Arctic Cables- Sonoro


High purity cables made from premium materials will enhance your experience in comparison to the stock cables, whether you will hear better bass performance, wider soundstage, more vivid midrange, etc…

When I adore a headphone, the hunt begins to first find the best amp and dac for it, and my journey with that led me to buy the Holo Audio Bliss and Gustard R26, and with all honesty those 2 gears are simply an outstanding combo that will push the listening experience to the max and both are reasonably priced

After I nailed the Amp and DAC, my journey started in finding the best price/performance cable for my ZMF Caldera.

I contacted some companies and my search led me to Arctic Cables, and I started to correspond with them on emails and told them about my quest to take the Caldera to the next level.

Caldera has some issues and that is a fact shared even in the Caldera head fi thread, which is that it has some issues with the highs being a bit too much peaky, in addition for me at least I found also the soundstage was a bit constrained and not wide as I like it. So my discussion with Arctic cables was to address those, and after lots of front and back, Arctic cables informed me they were designing a great cable which in their opinion and after they themselves tested it on Caldera could be an answer to my quest.

The Sonoro is
- X3 20AWG clear pure occ litz copper
- X3 20AWG dark pure occ litz copper
- X2 18AWG clear pure occ litz silver
- cotton+kevlar centeral core per wire

Before I had the Sonoro I heard it with the Lavri Grand cable and with both my Norne cable Silvergrade and Moon Audio Silver Dragon, and the experience was good, but the Sonoro was more impressive in every aspect

After long thoughts, I took the decision and placed an order for the Sonoro and waited. I thought well even if it will not give me a wow effect I know it’s beautiful and made of best materials.
I received the cable and once I unpacked the box and held the cable in my hands, I was mesmerized by its built quality that gorgeous cable was something I never held before from any company

Arctic Cables informed me to burn in the cable for 100 hours. So I will not dive too much about my experience once I received it, but I can say I was super impressed.

After 100 hours of burn in, the cable evolved and started to show its real character and capabilities. I can tell you all this cable is something even cable doubters should try

So how did it affect the Caldera, well I will not write big long articles about how each song will now sound and make the reader of my impression get lost in words. I will keep things simple and straight to the point

Bass: the bass of the Caldera is great but I felt it could be more refined and shine through and have more impact, and that is what the Sonoro brought to the table, a better bass experience and definition of notes and I can tell you the punch and impact of the bass is what will draw your attention from the first time you will experience this cable

Mids: fuller mids with more resolution and clarity. You will feel that the Mids have a more accurate presence and are allowed to shine through with such a grand experience. The notes are more natural and rounded. It’s difficult to say in words that experience. The mids are showcased with more fullness and more resolution. The vocals whether male or female vocals simply became more natural and had this great texture shining through with grandiose feeling. I am a person who simply cannot tolerate a headphone that does have issues in the mid range at all. As such my tonality chasing journey is all about the mid range experience. And I can tell you this, the Sonoro simply took the Caldera to another resolute level in the mids. Simply full, organic, natural with a lot of texture

Highs: As some experienced that treble issue in Caldera, I did too, but not that it bothered me at all, but it was there. Here comes in the Sonoro and just irons out those imperfections, So that any treble peaks are now rounded and smoothed out with great extension. It is an absolute noticeable effect that you will hear so clearly how the highs are so well addressed

Stage: Well, dare I say that the Caldera went from good stage to really wide and holographic. Yes. I dare and that is something all my friends who auditioned the Sonoro and Caldera agreed on. It simply allowed the stage to take a bigger dimension which was a bit confined with the stock cable or some of the other aftermarket cables I experienced. The stage became deeper, wider and fuller. That stage simply made me now declare that the Caldera has a bigger stage than my Susvara for now. I do not know if I will use a Sonoro cable or any other suggested cable by Arctic cable on my Susvara what will happen, that is something that I will try next.

