What I purchased this time is the AET EVO-F125. It is a cut-to-length speaker cable at the lower end of the AET range, priced at ¥720 per metre, and uses a multi-strand twisted construction of premium virgin oxygen-free copper. The AET EVO-F75, EVO-F125, and EVO-F200 differ only in thickness (conductor diameter), with the number in each model name indicating the cross-sectional area in square millimetres (mm²). ※ The successor model EVO-C125 was released at the end of 2021. It is expected to replace the EVO-F125 once existing shop stock runs out.
At first glance it looks like a completely ordinary two-conductor parallel construction of the sort that has been around forever, and its appearance is so unremarkable you might easily pass it by — yet, true to AET form, this too is a Japanese-made cable. The white PVC jacket has a slightly tacky feel, and stripping it with scissors was a little awkward, so I ended up using a 2SQ cable stripper (with a 1.25SQ stripper, a fair number of conductor strands were nicked off). According to the manufacturer: “Designed with electrical and mechanical characteristics tailored for audio use. High-quality outer sheathing also suited to in-car environments.” There is also a colour variant with a black jacket, the EVO-F125S.
AET EVO-F125 — Sound Quality Review
The moment I connected it, my ears were drawn to its high transparency and the crisp, sparkling, cool resolution of the high frequencies. The character is strikingly similar to the AET 6N14G — a comparable early-range AET model I reviewed some years ago — and the poised, refreshing, delicate, transparent tonal quality, reminiscent of a highland morning, carries a sense of refinement that belies both the appearance and the price. Piano in particular is rendered with a strikingly clear, hard-edged, glittering beauty. There is a degree of bloom to the sound image that you would expect from a multi-strand construction, but if anything it seems to contribute to a sparkling, crisp freshness rather than work against it.
A direct comparison with the 6N14G might well reveal differences, but when I put it into words, the review ends up reading almost identically···. It is an unplated OFC pure copper conductor, and the sound takes on no strange colouration. That said, the bloom around image outlines — inherent to multi-strand construction — will presumably increase as the gauge goes up···. When using a bi-wiring configuration, deliberately choosing the thinner EVO-F125, or the even thinner EVO-F075, for the tweeter side should yield a cleaner sound with the high frequencies sharpened further still.
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What strikes you about the EVO-F125 is its remarkable resolution, quite unlike what you’d expect from an entry-class cable. The sound has a lustrous sheen to it — beautiful tone, rich ambient information, a sense of moisture and detail, a refined quality to the timbre… It is somewhat reminiscent, in sonic character, of AET’s insulators, the SH-2014B/SH-2007B (the B brass type). It has a certain musicality as well, though the impression is less one of the cable imposing its own character and more one of it simply passing through whatever musicality the source material contains. As for weaknesses — put charitably, there is a slight gentleness that shaves just a little off the sense of speed, and the soundstage feels somewhat passive, with the vertical spread remaining rather vague. Given how thin this cable is, I know better than to expect too much in terms of projection or frequency extension, but the sonic clarity and resolution at this class are simply in a different league — so one ends up wanting still more from that refined sonority.
What I happened to acquire this time was the EVO-F125, but with small bookshelf speakers such as the QUAD L-ite2 or audiopro Image12/Image11, 1.25SQ feels a touch thin, with the sense that a few notes go missing — so for single-wiring, I think the EVO-F200 with its 2SQ and greater number of cores would be the better choice, as the bass extension broadens further and the overall balance improves. (In terms of thickness, the EVO-F200 probably corresponds to the successor of the 6N14G as well.) The tonal compatibility is particularly good with my resolution-focused sub-system, the ONKYO A-1VL × audiopro Image12, and I feel it is more than capable of serving as the reference speaker cable for that system.
On the differences from the new AET EVO-C125 (to be expanded)
What I purchased this time was the EVO-F125, released in 2014, but towards the end of 2021 — seven years later — its successor, the EVO-C125, was released. Incidentally, the two are nearly identical in retail price and appearance, yet the naming of the OFC (oxygen-free copper) conductor has changed: from the EVO-F125’s “Premium Virgin OFC” to the EVO-C125’s “Specially Refined Classic OFC”.
In the above review by Ippinkan, the EVO-F125 is described as follows:
The tonal character is hard — [abridged] — the highs and lows extend and the sound becomes more defined, yet the fundamental character of the music feels somehow thinner than before; personally, I find myself preferring the balance of the pre-EVO models
This matches my own impression — the sound is cool, hard-edged, and distinctly modern in character, and I would say it is not particularly well suited to those seeking softness or warmth. In my own environment, however, there is a relatively generous amount of resonance, so it does not come across as dry. With the new EVO-C125, AET has announced that it aims for “a rich, moist midrange and bass with excellent warmth, evoking the feel of vintage sound“ — which suggests the tuning may have shifted away from the hard, modern tendency towards something more classic and mellow. As for just how much has actually changed, I intend to order one at some point and make a direct comparison. ※ I will add notes here when I do.
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～Summary～
The AET EVO-F125 is an entry-class cable, yet its character is that of a high-resolution sound that gives a straightforwardly Hi-Fi impression. For this reason, it is not recommended for audio systems where the overall high frequencies are already too harsh or where there is a sense of distortion, as it will tend to amplify those weaknesses. However, for systems with a slightly soft sonic tendency, or budget-priced systems that lack note density and feel narrow in range, it should prove to be a speaker cable that lifts freshness and clarity in one go. Sonically it shares a similar character to the ROTEL RDA-06, and while compensating for that amplifier’s tonal weaknesses at both frequency extremes, it conveys the amplifier’s performance straightforwardly — the result was a compatibility so good it made me smile.
In terms of musicality too, there is nothing lacking, and despite the parameters being tilted towards clarity and resolution, the music never becomes dull — it combines an expressive quality that is bright and free of any odd bias or artificial colouring. The old AET 6N14G left me with considerable doubts about its musicality at the time, but with the EVO-F125 I feel no such dissatisfaction — whether that is because my environment has changed since then, or because the cable itself has genuinely evolved, I cannot say. That said, the EVO-F125 I purchased this time made a frankly very positive impression, and personally, among current cut-to-length cables available for under 1,000 yen per metre at retail, I feel that the AET EVO-F200 and the EVO-F125 can both be called entry-class best buys, in terms of sound quality as well as ease of use.
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Moving up from these in AET’s speaker cable range, the next tier — EVO-1302F / EVO-1302S / EVO-1304F / EVO-1304G / Evidence SP / SIN SP EVD and so on — jumps straight into finished terminated pairs costing tens of thousands of yen, putting them firmly in the category of serious pure Hi-Fi products for mid-range to high-end enthusiasts. Perhaps partly for that reason, the cables introduced here deliver a quality that shows no deference to the costlier models above them, even within the structural cost constraints of a low-priced two-conductor parallel design — so if you are in any doubt, I think you simply cannot go wrong by choosing the AET EVO-F75, EVO-F125, or EVO-F200.
Category: Speaker CablesCategory: AET
