Audience Frontrow 1.5m RCA (Ultra High End – NEW)

“Electrons don’t care what kind of wires they’re in,” an electronics engineer once said to me. He was being glib, but I knew him to be a serious man when it came to audio. He builds great tubed and solid-state gear and has good taste in music.

We were talking in his room at T.H.E. Show in Las Vegas some years ago. His demo system included two pairs of pricey, famous name-brand interconnects in thick, fancy jackets, fitted with glittering terminations. But he was swapping them out for his own budget interconnects, built sans bling and enclosed in modest sheaths of black plastic. As I recall, he charged about $80/1m pair for these — maybe one-tenth the price of the vaunted brand they were replacing.

After installing his own interconnects, he played some music. I heard no difference in the sound. That surprised me, given my membership in the gang that believes that high-end cables can make a big difference — differences perhaps on the level of those possible with a change of an electronics component. On the spot, I bought two pairs of his no-frills wire and used them in my system for a time. But eventually I returned to the pricey stuff, because it’s been my experience that high-end cables do make a big difference in my system’s sound.

More recently, cable makers have persuaded many that a “full loom” of their products is the only way to fairly evaluate the effects of their wires and that a hodge-podge of cabling won’t demonstrate the true qualities of any specific cable in a given system. I quickly came to see the wisdom of that view. When I thought back to that demo of modest interconnects at T.H.E. Show, I realized that, though the maker swapped out two pairs of ICs, he left the pricey power cords and speaker cables unchanged — no “full loom” effect was tested. It’s perhaps akin to the notion that an electronic component tends to sound better when connected to other electronics made by the same manufacturer — that such siblings are “matched” and “voiced” to complement each other’s characteristics. Therefore, a system that includes a preamplifier and power amplifier both made by, say, VAC, will tend to sound better and give you a truer sense of each component’s sound than, for example, a pairing of a VAC preamp and Air Tight power amp. Yet reviewers and hobbyists go on mixing and matching, evaluating cables in hybridized systems that include wires and electronics made by assortments of manufacturers. It’s all part of the fun of the hobby, and perhaps, too, a contributor to the flaws in our evaluations.

Which is one big reason, when I heard that Audience was coming out with a full loom of new and super-premium wiring, the frontRow models, I asked to review it all.

Audience shipped me a hefty box filled with pairs of frontRow speaker cables ($4750/1.75m pair, $500/0.5m additional), balanced XLR ($3800/1m pair, $450/0.5m additional) and unbalanced RCA interconnects ($3300/1m pair, $375/0.5m additional), a powerCON-equipped powerChord ($6300/6’, $260/1’ additional) for my line conditioner, three MP powerChords ($6200/6’, $240/1’ additional) for my preamp and source components, and an HP powerChord ($6700/6’, $260/1’ additional) for my stereo power amplifier — a total of $43,450 (all prices USD).

Background and development

On the Audience website is a page of dense prose explaining the Audience system of Musically Optimized Reduction of Resistive Energy (MORRE). It’s a long, technical accounting of the process of scrutiny, invention, and manufacturing Audience takes in creating their cables. I’m not technically minded, and my eyes glazed over when I first tried to read it. But I took some time, jotted down notes, then e-mailed some questions to John McDonald, president of Audience. His answers follow, in his words and mine.

Like so many other makers of high-end cables, Audience sets itself the goal of maintaining the accurate preservation and transfer of the analog signals your electronics get from your source components (from LP to cartridge or from digital data to DAC) to your loudspeakers without any degradation, distortion, added noise, or shift of frequency balance. To achieve this goal, Audience uses a many-faceted approach that includes selection of the metals and dielectric materials; various cable geometries or lays to optimize sound quality; cryogenic treatment; tests for resistance, capacitance, and inductance; damping any resonant frequencies; applying extremely high voltages; the determination of signal directionality; and rigorous testing of the finished production units.

