Audio Art Cable Statement e IC Cryo Interconnect Cable Pair Silver XLR

This is my second review of Audio Art Cable products; the first review was for speaker cables. This time round, a pair of balanced (XLR) interconnects: Audio Art Cable Statement e IC Cryo Silver XLR; again from their Statement series which is their highest level.

These XLR cables offer the same attractive grey look with a braided Techflex sleeving as the speaker cables, but are thinner (3/8” diameter versus 1/2”). The cable’s MSRP is $960/1 metre pair. I was sent a 1.5 meter pair for this review at $1040. This is not expensive in the realm of high-end audio where a pair of XLR interconnects can be found at prices that can compete with a car.

The ‘silver’ here refers to the refined and modern-looking black terminations which are the new low mass ETI-Research Kryo XLR that are made from silver-plated tellurium copper—both male and female connectors. The Kryo refers to cryogenic treatment of the connectors. The cabling, too, is cryogenically treated, hence the IC Cryo in the product name.

I point out that I have often had issues with XLR connectors getting loose or not locking properly, but not with these Audio Art cables! These were the nicest XLR terminations I have ever worked with. Top notch.

How did I use them and what did I discover?

Some audiophiles like to use all interconnects in their system from the same company. While I understand and appreciate their motives, I tend to enjoy mixing and matching to tweak the sound quality to my liking. (And I only use balanced (XLR) cabling, except where I can’t—from turntable to phono stage). For example, I might use one company from preamp to amps, and another one from phono stage to preamp. Given the various possible configurations I could use the Audio Art Cable pair for in my system (Preamp to mono block Amps, Phono Stage to Preamp, DAC to Preamp), I experimented and found that I detected a pleasant, delicate smoothness to the sound quality overall with perhaps the most noticeable from DAC (PS Audio DirectStream) to preamp (PS Audio BHK Signature).

In the end, however, to be able to listen to any source I wanted to from my preamp, I eventually installed the cables for the latter part of this review from preamp to amps. Smoothness was its somewhat unique contribution, but they also had exquisite clarity to go along with it. So, I would say that they were at least as good as what I have been using as reference, including Anticables 4.1 ($700 1.5 meter pair, perhaps the best bang for the buck that I know of sound wise—so transparent and clean), Antipodes Audio Reference ($2500 1 meter pair, no longer manufactured). Waveform Fidelity ($1600 1.5 meter pair—wonderful dash of richness), Mojo Audio Lucent X ($1700 1.5 meter pair–transparency), and I have a fondness for all of them for different reasons however small the difference, and sometimes it is very small. Typically, if I eventually change a major component in my system, I adjust my cable mix.

Adding the Audio Art Cable to the mix, I was able to fiddle a tiny bit with that smoothness. As I said, the differences can be very small and subtle, but once you get addicted to the sound of good equipment, all hell breaks loose in what you demand and want from your system. I certainly had fun experimenting here.

As an example of what I discovered I would use (at 24/192 FLAC from Qobuz): ‘Sway’ from Diana Krall’s 2017 album Turning up the Quiet. Her voice. No loss in fine details along with that dash of smoothness? Check out the album Trilogy, by the Chick Corea Trio. The percussion (drums and piano). 24/96 FLAC file from my music server’s internal hard drive, but also available on Qobuz. As another delightful example of both qualities, with Trevor Pinnock on harpsichord, J.S. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846-869 (April 2020), (24/192 FLAC on Qobuz).

Summary

Audio Art Cable Statement e IC Cryo Interconnect Silver XLR Cables are yet another example from Audio Art Cable of a very finely and solidly hand made audiophile quality product using exceptional terminations at a reasonable price. They easily fall in the range of what I already use as reference and add in their own voice—however small. 

Further information: Audio Art Cable