Audio envy - dang!

I own a lot of Audio Envy cable. And my comments were meant as my process of music enjoyment, I still have the cables in my system and letting them further burn-in, I purchased several cables from online sellers, not from AE. The resale prices were good enough to try without hearing them.

The only AE cables I don’t own are the speaker cables. The AE has warmed up over the past several days. But if what the designer says that he’s improved upon his designs then they will make many more people happy I am sure. Nice to hear he improving them.

My point was all cable manufacturers have their house sound, and in the end, it is that cables work with your other equipment. People don’t like Pangea 9SEMkii power cords but I’ve heard them sound great on Amps in some systems and mean great. 

Since I had been so impressed with my AE power cord and speaker cables, I purchased XLR cables from AE about a month ago. Initially they did sound a bit too detailed, but things got better after about 30 hours or so. Unfortunately, I could hear a very prominent hiss coming from the speakers. I contacted @audioenvycables, and Captain agreed to send me another pair. I think the replacement has the updated tuning that captain mentioned in his post.

Anyways, while I was waiting for the replacement, I tried two other XLR cables in the meantime - Audioquest Mackenzie (which I have owned for 5 years) and Shunyata Research Black Mamba (borrowed from a friend). First off, the Mackenzie was simply not even close to the AE cables. The sound was dark, rolled off, and a bit boring. The Shunyata Research were quite good, but definitely not better than AE, at least in my system. Or perhaps my system is not ’high-end’ enough to do them justice.

It’s funny how sometimes we only learn to appreciate a component when it’s removed from the chain, not when it’s added, which was definitely the case with AE cables. I have now put about 50 hours on the replacement AE cables, and I can say without reservation that my system has never sounded better. I think their main strength is offering loads of detail and clarity but without the downsides -- i.e. brightness and fatigue, that often come with the territory.

I am currently using Audio Envy Interconnect and Speaker cables. My take is the cable is very good in clarity and resolution. It open up the top end and not being bright and fatiguing. The vocal to me is uncoloured and flat frequency response.

What I think can be improved is the mid bass and low end extension. But I can foresee that for big speakers, having AE may be able to reduce bass boom problem in untreated room. However for my YG carmel 2, the need of lower end extension is important.
And I just email captain about tuning the timber :)

@kimurastanley,

Have you tried AE’s Power Cords? I am in the process of upgrading to his latest Mega ‘3’ PC’s. After trying one of his ‘3’ in front of power distributor (Nordost QB8), there was a noticeable improvement in mid bass and low end extension. The ‘3’ PC uses twice the conductors (6) vs. last generation Mega 3. The second ‘3’ is being added to my Accuphase Integrated. I am quite ecstatic to hear how ‘3’ strikes a beautiful balance in upper, mid and lower frequencies and complementing rest of AE cables in my system.

@lalitk 

I haven't tried audio envy power cable.

I am using full nordost in my power part (odin 1 from wall to qbase 8, rest are valhalla 2 to my lumin x1, vac pre and accuphase A75). I am not sure if using audio envy power cable will improve the low end.