Audience uses six types of high-quality metals in their wire . . . but I’ll let McDonald tell the tale:

All analog frontRow cables and powerChords are made from the purest form of conductive copper — six-nines [99.9999% pure], oxygen-free, Ohno Continuous Cast copper. But where rigidity is required for highest current flow, like RCA center pins and XLR male contacts, we use tellurium copper. Where flexing is required for highest current flow, like RCA ground contacts and XLR female contacts and banana speaker-cable connectors, we use beryllium copper. Rhodium is the plating on AC power plug contacts and is also a plating option for spade connectors on speaker cables. Gold-plated copper is the other option for spade connectors. Silver is the plating over copper for our PowerCON AC power connectors.

From the start, Audience used XLPE [virgin, cross-linked polyethylene] as a dielectric, as the very first Au24 cables were designed with XLPE. Having said that, all XLPE is not the same. The quality of XLPE has progressed over the years, and we’ve kept up. We procure the very best for frontRow. All dielectrics have specific electrical properties that interact with the flow of electricity. Air dielectric is the absolute best, except that it is not practical to suspend conductors without anything touching them. Aside from pure air, Teflon and XLPE are considered to be the best insulators because they do the least harm to the signal — low microphonics and the ability to transmit electrical force without conductance. So we feel that high-quality XLPE is the best in most applications. We also use Teflon that has slightly better dielectric properties, but it’s used sparingly, as it can contribute a bit of hardness to the sound.

Audience uses strands of wire arranged in various lays to reduce noise from the electromagnetic fields produced by the flow of electrons through wire. FrontRow unbalanced cables are made with double axial, coaxial, and dual opposed helix ribbon lays to result in what Audience calls its Perfect Lay construction. Most of these geometries are used in frontRow balanced cables as well.

McDonald told me that, except for differences in conductor gauge, the lays used in Audience speaker cables are the same as in their unbalanced interconnects: double axial, coaxial, and dual opposing helix ribbon. He also said that the conductors used in frontRow powerChords basically comprise six 13AWG conductors (two for each of the three legs) in the high-power (HP) version, and three 13AWG conductors in the medium-power (MP) version. Each 13AWG wire comprises six bundles of 38 strands each of 99.9999%-pure Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) copper wire twisted around an XLPE core. In the final, proprietary stage of construction, each HP or MP powerChord is laid out with cotton rope spacers that keep each 13AWG wire separate from the others.

Audience believes that every contact point is also vital to signal integrity. Loss of signal integrity can be caused by noise and interference introduced through eddy currents, hysteresis, magnetic induction, and metallurgical differences in the materials. Along with choosing various types of metals to suit specific purposes and applying extremely high voltages at specific frequencies at burn-in, Audience tries to address these potential losses of signal integrity by testing for resistive energies and alterations of the signal at each contact point. In this way, the optimal performance of each connection is identified, magnetic fields and their interactions are reduced, and other electronic nasties are removed to ensure maximum signal integrity from source to speakers. Unsexy but crucial.

“All materials vibrate, each at their own specific frequency or frequencies,” says Audience’s webpage devoted to MORRE. I know that airborne vibrations have adversely affected the clarity and richness of sound of my audio system. Once, one of my speakers was in very close proximity to my audio rack. This set off a chain of vibrations that excited the metal tops of components, which in turn created a rain of vibrations that drew a scrim of noise across the music — until I addressed it with serious damping. Vibrations are transferred through other types of direct contact — from wire to connectors, and from pin or plug to socket. In their cables, Audience uses natural and synthetic compounds made of crystalline and carbon-based particles that damp noise by resonating at frequencies outside the audioband, thus wicking away noise.

Audience determines signal directionality by testing each cable. Their website states that, as molten metal cools, millions of tiny crystals grow and form grains in the solidifying metal and that these affect signal directionality — the optimal direction of flow through the metal that electrons take in transferring an audio signal. All wire is produced by drawing metal through dies or draw plates. Stretching the wire in one direction elongates the grains in the direction of drawing, thus making the wire’s action as a signal conductor directional. Audience then tests for this directionality and stamps in gold an arrow on each cable’s sheath or sleeve.

