Absolute Sound 2014 Awards for Audience Cables, PowerChords, Conditioners, Loudspeakers

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Au24 SE Phono Cable
$1245/1m pr.
The Audience phono cable, in a crowded field of contenders, soars above many of them with its alacrity and transparency. Extremely flexible and lightweight, the phono cable is simplicity itself to use. Coupled with its jackrabbit speed is a naturalness of timbre that makes for refined and seductive listening. It also seems to filter out external noise effectively. JH, 230

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Audience The ONE
$995
The ONE, as you might infer from its name, is a single full-range driver shoehorned into a small box. The driver itself is the same unit, the A3S, that Audience uses in its flagship $72,000 16+16 speaker. According to Audience, the A3S has exceptionally flat response, claimed to be +/-3db from 40Hz to 22kHz. Be that as it may, properly set up The ONE is the best desktop speaker reviewer Steven Stone has heard. SS, 236

 

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Audience Au24 SE powerChord 
$2420/6 ft.
A power cord that touches all the right bases and then some. To be expected are its neutrality, low noise floor and almost intuitive sense of recorded space and ambience. Beyond that is a stronger micro aspect that hones in on images with incisive focus and seemingly effortless flow and immediacy. Last but not least, the Au24 powerChord is one of the more flexible premium cords available, very handy for angled runs. NG, 219

 

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Power Conditioners
Audience aR2p/aR12/aR6-TSS/aR12-TS
$695/$4995/$6000/$8995
The aR2p, Audience’s compact, dual-outlet power conditioner and isolation device is based on the massive twelve-outlet versions of which Audience is rightly proud. Its enhancement of soundstaging, dimensionality, and depth can be profound. Further up the Audience food chain are the twelve-outlet heavy-hitters. The aR-12p delivers significant improvements in bass definition and depth, overall resolution, and soundstage depth. If six outlets are sufficient, the aR6-TSS with the new “S” filter takes the performance to another level. Across the entire line the build-quality is nothing short of exemplary. AR2p also available in Teflon-cap version for $1600. Reviewed in Issues 162, 179, 186, 236

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Posted in Announcements, Au24 SE Cables, Awards, Cables, Conditioners, Featured, Loudspeakers, PowerChord, Reviews, The ONE.