After reviewing the Stage III Concepts A.S.P. CKAHRON XLR Reference and Cerberus speaker cables, I continue the impact of these unique high-end audio cables with the Stage III Concepts Leviathan Power cord, another cable creation that stands out from the crowd.
As you will read in this review, the Leviathan power cable, like all Stage III Concepts cables, goes above and beyond with its unique approach and proprietary materials. Stage III Concepts is one of the longest-running manufacturers of high-end audio cables, and that has given them a lot of freedom to experiment with different concepts, designs, and materials to achieve top-level performance that is hard to match, regardless of price.
A.S.P. LEVIATHAN
Stage III Concepts was the first audio cable company to use “floating” ribbon conductors for power applications. This gave them nearly 20 years of advantage to experiment, test, and perfect their exclusive and highly effective signal/current transmission technology. This invaluable experience recently culminated in the critically acclaimed A.S.P. KRAKEN power cable. The exceptional performance of the A.S.P. KRAKEN is multiplied in this new unique 3-in-1 design.
The A.S.P. LEVIATHAN consists of three fully independent multi-core conductors capable of delivering an incredible 80 amps of clean, unhindered current. As the name suggests, A.S.P. LEVIATHAN is a true monster in appearance and performance.
The extreme mechanical damping combined with the impenetrable layers of proprietary shielding and conductor geometry eliminates the possibility of any induced microphonics from vibration or airborne electromagnetic interference.
The cable’s many sonic attributes (especially when used with amplifiers) are a perfect noise floor, smoothness, and a relaxed authority that eliminates any compression or strain heard with most other, more restrictive power cord designs.
A.S.P. LEVIATHAN was designed to handle any high-end amplifier, regardless of size or power requirements, without compromising or posing a challenge to the amp
LEVIATHAN was envisioned and executed to be unlike any other audio cable on the market. Stage III sees this as the creation of an entirely new power cable category of pristine performance that all others will aspire to and attempt to emulate.
Stage III A.S.P. LEVIATHAN are 100% handcrafted with 100% proprietary elements and no commercially manufactured or “off the shelf” components to meet the goal of ultimate power transfer at the highest level.
A.S.P. LEVIATHAN power cords utilize 4×3 heavy gage, cryo-treated, custom slow extruded silver/palladium AeroStrandUltra™ ribbon conductors, and air dielectric with FEP Teflon air tubes as well as multi-layer shielding with 100 radiation-insensitive H.D.A. foil.
Geometry consists of three individually damped and shielded cables in a twisted helix configuration. Each conductor also features three heavy gauge-plated silver ground wires, individually shielded with silver-plated braid.
Further A.S.P. LEVIATHAN includes a multi-layer construction with soft polymer sleeving, silicon dioxide/ceramic/ferrite layer for mechanical damping/shielding. and a custom, handmade, proprietary polymer/fiber connector and cable housing.
The Music
With the influx of modern cables, Stage III Concepts occupies a remarkable position, not only because of its heritage and long experience in the industry but also because each product is beautifully handcrafted and exudes a quality rarely found. What’s more, Stage III Concepts ensure uninterrupted musical enjoyment at every turn.
As always, here are some of the reference tracks and albums that highlight the remarkable sonic virtues and extremely potent facets of the Leviathan power cables.
Alim and Fargana Qasimov – Spiritual Music of Azerbaijan
Alim Qasimov, often celebrated as the “living national treasure” of Azerbaijan, is a master of mugham music. In 1999, he was awarded the prestigious International Music Council-UNESCO Music Prize, one of the highest honors in the world of music. This prestigious award puts him in the same league as luminaries such as Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, Olivier Messiaen, and Daniel Barenboim.
Mugham, whose tradition is a thousand years old, is an extremely intricate art form. It intertwines classical poetry with musical improvisation using specific local modes. This rich tradition is based on an orally transmitted collection of melodies and melodic fragments, which the performers draw on in their improvisations to create a unique and expressive musical experience.
