Q ‘n A Saturday: Effect Audio

HFN: What is important for cables to sound good?
EC: My opinion on what’s really important for cable to be good sounding is the design considerations behind it. Geometry design and structural considerations is by far the most volatile yet the most crucial factor leading to a cable’s capability. Technical performance is definitely one of the key considerations as we have long past the age where anybody can get away with a cable performing sub-par at a certain frequency range and accentuates the other. All Effect Audio products are expected to at least be able to cater to a wide spectrum while bring a certain character to every one of our offering.

“Sounding Good” is very subjective, it is dependent users and audio chain pairings and synergy. We leave that to the users and reviewers to tell us what’s good with certain IEMs and what isn’t.

HFN: You use gold in some of your cables, like Leonidas or Horus, gold is not a very good conductor, could you tell us what it brings to audio in cables?
EC: Indeed, we do employ gold plating in some of our offerings and while it’s true that scientifically/theoretically speaking, conductivity is reduced; There is a certain sound characteristics and resolution that is brought into the chain when employing gold plating in varying amounts. Gold Plated Silver usually offers a warm tinge without sacrificing the resolution and often these gold plating has tremendous effects on the sound scape, imaging and transparency. I personally find that Gold brought in a certain dynamics and viscosity to the sound character that isn’t substitutable by any other materials we have available. I wish I could explain this in a more scientific way but I simply couldn’t; As the old audiophile saying goes: “Hearing is believing”.

HFN: What are the big differences between Horus and your other high end cables, like Leonidas and Mars?
EC: I suppose that’s a burning question that’s in the community lately. Thank you for providing me a very apt platform to answer that!

“Horus” deviates from our previous offerings and is in a class of its own largely due to the technology and design implementations that goes within the cable. With a brand new multi-sized geometry structure, we manage to tremendously increase stranding counts and employ varying diameters of the same cable material allowing varying conducive speed & resistance allowing a total coverage of frequency which greatly improves the resolution and dynamics of “Horus”. A major challenge was to have this varying speeds of transmission gel and not be out of phase. We’ve also added a newly developed tech upgrade to the “Horus”- EA Ferrite Guard, which blocks off interference and disruptions, which improves resolution through the filtration of the interferences and increasing foreground darkness. We will be releasing more information on that shortly. Initial impressions from everybody who heard is has been nothing short of breath-taking!

HFN: You are working with many iem brands already, who else would you like to be connected with?
EC: It’s true that we have forge many strong connections with not only the IEM brands but many Head-Fi gears manufacturers in the business front and also on a personal level. It’s a blessing to be able to learn and be involved with the very best people in the industry. At this juncture, we would love to connect with as many like-minded brand principals as we could and foster the growth of this industry.

A shout out to our mates! – Jack&Dean (EmpireEars), Amin&Marcel (VisionEars), Andy(JHAudio), Mike&Jenine (UltimateEars), Tomo&Masa (Sony), Joseph(JomoAudio), Cesar&Sandra (CTM), Piotr (CustomArt), Emil (LimeEars), Sam&Ashley (Echobox), Ricardo&Fang (Hifiman)

Interactions with these guys have been very informative and definitely what makes our work in this industry enjoyable.

HFN: Can you tell us a little bit about the PSquared plug?
EC: PSquared plugs employs the plating of 2 noble metals – Palladium & Platinum both which is in the same noble metals group as Rhodium but complements each other. Palladium & Platinum plating is commonly used in high-end premium HiFi setup and has yet to be explored within the Head-Fi community. We collaborated with Oyaide to bring the PSquared plug to the Head-Fi masses and thus far, response have been very well received.

HFN: What are the benefits of your PSquared plug?
EC: PSquared brought in a very rich and dynamic tone while enhancing the highs to be crispier and snappier. Reviewers have stated that the sound stage has enhanced greatly wherein a 3.5mm PSquared performs effortlessly well as though it is on a 2.5mm balanced configuration through the Astell & Kern players. One key noticeable difference is that PSquared plugs helped define the dimensions in which the music reproduction usually plays at. One could “See” (hear) better the placement of instruments and performers in a decently mastered source.

HFN: How do you evaluate your own products?
EC: Using very conventional yet effective method – Listening. All Effect Audio products have to pass through several rounds of critical listening and judgement prior it hits the market. The first round would have to be pass an unanimous vote from the core Effect Audio team. Should any of us veto a specific design, the product would fall and we would have to restart from scratch again. Thereafter trusted reviewers, close friends in the industry and distributors get a go at the prototype product and we go through a discussion to analyse the myriad of opinions and factors at play to evaluate how we can further improve the products. At the final stage, we often bring these prototypes to shows and have actual community members and users provide us feedbacks. Many users would remember Canjam NYC where “Lionheart” is disguised & tested and Canjam London where a gold shimmering cable makes it’s mysterious appearance (Horus).

Therefore, in a sense, our products evaluation is pretty much outsourced wherein consumers and partners worldwide have a decisive impact on how our product lines develop.

HFN: What is your favourite part of designing audio cables?
EC: There are a myriad of processes to designing of a cable. I’m involved in the feedback loops as well as the immediate market response to our products as well as the trending aspects of sound characteristics that is ongoing in the market. Design work is mainly undertaken by a team lead by Suyang.

HFN: Digital cables – do they work?
EC: No doubt there are some defining moments for digital cables and the companies who does them. However, the craft & design considerations behind digital cables is entirely different from analogue cables. We’re learnt that you cannot simply replicate what we have in our analogue cables, transfer them over to digital cables and expect them to have the same outstanding features. At this juncture, Effect Audio’s scale of operation is limited and until we’re able to dedicate a team to specially develop and study the digital segment of cables, we would like to focus at what we do good at and continue refining our craft at being the best in IEM cables.

HFN: What was the weirdest request a customer came to you with?
EA: 6 meters 16wired cable. Imagine the braiding hell.

HFN: What is your favourite DAP, earphone and headphone?
EC: My personal favourite would have to be these lot – (Sony WM1Z / Vision Ears VE8 / Audeze LCD2). As you can probably tell. I like a warmer tone and more dynamic signature.

Thank you very much Eric for being part of our Q ‘n A Saturday series! We wish you the best of luck for your future and are looking forward to more reviews of your exceptional cables!