that AU24 lacks details, and in fact it is one of the most detailed sounding cables I ever heard, but it allows music to open up and breathe, to shine and given the huge soundstage and open dynamic range it is, it enhances and builds on the natural resolution of each song, speaker and DAC AMP, instead of forcing a reveal on the sound.
Soundstage – At the center of its signature, AU24SX sounds wide, and improves on the instrument separation and the holographic 3D soundstage effect of an audio system. It is a really uplifting and widening cable, it increases the soundstage depth and width compared to most cables, and gives my Jasper 18 Monitor and Jasper 23 speakers a much larger presentation. There’s a hint of scattering, but it helps build a more atmospheric presentation and doesn’t take away from how engaging and open AU24SX sounds like. In fact, I feel like this is a key element of its signature, sounding open, vivid and brilliant, and it all starts from the open and wide dynamic range to the wide soundstage and natural instrument separation. Don’t get me wrong, AU24SX is quite brilliant in general, but it won’t be a surgical tool, and there are cables that focus on instrument separation like Studio One from Audience, while AU24SX focuses on the soundstage size and expansion.
Comparisons
Audience AU24SX vs Ricable Invictus Speaker Reference (3932 USD vs 1738 USD) – Starting from the build, Invictus Speaker Reference is a much thicker, heavier cable that is very hard to bend. While for speakers this doesn’t matter as much as it does for headphones, it is important if you have a smaller room and are unsure of how tightly you can bend the cables from the connectors, and what length you need, as you cannot as easily coil around an Invictus Speaker Reference as you can an AU24SX. There’s a promise for the Invictus to have some passive noise attenuators and filters, and to be fair it does have an effect of canceling noise, but it is a far different one from what you’d expect and it mostly comes back to the sonic signature.
Invictus Speaker Reference sounds thicker, warmer, more dry, and less airy, less present in the treble. It enhances bass while damping a bit on the treble and it doesn’t have a dynamic range quite as wide as Audience AU24SX. In stark comparison, AU24SX has a much wider dynamic range, it extends the treble more, reveals more brilliance in the sound, gives music more space to breathe and extends it, scatters sound a bit more, but helps you hear more details with the aid of space and dynamic range. The texture is similar between the two, both are organic and rich, both are fluid and a bit wet in the character. The biggest difference would be in the treble where AU24SX is more brilliant and in the mid and upper bass, where AU24SX is tighter, more controlled, less bloomy and creates more of a punchy sound while Invictus speaker reference creates more of a smooth, big, and warm sound.
Audience AU24SX vs Audience Studio One (3932 USD vs 2899 USD) – Studio One and AU24SX are both placed through the same treatments, both are flexible and convenient to use, both are right away excellent from a built perspective, and similar. Sonically, they are quite different, Studio One is more dry, more precise, extrudes more details and this in itself shows the good and the bad in music, it is the kind of cable that makes music both more detailed but also less fluid, while AU24SX flows, it is more musical, wider sounding, it extends at the cost of minor scattering, while Studio One is less forgiving, it doesn’t push the boundaries of size of the soundstage as much, but it has a stronger instrument separation, definition. Out of the two, I would always go with AU24SX for enjoyment and music listening, and always pick Studio One for analytical, precise listening. I personally use AU24SX more in my system, it enhances the dynamic range much more, which I value a lot.
Value and Conclusion
Although most cables are hard to argue for, Audience AU24SX is incredibly dynamic, vivid and revealing, it is flexible and practical, and if you have a high-end set of speakers, and a good AMP, and a high-end DAC, a cable like Audience AU24SX will truly open up and enhance the sound of your audio system. In fact, compared to all the cables I heard so far, AU24SX seems to have a higher impact on the overall quality of my system, they seem to have a more drastic effect and to enhance the sound more.
Award – Before the end of this review, I have to admit, I started working on this review with very little expectations, Studio One already impressed me and I’m no stranger to high-end cables, but the way Au 24 SX sounds like is simply unique, it is on a different performance segment, it has a dream signature for me and it pairs incredibly well with the Pylon Audio Jasper 18 Monitor and Jasper 23 which are currently my main listnieng speakers, so it completes my favorite dream setup really well. We have to add it to the Audiophile-Heaven Hall Of Fame as it earned a place in our highest ranks. If someone asked me whether the DAC or cables make a bigger difference, I would have always said that the DAC can improve the sound more, but after hearing what AU24SX does to the sound of my Pylon speakers, I honestly feel like cables are more important for the sound a system can produce. It actually goes further than this, and when comparing the AU24SX with a cheap copper cable from Amazon, I found that the cheap cable actually has a reduced volume with around 7 dB. This is huge, and was easily audible and detectable, so cheap cables are actually much worse at transmitting sound, and will veil your sound, the same way a cheap camera lens will be far less transparent and have a lower light transmittance than a high-end camera lens.
At the end of the day, Audience really created something unique sounding, something that drastically enhances the dynamic range, resolution and which gives a system a whole new level of brilliance, and this is an easy to use cable, with a thin, lightweight, and nimble build. In fact, just the way it is not made for looks but for pure sonic performance makes me love it so much and makes it an essential part of my daily listening system.
PROs
- Stealthy, lightweight, flexible and ergonomic
- Can be ordered with a custom length and custom connector set
- Audience’s outstanding support for your purchase
- Revealing, rich, detailed and crisp sounding
- Wide dynamic range, making simple entry-level copper cables sound compressed
- Good price / performance ratio compared to most cables despite the high price
- Deep punch and strong kick in the bass while it gives outstanding control for the lower midrange, limiting bloom and veil
- Rich and brilliant treble, adding to the air extension and soundstage width
- Exceptional tonality for violins, guitars and pianos
- Lively and engaging
Cons
- It really makes sense once you have a good enough system, will work for a cheaper system too, but it truly enhances and highlights a high-end one
- High price makes it not an active option for many enthusiasts
- Not a relaxed or laid-back sounding cable
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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