Thanks to Arctic Cables for being so professional and so tolerant. They simply care about customer experience and they do not push a customer in any direction. They simply aim to get the best customer satisfaction

Finally being so impressed by Arctic Cables, as they use top notch premium materials in making their cables and impressed by their amazing customer service I am now planning to buy a cable from Arctic Cables for both my Susvara and Utopia 2022

Background:

I had my share of totl iems which you can see in my profile. The tonality that I like is a full rich detailed tonality in the mids especially for vocals, were I accept no sacrifices what so ever, so if the vocals are not done right then that product is not for me, no matter how good the bass or highs are. Of course I like a good dose of bass as well, and to have details in the highs, but my sole “make it or break it” approval lies in the midrange for me personally, simply cause if the mids are not done right you will not be able to easily fix it through EQ, yes you can address the mids with EQ but usually the results are not stellar


Gears used in this review:

• Chord mojo –poly
• Cayin N3Pro in tube mode – ultra linear
• Ifi pro idsd
• Ibasso dx160

Tips used:

-Sony IER Z1R silicon tips, size Medium Large

Cable Used:

Effect Audio Maestro


Songs I used:

• Dave Gahan--- Metal Heart
• Daft Punk—The game of love
• Leonard Cohen--- You want it darker
• Jonsi--- Obsidian
• Massive Attack--Angel
• Tool--- Invincible
• The war on drugs--- Stranger Things
• Strand of Oaks – Horses at night
• Dire Straits – Don’t worry
• Dead Can dance-- Amnesia
• Felix Marc--- Substance
• Adele—Hello
• 21 Savage--- A lot
• Sarah Brightman-- Hymn

Listening time:

I like to keep things simple and to the point and not drag into writing complex passages. I listed the songs above, which I used for testing, so my impressions will be in reference to those songs. Please pay attention to the tips I used as they made a huge difference compared to all other tips I used, since it’s a short stem and that is usually a problem for me personally, when I tried other tips from for example Final Audio, stock tips and many others, the difference in sound was big for me, this is why again my experience is with using Sony IER Z1R silicon tips. Also note I never rated any totl iem that I tested or owned to be perfect and that applies to even the most expensive iems I own or owned, or the ones I heard that can reach over 4k usd in price.

Bass and Sub Bass: here I used the song by Massive Attack – Angel to test the sub bass and bass, and it was a good impactful experience, the Axiom reached deep into the sub bass, with a good bass punch. It’s not a basshead bass but definitely it will please audiophile members who like the right dose of bass and sub bass. Make sure to find the correct tips, for me the Sony tips were the perfect ones.

Mids: Mids and especially vocals are as mentioned before the most important factor for me in judging an iem. The mids are a bit recessed, were it would be noticed on female vocals more than male vocals. It is neither too rich nor too lean. Leonard Cohen’s voice was a good indicator that it has a good tonality and presence for male vocals. I then played some other songs mentioned above and the experience I had just confirmed my findings, among the songs was the latest song by Dave Gahan - Metal Heart -which again was a good indicator that the male vocals are done in a good way. Then I played Adele’s “Hello” song, as with some iems when she goes into the chorus the experience can be not stellar, but the with Axiom somehow I enjoyed that song, although with female vocals the Axiom could come across as a bit recessed but it worked well with that song


Bass and Mids Important note: I want to keep stressing how important choosing the right the tips are with the Axiom, I had to do a lot of tip rolling. It is really worth it and actually a must to not judge too fast with tips that you usually use, for example the tips I use most are the Final Audio tips, but they did not work for me at all with the Axiom and so did not many others. Till I used my spare Sony IER Z1R which gave me a total different experience from any tip I used. So my advice is do a lot of tip rolling, again others might not get such an experience or have difficulty with tip rolling as we each have different ear canals


Highs: Well the highs, I am so glad that the detail in the highs is to my preferences, it got the extension to make everything sound coherent. Thanks god it’s not a dark iem or a brittle one. You will hear the finest details, without being sibilant. It’s presented in a good way.

Sound Stage and separation: Its soundstage is wide, with good sense of width and has proper depth. It reminds a bit of the soundstage of the Sony IER Z1R. As for separation I wanted to choose a busy track and see how well it handles separation when things are supper busy in a song, so I listened to Hymn by Sarah Brightman, that song is a tough one to enjoy on many iems, as things can sound as an orchestra of mess, but with Axiom the separation was good that it allowed me to enjoy such a track

Speed: Well I love to listen to Tool, their song Invincible has a nice fast kick drum and the Axiom captured that perfectly.


Conclusion:

I want to thank Effect Audio for lending me the Axiom, I hope that Effect Audio does a tour for Axiom XP when it gets released, as it is really intriguing me to give that a review as well. The Axiom is good choice for people who like neutral reference signature

Empire Ears Zeus R -Universal review
 
Let me start off by saying that this is my first review of a product. I had bought my share of totl iems ( Shure 846, 64audio U12, Sennheiser ie800, Tralucent Ref1 ) and others that you can see in my profile. Had the Zeus R not be a breakthrough iem I would not even care to write up anything.
 
