@fthompson251 and all…the results are in! Stealth USB cable has won the shootout.
As I stated earlier, I really liked the Audience and the second FrontRow demo worked flawlessly. Audience is an improvement when compared to the AQ Diamond that I currently own. There’s a refinement in top end, more relaxed and laid back mids, details galore.
However, when I heard Stealth it left me stunned. I’ve not expected this kind of change. I had no expectations to begin with as Steve from The Cable Co. threw in this USB cable when he shipped me the replacement FrontRow demo.
I’ve had over 8hrs of listening with Stealth and as much with Audience so my decision isn’t based on a quick A/B comparison (I don’t subscribe to that as changes take time to sink in). While Audience is really good, compared to Stealth it sounds forward, hyper detailed, analytical and even slightly dry. I know these attributes aren’t typically associated with Audience cables but that’s what it sounds like when compared to Stealth.
Stealth USB cable provides warmth, weight, texture, depth, lower noise floor and is the least hifi sounding cable I ever had a pleasure of evaluating. The bass is absolutely mind blowing with colors and presence that’s unmatched by FrontRow.
It sacrifices nothing in detail retrieval, dynamics and realism. It presents the music in a way no other USB cable I ever heard could match.
When I went back to Audience for probably the 3rd time, I caught myself listening to sounds, analyzing every instrument’s tone, focusing on high frequencies, realizing there’s digital glare in the mids.
Now as we all know synergy is critical, it’s all subjective and system dependent so my conclusion could very well be isolated to my case. Who knows. All I know though is I’m enjoying every minute listening to music with this cable without getting distracted by involuntary analysis of a recording. So that’s it for now!