Sound Pairing with Hifiman Svanar (Review link)
Let’s be honest, the Svanar’s cable is sub-par at best. Expected a better cable since the RE2000… but I suppose Hifiman still doesn’t find the need to improve the stock cable. Well, let’s give some of Black Wodow XL’s “toxicity” to Svanar to unleash its potential – that Svanar always deserved. Quieter background and obviously higher resolution. The bass notes are clearer and deeper.
The bass is fuller in body yet just as agile, which is one of Svanar’s specialties. The sub-bass gains slight body and density yet doesn’t bloat the sub-bass or bother the lower-range vocals. The strikes of bass and trebles are more resolving, tighter, and denser, all while retaining Svanar’s original sound signature. The timbre remains the same as before yet more mature and mildly added with depth.
Svanar desires a studio-sized staging that focuses on up-close details and reference style sound, and BW XL wisely doesn’t ruin this, hence not artificially widening or expanding Svanar’s staging. However, there’s a mild sense of upgrade in staging as the background is quieter, cleaner deeper bass extension, and tighter and clearer trebles.
Sound Pairing with Panther Audio Silver Dragon King (Review coming soon!)
Silver Dragon King is Panther Audio’s one of two newest flagship IEMs, featuring 1DD, 4BA, and 2BC drivers. Deeper, more mature tone. The original tone was noticeably uplifted, making it sound as if the vocals were levitated. This gives strong airiness and openness to the mid-range, yet the lower mids also feel rather empty. Black Widow XL “calms down” the vocals by making the tone more deep, mature, and full-bodied. Alongside, the spectrum between the sub-bass and the lower vocals is filled with cream, making the male vocals thicker and backed up with density.
Another change is the significant improvement of the bass dynamics. Black Widow XL adds bold color and density to the bass, making the bass rumbles cleaner, and stronger while keeping the same tightness and agility. The overall balance of Silver Dragon King was slightly tipped towards neutral-bright, which is fatigue-free but could’ve used some more warmth and darkness on the low ends to make the perfect balance – which Black Widow XL perfectly does the job. The thicker, mature, and fuller-bodied low-mids do an immense favor for this IEM.
Compared to Nostalgia Audio Kratos (Review link)
Deeper, darker bass response. The ultra-low extension is slightly better on BW XL. The BW XL’s sub-bass has a bit more thickness and quantity. The timbre is slightly warmer. The focal point of BW XL’s sound (or the balance point of the sound) is more shifted downwards. This gives a more condensed, stable sound presentation. Meanwhile, Kratos keeps the bass more neutral in timbre and brightness, while bringing just as thick and dynamic bass response. We could say Kratos alters the IEM’s original sound signature. Alongside, Kratos’ mid-range timbre is mildly better controlled, keeping the vocals more leveled and stable throughout the range. This also leads Kratos to have slightly better control of sibilance.
While this focal point, or the mid-point of the sound was set lower on BW XL, Kratos keeps the center unaltered, keeping it in the middle. This gives a more airy, open-ended feel for the mid-range. To simply summarize the core characteristics of each cable, BW XL highlights the deepness, darkness, condensed, and calmness of the background, whereas Kratos focuses more on thickness, deep but agile, lively, and gentle airiness.
Compared to Vortex Cables Minerva (Product info)
While Black Widow XL has a more mature, calm, and weighty nuance, Minerva has a brighter, livelier, neutral nuance. The low-ends are deeper and bolder on Black Widow XL with more sub-bass highlights (though not drastically). Minvera, on the other hand, has a more balanced sound with neutral-airy brightness that does better in revealing vocal texture and resolution, as well as the fine treble strands. Minerva also does a fine job highlighting the bass, though it devotes less energy to the bass but focuses more on the overall improvements. Simply put, Black Widow XL has a warmer, thicker, gently weighty, masculine sound, whereas Minvera has a lively, agile, airy, and cheerful sound.
Such a mature tuning is rare to discover at this price.
The Black Widow XL is a cable that introduces a quiet, deep, and calm background with organized sound layering, which also executes these qualities that are hard to find in this price range. Such levels and characteristics of improvements are more often found on higher-end cables, and I don’t recall many cables that could bring out such depth and mature nuance among the various $300 price range cables I’ve tested and listened to so far.
Of course, this is one of the characteristics that a cable could have, and don’t mean BW XL’s characteristics are superior to other sound signatures. However, for those who want to add significant depth to the bass, mature the vocals, organize the textures, and lastly, calm down the timbre without breaking the tonal balance, the Black Widow XL is one of the few available and quite an affordable options you could choose. It’s not just another cable option…. but your venomously-attractive companion!
