Review: Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Effect Audio’s cables are amongst the most popular on a global scale. Their bespoke service offers their regular line-up in eight wire form. Today we look at the bespoke Eros II.

Disclaimer: The Eros II 8-wire was provided free of charge by Effect Audio for this review. Effect Audio is a site advertiser. Many thanks for the generosity and opportunity.

About Effect Audio:

Effect Audio is a boutique aftermarket cable company seated in Singapore. They have been around for nine years already, and can be seen as the leading manufacturers for audiophile aftermarket cables. Suyang Zou, the owner and founder of Effect Audio, is a trained electronics and electrical engineer. With his knowledge about the matter he was able to understand how he could make his cables sound great and different. At an early stage of Effect Audio, Crystal Cables recognized Suyang‘s great work and that later led to Effect Audio offering the now well-known CC Piccolino cable.
The first real big hit however, was their Leonidas, which put Effect Audio on the global map. Sadly Leonidas has recently been discontinued. Let’s hope EA has something up their sleeves for this iconic cable.

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Recently Effect Audio has shown us also, that they do look further than just working with the standard materials everyone else uses, by coming up with the world‘s first Palladium plated cable – the Janus D and Janus B.

Effect Audio is a company that goes into collaborations with many other industry leaders. They have worked together with brands like Empire Ears, Vision Ears, Jomo, Oyaide and many more to bring something fresh and ground-breaking to the market.

EA is very well regarded among the community for their impeccable price to performance ratio and outstanding customer support. We even see more and more brands using their cables as stock for their great sound qualities.

In their repertoire of products, you can find different lines of cables. There is the Premium (standard and plus), the Heritage and the Hall of Fame lines. Apart from their regular offerings, Effect Audio also gives their customers the option to have truly bespoke cables made according to their wishes. Every bespoke cable from Effect Audio is hand-made by Suyang himself.

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

About the bespoke Eros II:

Just like the regular Eros II, the bespoke version consists of UPOCC copper and silver wires. However, with double the wire count. Eight wires in total, four per side, transmit the signal from your source to your monitors.

The cable features 26 AWG sized Litz wires with a multi-size stranded design within a single encapsulation. Effect Audio’s proprietary flexible insulation for superior comfort and feel. It also features EA’s new headphone plugs. In contrast to the regular four-wired cables, it does not have a newly designed Y-split.
When you decide to order a bespoke cable from Effect Audio you have a multitude of different choices of terminations. You can get different headphone plugs (3.5mm, 2.5mm, 4.4mm) in many versions (gold plated, Rhodium plated, PSquared).

Of course you can also select terminations for different types of monitors/earphones. You can pick between 2-pin (recessed and flush), MMCX (regular and Sony), FitEar (straight and right angled), JH Audio 4-pin (with and without bass port), UE Pro and ATH. Effect Audio has you all your needs covered. On top, if you’re after an adapter, you can order those too!

The base price of one bespoke Eros II comes to 600$. Build time for one set is around two weeks.

My cable has 2-pin connectors and a PSquared 2.5mm balanced plug.

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Package:

Effect Audio puts a lot of thought into the customer experience, a part of that is also the packaging. While the standard Eros II comes in a simple white box, the bespoke cable comes in a bigger matte black housing.

Under the top sleeve is a hidden velvet door which brings you to your new toy, all wrapped up in a round cut-out space. At the back of the sleeve you will find a little information about the bespoke service and how to treat your new Eros II right.

Build Quality and Ergonomics:

I’m a long-time fan of Effect Audio’s build quality. The flexibility of their cables is impeccable and the same can be said about their craftsmanship. The braiding is very well done, with excellent symmetry.

The new plugs EA has introduced also bring one important improvement. Previously their logo has been printed on the housing, while now it is etched into it. This makes it more durable and resistant to getting rubbed off. The cap of the new plug can also be easier screwed off. Aesthetically speaking they also appeal even more to me, although I am not a fan of the bigger carbon fibre part of it now.

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

Effect Audio Bespoke Eros II

When we go over the construction of the cable, we will see that Effect Audio again used the plus-sized Y-split. I have been told that they are also working on a redesigned Y-split for the eight wire cables. Until this is released we are left with a rather big and bulky split that adds quite some weight to the cables. I hope the new ones are lighter, because this one does pull down the cable noticeably.

After the Y-split the round braid has been changed to a woven one. Again, we see a consistent and great braiding until the wires reach the pre-formed ear-hook. Then the braid changes back to round for enhanced comfort.

The metal 2-pin connectors show the logo on the outside and give Left/Right indication on the inside. When you connect the cables to your monitors, make sure the logo faces outwards. Otherwise you’ll be left with phase issues.

Ergonomics and comfort are limited by the nature of the cable itself. Keep in mind, it is an eight-wire cable, that alone already has some weight, and the the Y-split adds some more to it. Personally, I prefer the lighter and slimmer four wire cables for commuting. At work, I don’t care about the weight. Here it’s audio first.

The review continues on the next page!

4.4/5 - (43 votes)
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A daytime code monkey with a passion for audio and his kids, Linus tends to look at gear with a technical approach, trying to understand why certain things sound the way they do. When there is no music around, Linus goes the extra mile and annoys the hell out of his colleagues with low level beatboxing.

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