The Spiritual Music of Azerbaijan is a great challenge for any high-end audio system, and especially for the power cable to reproduce the complexity of the mugham, including the undulations of the voices, the decay times, the delays, and the ever-changing, light-speed pitch shifts.
With the Stage III Concepts Leviathan power cable, Alim and Fargana Qasimov’s vocals come into their own, strikingly exciting and unapologetically emotional.
Also, most unique is the way Leviathan Power reveals the clarity of the notes when Qasimov’s voices begin to soar.
Stage III Concepts Leviathan doesn’t compensate for the lowering of the high frequencies to keep up with the liveliness of the music, but keeps it super airy.
The same goes for dynamics. Leviathan escapes dynamic reversal effects, something some of even the highest-priced cable offerings can not do.
The unbridged music energy and power balance continued into the low-frequency response, where the Leviathan not only maintained the low-frequency content with authority but also enhanced the spectral sound quality due to the Pysho acoustics (proper lower foundation extends the upper ranges).
Not in an artificial way, but in a fatigue-free, natural way, while guilelessly emphasizing the micro and macro details.
Kate Bush – The Dreaming
The impressive effect of the Stage III concept Leviathan power cable continued with The Dreaming, an album by Kate Bush.
This iconic recording from 1982 is perpetually pulsating, bursting with rhythms and inexplicable vibes that require more than a normal power cable to achieve the necessary power flow, both at the beginning, from the wall, and at the component level.
With Leviathan, The Dreaming was immediately freed from sonic constraints while projecting energy with a proper potency, while unveiling more harmonic content.
Stage III concept Leviathan power cable didn’t introduce downward motion (as too often happens with power cables) and went beyond iterative tweaks, making The Dreaming a torrid and passionate encounter, as it should be.
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
There’s another unique virtue closely related to the way the Stage III Concepts Leviathan power cable delivers the sheer energy of the music and the way they connect viscerally.
Mezzanine is a consistently high-octane album, with the “Teardrops” setting the tone with a seismic force, and the music can collide too quickly if the power cord can not do its job properly in situ by compressing and reshaping transients.
The Stage III Concepts Leviathan cable has again proven and confirmed that it is no ordinary power cable. It connects and glues the voices superbly with the rest of the instruments, blending everything into a unique harmonic string of sound I cannot recall experiencing from any other cable at such a high level of sonic blending and in the complete absence of an aural diffusion.
The leviathan nature allowed ‘Teardrops’ to unfold dynamically with the drama it needed, quickly reaching authoritative tones and not taming any unruly frequencies at any time, ascertaining that this is no wasteful decadence following the law of diminishing returns, but a cable that can distinctly cut through the clot of the music with its capacity to deliver massive, heavily loaded narrative without reservation or altering the music course.
The Mezzanine represents an extreme task and challenge. It’s not easy for any power cable to achieve the required level of “Teardrops” ferocity. Too many power cables can lose the lower register grip and sound rubbery with this trip-hop track.
The Leviathan, on the other hand, not only produces clean and defined bass, but hits the core sound raw, rough, and with full force.
The Cardigans – Gran Turismo
The opening, hard-hitting “Paralyzed” sets the framework for this aural distorted melancholy, yet “Erase / Rewind” goes even further, by introducing an additional level of sublimeness, pleasant fuzziness, and an underpinning poignancy.
It was fascinating to observe how Stage III Concepts Leviathan Power Cable tunes into the organic playfulness rather than merely creating a strange kaleidoscopic audio mosaic as too many power cables can.
By not cutting out any of the clout that makes The Cardigans so original, Leviathan did far more than just nicely latch onto the music. Unlike some power cords, the Leviathan doesn’t slow down fast transients or cause clipping. It rather exudes a natural, airy, and shimmering sonic expanse without synthetic brightening.
Stage III Concepts bring definition and transparency and evoke emotional affinity without entering the euphonious realms, exactly the opposite of what many exotic power cables tend to induce.
