General Asylum: REVIEW: Purist Audio Design Elementa Advance Speaker Cable Cable by AnalogJ

Model:	Elementa Advance Speaker Cable
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$1060/1m length
Description:	Mid-Level Biwire Speaker Cable from Designer Jim Aud
Manufacturer URL:	Purist Audio Design
Model Picture:	View

Review by AnalogJ on November 03, 2007 at 14:24:27
IP Address: 75.67.131.10 Add Your Review
for the Elementa Advance Speaker Cable

I have been searching for a value conscious, high-end speaker cable to potentially replace my Audioquest Type 4+. My speakers are Castle Edens, a monitor-sized speaker which requires bi-wiring in order to sound their best.

I need a 4.5 meter length, so my budget is certainly getting stretched, and there's no way around this given my listening room. I have gone through several different speaker cables through The Cable Company's auditioning library, the latest being the Purist Audio Design Elementa Advance, a relatively new model for them. I mention "value-conscious" above. I was hoping to stay under $1000, but have discovered that there are too many compromises for my musically aware ears. Either there is too much compression, too much grain, too little in the way of subtle musical cue delivery, or the tonality is not to my liking (this latter quality can happen in very expensive cables, of course.).

If I were just a rock and roller, or a just a jazz cat, or just a folkie, I could probably be happy with a sub-$1000 speaker cable. Classical music, particularly orchestral music, really puts the speaker cable's ability to do EVERYTHING to the test and it's here where the sub-$1000 cables falter in too many ways.

Even speaker cables which will cost me in the $1500 range offer some compromises, but I find that the areas where the cables in this price range succeed do so quite wonderfully. For example, the Cardas Neutral Reference speaker cables are remarkably liquid and present a beautifully deep and layered soundstage, dynamics are quite liquid, rendering a much too lax and limp musical offering.

Thus far, the Purist Audio Design Elementa Advance have presented themselves in my system as the best alternative, yet there are a couple of areas where they falter which are likely going to eliminate them from consideration. Overall, they really play music. These will be an extremely attractive choice for some.

First the plusses:

This cable's midrange is very liquid and full. It is also very expressive. The expression of a singer or instrumentalist's melodic line are conveyed in spades! Micro-dynamics of this cable are extraordinary and the macro-dynamics are quite good. Putting these into my system after the Cardas was quite astonishing in terms of how musical and dynamic this cable is. Balance is very good from the bottom, which is quite deep, to all but the tippy top.

The greatest downside of this cable in my system is that the soundstage is forward and not very deep. Not to say that the soundstage is presented in front of the speakers, but that the front of it tends to be just behind the speakers and images tend to be VERY large, larger than I have heard from any cable. Listening to Patricia Barber's live album on the 45rpm pressing from MFSL, it sounds like a customer spills a glass in the background, but you'd swear the glass was a half-gallon big.

Pushing everything toward the front could make for some tiresome listening after a while. If the soundstage was deep to begin with, such as a deep orchestral recording, things were fine and the musicality of this cable was a marvel to listen to most of the time. But close miked recordings made for those too large images and then the shortened soundstage became a factor. Now, there wasn't much behind the main instrument or vocalist, so things got somewhat claustrophic in my listening space which, I have to mention, is quite small. I listen about 4 or 5 feet from the speakers (I have to), therefore music shoved in my face is not good. If you were using this cable in a system where you were sitting far from the speakers, you might be able to overlook the soundstage issue and revel in the musicality of this cable.

Another issue I have with the Elementa Advance is its slightly limited ability to resolve dense passages with ease the way, say the Cardas Neutral Reference does. I mentioned before "all but the tippy top". The very top, which is really only revealed with massed strings or brass, can sound a bit thin and grainy. This is primarily when pushed. With single images, you might notice a bit of lack of golden glow and ease on top the way strings and brass sound in real life, but this quality is barely there. But it's multiplied with massed instruments and hearing around the instruments, particularly with things tending to get shoved together in the soundstage, and make for a shortened Viewmaster affect, with images slightly less three dimensional than in real life (or that which can be heard from the Cardas NR).

Again, regarding the soundstage, the Cardas NR really allows you to hear in around the soundstage in all directions -- left to right, front to back AND up and down. No matter how dense the music, the NR never lost its composure. Not so with the Elementa Advance. The Purist Audio never quite has the elegance with images and the soundstage, in terms of placement, that the NR has. The expressiveness of vocalists and instruments with the EA is hugely better than with the NR, but that ease that says "I'm witnessing the event" is missing with the EA compared to the NR. Of course, the expressiveness that the EA has is also part of live events, so pick your poison, so to speak. But again, this speaks to the fact that compromises have to be made, even with a cable of this expense.

