Ego Audio Cables Review: Challenger approaching
There are some brands that I believe be a real ‘hidden gem’ in the IEM cable industry, which is Satin Audio and Ego Audio. While these two brands are yet to be well-known, they serve high-quality cables and keep the price either affordable or reasonable. I first did a review for Satin Audio, now here comes for Ego Audio.
Ego Audio is a very new firm from China and I’m pretty sure even most IEM cable enthusiasts barely (or never) heard about this brand. I also got to know Ego Audio by chance while hanging around on Facebook until reading a Chinese post introducing these cables. I thought this to be a typical and numerous cable manufacturer from China and almost scrolled away until I read the word “PW Audio”.
Though available information about this brand was very limited even after research. No websites, yet to have many distributors, barely know anybody who ever tried these cables.
Here’s what I know – Ego Audio was established in early 2017 and eventually made its way to the market in 2019. Ego Audio is a separate brand powered by PW Audio, though aiming for a different path and keeping the price much more affordable. Ego Audio has 5 cables as their first line-up, so let’s talk about the characteristics of each cable and see how they work with various IEMs.
Packaging
All Ego Audio cables come in with a small white box including a soft pouch, packed with the cable. Product and termination info are labeled on the outer box. The pouches are very soft and could be pretty useful when it comes to protecting your IEMs and cables from scratches. I usually put my IEMs into these bags before packing them into a case, so that they won’t wiggle around or bump into each other.
Ego Audio Beer
-8 braided OCC Copper (27.5 AWG)
-Priced for approx. $215
Beer is an extremely well-balanced cable that could fill the missing 2% from your setup. Although it’s the cheapest from Ego family, Beer is likely the most neutral sounding one among them. Beer would be a perfect choice for those who are looking to upgrade their cables while maintaining the original characters from the sound.
It’s very easy to think that copper cables would raise the lows and reduce the highs, though that’s not always the case. Beer tends to keep the quantities, colors, and sound signatures stay unaltered, including the default tonality and textures. It reminds me of a sweeter and well-balanced version of the Effect Audio Ares II.
Matching comparisons
Hifiman RE2000 Silver: The sound gets more coherent with better ultra-low / mid-bass representation. The tonality becomes more focused and sweeter. Along with that, the background would get darker and calmer, making the vocals to get more vivid or “pop-out” with a clearer presentation.
BGVP DMS: Had a gut feeling that copper cable would easily make the bass overwhelming with veiled mids, though Beer proves itself to be called an all-rounder. The sound gets sweeter with the same bass quantity, however with cleaner presentation throughout the low frequencies. It goes for a natural, organic tonality but never sounds boring. The best improvement would be the overall sound becoming cleaner.
Fearless Audio S5H: The sound shows quite a significant amount of improvement. It’s just like adjusting the wrong focal point from a blurred image. Compared to Beer, the stock cable sounds blurred and lacks depth and clarity. The dynamics would get bold yet in a precise manner and overall much more enjoyable listening to the details.
Comments for Beer
Everything seems to feel very neutral and original. Along with that, only a pinch of a grain of salt and sugar has been applied, just slightly smoothening out the surface of the texture. This won’t kill the details but rather adds a glimpse of sweetness to the tonality. Beer would match very well with almost any IEMs. If you ever wanted to make your sound a bit sweeter from your bassy IEM, Beer will do without overdoing the bass.
Beer would also be a great match if you’re looking to sweeten your plain, flat sounding IEM without mudding the sound. This sure is a coherent sounding cable. It’s going to be hard to find a bad match for Beer as it blends in very well with almost all kinds of IEMs. It naturally deepens the sound while keeping all the sweet and the sound gets much deeper on BA IEMs than DD IEMs.
Next page: Ego Audio Whiskey