Audience Au24 SX Speaker Cable Impressions, VS?

The Cable Co was very generous with their loaner and extended my listening evaluation to accommodate me.

The Audience Au24 SX speaker cable loaner is a 2m pair with BFA style banana connectors.

2 days of break-in was recommended for the used loaners, but I felt that it took about a week before they came into their own.

My system is going through a number revisions, but was stable (with all components fully broken-in)  for about five days where I was able to formulate the following quick impressions:

The SXs bring a purity to the sound and additional clarity with an amazing ability to showcase inner detail. There is more air and bloom around instruments, akin to what good tubed components do for a system. Bass has more weight but is also tighter. Image size is believably lifelike. Timbre is richer and palpable.

I have a solid state system, so the additional clarity and transparency makes my system lean slightly analytical. If I had a tubed preamp or tubed amplifier this, in my opinion, would be a non-issue.

I placed the order for a new set of Audience Au24 SXs today.

Note: for anyone considering these speaker cables, give them about 100 hours before listening to them critically. In my opinion, they need about 200 hours. These are rough estimates, just to give a sense for the need for time and patience.

I just added a new preamp and a new power-supply to my system. The new Audience cables will arrive on Friday and will go into another system for break in. I will report back in about two to three weeks once all of the equipment has settled in.

Before the SX was released, I tried the Au24 SE speaker cables, loaned from the Cable Co.

Based on your experience, I guess I didn't have enough hours on them, but I had to strain to hear much difference between them and my Mapleshade Double Helix.

Maybe that says something about my system, or maybe the Helix are incredible bargains, or I maybe didn't have the Audience long enough... or it could be a combination of the above.

I should probably check out the SX version at some point.

@mrppv :  Definitely give the Audience Au24 SX speaker cables a try. Not much of a downside to do a loaner through The Cable Company. I'm sure system synergy plays a role. Given the amount of time that has passed, it might be a fun test to conduct, if only to learn something.

****Please know that I don't have any association with The Cable Co.****

These were the first cables I ever auditioned without purchase, and I have to say that I wish I had taken advantage of the Lending Program a long time ago.

The new SXs arrived on Saturday and this is the first time I have gone from having a fully baked cable in-system to having it replaced with the same cable, without any burn-in.

I got to know the loaner SX very well over three weeks since I wanted to be absolutely sure it was going to bring enough of an upside value to justify the spend. 

BTW, The new cable has a long ways to go but has the 'dna' / signature of the fully broken-in cable. 

david_ten - Thanks for the impressions and suggestion.  So many cables to try out... I have auditioned several but it can be a little overwhelming.  I'm currently using Omega Mikro Planars for the speakers.

I did test a loaner pair (Cable Co.) of the new "SX" version of Audience's XLR interconnects not long ago.

You are absolutely right. So many cables and many good ones. I received some strong recommendations, so I may test those out, down the road.

I will check the Omega Mikro’s out. What do you like about them?

And what were your thoughts on the SX XLRs?