In my last review, I took a close look at the Esprit Audio L’Esprit XLR and speaker cables from the top range of the French cable manufacturer.
The Story
The Esprit story began in 1995 when Richard, who had always been interested in music and hi-fi, started making cables. As is common in the audio industry, the cables he made for himself were good enough to attract the interest of some enthusiasts.
Richard CESARI Founder and CEO
So it came about that Richard also made cables for friends. One thing led to another and he founded Esprit with a single goal: to make the best cables money can buy.
Almost 25 years later, the ethos is still the same: selecting the best materials for each part of each cable type and putting them together in the best possible way.
Richard often says that it’s like a recipe: if you do not know how to combine the ingredients, you can have the best there is and still get it all wrong. But if you know how to combine them, you can achieve excellent results.
The L’Esprit range reflects just that: more than 20 years of testing and research into every conceivable material.
Today, Esprit Audio offers a wide range of products, from the affordable Alpha, which gives every music lover access to the acclaimed Esprit music performance, to the superlative L’Esprit, the absolute pinnacle of listening pleasure.
L’Esprit
I have already reported in detail on the unique Esprit Audio technologies in my L’Esprit power cable test. Here are a few more special features in connection with the XLR and speaker cables.
For the interconnects and speaker cables, Esprit Audio uses a mix of pure grade 6N copper in strand thicknesses of 0.08 and 0.31 as well as 1mm pure silver.
They also use a mix of soft and hard insulation (which has become the hallmark of Esprit Audio cables) but with this L’Esprit range, they’ve added DuPont Nomex fibers, which are used by motor, generators, transformer, and other electrical equipment manufacturers.
L’Esprit range uses the air insulation with double polarization along with two additional proprietary techniques.
The first is a micro-level hand wrapping of pure silver wires done in the Esprit Audio workshop by one of the expertly trained technicians.
The second exclusive technology is a “Silent Process” where a set of principles allows Esprit Audio to go further in the fight against the unwanted hubris that can appear at hyper frequencies along with further enhancing the overall preservation of the signal.
Polarization
There are two ways of looking at an insulating material: as an insulator or as a poor conductor. The way Esprit polarizes its cables is based on this assumption and only polarizes the dielectrics of its cables. To make them more efficient, they are “saturated” with a continuous voltage of 12 volts.
This method of polarization was introduced by Esprit back in 1999 and improves dynamics, brings out more detail, and provides a Technicolor-like sound presentation.
Nothing more can be said about it because it is part of Esprit’s secret recipe! The general idea behind it is to charge the dielectric materials with an electrical voltage that is independent of the audio signal itself.
L’Esprit Audio Cable Loom
Esprit Audio came up with something special for this review. They wanted me to not only test and listen to their top speaker and interconnect cables, but also to experience the complete L’Esprit cable loom, to get fully acquainted with what is possible when everything is on the right level and both power and signal are handled by the same range of these prominent, seductively French high-end audio cables.
Like the Esprit Audio L’Esprit power cords, the L’Esprit XLR and speaker cables exceeded my high expectations, and the complete L’Esprit cable loom has created a one-of-the-kind harmonious inner circle that fixates the music primacy with breathtaking ease.
The Music
Many high-end audio cables can permanently degrade the golden trinity of timbre, tone, and color as well as dynamics, often by creating a typical filter effect. The Esprit L’Esprit speaker cables and XLR interconnect cables, like the L’Esprit power cords, provide dynamic stability without sacrificing performance and without reducing dynamic range or headroom. L’Esprit speaker cables and interconnects reproduce music smoothly, and deliver the streams of music across the entire frequency spectrum with feather-light ease.
When it comes to the lifelike reproduction of orchestral music (within the bounds of what is realistically possible), things can too often fall apart, even with the smallest crescendos.
Not so with the cables from Esprit Audio. The L’Esprit line is characterized by a familiar, common trait, with no frills, but a cleverly distributed musical energy that enchants the listener with charm and allure.
I revisited the Ring of the Nibelung, Wagner’s opus magnum, again and rediscovered the same effect of “liebe und mystik” with L’Esprit signal cables and repeated happy moments of lyrical narration as with L’Esprit power cables.
However, this time (with the full loom) the Fasolt and Fafner were depicted with even more lifelike energy. L’Esprit brings the music to the disposition and not just the sprawling kaleidoscopic complex sound detailing as many cables do. L’Esprit signal cables are the real architects of the musical narrative, skillfully controlling how the overtones and harmonics are conveyed.
The listener is drawn into attentive listening as they discover the full range of narrative and sonic possibilities of Der Ring des Nibelungen. With L’Esprit, there is no need to stretch the imagination, as these cables deliver factuality and an astonishingly versatile reflection of reality.