Background:
 
I am not the typical guy that runs over specs or gets too excited about numbers, what excites me is the sound signature of the iem and how it matches what I love to hear and enjoy. I do not care how many drivers an iem has, or whatever the tech is being used, my ultimate interest is how does it sound.
So as many of us who start our head-fi journey, we buy things and sell things and most of us like to read that a middle priced iem can match a totl iem in performance, so we rush in and buy that iem. Then after getting it, the inner voice starts talking " maybe I should have gotten the best out there instead as I feel there is still something missing '. Now that becomes a vicious cycle we keep going through and it keeps going and going. Ultimately you end buying so many mid tier iems and sell them for a loss. Then one day you say that is it, I am done and want to shoot out to the best there is. This is what happened to me and this is how I reached the Zeus R.
 
So I contacted Jack from EE after reading so many glowing reviews on head-fi and told him that I am ready to buy the best there is, and I started designing how I would like it to look. 
Was I worried, of course yes, because simply I never listened to the Zeus R so I had to buy based on reviews. And in the past I was bitten not only once but many times by glowing reviews that ended up not to my expectations at all. So paying the price for the Zeus R and not knowing exactly how it sounds kept me on my toes until it arrived.
 
So the arrival date came, I opened the box I looked at this amazing looking iem. It looks fabulous to me.
 
Ahead of its arrival, I planned to have my sources ready that I will use with the Zeus R. I always start off with the Chord Mojo, followed by Fiio x7 and then the Cowon plenue D.
 
Listening time:
 
What I personally care about in an iem is that is it has top quality bass, mids and highs and a wide soundstage with no sacrifice in whatever region at all. I like the mids to be full blown and I do not like thin sounding iems at all.
 
Bass: The bass is controlled and tight and can punch deep with a good thump and you can simply enjoy the bass in bass heavy songs like no other iem I have heard. You can also eq the bass and it can satisfy audiophile bassheads no doubt, and here I am saying audiophile bassheads as to me I do not like those crazy sounding basshead iems that just destroy and drown mids and highs to give that insane bass. The bass in the Zeus R is top notch and does not affect mids at all. Honestly I always wondered when will we have an iem that can give the best bass that is not bloated and out of control with keeping mids intact to be enjoyed to the fullest, the answer was the Zeus R. Sometimes I listen to some bassheavy tracks and I am absolutely amazed by what i am hearing, I keep on repeating the same track over and over to enjoy that detailed tight controlled bass.
 
Mids: Are simply the best I ever heard with no iem even coming close to the beautiful presentation that the Zeus R offers. I was so surprised by the mids of the Zeus R in all genres of music whether its pop, rock, synthpop, etc. Simply amazing mids. Ahhh my grip in the past with iems and with in one I owned and loved in the past which was the Ref1 were the mids, the Ref1 was great, but its mids were not there to me. Simply I sold the Ref1 and when I first heard the mids of the Zeus R while listening to a vocal focused track, I simply just smiled and it was the smile of finally finding the missing link in all my iems. The mids are so important to me, especially when I like bands I like them for their vocalist first, so this means to me that I must have the best mids experience before anything else. So here is just another positive that got nailed by Zeus R to perfection. Amaaaaaazing mids like no other.
 
Highs: The level of detail in the highs is one of its kind, I thought in the past that the ie800 has the best highs due to its sweet highs, but now that place is overtaken by the Zeus R. The highs are beyond description and you can hear notes in songs you really could not hear from any iem I tired at least. What a joy to hear those details and it feels like rediscovering passages in songs that I did not know before
 
Sound Stage: Its sound stage is wide and you can easily identify the separation of instruments and placements in songs. The stage is well implemented that I feel I am exactly standing at the right spot while the band is playing live in front of me.
 
Conclusion:
 
The Zeus R is the King of all iems, it does everything to perfection. It's so easy to drive and works amazingly with all sources I have ( Chord Mojo, Fiio X7 and cowon plenue D ). I enjoy it most with the chord mojo though.
 
The sound quality signature that the Zeus R offers is the one that leaves me not desiring any changes to the sound signature and it simply met all my sound quality signature preferences without a single doubt. It's been a long journey for me from buying and selling iems until I finally got the Zeus R which will stay with me for a very very long time. The Zeus R is a multi verse iem that can suit people that seek the reference sound signature with amazing bass, mids and highs and at the same time you can tweak it to be adored by audiophile bassheads like me using eq
 
Superb iem by Empire Ears, thanks.
 
 


 
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