Audience Au 24 Speaker Cables, by Jim Merod

Beginning

For several years I've listened critically, casually, ear-squintingly, inadvertantly, off-the-cuff, and pointedly to Audience's remarkably modest-looking Au 24 Speaker cables. When you deal with the eccentric grandeur of Nordost's Valhalla speaker cables—and the unappeasably inflexible rigidity of van den Hul speaker cables—you are prepared, forever after, to expect that top-of-the-line cables must be behemoths that assert their command over your domestic authority.

Not so with Audience's modest, gracious, truly (almost) self-effacing speaker cables. Once you hold them in your hands, you think, "is this it? That's all? No Oingo Boingo turgidity? Nothing flopping? Nothing yencing ungracefully in your wife's or companion's line of sight?"

Right, Kilroy. The Audience cables define the concept of understatement... as in "is there a there there?" Let me answer your potentially sophomoric puerility, Kilroy. There is more than "there" there.

Witness

John McDonald (of the sneaky, kind, completely modest demeanor—watch such folks: they got their mojo on you) sent me the requisite length of Au 24 speaker cables and added, as an understated proviso, something on the order of "I hope these fit the bill." Perhaps his note was more to the point. He may've scribbled "Listen carefully, Bozo, 'cause we worked hard to get these right."

I can't remember which it was. But, no matter. John got the cables to me and I felt compelled to put 'em into harness and blow pink noise through their unencumbered innocence. After seventy seven hours of multiform, non-homogenous signals ripping through their virgin territory, I dumped them between a huge McCormack DNA 500 amp and my party-going Vandersteen 2Ce speakers.

And I boosted the gain until my neighbors sent telegrams requesting a three-dB decrease in volume.

Nope. Take no prisoners. Let 'em drink Budweiser. I cranked John Fogerty higher and walked to the gate in front. Not a single telegram-sender had the heart to deny Credence. No further complaints rendered, victory assured, I began my honest assault on the possibilities the Audience cables presented.

The Deal

I have suffered the mild trauma of hope before cables (and components) touted as the "next real deal"—which simply goes with the terrain of being a reviewer. I can name one or two wearing such a moniker with all the credibility of LBJ's Macbeth-like self-assertion. They, like the Texas Fraud himself, self-destruct in the immolation of stupidity's unknowing carnival.

Enter the Audience speaker cables. Unheralded. No advance word. No hype. No nothin'.

Imagine a terrific component (cables are "components") without a word of hyperbole or bombast. In the early part of the 21st century such moments reside. Few surprises match them.

Enter Audience. Exit John McDonald (him of modest fair-mindedness: a man without commercial guile).

Stage left: reviewer. "Hark, I hear these semi-well-broken-in cables grooving! Hark!"

Music (speaking back at dorkwad review guy): "Shut up. Listen!"

Reviewer (admonished): silence.

Music: Michelle Legrand, Legrand Jazz (Sony/Columbia, 1958).

Reviewer: engrossed.

Music: Cannonball soaring. Joe Wilder upstaging jazz giants.

Reviewer: "Wow!"

Conclusions in Lieu of Superbowl Party

With months of careful listening to substantiate my early astonishment at the clarity, tonal rightness, and absolute musical engagement of Audience's completely honest speaker cables, I settle in to pay a degree of homage to such honesty.

First, the cables deliver musical signals with complete neutrality. That is not a cable "given"... there's no "gimme" at work here. What do I mean by such strange (audio) terms? "Neutrality." "Honesty."

Audience cables do not "sing" and they do not "impart" extra sonic conditions. They are not fancy, aloof, "magical" or supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Audience speaker cables are bare-bones, spear-into-your-soul, take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense (get-it-right) signal delivery systems. That's it. No frills.

I have chatted at some length with a listener whom I deeply respect, someone who does not agree with me about these refined wires—but, then, my partner in listening has not had the chance to break these speaker cables in as long and caringly as I have. He has not had ridiculously over-the-top repeated listenings that I've had with them... beginning with their insertion in the McCormack DNA-500/Vandersteen combination and moving on to a Linn Twin/Tetra Manhattan 305 pairing, and going on further to a Birdland amplifier driving brand new Von Schweikert three-way monitors.

We must believe our own witness. What else is there?

Audience's Au 24 speaker cables are not "sexy," as some outrageously expensive cables are. Nor are they "forgiving." And they sure as hell are not "in your face."

But, these speaker cables well may be the greatest current value in the world of high-end speaker cables.

Conclusion Adding Rational Caveats

Let me put my comments in perspective. Most audiophiles know that speaker loads plus amplifier damping (potential sonic holography) create imponderables no astute audio prophet can prognosticate.

Thus, one must try speaker cables in one's own (actual) system(s). One must listen carefully.

Therefore, find—if possible—a cable that approximates your sonic heaven and its imagined cosmos. Find, with resolve, a cable match—despite reviewers and their short-sighted tone-deafness. Oxymorons suggest the limits of embellishment. Watch my swarthy finger pointing west. Or north. Follow it: go there. Follow your audio heart.

Mine accepts the finesse of different degrees of audio "accuracy." Which speakers make a "perfect" monitor system? What amp drives that perfection perfecty? Caveat emptor.

Within an audio world that offers several remarkable and amazing speaker cables (at widely divergent price points), I regard the Audience Au 24 speaker cables within the small group of those that most enchant and instruct me: Acoustic Zen's new Hologram; van den Hul's all-carbon speaker cable; and Nordost's Valhalla.

I am still in the relatively early stages of assessing the new Analysis Plus and the new WireWorld speaker cables. All of our assessments of (i) our own recordings; (ii) tried-and-true components relied upon daily; plus (iii) components reviewed, and suffered for their glories and limitations, are subject to revision. Absolutely.

Nonetheless, my now longstanding and careful listening to Audience's modest-looking but sonically immodest speaker cables comes to this. They are among the best cables available at any price (see the Audience price list). I urge you to listen to them. They may not pop your cork. But, in fact, they may. They will not seduce you immediately. But, given an honest chance (as honest as they are in their signal delivery), you very well may find yourself regarding them as cables that put a smile on your face and joy before your ears.

Put 'em in your Big Audio Rig. Point your speakers outdoors. Crank the volume. Sit back. Watch your neighbors join the party your suave harassment initiates.