Sound Analysis w/Comparison.

Here is how I hear Artistry Series cables where for the testing I used Jewel and SP4000 as a neutral natural source/target while playing the selection of my usual test tracks, such as Agnes Obel’s “The Curse”, Sandro Cavazza’s “So much Better” (Avicii remix), C-Bool’s “Never Go away”, Ed Sheeran “Shape of you”, Counting Crows “Big yellow taxi”, Galantis “Hunter”, Alan Walker “Darkside”, Iggy Azalea “Black widow”, Indila “Boite en argent”, Robin Schultz “Oh child”, Dua Lipa “Love Again”, David Elias “Vision of her”, Michael Jackson “Dirty Diana”, and SaberZ “Without your love”.  Out of habit, I left these cables soaking during burn-in with random IEMs, playing them in a loop for over 100 hours as recommended by the manufacturer.

Please understand that I’m not referring to the bass, mids, treble, or the soundstage expansion of the cable since wires by themselves don’t have the “sound”.  Instead, I’m conducting the sound analysis by pairing the cable and describing how I perceive the sound changes of a particular IEM under test as I switch between its stock cable and a few other cables.  Also, to put things into better perspective, I’m using a few other Eletech cables and EA Signature Series II cables for comparison.

Modello

I hear enhanced IEMs tuning with clean, tight bass definition, more low-end weight, and a nice, textured rumble; smooth, neutral, textured mids that are resolving without exaggerated coloring; more resolving upper frequencies; and added air in the treble.  It creates a fast, energetic sound and further expands the soundstage in depth and height.  Unlike typical copper cable performance, which emphasizes elevated bass and revealing treble, here the mid-range definition is also improved with natural resolution. In contrast, the treble enhancement is not exaggerated or overly energetic.

vs Eletech Azrael – In a comparison between Modello and Azrael, I hear Modello offering more rumble, a stronger mid-bass punch, and a slightly more textured body in the mids.  In comparison, Azrael makes Jewel’s bass and mids sound more neutral and less dynamic.  I also have to admit, from an aesthetic perspective, Azrael looks more like an entry-level copper cable, while Modello has a more premium look.  I know Azrael is more expensive than Modello, but to be very honest, Modello felt more like an upgrade here.

vs Eletech Aristotle – Here, I’m comparing Modello to its big, and more expensive, brother and one of its design inspirations: the Eletech mid-fi-level Aristotle cable.  Aristotle does have greater transparency in mids, with higher detail retrieval and improved sound resolution.  Aristotle also stretches the soundstage width a bit more L/R.  The preference between these cables will depend purely on the pairing with IEMs and their corresponding baseline sound signature.  For example, if you have warmer-tuned IEMs and want to extract more detail from them, Aristotle will be a better fit, whereas with more neutral or revealing IEMs, Aristotle can make the sound too revealing, and Modello would be a better cable option.  From the perspective of using Jewel IEMs, I preferred the Modello over the Azrael.  But when comparing Modello and Aristotle, I was leaning more toward Aristotle.

vs EA Ares S II – the biggest difference in this comparison is that Modello has a fuller body and more balanced, textured mids relative to Ares, which has more neutral mids with a slightly pulled-back presentation and a bit more sparkle in the treble.  The difference in mid-tonality is probably the only thing that stands out to me here.  Also, Ares S has a more traditional, entry-level copper cable look, similar to Azrael, while Modello has a more premium look, similar to Aristotle.

Cartone

I hear a more balanced tuning, with more emphasis on upper mids and vocals, adding warmer sub-bass extension, softer mid-bass punch, and a wider, deeper soundstage.  This cable brings higher definition to upper mids and adds more revealing, delicate, airy sparkle to treble.  Also, unlike typical bright-tonality SPC cables, this one enhances the definition of upper frequencies without making them too revealing or crunchy. It’s a great cable for enhancing the presentation and resolution of vocals and instruments.

vs Eletech Cassiel – not available for testing at the current moment, since I realized I loaned it to someone else a few years ago.

vs EA Cadmus II – Unlike the comparison with Ares, where Eletech’s copper cable added more texture and smoothness to the mids, in this comparison of their SPC cables, Cadmus adds more coloring to the mids, with noticeable warmth, thickness, and texture.  This changed the perception of treble w/Cadmus to be smoother, with a less open soundstage than w/Cartone, and more resolving and revealing upper frequencies.  And again, Cadmus has a more traditional, entry-level SPC cable look, similar to Cassiel, while Cartone has a more premium look, like a younger sibling of Eletech’s Euclid.

Fresco

This cable surprised me a lot, with impressive low-end enhancements, especially elevating the weight of sub-bass texture; also improving detail retrieval and layering in the mids, enhancing treble resolution with more revealing definition, and expanding the soundstage to a noticeably more holographic level.  This cable reminded me of some of the palladium-wire cables that dial up the technical performance of IEMs with higher resolution, improved layering, and a more immersive, holographic soundstage.

vs EA Eros S II – Eros has warmer mids, with a bit thicker tonality, less air between the layers of the sound, smoother up top, and slightly narrower soundstage width.  Fresco is much more resolving, with greater transparency in the mids and technical improvements in layering and soundstage expansion.

vs EA AxC II – Ares x Cadmus II hybrid offers greater transparency and better detail retrieval than Eros S II, bringing it closer to the tonality of Fresco. However, it still can’t match its technical performance in terms of enhanced layering and separation of the sounds, and more holographic soundstage expansion, where Fresco has an edge over AxC II.

Pair-ups.

In the sound analysis and comparison section above, I focused on the individual sound characteristics of each cable and their comparison relative to a specific pair of IEMs (Jewel). Here, I conducted a pair-up comparison test across various IEMs.  As I always try to emphasize, the sound changes introduced by a cable are not universal, so I selected a handful of IEMs with different sound signatures to hear how these Artistry Series cables affect their tuning and to compare them with stock cables.

