Eletech Purgatorio Review – The Final Frontier

Sound –

General Remarks –

Eletech market the Purgatorio as offering a transparent yet lush sound with an emphasis on spectacular soundstaging. From my experiences with the cable over the last few weeks, I would agree with those sentiments. The Purgatorio is tonally transparent yet offers a bolstered, empowered midrange voicing. Staging is indeed enhanced, and on technically capable headphones, achieves a noticeably more holographic quality.

Immediately, lows are more visceral, dynamic and textured. The low end sounds grander but not more forward, an important distinction. Chiefly, as a byproduct of bass being deeper-reaching, notes appear slightly thicker and more weighted despite the Purgatorio not being a bass enhancing cable. Rather, extension is enhanced leading to improved dynamics and a more distinct, defined sub-bass slam. Though bass is tonally similar to most SPC cables, being neither lean nor warm, the presentation is different due to notes being far more concise and controlled. Mid-bass achieves a cleaner sound, a byproduct of quicker decay. Bass is far more textured overall and complex passages benefit from larger stage space and increased separation. Overall, there is a large jump in note definition and overall resolving power of fine details without introducing notable tonal colouration. Bass simply sounds more effortless as if all qualities have been dialed up to 110%.

Within the midrange, the Purgatorio provides an evocative yet restrained performance with excellent technical performance and it should come as little surprise that its presentation is one of my favourites. I am hearing a bit more tonal colouration here though again, the changes are subtle. This lends the cable an overall transparent yet technically-orientated character. Once again, both tonality and note body are about neutral. There’s a slightly leaner character in the lower-midrange providing enhanced bass/midrange separation and a touch more lower-treble and upper-midranging providing a slightly more vocal-forward and articulate sound. There is minimal tonal colouration but a noticeable jump in space, separation and overall resolution. Vocals assume a stronger centre image and are pushed one step forwards. They sound a little breathier but also noticeably more vivid due in equal parts to the cable’s more revealing presentation alongside its higher resolving power. The midrange carries an awesome sense of extension and openness. As it is achieved through improvements to soundstage size and resolving power rather than a raw bright tonality, listenability and coherence remain excellent performers.

As aforementioned, the top-end is a touch more present, providing greater bite to the leading edge of notes. Extension is also noticeably improved meaning that overall, treble appears more discerning and less compressed. Notes carry a more natural sense of shimmer and decay. Though crisp and defined, this means treble doesn’t sound thin or unnatural. There is an uptick of upper-treble presence providing greater sparkle. Combined with the slightly crisper lower-treble, fine and micro detail retrieval is excellent, portraying a noticeably more nuanced and controlled presentation. The Purgatorio, when compared to a standard factory cable appears to add an extra dimension to the treble. Each detail is more fleshed out with finer nuances and the overall jump in soundstage and layering only further enhances this quality.

Speaking of which, soundstage is a highlight in Eletech’s marketing and for good reason. Firstly, dimensions are enhanced in all aspects. While I was impressed by the width, so too is depth royally impressive. However, it’s the imaging that really adds that magical spice to the presentation. The Purgatorio offers a more layered sound with much sharper directional cues. Transients are quick, aiding holography, the background is dark, drawing focus to each individual layer. The cable epitomizes that three-dimensional quality that all great headphones possess. Add on exceptional separation due to its transparent sound and you get a highly focused image with clearly defined details and a truly immersive sense of space and direction.

Pairings –

HEDDphone

Meze Elite: The Elite offers a nice SPC cable from factory yet benefits immediately from the Purgatorio. Bass has a more concise quality with the Purgatorio due to a deeper-reaching sub-bass alongside a quicker decaying mid-bass. It helps to clean up the slight warmth bloom of the Elite whilst introducing a pacier and more energetic quality into the headphone. The midrange too is cleaner and clearer. Vocals are brought a touch forward and there is a little less roominess. Separation is greatly enhances as is articulation.

The treble too is slightly more present overall, especially with regards to the leading edge of lower-treble notes and micro-detail higher up. The background remains very dark and clean despite this. There is a noticeable jump in resolution and fine detail presentation. While the soundstage is already fantastic on this headphone, the Purgatorio pairing takes it to another level especially with regards to imaging. Layering is hugely improved, direction is sharper and more holographic, separation is notably improved as well.

Audeze LCD-5: The LCD-5 is a neutral leaning headphone and therefore, is complemented well by the Purgatorio. The Eletech cable introduces extra pizzazz to the presentation, expanding width wider and aiding the perception of individual layers. Bass is more extended and more dynamic, sub-bass especially has greater slam and impact in general is tighter. Notes are a little bolder and thicker but remain tonally neutral. The midrange benefits from improved separation and a slightly more extended voicing. I didn’t notice a huge tonal shift here but rather, the increase in space, ether and separation between each element. The top-end becomes a little more energetic, with the lower-treble sitting one step forwards, details are more apparent to the listener with a more defined leading edge.

However, as opposed to its effects on the Elite, I notice a cleaner and darker mid-treble with a neutral and linearly extending upper-treble on top. This lends notes a more grounded and coherent presentation with greater body and texture without sacrificing sparkle in the top registers. Treble sounds less dainty and more substantial overall. The soundstage unsurprisingly, also benefits greatly from this pairing. Width is very noticeably improved. Alongside a more distinct background/foreground separation, this provides a far more prominent sense of layering with more defined layers and greater distinction between them. Separation is notably improved simply due to the increase in space, there is greater separation between each element. This makes fine details easier to perceive.

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