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A crazy thing happened in our showroom today. I good customer was here when our shipment of Audio Art Cables arrived and we decided to put the speaker cables to the test right away.
The first cable we tested was the Audio Art Cable SC-5, the most cost effective option in the range. Moving from the Ortofon SPK-3100 cable we noticed a more open midrange with this cable in place, surprising as the Ortofon is a pretty cable for the money. So all in all, I nice improvement so we moved on...
Next came the top of the line Audio Art Cable SC-5SE speaker cable, but before I comment on the cable I need to explain the system we were using here, because this is where it gets very interesting.
We were listening to a variety of tracks from the Apple iMac with a Bel Canto USB Light Link feeding into the Bel Canto DAC3.5VB. For amplification we used the Bel Canto PRe3.VB which fed into two Bel Canto REF500M mono block power amps.
Here is where it gets strange, for speakers we used the Dayens Tizo. Yes, the little $799 bookshelf speakers being driven by a pretty high-end system more than ten times their price. It is easy to think that the Bel Canto system would simply be too good for the little Tizo, but we were simply stunned by the sound when we connected the Audio Art Cable SC-5SE speaker cable.
There were two immediately noticeable changes to the sound with this cable, firstly the top end simply expanded resulting in a very open and airy top end, and the without a doubt a better defined and more solid bass output. In a word, sublime!
The sound from this system is one of the best I have heard. It is not what you would normally put together but that is the wonderful thing about audio, you can have a bunch of great components but they do not necessarily work well together, but on this occasion we found nirvana!
We have yet to test it, but we would assume the same sublime sound could be achieved using the Bel Canto S300iU Integrated Amplifier, the Dayens Tizo and the Audio Art Cable SC-5SE speaker cable. A more cost effective solution that should offer the same sublime sound quality.....and, it does!
UPDATE: Well we set up the above system today, and as we suspected, the same 'engaging' sound scape results. We have had a number of customers and sales reps through the shop today and everyone without fail has listened in disbelief of the little Dayens Tizos.
One sales rep was asked how much he thought the Tizos should sell for, he said that based on what he was hearing and the level of finish of the speakers, he thought $2,000 was a fair ask. So that makes the $799 asking price an absolute bargain. But, if you do not believe it, come on in for a demo.
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