After manufacture, Audience burns in wires two ways, the first fairly standard, the second extreme. First, every wire is hooked up to a Dharma Cable Cooker and burned in for a minimum of 60 hours over three or four days. Then, in its Extreme High Voltage Process (EHVP), Audience uses a powerful Tesla Coil — a device that can generate upward of a million volts — to apply high voltages at specific pulse modulations, frequencies, and amplitudes, and all in differing ratios to individual and combined signal conductors in order to create what they claim are “predictable paths” through the metals’ structure of crystalline grain, including connection points and connectors. I haven’t heard of any other wire maker that makes this very interesting claim.

Description and setup

Normally, each set of Audience cables would be sent in its own presentation case and outer box. But as it was still very early in the production of the new frontRow line, most of the review samples came in plastic bags. However, Audience did send a pair of balanced interconnects in the sort of handsome, luggage-sturdy, black-mesh case that will be standard for all frontRow models. The case came inside an equally handsome black cardboard box, along with a “Certificate of Quality Assurance” signed by two Audience technicians. Inside the case was a circular nest of spongy black polyurethane topped with faux velvet to protect the interconnects, which themselves were bagged in plastic and a drawstring cloth sack. All in all, this was luxury packaging that demonstrated meticulous care taken to protect the contents from damage during shipping. The powerChords came in bubble wrap secured with Velcro tie-strips over their weighty terminations. Interconnect and speaker-cable terminations were shielded with blue or white sleeves of plastic mesh.

Thick, black-jacketed, and substantial in weight at just over two pounds, each 6’-long frontRow powerChord looks and feels fantastic — just as you’d expect of a best-in-class power cord. Covered to termination with a silky black mesh, each cable, HP or MP, is thicker than my thumb yet supple, not stiff, bending gracefully and snaking around the back ends of my electronics with no annoying tension or frustrating springiness. John McDonald told me that the connectors used in the frontRow powerChords, though they look like the Furutech FI-50 Nano Crystal Fiber connectors used in the Au24 SX line, are in fact proprietary to Audience. Their housings — just under 1.5” in diameter, with houndstooth-pattern carbon barrels and gleaming silver-colored caps branded with the Audience logo — add serious bling. The pins are rhodium-plated copper, which is cryogenically treated and UHVP. The powerChords I received were two 6’ lengths of MP, one 6’4” length each of MP and HP, and a 6’ for my Audience aR6-TSSOX line conditioner.

The frontRow interconnects have a similar look — in fact, the entire line has a visual family resemblance. Though smaller, the carbon-fiber barrels of the balanced interconnects have the same houndstooth pattern, and the termination casings are the same chromed silver as the connectors on the powerChords. Other touches are the thin rings of ruby red or black that indicate positive or negative at the ends of each connector and the Audience logo etched into the chrome casings. RCA barrels, caps, and cups share the same colors, basic design, and jacketing, except that, for positive/negative, the inner surfaces of the RCA barrels closest to contact are ringed with, respectively, red or black plastic. In a nice touch, three rings are incised around the bottom of each cap, and the Audience logo is screened onto the carbon-fiber case. The RCA pins are hollow to save mass.

Audience sent me two pairs of balanced interconnects, in lengths of 1m and 2m, and a single pair of 1m-long unbalanced interconnects. I used the long balanced wires between my Zanden Audio Systems 8120 amp and Zanden 3100 preamp, the short balanced set between my Esoteric K-05X SACD/CD player and the Zanden pre, and the unbalanced between my Zanden 1200 phono stage and Zanden pre. There was a bit of a tight squeeze inserting the male XLR of one balanced IC into the Zanden amp — it was tough getting it in and a bit tougher getting it out — but I had no trouble with any of the others. McDonald pointed out that this tightness was a production problem that has since been corrected.

