Silver smoothie
What, an
interconnect review, finally? Yes, dear readers, SUJESH PAVITHRAN, in a rare
moment of desperation, tangles with some silver wires CABLES,
interconnects, accessories, tweaks ... now, why don't we write about them
more often in AudioFile, you ask? Because, after one of us is done
with a piece of hi-fi or AV gear, there's just so much time left for a quick
breather before moving on to the next subject on the rack. Any detour from a
well-planned system, as say a cable review would entail, and there goes the
schedule .... TIME
FOR A WHIPPING . . . the Sonic Art Silver promises good sound and sterling
silver. Of course,
some of you may insist that's no excuse, so here are some brief thoughts on a
pair of interconnects that, incidentally, is not directly available at any
local outlet. The revenge of the harassed hack, you think, and you could be
right. Anyway, read on .... Sonic Art
Audio Systems is a 10-year-old Australian company that makes a limited range
of loudspeakers and cables/interconnects, the latter for both commercial and
domestic use. There are also a couple of esoteric valve amps in the stables,
about which you may read more of in the future, but that's another tale. The Silver
range of wires comes in various configurations and lengths, but we'll limit
ourselves to the basic, metre-pair of RCA-terminated analogue links, simply
called the Sonic Art Silver Analogue Interconnects. I was loaned a pair by
the owner of Sonic Art during one of his visits to The brochures
make much ado about the use of silver -- a high-end choice -- in all the
wires. Silver-plated connects are common, but the Silver uses sterling
silver, saturated into "6 nines" copper. Each conductor, designed
to be perfectly round, is 0.77mm in diameter and each cable features four
individual multi-strand cores, insulated with MilSpec Teflon, and shielded
with silver braid ... all this, made to US military grade. Each finished
run is further shielded with white Teflon and RCA-terminated, although
there's an XLR option. Note that Sonic Art is a firm propagator of the controversial
theories of cable direction and settling in. I tried the
Silver connect in a variety of situations, using the pair both as source-amp
and pre-power link; my resident Ixos 101 Silver Bullet and Nordost Blue
Heaven provided comparisons, both being around the price range. Clearly,
the Silver is a very carefully thought out piece of work -- it isn't as
forward as the 101 nor does it exhibit any of the top-end grain of the Blue
Heaven. Instead, there's a languid, unhurried air about this interconnect. The lower
frequencies are very musically coherent -- not cavernously deep but taut and
articulate. Vocals and the midrange sectors sound a tad dry but full-bodied,
so you find the singer possessing more realism, the instrumental projections
more subtle than the other wires. The Silver is
pretty focused too, tidying up the soundstage, and almost magically centering
the lead instrument at just the right spot. Despite the somewhat relaxed
presentation, the Silver doesn't lose out on detail or resolution. The connects
work very well in near-neutral systems with just a tinge of the animal in
them, settling any background congestion and allowing instruments to breathe
a bit more spaciously. While the 101 can "shout" in certain
systems, the Silver is more in control of the proceedings, without losing
sight of the inherent nature of the recordings. All in all, a
pretty neat piece of work, and if you're looking beyond the norm -- that is,
what's common here for this price -- then you may want to gamble on the Silver
... and no, I'm not lending the review pair out to anyone. Model:
Sonic Art SILVER LINE RCA Interconnect Price:
AUD$199.00 (RM499) per metre pair, excluding shipping Available online at
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