Sound Impressions
Each of Renata’s two thick black wires contains “35 cores of liquid nitrogen single crystal silver + 196 cores of Furukawa silver copper alloy plated silver” using litz construction.
In other words there’s lots of tiny wires in there with a healthy mix of copper & silver, so how’s it perform?
Super impressively. This is the sort of cable you choose for raw performance, accepting slightly unwieldy ergonomics as the price. Renata is a real resolution monster, ideal for fleshing out tiny microdetails.
It’ll do what you expect of a heavy IEM cables – improving technical performance like enlarging soundstage dimensions, boosting dynamics & deepening bass. Renata achieves this without being as bright as other cables, so it isn’t ‘cheating’ by boosting treble massively to shove ‘fake detail’ at you.
Bass in particular is boosted nicely by Renata with most IEM I’ve tried it with, which is an area a lot of cables can struggle to provide improvement.
However Renata doesn’t have the widest soundstage out there, instead emphasising stage depth & dimensionality, which means the stage doesn’t feel artificially stretched as it can on some silver cables.
So you end up with a deep stage populated by instruments with pinpoint precision, each occupying their own space with lots of blackness around them.
IEM Comparisons
I tested Renata with several IEMs at hand to get a feel for how it alters their sound signatures.
Penon Quattro – 4xDD (USD $399)
I’m slightly disappointed Renata only grows Quattro’s stage slightly deeper but no wider, yet by adding a blacker background with sharper imaging things definitely feel more three dimensional.
The overall tonality is slightly brighter and slightly less warm & bass focused with a bit more upper midrange. Dynamics & resolution both increase impressively.
I do prefer the warmer tonality of Quattro’s stock cable but Renata creates a greater feeling of precision.
Penon Turbo – 6xBA (USD $549)
I immediately notice Renata really tightens up Turbo’s bass, which becomes a bit more impactful.
Dynamics are greatly improved, the soundstage is deeper and slightly taller but not any wider, and note weight is better.
Renata makes the Turbo stock cable sound quite compressed & closed in by comparison.
FiR Audio XE6 – 4xBA 1xDD 1xEST (USD $3899)
Renata is slightly brighter than XE6’s stock cable, though I find the tonality isn’t dramatically different.
Again I find Renata doesn’t widen the stage but does deepen it to create a more 3D feeling. The background’s also blacker and dynamics are improved. Bass also feels more impactful.
Resolution is definitely higher, and individual instruments feel separated more cleanly in their own pockets of space to make XE6 feel even more technically capable.
Page 1 – Introduction, Packaging, Ergonomics & Build Quality
Page 2 – Sound Impressions & IEM Comparisons
Page 3 – Cable Comparisons
Page 4 – Conclusion
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