Like the Au24 SX models, the conductors of each frontRow speaker cable are joined in a single jacket for most of their run from amp to speaker binding posts, but, some 5” from termination at each end, are split into positive and negative leads. In midnight-black mesh jackets rather than the pewter-jacketed Au24 SXes, the frontRow speaker cables, too, benefit from added bling that visually links them with the other frontRow models. Each speaker cable has a handsome barrel at the end of each termination similar to those on the RCA interconnects — a bullet of houndstooth black carbon with a gleaming metal cap at each end. A bit of red or black tape near each termination and barrel indicates positive or negative. My review samples were 6’ long and terminated in spades (bananas available). The spades are thick, beefy, rhodium-plated jobs (gold plating optional).

Except for the extra minute or two I took to admire their looks and supple feel, all of these wires were easy to install. With the exception of the XLR connectors, all frontRow terminations are solder free. As always, Audience’s warranty is for the life.

Listening

My system had never sounded better than it did with a full loom of Audience frontRows linking everything together. And though I noticed impressive nuances of improvement as the frontRows settled in, burn-in took hardly any time at all. Right from the start I noticed a great fullness of sound, a wonderful breadth and balance in the distribution of frequencies, and explosive impacts. There were great tonal textures, subtle timbral distinctions among instruments. Across all genres of music, the sound was rich, organic, and involving. Overall, I consistently heard liveliness, punch, and sparkle. Silences were “blacker.” With acoustic music, I always got a great sense of air and spaciousness. The frontRows took my system to a higher level.

I spent a lot of time browsing my collection for jazz albums I thought might sound special. One was Ron Carter’s Great Big Band (CD, Sunnyside SSC 1293), a 2011 release from the distinguished double bassist, composer, and veteran of the famed sextet with which Miles Davis recorded Kind of Blue. Carter’s 15-piece band, playing charts by composer Robert M. Freedman, comprises English horn, five saxophones, two trumpets, a flugelhorn, three trombones, piano, drums, and Carter himself on bass. That great big band should produce a great big sound, and I wasn’t disappointed. The album begins with Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington’s classic “Caravan.” In the lovely percolating intro, Lewis Nash’s drums sounded quick and snappy over Carter’s repeated bass figure, while the horn choruses were gorgeous, rich with variegated detail and impactful, the entire section always coming in on time. Jerry Dodgion’s solo on soprano sax was piquant and brisk without being unpleasantly piercing. The whole presentation bustled with all the details of performance and distinctive instrumental characters. In Carter’s “Opus 1.5 (Theme for C.B.),” the notes in his tasteful, articulate solo were distinguishable up and down the range of his bass, with a big-bodied, woody resonance down low. The frontRows revealed a complexity in the sound, which can be murky and opaque through lesser cables; through the Audiences, it reached a level of clarity, punch, and immensity I hadn’t before heard from my system.

The frontRows did at least as well with small jazz combos. I enjoyed the more intimate sound of “Night and Day,” from the Stan Getz Quartet’s At Large: The Complete Sessions (CD, Essential Jazz Classics EJC 5556510). At the fore of the mix was Getz’s swinging tenor sax, of course, sounding full and organic, with that sweet but almost piercing top that was his signature. The rhythm section, too, swung, Jan Johansson’s drums sounding deft, tasteful, and tactile, especially his ride cymbal and snare. But this track is all Getz, who’s smooth and casually inventive here, his characteristic tone like a distinguished Guatemalan rum aged for 18 years. In the midrange notes he holds so lovingly and long, the aural image of his tenor was so strong and stable that I could hear the air moving through its bore and bell. The frontRows threw a big soundstage, too, maybe 6’ deep and stretching at least 3’ past the outer sidewalls of my speakers, and sometimes even farther, beyond my room’s sidewalls.

As good as the frontRows were with big bands, they were equally impressive with symphonic music, reproducing the sounds of full orchestras with good scale, refined and distinguishable instrumental textures, and enough dynamic range to produce a convincing illusion of the dramatic outbursts and diminuendos of a live performance. I was blown away by the first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, of Dvorák’s Violin Concerto, performed by soloist Rachel Barton Pine accompanied by Teddy Abrams conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (CD, Avie 2411). Following a thunderous orchestral opening, the solo violin enters immediately. In Barton Pine’s lyrical playing, her instrument executing mordents with great tone, especially in pianissimo passages, the frontRows reproducing this delicate effect down to its most exquisitely minute details, which indicates a very low noise floor. Orchestral strings sounded forward in their passages, double basses providing a strong undercurrent, and woodwinds were bright and sprightly as they emerged from the soothing welter of instruments. Unfailingly, the main tune was beautifully rendered against the lovely, restrained orchestral background. In rapid runs of double stops in solo passages, Barton Pine’s violin threw off complex harmonics even on the highest notes. There were lavish textures to the midrange sound, with timbral contrasts even in the most rapid passages. Through the frontRows, her violin was truly like a singing voice.

