This is the last of the CAF 2024 products, but not the least. Esprit, pronounced”eˈspriː” or “ɛsbrɪ́j” meaning Spirit or Soul, is a French cable and speaker manufacturer that has been around for over 20 years. Their foray into speakers is relatively new, though their work in the cable industry is extensive. The line I have in for review is the Celesta Line, which falls near the middle of their range. This level gets you pure copper wire, symmetrical structure, air insulation as well as silver plating. The cables I have to audition include 1-meter power cables, 1-meter RCA/Phono cables, and 2-meter speaker cables with spade terminations on both ends. So let’s get into the review and see how they stack up.

Unboxing and Setup

I guess there is not a whole lot to set up about cables, though I can talk about setting up the listening tests. The unboxing is a nice experience you get a sleeved box, and inside, you find your well-protected new cable(s). Once you get them out and take off the covers, you are ready to start replacing your current cables. Do be sure that you buy the correct terminations for your application, which mostly applies to power cables and speaker cables. The spades may not fit all speaker or amplifier posts. The spades are larger than many vintage amps will allow for, such as my MC250. However, I do have adapters to connect banana plugs and larger spades. RCA and XLR should be fine as they are standardized connections. Power cables can differ from device to device; be sure to check the IEC type so you get the right style.

I always recommend sticking to a brand and line of cables throughout your system. However, I also know that is not always possible due to budget constraints. Many of us upgrade individual cables or pieces of gear one or maybe a couple at a time. For this reason, I tried swapping individual cables out to see how much performance, if any could be gained, I did this by using my Audio Quest Forest Cables and replacing them one by one with the Celesta cables. I also compared the full loom to the Synergistic Research Foundation cables.

Sound

I’m going to start this how I would start any cable or accessory review. As this is a contentious topic for some reason, my view on the subject is as follows: if you hear a difference, I believe you, and if you don’t hear a difference, I believe you. I can’t tell anyone what they hear or don’t hear, I can only tell you what I hear and my experience. Also, I think it is worth mentioning that putting 40,000 dollars worth of cables into a 5,000 dollar system is likely not wise; they won’t fix an issue with your system, nor will they make a bad-sounding system sound incredible. With that out of the way, yes, I was able to determine a difference in sound, especially over the Forest cables from AudioQuest, as I would hope they are given the build quality difference alone. The differences between the Celesta and Foundation SX are more subtle,e and we will explore why and in what ways they differ. The thing to note is more so how the cables affect the sound than what they sound like, in other words, do they enhance certain aspects of the music or hide something? The way I look at cables and accessories is a method to fine-tune your system after you have the rest of your system set up.

Compared to AudioQuest Forest and Viborg Power

When I first got into the world of Hifi, I bought AudioQuest cables from my local dealer, as that is who they carry. I think their entry-level stuff is fine. The Forest line is good for the price, but if there is one thing I noticed with their brand, it is that they have quickly diminishing returns. The boutique brands offer much better quality products for similar or even lower prices, and Esprit is evidence of that. While the Celesta line is significantly more expensive than the Forest line, it is much nicer than the comparably priced AQ cables.

Individual Cables

So as I mentioned, one of the things I was curious about was what happens if I replace one cable at a time until I have a full loom of Esprit cables. Almost as if I was upgrading one at a time to see if there would be immediately noticeable effects or if the limits of entry-level Forest cables overshadow any gains. I started the same place I started back when I first started buying cables beyond what came in the box, with speaker cables. I think many of us find speaker cables to be the most tantalizing upgrade in the cable world. Ironically with what I know now, it is the last thing I would replace, and due to that, I also tried the test, starting with power cords and working out to the speaker.

I played a very familiar piece of music while switching out cables, again at first moving from the speakers inward and then in the reverse order. The track I played was “Shores and The New World” (instrumental) by Levi the Poet. I streamed the Track from Qobuz to the Teac UD-701N. It is a powerful piece with great dynamics and deep layers that build as the song progresses, with a massive drop before the ending. It is both an excellent piece of music and a test track. Just Switching the Speaker Cables netted very little change. The only thing audible was the highs became a little more open, less veiled. Changing the RCA Cable that connected the UD-701N to the Java Single Shot, revealed additional improvements to the sound. The top end gained more openness, and the midrange had more dimension and became more robust. The bass also had more refinement, though the impact did not have a dramatic change. The Last cable to change out in this chain was the power cords to the Java and Teac. Now, I never bought AQ power cords as by the time I got around to upgrading my power cords, I was not interested in anything AQ offered, and my budget landed me at Viborg. Putting in the Power Cables completed the loom, and the final sound was a more lifted top end with better clarity. The midrange had better depth and resolution,n and the low end was better defined.

Going in the reverse was somewhat similar in that to really take advantage of any cable upgrade, the rest of the chain should not be holding it back. That said, the biggest difference in a single cable change that I experienced was with signal cables. These cables, especially from turntables, handle extremely delicate signals that can be much more easily influenced by both outside forces as well as cable construction. Much like the previous test, even the best signal cables can be limited by a cable later in the chain, such as your speaker cable,e so keep in mind if you upgrade over time to not get discouraged if a single cable doesn’t make as much difference as you may have expected. Most dealers will let you audition cables at home so you can try a whole loom to see how your system will sound when you have all the cables, and you can have some peace of mind in knowing what your end result will be.

