Eletech Inferno Cable – Dante’s Dream Of Devilishly Good Sound

Eletech Inferno Cable – Dante’s Dream Of Devilishly Good Sound

Eletech Inferno is a high-end cable made for headphones, with a really thick gauge and design, excellent reliability, and superb aesthetics, priced at about 750 USD, with a good length, proprietary connector jackets, but configurable for any headphones and IEMs. It will be compared to the default cables that Audeze LCD-5 comes with, the default cable that Kennerton Thror comes with, and Ares Audio Daybreak (160 USD). It will also be paired with Audeze LCD-5 throughout the review, since it is the headphone I wanted to combine it with, and where it makes most sense, given the price ratio between them. 

 

Introduction

Eletech is a highly innovative designer & atelier of boutique high-end audiophile cables, and the kind of company that makes high-end flagship cables on a daily basis. They don’t only make those cables, they refine cable technology in Singapore, and have been doing so for years now. The company has unique products in their store, and Inferno is a cable that’s the culmination of months of ceaseless experiments and prototyping. Inferno is a unique product even for them, because where they usually have a multi-core cabling geometry with thinner wire strands, optimized for IEMS and portability, Inferno is designed with a full 21 AWG gauge, allowing for much better transparency and a whole new level of performance compared to everything available on the market at the moment. 

Like most high-end audiophile cables, Eletech cables are made on order, and they feature the connectors, length and design that you want, so anything is possible, you just have to inquire about it. The company moves fast and provides excellent service, along with craftsmanship, their cables being quite a bit better assembled and made than most competition I’ve seen to date. 

It should be noted that I have absolutely no affiliation with Eletech. I’d like to thank Eletech for providing the sample for this review. This review reflects my personal experience with the Eletech Inferno Cable. Every opinion expressed is mine and I stand by it. The purpose of this review is to help those interested in The Eletech Inferno Cable find their next music companion. 

 

Product Link

Official Link: https://elementechnology.com/collections/dante-series/products/inferno

You can grab one from www.amazon.com here: https://amzn.to/3M3AeH2

If you’re in the UK, you can grab one from www.amazon.co.uk here: https://amzn.to/39RNuQT

And if you’re from Europe, you can grab one from www.amazon.de here: https://amzn.to/3P6bKPr

 

Packaging

First things first, let’s get the packaging out of the way:

I expected there to be a package, but my unit came with zero package, just the cable in a plastic sealing bag. Retail package might be different and this is just a review unit though. I really wish that their leather storage case for IEMS was not a limited edition thing, because I really love the way it looks and wish more music lovers could enjoy one. If you can still grab one, it looks really sweet, and you can check it out here: . No one asked me to say and write this, just my personal opinion (I can still have those). 

 

Build Quality/Aesthetics/Functionality

We have to start by saying that Eletech debuted in 2019, and their ateliers have enjoyed popularity so far, thanks to their unique designs in both geometry and aesthetics used so far. The new Dante series, from which Inferno is also part of, is a fresh approach to headphone cables in general, and the Eletech team experimented over two years until Inferno’s Duality geometry became real. This new geometry is a new approach for headphone cables, and it performs really well for large, hard to drive headphones in particular, where you have strong amplifiers, retaining all the emotion, all while refining the treble and giving headphones a blacker background. 

The aesthetics of the cable are not random, and its entire design follows the dark setting of Dante’s Inferno belletristic poem, with the low-profile, dark obsidian Y Split having a matte design to absorb light rather than reflect it, combined with the gunmetal finish of the connector housing to give it a classy yet rugged finish. Although the company usually has weightier Y-Split designs, Dante has a light and geometrically cut Y-Split that draws inspiration from human bone and teeth cuts. 

The cable has dual shielded layers, and has a full dual core design, where each signal path is fed by a completed 21 AWG gauge core, made of high purity copper. There are 2 different strand sizes in each single core. The Inferno cable has a thinner strand of copper to bolster the high frequencies, and a thicker one to bolster the mids and the lows. Following things to reach the right balance, the treble is elevated, and not smoothed or rolled off, like we typically see with copper cable designs, while the low end impact and pleasing natural note decay is also preserved perfectly from the source to your headphones. 

The cable also has exceptional shielding against EMF and other interferences, each strand having its own inner layer of ceramic shielding, while the outermost layer has an OFC shielding that rejects electromagnetic interference rather well. In actual honesty, this is why we see the cable so thick and having just two halves blended, we see the other shielding, not he inner 21 AWG conductors that carry the audio signal, those being hidden deep beneath the layers of isolation, which Eletech calls the Flexi Max Isolation. As a personal note, in all honesty, the engineer in me is literally yearning to learn more about why cables can change the sound, but I doubt I’d make cables personally, since I can barely solder well. 