Speaking of singers, I had a great time listening to one of the finest sopranos of the mid-20th century, as collected on The Very Best of Victoria de los Angeles (CD, EMI Classics 5 75888 2). In that great aria from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, “Un bel di vedremo,” her high notes were pure and clean, with an organic liveliness and air around the singer’s aural image. Her highest notes, which might have sounded piercing and edgy, were unfailingly dramatic and thrilling. And her pianissimi were tenderly affecting and emotive. “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì,” from Puccini’s La bohème, was full of the dynamic subtleties of de los Angeles’s singing, the sound capturing every shade of dramatic nuance and gradation of tone without grain or etch. “Una voce poco fa,” from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, came through as light and airy to start, then powerful in the forte passages, followed by swift, nimble changes of pitch, pace, time signature, and volume. With the frontRows, my system was able to capture both de los Angeles’s stylistic delicacy and her sublime vocal power.

I turned to vinyl. Solo-piano music sounded fabulous. I played Vol.2 of Ivan Moravec’s collection of Chopin’s Nocturnes (LP, Connoisseur Society CS 1165). The sound of his piano was sensuous, expansive, and solemn in the Nocturne in C Minor, Op.48 No.1. Rich harmonic resonances rose into the air surrounding my speakers, Moravec’s piano sounding wondrously reverberant, the sustaining notes emanating from the large image of the piano between the speakers. Gentle pianissimo trills contrasted with rumbling left-hand chords that built crisply and authoritatively in a brief, dramatic crescendo. As with Stan Getz on CD, the soundstage was deep and tall, its breadth extending about a yard beyond each of my speakers’ outer side panels. In forte passages, there was serious punch and grand weight to Moravec’s chords. And, in those transitions from high pianissimo trills to grumbling left-hand crescendos, there were sweet contrasts of timbre. Overall, the feeling of sublime peace I enjoyed with this recording was undisturbed by any shortcomings of reproduction.

For something completely different, I spun Zula, a fresh release of club music from the Barcelona trio Nu Epoque (Leo Music Design Studio, 2017) picked up in Italy last fall. It features Angolan singer Monica Mussungo, backed by beatmaker-singer Simonal Bie and keyboardist Leonardo Cincinelli. Just about every track is an electronic world of synth beats, staccato acoustic and mesmeric electric piano, disembodied yet chthonic voiceovers, and beguiling lead vocals with or without such electronic processing as echoplex, synthetic doubling, or squashy compression. Once in a while there are swoops from an electric organ, a thick and vibrating synth-bass line, low-register modal buzzes, drum punches, and scuffling, street-style snare or oilcan drumming from a synthetic beat machine. “Ginga” boasts Mussungo’s voice at its least processed, as she sings in Portuguese — she’s slinky and plaintive, Sade-like in rhythmic style but more agile and less breathy, her voice rich and pure in tone. But everything else on this track was re-created as an electronic soundscape in my room — what sounded like a pre-recorded drumkit played back through a computer, a chorus of electronically produced echoes of Mussungo’s voice shimmering like a waterfall, and heavy synth bass rumbling and droning like an electric dragon purring in the space between my speakers. The soundstage extended through my sidewalls and seemingly above the ceiling — I expected a rotating mirror ball to descend before me, imploring me to snort a line and dance the whole night through. It was as if I’d been woven into a tapestry of cool, clubby electronic sounds.