If you have to purchase only a couple of cables at a time, my recommended order would be as follows:
1) Turntable Phono Cables
2) digital and/or analog interconnects
3) Speaker Cables
4) Power Cables

Compared with Synergistic Foundation SX

This was a much closer race, the Foundation SX line of cables is additional evidence of better value from the boutique brands. The Celesta line is a bit more expensive than the Foundation SX line for comparable cable types and lengths, but they occupy a similar space in the market. I do like the look of the Celesta better than the Foundation SX, the singular body of the cable does make cable management easier, though there may be advantages to having the positive and negative separated. One thing that I would like to mention is that some devices, especially dual mono have the left and right I/O separated to each side. While the split leads on the Celesta cables are fairly long, they may not reach on all devices. I can’t say for sure, though, if there are performance gains, as I don’t have any otherwise identical cables to test.

Listening to various pieces of music back to back, I was able to pick out subtle differences between the sets of cables. I played Laufey’s Night at the Symphony on the VPI Prime through both the Avenger phonostage with both sets of cables. The Celsesta cables are a touch more open and a little brighter than the Foundation Cables. I would attribute this to the Silver used, in my experience, silver, as well as rhodium, can be a bit brighter than copper or gold used in cables. Throughout the mids and low end, differences were more difficult to determine, both cable sets performed well. I would say I prefer the bass a bit more with the Foundation SX Cables in my system, though again, it is quite close. Vocals are very important when enjoying an album like Laufey’s, and how natural they sound is of the utmost importance. The timbre of vocals can be swayed in ways that make them more or less realistic, and cables are the final tunning of that metric. With the Celesta Cables, Laufey sounds as if she is here in my room. She has a light voice, and the Celestas lifted her voice up and gave it space. With the Foundation SX cables, her vocals have good dimension and texture but also a bit more weight and warmth.

Verdicts?

Ultimately, which cable is best is dependent on your goals and your system. I like both the Celesta and Foundation SX cables and would be happy to own either. Both are worth their price tags, and both are far better than my AudioQuest cables as well as the other AudioQuest cables I have heard at similar price points. The build quality on both sets of cables is good. The Celesta terminations are nicer than the Foundation SX, in my opinion, but they, on average, cost about double, so that is worth consideration. The Celesta enhances the top end more in my system as well as being airier, whereas the Foundation SX has more weight in the low end and lends towards a slightly warmer timbre. In my experience with cables, manufacturers tend to voice their whole line similarly so moving up a line will tend to refine the sound you are getting but tend to have a similar overall tonality. I have heard several different lines from SR, but Celesta is the only line I have as much familiarity with from Esprit, so it is possible it is not the case for them, and other lines may offer different tuning to your system. I highly recommend trying various cable systems in your Hifi before making any decisions, as you should do with any piece of gear if it is possible to decide what will work best for you.

Another thing I would like to add is that to get the most out of any power cable and your system in general; I recommend some type of power conditioner. I am currently using a Synergistic Research Powercell 8 SX, and I am quite happy with it. There are plenty of options out there, and again, what will work best for you will depend on what power issues you may be dealing with. So if you have signal noise coming through the power, removing that noise is critical, using a higher-quality cable won’t help unless it has some type of built-in filtering. Clean power is the foundation of clean sound.

Specs:

Celesta Speaker Cable: (2 Meter) $1299 – $6099

• 1680 pure copper strands /0.08
• Symmetrical electrical structure
• Twisted asymmetric dielectric
• Air insulation
• Partial screen on air
• Esprit connectors
• 40 micron multi-layer copper/silver plating

Celesta RCA Cable: (1 Meter) $949 – $2149

• 720 pure copper strands / 0.08
• Symmetrical electrical structure
• Twisted asymmetric dielectric
• Triple insulation on air
• Partial screen on air
• Esprit EH100 Connectors
• 10 micron copper/silver multilayer plating

Celesta Phono Cable: (1 meter) $799 – $1149

• Available in DIN/RCA, DIN/XLR and RCA/RCA (RCA/RCA Tested)
• Symmetrical electrical structure
• asymmetric dielectric
• Full screen
• Esprit EH50 Connectors Esprit EH50 / Esprit Connectors
• Multi-layer copper/silver plating 5 microns/
• DIN connector with silver phosphor bronze contact

Celesta Power Cable: (1 meter) $549 – $1199

• Asymmetric electrical structure
• Twisted asymmetric dielectric
• Esprit connectors
• 40 micron pure copper multi-layer plating / IEC

Associated Test Equipment

• Marantz SR7009 (Preamp)
• McIntosh MC250
• Java Single Shot
• Rotel CD-11
• VPI Prime with Quintet Red
• VPI Forever Model 1 with Shyla
• SOTA Pyxi Phono Stage
• Avenger Phono Stage
• Sonus Faber Sonetto V
• Vienna Acoustics Bach Ultimates
• Philharmonic Audio True Mini Monitors
• Paradigm Defiance V8 Subwoofer
• Synergistic Powercell 8SX
• Synergistic Foundation SX (Full Loom)
• AudioQuest Forest (Full loom)
• Akiko Audio Triple AC Evolution

Conclusion

I am sold on the Esprit cables, the Celesta Line that I had in for review offers great value for the money. You get silver-plated terminations, as well as custom architecture and in-house hardware. The sound quality exceeds expectations and the build quality is top-notch, if I had the budget, I would be adding these to my system as an additional reference point to compare other cables to. I can not say if these are the right cables for your system but I can say they are worth talking to your dealer about and auditioning them to see if they are a good fit. I have nothing negative to say at this price point, and that would likely be the case even if they cost a bit more. If you’re willing to try something new and open to the idea that cables can and do affect the performance of your system, Esprit should be on your list to try out.

For more information about Esprit, click the link below:

https://www.esprit-audio.fr

For American Distribution, Contact Playback Distribution below

https://playbackdistribution.com

Disclaimer:

Playback Distribution provided Hifi Chicken with a demo set of Esprit Celesta cables for the purpose of this review. Esprit, nor Playback Distribution nor any affiliate paid in part or in full in exchange for this review.