Swapping in the Audience FrontRow felt like stepping into a dedicated vocal booth. I would like to be very clear right out of the gate: if your musical diet consists primarily of female jazz vocalists, singer songwriters, or any genre where vocals are the absolute star of the show, you might want to stop reading here and just demo the FrontRow.
From the very first track, the FrontRow pulls off a rather startling trick. It grabs the vocals, pulls them front and center, and renders them with a crispness that is chill inducing. There is a specific magic happening here that makes voices sound startlingly present, stripping away veils until you are left with just the texture of the performance. It offers a level of clarity from the midrange all the way to the top frequencies that simply eclipses the two cables I’ve discussed so far (at a cost, of course).
The FrontRow isn’t just about the tone, it’s also about the interplay. This cable nails cohesion, I repeatedly felt like I had better insight into the subtle communication between musicians. It also maintains PRaT, the toe tapping factor is fully intact, but it does so with a polish and transparency that goes beyond the previous contenders.
However.
Coming from the thunderous, floor-shaking low end of the Grimm and the juicy and fluid bass texture of the AVOptions, the FrontRow initially feels lighter on its feet. When I first started listening, I immediately noticed a reduction in pure bass quantity. The bass is very taut, fast, and well-defined, but there is simply less of it. If you are running bookshelf speakers and want to squeeze out every last drop of low end extension, this will likely be a dealbreaker.
That said, the brain is a funny thing. After leaving the cable in for a few days, that initial sense of “missing weight” was greatly diminished. The presentation started to feel incredibly well-rounded and coherent. You realize you aren’t missing the low end information, you’re just adjusting to a different presentation. On my floorstanders, this slightly leaner presentation actually worked nicely to clean up some room interactions, but it’s a characteristic you need to be aware of.
In terms of spatial performance, the soundstage has tremendous depth and width, projecting well beyond the physical boundaries of the speakers. Interestingly, I found there is less air between the individual instruments compared to the other two cables. This is not at all a criticism, just a note on the flavor of the presentation - the FrontRow presents the music as a tightly woven fabric rather than a constellation of isolated points.
Ultimately, this cable is a masterclass in midrange clarity and vocal realism. It might not bring on the seismic slam, but for pure, unadulterated connection to the singer, it is in a league of its own.
Next up, we enter the heavyweight division.
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