Which aes/ebu cable? CCA Magnum Opus, Audio Sensibility Signature, or RAL Prophecy Ref?


Recently acquired my first separate DAC/transport and have been getting by with a regular balanced interconnect (which actually sounded better than an Acoustic Zen MC squared) as a digital cable.   My preference is for silver cables.  I'm big into detail and precision of imaging, a taut, well defined bass, and transparency.  The 3 mentioned cables are available at roughly the same cost to me.  Can anyone offer insights or opinions on these in general and hopefully how they compare to one another?   DAC is a Audio Alchemy DDP 1 w the PS 5 and RAL made umbilical while transport is a Bel Canto CD3.  Thanks!
lcherepkai

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I have had Audio Sensibility "signature" level cables are they are absolutely excellent for the money.  The "Signature AES/EBU" uses really large 20awg OCC silver conductors that are twisted and inserted into a teflon tube (so you have almost no dielectric resistance that would normally happen with insulation.  They are combined with Furutech gold-plated XLR connectors with a custom steel shell.  The gold-plated will help compensate for that fast/bright silver and likely give you the best sound here (larger awg will give more powerful bass).

The Crystal Clear Audio magnum opus combines silver wire with the Oyaide Focus XLR connectors.  These connectors use a silver-plated over rhodium-plated pins and will definitely be bright and harsh in the high frequencies on a digital cable.  I would probably avoid this cable unless you have an extremely warm and laid back system.

As far as Revelation Audio, I don't know.  They don't publish what kind of wire (is it solid core?  What awg do they use?).  But one negative is their use of Neutrik XLR connectors, which are very poor and sound harsh and dirty (even on a digital cable!).  The Furutech gold-plated XLR are just so much smoother (yes, even on a digital cable!).

So, out of the three, my choice would likely be Audio Sensibility.
I have made about 5 different AES/EBU cables of my own. I used the Oyaide Focus XLR on a cable with 21awg OCC solid-core copper conductors. This cable definitely had a bright edge on the highs even though the conductor was copper. If you combine this with silver, it will become even more of a hard edge (in my opinion).

I have made a cable using 21awg OCC solid-core silver conductors combined with a Furutech FP-601M / FP-602F gold-plated XLR connectors. This is about as close to the Audio Sensibility cable as I have gotten. The sound is very nice with excellent resolution and good bass without any harshness or bright edge.

All of my cables used silver-plated copper braid for shielding.

Oh, one last note.  The Audio Sensibility cables I used were the "Signature" level XLR analog interconnects.  These were excellent.  However, I would avoid the "statement" level stuff because it uses stranded copper.  These actually perform rather poorly.
Gold plugs definitely obscure detail.  In fact, the Furutech gold-plated XLR connectors are very smooth sound, but man are they warm and slow!   However, when combined with silver wire, they are actually quite good!

I'm not going to 100% say that the Oyaide Focus on the digital cable will make your system have a bright edge.  It certainly did on my system, but my equipment is all fast  / high resolution stuff.  If your system is warm sounding, the Oyaide might not have a bright edge.