Review: Acoustic Zen Hologram II Speaker cable

Category: Cables

I have already posted a review of my DIY speakaer cables to the Audience and Shunyata speaker cables. I felt that the DIY cables held there own and sounded more natural than those two cables. IMHO, those cables were not worth the difference of $1000.

Enter the AZ Holograms. They are very thick cables and they were mono runs, not bi-wired to my B&W speakers. Were they better or just different than my DIY speaker cables?

First off, IMO, the AZ cords have their own characteristic that makes your system sound refined, detailed and very smooth. First thing I noticed was better bass, it simply went lower, and was pretty well defined. It was hard to compare the bass definition becasue my DIY cables did not go as low. Second, the AZ cables have a blacker background making the sound different, drums, cymbals, vocals sound natural and very balanced against each other, maybe a little less snap to the snare. The DIY cables are a more forward cable so they sound a little more opened and definately more in your face first row versus tenth row with the Holograms. I like both sounds for differenct reasons. Third, the AZ cables sound more extended and refined in the high frequencies. Not that the DIY cables are edgy but they are not as smooth or refined sounding. The DIY cables do offer a slightly more open (wider) sounstage and IMO, slightly better image focus. The DIY cables also have less depth that the AZ so that may have something to do with it. Having the added bass response improved the sound in that it added more weight to the notes like piano, and stand up bass plus a longer holding of notes which adds a different tonal texture to the music.

I can explain the differences in these two cables as the DIY cables sound like the Rolling Stones recording where the music is not as refined sounding but natural in a bar band kind of way, where the AZ sounds more refined like Jeff Lynn from ELO had a hand in the design. Just listen to the Traveling Wilbury CD where Lynn really processes the sound. The AZ are not overly refined to that extent but I was just using that to paint you a picture for comparison. Which is better, I dunno. I like them both, but I would probably pick the Holograms for longer term listening and maybe re-position my speakers to be less toed in to open up the sound stage.

Hope you liked this review and Happy Listening. YMMV.

Associated gear
Sony SCD-777ES, AZ Sil. Ref. ICs, Pass Labs X-1, Pass Labs X-250, B&W Matrix 803 Series II speakers, JPS Labs Digital AC, Power AC and Audience Power AC, separate dedicated AC lines.

Similar products
Audience AU24, Shunyata's new speaker cables, DIY 6awg speaker cables.