Back to Eletech Inferno, subjectively, it is a really thick, heavy cable. It carries next to no microphonic noise, being too heavy and having too soft of a surface to carry microphonic noise, or noise like when it brushes against your clothes. The cable is way too heavy to be used portably, but I had mine fitted with a 4.4mm balanced connector for this very purpose, and to allow me to test how well it works with headphones like LCD-5 driven by a portable music player. The Y split can be unscrewed with just a tiny bit of force, but it serves no purpose to try removing it. 

Inferno also has a somewhat high weight, but somehow it settles on my chest, being ergonomic in actual usage. Even if it costs a bit more, I would highly recommend getting a variant that is physically longer, you’re likely to use this with a desktop setup, and you don’t want to run out of length, especially after you invest quite a bit on the cable. I generally like it with Audeze LCD-5, it doesn’t pull on their connectors, and I like the usage of the setup, plus, I prefer its sonics enough to use Audeze LCD-5, with Cyrus One Cast and Eletech Inferno, even if using an adapter from 6.3mm SE to 4.4mm Balanced, from ddHifi, the DJ65B. The sound is better even like this, so the cable has its own sonic performance it ain’t even about the balanced vs Single Ended Output, but sonics talk is best left for the sonics part of today’s review. 

 

Sound Quality

The sonics part have been taken with the few headphones that I have with the mini XLR connector, including Audeze LCD-5, the ones I spent the most time with testing the inferno, but also Kennerton Thror, Audeze LCD-XC, Audeze LCD-MX4, and LSA HP-1. While the cable is quite barebones, I feel like the sonics of the Inferno are really good, and despite me not having an attachment to its name, the effect it has on Audeze LCD-5 are so high that at times I feel it gives them an entirely different character. I noted in my video review, that I felt Inferno doesn’t really change the overall tonality of LCD-5, but either my mind wasn’t quite used to it, or it suffered a bit of burn-in, because with ulterior testing I found that Inferno has quite an effect on LCD-5, and it changes the sound of them into an entirely new one.  

The first effect that I noticed is that of a much blacker background. I noted a really black background in my original review of LCD-5, but adding the cable changes things quite massively. It is like instruments gain a new level of depth and definition, with much better separation and a wider soundstage. The differences cannot be attributed to biased expectations, since I did the swap over 20 times before writing my impressions, as I couldn’t believe my ears either. We get a cable like Inferno, for 700 USD, which can give LCD-5 a full mini upgrade, to make it an even better headphone. I mentioned some tonal changes now, that I had the time to assess the sonics more, and Inferno helps LCD-5 sound deeper, fuller, and less bright. It feels like, with the original cable, LCD-5 is more midrange forward, and brighter, with a more sparkly presentation, while Inferno refines that sound, giving LCD-5 a deeper, fuller presentation, with better bass, less treble edginess, and better overall clarity. 

The bass of the Inferno is clean, deep and full. With all headphones tested, it tends to thicken, deepen and extract more bass from music. This is really welcome with both slower, deeper sounding music, as well as quick and technical sounding music. Inferno doesn’t slow down the bass speed, and doesn’t prolong the bass note decay, rather increasing the impact and body each instrument has. With songs by Jill Tracy, you can hear each piano key press having a fuller volume, and a more euphonic presentation. Inferno has a super drastic effect on rap, electronic and EDM music in general, since it tends to give this music better reach for the bass, more bass presence and quantity. It should be known by now that I don’t test equipment with acoustic music for the most part, as I listen to far more electronic, metal, rock and processed music, where most equipment struggles a lot, especially with distortion. One of the best examples of how clean and clear, yet how deepen the bass can be with Inferno is Sub Urban – Cradles, a song that has super heavy bass notes, with super impactful presentation to each sound, but also some surprisingly sparkly effects, and a thick, smooth voice, LCD-5 being able to play the bass better, and the sparkle in the effects better with Inferno than its default cable. 

Speaking about the midrange, Inferno is super effective at refining headphones, giving them a much blacker background, better instrument separation, and a more euphonic presentation. A fiend who was really passionate about music once told me that copper is the only material you should ever want to use for your cables, as long as the headphones and the source are well made, and at that time I didn’t quite understand what he meant, but Inferno makes it obvious that you can get such an incredibly musical, smooth yet detailed, clean yet textured presentation when a cable is well made and pairs well with your headphones. Audeze LCD-5 is once again the main suspect, mainly because I’m also working on their full written review, so it makes sense to have them at quick access. Songs like Two Feet – Flatline sound really emotional, deep, and have a wide presentation, with a huge space between the guitars in the background, the bass guitar presented up front, and the voices, which are spread all throughout the stage, as the artist intended for this song. 

We have a nice, sparkly, refined treble with Inferno, and although you’d expect it to have something of a roll-off, but Inferno shows all the brightness a song has, all the air and the sparkle, but in a more refined way, compared to the default cable of most headphones. In fact, the treble is more pleasing with Inferno, it doesn’t cut away on the resolution and the energy, it keeps everything as it should be, but makes things smoother, the character more splashy, and wet, making music easier to enjoy. I love the overall instrument separation and musical note weight, which is held in the treble too, the cable giving better depth to music, not necessarily longer decay, but more weight and depth to each musical note. 

