Celebrating the Magic of Copperfield 🙂
The product was provided to me free of charge for review purposes in exchange for my honest opinion. This is a first look, brief impressions of the cable, which I also shared on Head-Fi.
Manufacturer website: Effect Audio. Available for sale directly or from authorized retailers, like Bloom Audio.
As I mentioned in my CanJam NYC ’26 report, the highlight of the EA booth was the Ares 10 cable, marking the 10th anniversary of their Ares copper cable with an updated design. First of all, a new 10-wire design to celebrate the 10th anniversary is very clever! But if you think it was just a marketing gimmick, to add 2 extra wires to their Ares S II, it would be a wrong assumption. There are quite a few changes that would surprise even cable disbelievers when comparing Ares S II vs Ares 10 in a blind test, as the differences in sound are noticeable. I took quick listening notes during the show, reflected in my CanJam report, but didn’t get a chance to compare these two until I got home.
From a design perspective, there is a new three-layer construction, and with more wires, you reduce impedance and increase the overall signal’s conductivity (i.e., higher current flow). Again, no fairy dust here; this is EE101, a basic electrical theory. Now, in addition to the Pure Copper conductors used in the original Ares series, EA has added a new Gold-Copper alloy. I guess, since we are still talking about copper, it’s OK to stick with Ares name instead of changing it to something else. But once you start listening to your IEMs with this cable, and I’m emphasizing listening and noting how this cable affects the original tuning, the sound change is VERY noticeable.
Often, copper wires are associated with the weight and the impact of the bass, balanced out by the treble crunch. Not all the copper cables follow these sound characteristics, but many do, which in some cases makes them less suitable for brighter-tuned IEMs. On the other hand, silver wires often add warmth and smoothness to the sound. So, imagine my surprise when I hit play with Ares 10, using my reference Jewel IEMs, and heard a fuller-bodied, more musical, textured tonality in the mids, with a smoother, more relaxed treble compared to Ares S II. With Ares S II, the bass is a little softer; the mids are less colored, more neutral in the lower mids, and more revealing in the upper mids; and the treble is brighter. Ares 10 maintains the same bass weight, a textured rumble, and the same level of controlled impact. Then, it injects the sound with fuller-body warmth, while maintaining the same level of resolution.
Honestly, I didn’t expect this tonality from a mix of a Pure Copper and Gold-Copper alloy. Another thing I didn’t expect was that the 10-wire Ares 10 would be as thick as the 8-wire Ares S II. Side by side, they both have tight braiding, but somehow the 10-wire braiding is even neater, and it feels as flexible and thick as the 8-wire. The hardware design was also updated. It follows the Signature Series II Y-split design but uses Ice Crystal Titanium with a mirror-polished surface and a crystal insert. EA guys told me it was a nod to the original Ares cable design hardware. Yeah, it will be more of a fingerprint magnet, but it still looks cool.
Color me, in this case, pun intended, impressed. I even put it against my PWA FT, and while that one has a similar bass and treble response and tonality, Ares 10 is still warmer and smoother in mids, while remaining quite resolving. This is the part I enjoyed the most: adding warmth and body without compromising resolution. At the end of the day, it’s all about pair-up synergy, and which way you want the original sound of your IEMs to be fine-tuned. Here, I found Ares 10 to have a unique combination of Copper-like performance in bass weight/impact and sound resolution, with a Silver-like performance for fuller-bodied mids and relaxed treble.
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