Audience AU24 SX XLR

Audience Au24 SX XLR Interconnects

Audience's Reference Standard — and One of the Great Values in High-End Audio

Some cables are good. Some are exceptional. The Au24 SX occupies a rarer category: cables that make you hear your system — and your music collection — differently than you did before.

This is Audience's flagship analog interconnect, and the product that the entire lineup below it has been building toward. If the OHNO gave you your first taste of what natural, uncolored signal transmission sounds like, and the Studio series showed you how far that philosophy could scale, the Au24 SX is where that journey reaches its fullest expression.

Three Technologies That Changed the Game

When Audience introduced the Au24 SX in 2016, they described it as the biggest transformation in cable performance they had ever achieved. Nearly a decade of critical acclaim and a continuous string of press awards suggest that wasn't hyperbole.

Three specific advancements define it.

Six-nines copper. The Au24 SX uses ultra-pure OCC copper refined to 99.9999% purity — six-nines grade. At this level of purity, the signal-degrading impurities and grain boundaries that affect lesser conductors are reduced to near-zero. What remains is a conductor that gets out of the way almost entirely, allowing the signal to pass with extraordinary fidelity.

Advanced XLPE insulation. Cross-linked polyethylene has long been the dielectric of choice in serious audio cable design, and the Au24 SX takes full advantage of it. With an ultra-low dielectric constant and minimal signal absorption, XLPE preserves timing, imaging, and tonal accuracy in ways that conventional insulation materials simply cannot match.

CRYO² — dual-stage cryogenic treatment. This is Audience's most demanding and distinctive process. First, each individual component — conductors, connectors, and dielectric — is treated separately. Then, after the cable is fully assembled and tested, the entire finished cable undergoes a second cryogenic treatment. This two-stage process realigns the molecular structure of every element in the cable, improving signal integrity, harmonic resolution, and long-term stability in ways that single-pass treatments cannot achieve.

What It Sounds Like

The Au24 SX is remarkable for what it doesn't do. There's no added warmth, no softening of transients, no brightening of the treble to create an artificial sense of detail. What you hear instead is a more complete and unobstructed version of whatever your system is actually capable of.

Imaging is holographic — instruments occupy precise, three-dimensional locations in a soundstage that is both wider and deeper than you may have heard from your system before. Bass is tighter, better defined, and more tuneful. The treble is extended and refined without a trace of glare. And underlying all of it is a sense of ease and flow that is the hallmark of Audience's house sound at its best.

Listeners consistently report that familiar recordings reveal things they hadn't heard before — not because the cable adds anything, but because it removes obstacles to hearing what was always there.

Built for Balanced Systems Too

The Au24 SX XLR is a true differential balanced design, built from the ground up for balanced operation rather than adapted from a single-ended cable. If your system is fully balanced, this matters — and the sonic results reflect the care Audience put into the design.

The RCA version features a proprietary solder-free connector design that eliminates one of the most common points of signal degradation in conventional cable construction.

The Recognition

The Au24 SX has earned continuous recognition from the audiophile press since its introduction, including:

• The Absolute Sound Editor's Choice Award — every year from 2017 through 2023
• The Absolute Sound Product of the Year — 2017
• Enjoy the Music World Premiere Review Award — 2016
• Stereo Times Most Wanted Component Award — 2017
• Named "Best Value in High-End Audio" for upper-end cables by The Absolute Sound, November 2023

That last recognition, nearly seven years after introduction, is worth noting. It speaks not to the novelty of the Au24 SX but to its enduring relevance in a field that moves quickly.

Where It Fits

The Au24 SX is the right interconnect for a well-resolved system where the cables themselves have become the limiting factor — where you know your components are capable of more, and you want to find out how much more. It also makes an excellent anchor for a system built around a single reference-quality pair of cables, surrounded by other Audience models where budget demands a step down.

If you've been working your way up the Audience lineup, the Au24 SX is the answer to the question every cable below it quietly raises.

Specifications & Options

• Conductor: OCC copper, 99.9999% purity (six-nines)
• Insulation: XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene)
• Treatment: Exclusive CRYO² dual-stage cryogenic process
• Connectors: Solder-free proprietary RCA; true differential XLR
• Construction: Directional — follow signal flow indicator
• Terminations available: RCA or XLR
• Available lengths: 0.5m · 0.75m · 1m · 1.5m · 2m · 2.5m · 3m

Considering the Au24 SX alongside another Audience model? We're glad to help you find the right fit for your system.