Ensemble Dalvivo speaker cables by Terry London

In the early 2000s, I enjoyed owning equipment from Ensemble, located in Switzerland. Ensemble’s Dirondo CD drive/transport, Dichrono  Hi DAC, and Isolink Duo isolation transformer were in my system then. This gear was superlative both in build quality and performance. It remained in my system for about five years until I found other digital and power conditioning that finally surpassed the performance of the Ensemble gear. Unfortunately, the brand’s recognition disappeared because of incompetent U.S. importing and distribution.  Ensemble was started in 1986 by Dr. Urs Wagner, who designs and hand builds all Ensemble equipment to this day. You can assemble an Ensemble system from the source to the speakers, including all wiring and isolation devices. Professional reviews and word of mouth in the European and Asian markets have consistently offered high praise and endorsements over the last three decades. However, most audiophiles in the U.S. are unaware of this great Swiss-based company.

Fortunately, this lack of recognition of Ensemble’s terrific equipment will be remedied shortly. Mike Kay of Audio Archon has become the exclusive representative for Ensemble products in the U.S. Mike Kay is well-known and respected for his work through Audio Archon. He brings in many interesting and well-known brands as a retailer or a U.S. distributor. When he shared that he was bringing the Ensemble back to the States, based on my great experience with Ensemble equipment in the past, I was very motivated to review one of the newer products from the mind of Dr. Wagner.

In the last few months, I have been on a roll reviewing digital cables, interconnects, and speaker wires. Therefore, I was intrigued to review Ensemble’s latest generation of speaker cables, the Dalvivo, retailing for $2,450 for a 2.5-meter pair. The Dalvivo speaker cables comprise 7 X AWG 14 pure copper conductors in a helical array. This is encased by 7 x single + 3 overall shield for perfect interference rejection. You can get the Dalvivo speaker cable terminated with Synergia pure copper spades or lab-grade bananas 4mm or 6mm, gold-plated. (If you want more technical information on the Dalvivo speaker cable, I recommend you go to Ensemble’s website, where these details are located). The physical appearance of this cable is quite striking; it’s a relatively thin cable encased in seriously stiff, transparent shielding that allows the gold-copper colors to pop out vividly. Despite their stiff nature, I had no difficulty placing the Dalvivo cables in both systems.

What was apparent to me regarding the overall perspective on the Ensemble Dalvivo speaker cable’s performance was its octave-to-octave seamlessness from the lowest bass frequencies to the highest frequencies. This is one balanced cable that does not emphasize any frequency region over any other part of the sonic spectrum. The top end offered an airy and detailed presentation without adding etch/brightness. It was very easy to hear decay trails because of how quiet the Dalvivo cable’s nonexistent noise floor was. The all-important mid-range band retained this quality of offering all the micro-details without sounding analytical or mechanical compared to live music. If the recording has excellent spatial information, the Dalvivo cables will reproduce it with a large and layered soundstage.

I would not classify the Dalvivo speaker cable as perfectly neutral. It adds a touch/smidgen of overall warmth and fullness in its mix. I noticed this very clearly in its density of tonality and color, which I found quite gratifying. This was not a euphonic coloration; the timbres were accurate but took the edge/harshness off some recordings that could sound aggressive or harsh at times. Regarding what I mentioned, a sense of “fullness” is not bloated or enlarged individual images but a palpability of each player that leads to excellent three-dimensional images.
The Dalvivo speaker cable has an overall liquidity/effortlessness presentation. But don’t misinterpret this quality as lacking speed or explosive macro-dynamics. When the music contains a powerful transient or explosive crescendo, the Dalvivo passes it on easily.

In many reviews, the idea that wires should not add or subtract to the signal it is passing on has been debated ad nauseam. My position is that in every system, you are looking for ‘synergy” between pieces of gear to ultimately get the musical presentation that you found the most pleasurable. Sometimes, to get this result, you use different cables to “tune to taste” to get to your favorite listening place. The Ensemble Dalvivo speaker cables are terrific performers and would fit into any high-end system. They add the positive attributes of excellent top-to-bottom seamlessness, very quiet noise-floor rendering micro-details quickly, beautiful colors/tonality, powerful macro-dynamics, and effortless liquidity to enhance the virtues of your system. In particular, if your system struggles with a slight dryness, brightness, thinness, or lack of vivid colors, I strongly recommend that you might want to try the Dalvivo speaker cable to correct these shortcomings.

Specifications: 

Price: $2,450

Website: www.audioarchon.com

TJ’s Associated Equipment
Source:
Pass Labs DAC-1
Reimyo DAP-999EX Toku
Mark Levinson 31.5 transport
Pro-Jet reference CD transport & LTA power supply
CEC-3 belt-driven transport

Amplification:
Coda S5.5 amplifier
SPL S1200 amplifier
Plinius SA-50 MKIII
Threshold 550e amplifier
SPL Elector preamplifier
AricAudio Super 300B SET amplifier
AricAudio Motherlode MKII preamplifier
Loudspeakers:
NSMT System Two
Tekton Design Ulfberth
Music Design Knight One

Accessories:
Jena Labs Symphony XLR ICs
Jena Labs reference AES/EBU digital cable
Kirmuss Audio Adrenaline speaker cable
Krolo Design reference rack 7 footers
Puritan Audio power conditioner & grounding system
Audio Archon power cords