'Audience Ohno RCA-terminated interconnect cables'
($240-260 a 1,5 m. pair)
MARK: 100/100
Slim, flexible, light, easy to position, elegant, eye-pleasing, and tight-fitting into any female jacks, they come available in any desired length; true, they decidedly look different than most interconnect cables, but this is because Audience company doesn't want you to pay for fancy thick jacketing or other exotic accessories that you don't actually need since they would produce no improvement to the final sonic delivery.
These cables are designed to achieve the very highest level of performance at an entry level price. Named after Dr. Atsumi Ohno, a seismologist who needed a linear signal to measure what was really happening without deviations to the result; that's why he invented the method of manufacturing mono-crystal wire, a highly sophisticated process of producing wire without the crystalline barriers found in all conventional wire; specialists at Audience believed the same was required for music and they were dead right! Whereas copper typically exhibits thousands of crystals per meter, as audio signals move through this maze, energy is lost at every crystalline juncture. Ohno copper is a single crystal providing an unobstructed path for transmission of the purest audio signal, and at the moment only 3 factories worldwide produce that wire, also called Ohno continuous cast (OCC). The resistance of single crystal wire is measurable at around 5% lower impedance than conventional wire, and the result is a frequency transmission signal more linear and freer of distortions findable in traditional wire.
Ohno cables are made with XLPE (cross linked polyethylene), one of the very best insulations for high end audio cables. The price/performance provided by Ohno cables is second to no other in the world.
As if it weren't enough, Ohno cables are made of 99.9999% pure copper, are subject to 24-hour cryogenic treatment to - 320° F by liquid nitrogen in order to compress microscopic air pockets out of the metal, and in third place its connectors are constructed with ultra low mass high conductivity qualities.
It's relatively simple to lower the noise floor, yet many cables and power conditioners achieve this at the expense of the dynamics, the musicality, the slight rhythm variations and the nuances that make our feet thump and our heads move. All the efforts and the research behind these cables as well as all the other ones from Audience goes a long way back in order to raise the bar with every new product as to balancing sonic blacks and lack of dynamical constraint.
"Sonically the Audience Ohno achieved a level of balance and midrange tonal weight and density that seemed almost contradictory to its skinny contours. It was quiet, quick, and extended with well-focused and pleasingly dimensional imaging. Characterized by a slightly warmer, rounder balance, vocals were full-bodied and expressive, and midrange dynamics spirited. Importantly, Ohno's sibilance range was nicely kept in check. Transient behavior was clean and naturalistic." - Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound, July/August 2016
"Audience Ohno wires are ideal partners for smaller systems, especially so for those of the desktop persuasion. Easy to position, and so light that they won't tug a loudspeaker off its stands, Ohno offered an unerring sense of musicality at a blu-collar price that might have one of your snoby audio buddies gagging on his Perrier. Maybe the best performance per dollar cable that I've heard in some time." - Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound, July/August 2016
"Audience's new value line of Ohno interconnects and speaker cables runs counter to the perceived wisdom that high-performance wires always require thick, heavy, unyielding jacketing and confoundingly complex conductor geometries. Employing the same 6-nines, 21 AWG, OCC-stranded copper that it uses in its tony Au24 SE powerChords, these whip-thin featherweights are nicely built and very pliable, making them ideal partners for smaller systems. Sonically they are quick and extended with well-focused and dimensioinal imaging. Most significantly, they have no additive colorations and don't crimp dynamics. They're not the last words in resolution, but given their entry-level mission they're right on the money in every other respect. Easy to postition and so light they won't tug a compact loudspeaker off its stands, the Ohnos offer an unerring sense of musicality at a price that won't bust the budget." - The Absolute Sound 2015 Product Of The Year, Accessories Of The Year Award Winner!
These three above-quoted trustworthy reviews say it all: it's no coincidence at all that Ohno Interconnect cables have won 3 prizes for 3 years in a row. In brief, with an affordable cable you get so much in exchange so that you'll lift one veil more and rediscover your vinyl and CD collection, this time with more 3-D sounds, more details galore, less listening effort, and far more enjoyment. The transitions from diverse tracks within a composition are ridiculously smooth and this is especially useful in genres such as Rock, Metal, Dark Ambient, Electronica, where the mixing always requires a great number of tracks, layers and the music abruptly jumps from one theme to another, sometimes with limited budgets for indie releases that make the reception of the albums a tad harder. Therefpre, if everything sounds good with such difficult recordings, you can bet that things will be unbelievably pleasant with easy genres such as Classical music, Jazz, Dance, Bluegrass, and Pop.
I want to thank Mr. John McDonald from the deep of my heart for being a genuine, rare gentleman and an honest businessman, because his passion - along with his team in Audience - have totally changed my way of listening to music thru the years.
My Ohno cables give the finest results between my Exposure 2010s pre-amplifier and my integrated amp (where the signal is more powerful) than between my CD player and my integrated amp, that's why the Audience 24SE interconnect cables were moved between the latter two replacing the QED Reference Audio 40 cable I previously used (where the signal is less powerful and only a super-sophysticated and expensive cable can result in an audible difference, and precisely in less timing errors). And now I can finally say I'm enjoying the most refined synergy ever heard in my life!
Another thing I have experienced that I desire to share with you is the fact that not only have these cables improved all frequencies without any roll-offs at the spectrum's extreme, but these Ohnos are the only interconnects that have eliminated any 'blumpk' pop noise at the turning of the Exposure 2010s pre-amp that I've always despised and yet all the local audio dealers told me to deal with forever because it's a high current system. I'm convinced that if you are also afflicted by the same plague you can solve it once and for all or at least tame it on most occasions. Another slight improvement lies in the bettered control and delivery of sibilants, which is usually detrimental to music's enjoyment and assimilation.
Now, it's amazing how I can listen to music with full satisfaction at all volumes, even the one of an intercom, allowing me night listening sessions without reducing the level of entertainment.
The version I have chosen is 1,5 metre long, as I'm a believer in relatively longer interconnects when they are respectable top-notch ones such as in this case, in other words when they aren't working as unwanted antennas.
Suitable to cover the needs of roughly 90% of the audiophile public, Ohno Interconnect cables will help you especially with imperfect recordings, old recordings, and passages where several instruments, voices or noises are fighting to be heard thru the same frequencies.
Of course if budget is no issue or if somebody runs a recording studio, they might as well purchase a superior Audience cable, such as the magic RCA or XLR AU24 SX interconnects at a way higher price, and additionally other Ohno loudspeaker cables.
After getting your hands on the best amps, speakers, sources your bank account can afford, and having your house electric power system improved, you absolutely have to linger over replacing your interconnect cables with a more than decent pair.
Contacts:
Audience, LLC
120 N. Pacific Street #K9
San Marcos, CA 92069
https://www.facebook.com/AudienceAVhttps://twitter.com/Audience_AV
https://www.instagram.com/audience_av/
Watch the Italian VIDEO review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxQrVJZPKZA
Watch the English VIDEO review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pk03td85So