The Conclusion
Evaluating high-end audio products is always a journey. I still find that my greatest curiosity is what continues to fuel the unbridled enthusiasm.
Fundamentally, the most important part for me is what the product in question can do in terms of performance and music reproduction. Ultimately, this is the most important information that is useful to Mono & Stereo readers based on the ongoing feedback.
When a designer like Luis de la Fuente gets to the heart of things, it’s no paradox to decipher what is worthwhile and positively different from other high-end audio cable offerings.
The Leviathan cable from Stage III Concepts once again raises the bar, as two previous cables from the iconic American cable manufacturer I evaluated not so long ago.
Placed in the right place in the system, Leviathan power cables not only deliver pristine performance but also evoke emotions that you can not quite comprehend.
There is an intangible sense of musical flow. The more microscopic my mind wanted to get in deciphering it, the more baffling the way Leviathan evokes aural magic directly connecting to the right part of the brain. It was not about separating the left and right hemispheres of the brain, but, strange as it may sound, it was about synchronizing the juxtaposition. A rare encounter that definitely deserves high praise.
Stage III Concepts Leviathan is not a technical bijou but bursts with energy without destroying the natural tranquility and dynamism of the music. Instead of steering the flow of music in different directions, Stage III Concepts power cables master the art of mechanical and technical design elements and deliver the pure, raw power of music needed to keep the flow of music in perfect balance.
Over the years, I’ve pointed out time and time again that everything in a high-end audio system starts with the power cables, from the wall to the entire system. They are the weins of the audio system.
With the Leviathan power cord Stage III Concepts has developed a unique product that maintains organic harmony along with unchanged power output along with carefully utilizing thunderous and feather-light dynamic changes.
Stage III Concepts Leviathan by default mimics the nature of the real thing and reproduces the music as if it came from the real world and not from virtual realms, as is sadly the case with too many high-end audio cables regardless of price. At any level of pricing, too many power cables cannot properly convey harmonic content, yet, with the Leviathan power cable, Stage III Concepts is once again raising the bar for its successors.
From the conceptual point to the hands-on operation in the high-end audio system, Stage III Concepts’ ethos embraces the performance. The Leviathan power cord offers an audio spectrum, radically different from other cables at similar and higher price points, delivering linear and non-linear characteristics, forensic detail, and remarkable clarity, allowing the formation of a seamless and harmonious whole with the rest of the system.
There is no artificial euphony, no euphoria, the music reproduction feels like a natural ascent. The Leviathan mains cable has a wider scope than usual and maintains its sound quality across the entire spectrum. With its special characteristics, the music flows with precision, regularity, or absence of energy variations, with full dynamic range and excellent controllability, strictly avoiding any compression or distortion.
The Leviathan allows close-knit interaction with the music and can handle any spirited extravagance, acting unobtrusively and emitting music information directly to the brain. For these special qualities, it deserves effusive praise.
I tried Stage III Concepts in various set-ups. They performed magnificently, but in my reference system, I found that they worked best from the wall to the power line and with power amplifiers.
As with Stage III Concepts’ Ase Cerberus speaker cables, the Leviathan power cable from Stage III Concept delivers pure, unadulterated, unrestricted musical performance in abundance, making listening a ritual of excellence rather than a vague encounter.
At this level of high-end audio cable fabricating the core manufacturing is art in itself. In addition to the technical aspects, it involves human, selective, and subjective elements.
For what they represent on the musical scale, and for what they deliver dynamically while always remaining in tune and sync with the music, I am more than happy to recognize Stage III Concepts Leviathan power cable with the 2024 Mono and Stereo, Editors Choice Award. ❖
Price
- 22.500€ – 1,5 M (including 20% VAT)
Contact
EU Exclusive distributor
DreamAudio Spol. S R.O.
Jaskovy Rad 213A
Bratislava – 83101
Slovakia