A few different recordings I listened to today highlighted both the strength and weaknesses of this cable. I listened to a Decca "narrow band" pressing of Schubert's Arpeggione with Rostropovich and Britten. My god, this is an extraordinary recording and performance (and pressing!). Both performers just "sung" that piece. The flow and musicality of the playing was beautiful and liquid. Instruments were a bit more forward than I'm used to, but the piano was shoved almost to the same plane as the cellist. They didn't really exist in their own delineated space. And the acoustic of the room was not as clear and well-rendered as with the Neutral Reference. But the music was more engaging through the EA.

I played the DCC LP of Nat Cole's "Love is the Thing". This is a superb pressing - quiet and lush. It's known for how startlingly huge Cole's voice is when he first comes in on the first cut, "When I Fall in Love" after an orchestral intro. But his voice is normally huge compared to the orchestra. Through the EA, his voice was even closer and more huge than normal, and while the orchestra was behind him, it wasn't as deep as I am used to. After a while, it was hard to stay in the room. It was just too claustrophobic. Adding a bit to the claustrophobia is that this cable does not reveal the greatest of air in a recording. This not only diminishes the ability to render the soundstage fully, but also a bit of the air around instruments.

I just unwrapped the LP of Bruce Springsteen's new one, "Magic". This LP, by far, is the most compressed of any of Bruce's recent records on LP. Bob Ludwig usually does a great job. Here, while there is weight, the Bruce's voice is often buried in the mix and the background musicians are shoved right up to the same plane. This is a mix that works for radio, but not for high-fidelity systems. While I have not heard this LP through any other cable, the EA's tendency to narrow the depth of the soundstage and not be so good at resolving density plays to the worst of this LP. "Radio Nowhere", the opening cut, is almost a jumble and there is practically no dynamics present. On the spare, more acoustic cuts, Springsteen's voice and pleading take on a humanity, which is this cable's strength.

Cut to an early red/black label ABC of the famous John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman album. This album sounds gorgeous through this cable. Yes, Hartman's voice is a bit larger and closer than normal (and so is Coltrane's sax), but Coltrane's sax and Hartman's voice are buttery smooth and the little pushes and pulls that Coltrane puts on a melodic line really come out big this time. You can't help but be on the edge of your seat, engaged in the musicality of what they are playing and saying. The drums have proper weight and the cymbals have proper harmonic shimmer. On the other hand, you'll find yourself tapping your toes when they swing, even subtly.

I'll also say that, while this cable is not hyper-detailed (and really isn't THE most detailed in terms of inner harmonics), it is very revealing of the recording. If you put on 100 different records or CDs, you'll hear 100 different sounding recordings. While the Cardas NR tended to be extremely forgiving, the EA is not.

All in all, I am convinced that even at this price range, there are major compromises to be made, but the difference at this price range is that the strengths of the cables are extreme. If your listening preferences are not demanding, you may not even need something this good, but if you're demanding great nuance, this is the minimal level to audition, and then you're going to have to audition and audition, as even at this level, cables sound quite different.

Product Weakness:	Images to large and forward, creating a bit of claustrophobia in a small-sized listening room. Soundstage depth also tends to be squashed, leading to the same result. A bit of thinness, strain and grain at the top end with massed strings and brass has me long for the Cardas NR in this regard. Not great at resolving dense passages. Images can be less than three-dimensional.
Product Strengths:	Incredibly expressive, especially with smaller instrumentations. Full-bodied. Liquid. Ease at all but the extreme top end. Quick transients and the cable allows music to swing. Revealing of the level of different recordings.

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Unison Research Unico modified by Parts Connexion
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Art Audio Vinyl One phono stage
Sources (CDP/Turntable): CEC TL51X Transport and Audiomat Tango 2.5 DAC/Upgraded VPI Scout w/Benz M2
Speakers: Castle Edens
Cables/Interconnects: Tara Labs %22The One%22 ICs for phono stage and DAC, Sterovox HDVX for CD transport
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical, folk jazz, rock
Room Size (LxWxH): 12' x 12' x 10'
Room Comments/Treatments: Corner Tunes
Time Period/Length of Audition: 2 weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Shunyata Hydra 6 and Python power cord
Type of Audition/Review: Home Audition

Amplifier:	Unison Research Unico modified by Parts Connexion
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Art Audio Vinyl One phono stage
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	CEC TL51X Transport and Audiomat Tango 2.5 DAC/Upgraded VPI Scout w/Benz M2
Speakers:	Castle Edens
Cables/Interconnects:	Tara Labs %22The One%22 ICs for phono stage and DAC, Sterovox HDVX for CD transport
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, folk jazz, rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	12' x 12' x 10'
Room Comments/Treatments:	Corner Tunes
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Shunyata Hydra 6 and Python power cord
Type of Audition/Review:	Home Audition