 

Comparisons

While it is unusual for me to compare the cable with the default cable of some headphones, the main reason I’m doing this is because those headphones already cost quite a bit, so their default cable is a factor you need to consider when purchasing them. They all come with good cables in theory, and it should make a fair comparison, plus the 160 USD Daybreak from Ares Audio is the only other high quality cable that has the right connectors for me to swap and test how Eletech Inferno sounds like compared to the others. 

Eletech Dante Series – Inferno vs Audeze LCD-5’s Default Cable (750 USD vs 4500 USD) – Most of this review has been about how Inferno can improve on LCD-5’s sound, but their cable was already superb in performance, and switching between it and older Audeze cables, or between it and the cables for Kennerton Thror, the LCD-5 cable is already better both sonically and construction wise. The cable for LCD-5 is also better than Ares Audio Daybreak sonically, it has better dynamics, a blacker background, and better musical note definition, although it is a bit brighter too, which may be why Inferno, on a more neutral headphone like Audeze LCD-5, improves their sound quite a bit, and makes them easier to listen to, more enjoyable, and more fun. 

Eletech Dante Series – Inferno vs Kennerton Thror’s Default Cable (750 USD vs 3000 USD) – Thror has a pretty weak default cable, and I required a second one, because the original broke on me, so when switching to Inferno, I could hear a pretty huge improvement, in resolution, detailing, and musical note weight, just as Eletech promises on their website. I always thought that the reason the cable companies know how they cable influence sound is not necessarily experimentation, but the design is made as such. With a warmer, thicker, heavier sounding headphone like Rosson RAD-0, Inferno may not be as welcome, but for more neutral headphones like Thror, it breathes new life into them, making them heavier, smoother, improving their bass and overall background, which becomes darker, giving better depth to their sound. Thror is not a bad headphone in any way, and it is quite amazing, but its specific tuning can be harder to swallow for someone coming from a heavier sounding headphone. 

Eletech Dante Series – Inferno vs Ares Audio Daybreak (750 USD vs 4500 USD) – Daybreak is an excellent cable to replace the default of more entry-level headphones, and it has superb price performance ratio, but it isn’t exactly designed for high-end headphones, and when you reach the levels of Audeze LCD-5, you get better cables by default, and investing in a cable like Eletech Inferno results in better dynamics, better details, instrument separation, depth and imaging. 

 

Value and Conclusion

The price of Eletech Inferno is about 750 USD and above, so it is quite a steep price for a cable. This is why I see it best paired with a high-end headphone such as Audeze LCD-5 or Kennerton Thror, rather than more budget options like LSA HP-1. When you spent about 4500 USD on a headphone like Audeze LCD-5, and the cable can improve its sonics quite a bit, make them smoother, make them deeper, and refine their treble, you surely should at least give it a chance, Eletech has good policies, and you may end improving on that performance quite a bit, making the price of the cable more bearable, in relation to the rest of the setup. I don’t usually say this, have not heard any USB Cable, Power Cable or other cables to influence sound yet, but Eletech Inferno is a great way to improve the sound of great headphones, improving your overall experience and giving you an even better audition. 

The build quality surely won’t betray, and I can imagine the capacitors on your amplifier will dry, and that Audeze will manage to release a successor to LCD-5 before your Eletech Inferno gets damaged or becomes obsolete. It is built to last, a bit heavy, and quite thick, but carries no microphonic noise, and it is nice to the touch, plus it already has superb performance, so you should not have reasons to look any further, even if you switch your headphones in the future. 

At the end of the day, if you’re looking for a cable with superb depth, superb soundstage and instrument separation, with a weighty musical note presentation, refined treble, and excellent dynamics, plus a really stable and trustworthy design, Eletech Inferno is an excellent option, and especially if you have Audeze LCD-5, it will be a great way to improve their sound, and while not needed to fully enjoy them, it will feel like condiments feel in good food, it will help things get from excellent to even better.  

 

Specifications 

Dual 21 AWG OCC Copper

Duality Core Design

Dual Shielded (Inner Fibre Ceramic ; Outer OFC Copper net)

Dual High Purity OCC Copper Blend

Eletech Customised Y-Split and Connectors

FlexiMax Insulation

 

Product Link

Official Link: https://elementechnology.com/collections/dante-series/products/inferno

You can grab one from www.amazon.com here: https://amzn.to/3M3AeH2

If you’re in the UK, you can grab one from www.amazon.co.uk here: https://amzn.to/39RNuQT

And if you’re from Europe, you can grab one from www.amazon.de here: https://amzn.to/3P6bKPr

---

--- Please remember to stay safe, and always have fun while listening to music!---

 - If you have a dime to spare, please donate, and help us! It would make the day brighter for me and my wife- 

---

Full Playlist used for this review

We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature.  I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5

--- Contact Us ---

---