The Breadth of Existence – A Review of the Effect Audio Thor Silver II Bespoke

The Effect Audio Thor Silver II Bespoke 8-Wire is an impossible collection of contradictions. It is bold and robust of body, yet utterly clear. It is big and dynamic, without any loss of transparency. A hint of warmth infuses a smooth, airy presentation. Nowhere to be seen is the cliché of the cold, sterile silver. The closest you get is the wonder of profound cleanliness.

Treble is gentle, smooth, and perfectly extended. It does not roll off, nor is it accentuated. It’s simply opened up, showcasing your IEM’s full potential. Likewise, the bass is as big and powerful as ever I’ve heard it, but also more resolving. There’s new agility, which lets the low-end textures shine through. All this bass is controlled, with greater sub-bass than mid-bass. There’s just somehow more of it than normal. Vocals are neutral, without any added color, and possessed of impeccable smoothness and refinement. They sound fuller, due to being couched between superior lows and highs, but ultimately, they are as your IEMs make them. Only a pristine version of that.

Soudstage is the largest of all my cables, exhibiting greater width, depth, and height. Separation is breathtaking, layering, phenomenal. Resolution and detailing best everything I’ve come across so far. This is both the most technically capable and most musical cable I own. Making me a pure silver fanatic.

Compared to the stock 4-wire configuration of Thor Silver II ($399, Review HERE), the Bespoke sounds clearer in the treble, with more air and headroom. I would even go so far as to call it more resolving, but that’s hard to determine, due to the slowness of swapping cables. What I can tell with ease is how expansive the soundstage becomes. The 4-Wire is quite large, but the 8-Wire is altogether grander. The bass, also, takes on new dimensions, sounding fuller and more open. As obvious as this may seem, the Bespoke 8-Wire is a complete upgrade to the 4-Wire. Everything I love about Thor II, Thor Bespoke does better. It gives you more. More Thor!

Effect Audio Leonidas ($799, Review HERE), was, up until this cable arrived, the pinnacle of transparency and clarity. It is such a clean, liquid wire, with no small amount of bass impact, and gobs of musicality. Leo was my favorite pick for the clarity monster known as tia Fourté. You’ll notice I said “was”. That’s because Thor Bespoke is superior in all aspects. It is clearer. It is cleaner. The highs extend further, and the lows have greater body. This 8-Wire fiend resolves better, AND delivers a richer, heavier sound. Poor Leo just cannot compete. I feel for him.

Indeed. Thor II Bespoke is my most versatile cable. Prior to this, I used VASTLY different cables for my Empire Ears Legend X and 64Audio tia Fourté. For LX, I went with the warm, thick, and fun Tri-Copper by plusSound. It really brought the animal out of those twin DDs. I preferred the savagery to the refinement. But Thor II 8-Wire changed that. It manages to be the most refined cable, while still unleashing those Weapon IX bass drivers like no other cable can. You get startling mid-range lucidity, with far reaching treble notes, all while losing nothing in the fun department. Everything is more vivid, robust, yet unmistakably refined.

For tia Fourté, my desire has always been to push it’s natural traits as far as possible: Soundstage, resolution, detail-retrieval, and transparency. Leonidas was the best match I thought I’d ever hear. But when you take all of that, increase it by a notch or two, and throw in full-bodied, grandiose bass presence, it’s hard to look back. Those tia drivers are freer, smoother, and more pure of tone. Vocals are naked, massive, and rendered out to the finest degree. That dynamic bass driver is brought to remarkable scope, ushering in heretofore unknown warmth and lavishness to the profile. Fourté, to put it bluntly, sounds its best with the 8-Wire Bespoke. There is no two ways about it.

Of all the praise I’ve heaped upon the Bespoke 8-Wire, this must be the most impressive: It’s the cable I choose for two extremely different IEMs, from which I want extremely different things. I’ve never known one cable to do everything the best. I honestly didn’t believe that was possible. Thor II 8-Wire proved me wrong. The only signature I cannot recommend this for is an exceedingly bright and fatiguing one. While Thor may not exacerbate harsh highs, it does little to subdue them. For everything else, however, this cable reigns victorious.

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