Forte Ears Violetta, with stock Eletech dual-type OCC copper Litz cable.

• w/Modello – V’s soundstage extended more in depth; also, I hear less texture in mids.
• w/Cartone – V’s soundstage got more center-focused, the sub-bass rumble sounds more physical and deeper, and mids have more body.
• w/Fresco – while V’s tuning remains very similar, the technical performance scales up with a noticeably more holographic soundstage expansion, improved layering and separation of the sounds, still natural, but with higher precision in detail retrieval.

Warmer tuning of Violetta benefits more from the Fresco cable, which I found to be my favorite here.

Quill Audio Karma, with stock OCC copper cable.

• w/Modello – Karma’s soundstage extended more in depth, the rumble of sub-bass was elevated, the mids became a bit smoother, and were slightly pulled back.
• w/Cartone – Karma’s soundstage expanded, with more L/R separation; mid presentation has more focus and improved resolution.
• w/Fresco – Karma’s soundstage expanded even wider than w/Cartone, and similarly, its mids are slightly more forward with improved resolution.  The only thing here is that the sub-bass rumble got boosted as well.

While both Cartone and Fresco work well with Karma, I preferred Cartone’s tuning since Karma already has enhanced bass rumble, and Fresco added a bit too much low-end weight.

UM Maven III with stock PWA Copper cable.

• w/Modello – the soundstage expansion remains big, mids gain more body and texture, bass has more rumble, treble retains its crunch with higher sound definition.
• w/Cartone – the soundstage expansion remains big, mids gain more body and texture, bass is more neutral, and treble retains its crunch with higher sound definition.
• w/Fresco – the soundstage expansion remains expansive, the bass is more neutral, the mids are natural and resolving, but the treble is a bit too energetic.

With Maven III, Fresco pushed the treble beyond my comfort threshold, and Cartone made the bass more neutral, losing some of its low-end power.  Modello was the preferred cable here, enhancing the bass with more rumble and giving the mids a more natural texture, which also made the treble feel a bit more natural.

64 Audio U12t w/stock copper cable.

• w/Modello – wider soundstage, very tastefully elevated sub-bass rumble weight, improved upper-mid resolution, while treble remained the same.
• w/Cartone – very similar sound and technical enhancement as with Modello, but with Cartone the bass remained closer to neutral without sub-bass enhancement.
• w/Fresco – the soundstage expanded in all 3 directions, creating a more holographic positioning of sounds; bass remained very similar to a stock cable, being more neutral in tuning, while the presentation of mids moved more forward, with improved definition, with enhanced natural retrieval of details, and even improved layering and separation of the sound.  This change also improved the perception of the treble, being less intense and still very clear, resolving, and more natural.

Testing these cables with U12t was a surprise since I didn’t know what to expect every time I hit play.  Once I switched to Fresco after testing these IEMs with Modello and Cartone, it was clear as day to me – this was it!

Conclusion.

If Eletech refers to their Virtues Series as budget, then what does that make Artistry Series, ultra-budget?  Of course, it’s all relative to what we consider budget. As I often say, flagship cables have their own audience who buy them regardless of price, without minding diminishing returns, choosing a cable with the best pairing synergy and color match for their flagship multi-kilobuck IEMs.  Those on a tighter budget often turn to places like AliExpress, where they might find something that looks pretty but ends up being deceiving with cheap wire material, poor-quality hardware, and connectors and plugs with tolerance issues.  I heard plenty of nightmare stories from my readers who wasted their money.  With the newly introduced Artistry Series, the price tag might suggest a budget cable, but when you see and feel them in person, there is absolutely nothing budget about it. As a matter of fact, its design inspiration came straight from their higher-end School of Athens series.  And in general, it seems that the only corners they cut were in the simplified packaging.

But it’s not only about the pretty looks and quality build.  Each of these cables offers unique characteristics that shape the sound by fine-tuning your IEMs.  With Modello, the bass remains clean and tight, and you get a pleasant boost in textured rumble, smooth, textured mids without any exaggerated coloring, and airier, resolving treble, with an overall expanded soundstage depth/height.  With Cartone, the tuning remains balanced, adding warmer sub-bass extension without actually lifting it, enhancing the emphasis on upper mids by bringing them more forward without making them too revealing, and adding more airy sparkle to the treble.  The one that surprised me the most was Fresco, elevating the weight and texture of sub-bass, enhancing detail retrieval, layering, and separation of sounds in the mids, giving the treble a more revealing definition, and expanding the soundstage to a noticeably more holographic level.  While Modello and Cartone had their own unique sound characteristics, Fresco’s performance even reminded me of some kilobuck-level palladium-wire cables.

However, as I often end up preaching in the Conclusion of my cable reviews, everything depends on the pair-up synergy between the source, the cable, and your IEMs, and the essence of the cable lies in fine-tuning the baseline signature of your IEMs. Ultimately, it’s not always about finding the best overall cable, but rather the best cable for your IEMs, regardless of the cable’s price.  There is no magic “EQ” silver bullet or fairy dust behind the cable.  If you’re not satisfied with the sound of your IEMs, consider getting a pair of monitors with a different sound signature.  However, if you are on a limited budget, Eletech’s Artistry Series offers something unique in tuning compared to other budget and even mid-fi cables.  I would even go so far as to say that, for some, it is probably worth getting all three together, which will still cost less than some other mid-fi cable by itself and give you more fine-tuning options for your IEMs without breaking the bank.  At the same time, Artistry Series could also become your gateway to scratch the itch of curiosity in trying other Eletech cables with more exotic wire materials, especially if you plan to attend the next CanJam show!