Comparison

Individually, the Audience frontRow cables don’t seem to cost that much more than the Au24 SX models. The Au24 SX powerChords, in the same lengths, cost about $1600 less than their frontRow counterparts (Au24 SX MP powerChord, $4621/6’; Au24 SX HP powerChord, $5060/6’; Au24 SX HP powerChord for Audience aR6 line conditioner, $4660/6’). Au24 SX balanced interconnects cost about $1200 less per meter ($3800/m), and the Au24 SX unbalanced interconnects about $1400 less ($1999/m). The Au24 SX speaker cables cost about $1600 less ($3142/6’). The difference in cost between full looms of each for my system amounted to about $20,000 more for the frontRows — enough to buy a compact car.

The difference in sound quality was commensurate. I’d considered the Au24 SX-loomed version of my system to be about as perfect as electrical engineering and design could make it, but after playing many of the same recordings through the frontRow loom, I had to change my mind. With the Au24 SXes, the sound was thinner, less punchy, sometimes a bit drained of color in comparison. Nor was the difference a question of nuances — where the frontRows sounded clear and unconstrained, with rich colors, the Au24 SXes could be just a touch strident, a bit grayed out, and more subdued in dynamic passages.

In the Dvorák Violin Concerto, though the tone and dynamic range of Barton Pine’s violin was quite similar through both looms, the orchestral introduction sounded nowhere near as thunderous through the Au24 SXes, nor were other orchestral passages reproduced with quite the depth and scale as through the frontRows. Tutti were comparatively grayed out through the Au24 SXes, and there wasn’t as much presence, touch, or slam. The exquisite delicacy of Barton Pine’s pianissimi was harder to hear — the noise floor had risen, to cast a soft scrim over the quietest passages. With the Stan Getz CD I could hear sibilance in cymbal strokes where before there had been only sparkle and clarity, and though Getz’s tenor sax sounded airier and more pleasantly piercing, its sound had much less tonal density, lacking in the rich bounty of harmonics I’d heard with the frontRows. With the Au24 SXes, the senses of rhythm, pace, and swing were all fine, but Getz’s horn sounded sharper at the top end, and I felt that, overall, the tonal balance was tipped up slightly and not as mellow. And Getz’s lighter touches, so exquisite through the frontRows, were lost through the Au24 SXes.

With Chopin’s Nocturnes on vinyl, I felt the system’s overall sound was much the same, but just missed conveying the full reverberance of Moravec’s piano — his sustains were simply not as long. Yet the power of his emphatic chording was mostly there, as were the delicacy of his trills — there was the same treble extension — and the clear highs and rich harmonics. The sounds of the two Audience looms were also very close with Nu Epoque’s mesmeric club music.

But the Au24 SXes were no match for the frontRows with operatic singing. Victoria de los Angeles’s voice was a touch more opaque and scratchy through the Au24 SXes, which seemed to emphasize the leading edges of her attacks. There was no air around her voice, and her pianissimi were more faint than delicate. I missed the frontRows’ clarity. De los Angeles’s high notes, bravura and thrilling through the frontRows, sounded mainly edgy through the Au24 SXes, more grating than dramatic. Granted, these recordings are half a century old and more, but even the orchestra behind her sounded a little washy through the Au24 SXes, the shadings of her voice drier and glarier in the highs. It wasn’t close.

Conclusion

You may not put much truck in Audience’s explanations of all the technology they put into their frontRow models, or be impressed by the extreme pains they take in manufacturing them — but if you want to get the most out of your expensive high-end system, you owe it to yourself to listen to what these wires can do. I was knocked out by how much better Audience’s frontRow cables were than their Au24 SX line — a line I’d previously thought relayed all of what my electronics could send through my reference Von Schweikert Audio VR-44 Aktive speakers.

Maybe electrons don’t care what kind of wires they’re in, but I sure heard a big difference once those mysterious little jolts of electricity made their journey through the frontRows to make gorgeous music come through my speakers. Compared to the Au24 SX loom, it was a difference so big that I was astonished.

The frontRows made everything I listened to gain gleam and glory. They’re the best cables I have ever used in my system. And I just figured out how to afford them all — they’re mine.