L’Esprit’s XLR and speaker cables delivered a class-act performance throughout, and it was very impressive to watch a very different kind of music come to life with these Esprit Audio flagships.
Especially with ‘Higgs Boson Blues’ by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from the album Live from KCRW, the L’Esprit cables simply allowed melodic and harmonic possibilities to unfold more freely.
Even at the top end of high-end audio cables, some of them act as peak limiters, creating a sizzler top end, an unnaturally compressed sound that all too often sucks the life out of the music.
The L’Esprit cables behave quite differently, with an unparalleled punch and depth, no frequency-dependent transient response, and are more musical than most offerings.
Esprit Audio L’Esprit carries both the beauty and the weight of Nick Cave’s poignancy, without altering the trajectory of the music. That alone is a virtue worthy of all of the highlight.
The Conclusion
The Esprit Audio L’Esprit cables are a unicorn among the many high-end audio cables.
From what I have been able to try and evaluate so far, these top-of-the-line French cables are unique when it comes to the performance of the highest caliber. They cut through the fabric of music with striking aural revelations that immediately grab the listener’s attention and present the very essence of the music, taking the high-end sonics to the extreme but strictly avoiding auditory anomalies due to optimized voicing.
Esprit Audio L’Esprit XLR interconnects and speaker cables (as well as the complete wire loom) operate at the utmost level of balance, without frequency jumps, without fatigue, and without false excitations that push the sound into undesirable zones.
Esprit Audio L’Esprit cables have been designed from the ground up to be associated with the most advanced high-end audio equipment, where they can truly shine and show their true potency. Although they can perform an impressive sonic potency with less premium, affordable equipment, they come into their own in a well-balanced high-end audio system.
It’s quite intriguing how the L’Esprit speaker and interconnect cables can establish an instant emotional link, establishing a fascinating interactivity and an awareness where the music simply flows.
The sound reaches the listener directly, in all its originality, immediately bypassing the sensory guarding mechanisms and penetrating the receptors that ignite the necessary parts of the brain where music decoding takes place.
Regardless of the musical genre, whether the music was recorded live in a natural acoustic space or produced in the studio, L’Esprit cables can distill the micro-macro dynamics with impressive, lightning-fast attacks, delivering pure musical drama at every point. L’Esprit Audio’s flagships do not sharpen the attacks, nor do they cut the decays and delays tails, nor do they reduce the density of focal points/nodes that are crucial to the recreation of any kind of music.
The music simply comes from the deeper depths, the submarine Vanta’s black background where musical notes appear instantly, without any kind of smearing effect, not slowing down the speed of the music, or smoothing out the tones to sound artificially saturated.
If any of these characteristics are compromised, not only does the perspective of the listening space change, but the musical sphere is narrowed, and the timbre changes. The L’Esprit cables avoid these pitfalls and act in harmony with the natural laws of music, reproducing the music in the best possible way.
There are many high-end audio cables on the market, some even more expensive than Esprit Audio’s top range, but regardless of price, it is not easy to achieve what these handmade French boutique high-end audio cables are capable of: The sheer purity, unadulterated music reproduction, and unrestricted dynamics.
Esprit Audio cables have found a happy home with many high-end audio aficionados and music lovers around the world, and for good reason. With music reproduction at the highest level and a unique, emotional connection, L’Esprit range not only represents the pinnacle of the manufacturer’s cable production but also sets its standard for how high-end audio cables are designed, executed, and performed.
With Esprit Audio L’Esprit cables, sonic splendor is further enhanced by a unique, mesmerizing effect without acting as an equalizer, something even some of the most prominent cables can not escape.
There is something very special about the way L’Esprit lets the performers and instruments occupy the sonic space. They don’t abstract but actively operate within the music without imposing a stamp on themselves or causing distorting artifacts.
Regardless of the musical genre, the music reproduction is as complex as the source material and always comes across as incredibly organic and natural.
In a well-balanced ultra-high-end audio system, the Esprit Audio L’Esprit cables are capable of opening up new perspectives, and even a single cable is inserted into the system, they immediately and convincingly demonstrate how they can contribute to the overall musical vistas and nonetheless artistic expression.
Decades in the making, Esprit Audio L’Esprit cables operate at the highest level of music reproduction, extremely consistent regardless of the music played and far beyond the usual emotional impact.
For all these qualities, I am more than happy to present Esprit Audio L’Esprit cables with the 2024 Mono & Stereo Editors Choice Award. ❖
The price
- L’Esprit XLR cables: 1 m x 2 – RRP : 28 000€
- L’Esprit Speaker cables: 2 x 3m – RRP : 52 000€
Contact
Esprit Audio
Web: www.esprit-audio.fr
Email: link.