[lonewolfny42]

First ....thank you Sezai Saktanber from SilverFi, and earlmarc/Marcus for the AC audition tour. It's nice to be able to sample the IC's in your home system...to see how they match up. I received the three IC's about two weeks ago. First impression....nicely built, light in weight. They are braided wire IC's...photo here.......the first is 3 wire's, the second is 5 wires, and the third is 7 wires. Here's a close up photo......from left to right...Elixir....Shaman....Phrygian IC's. I began first trying to hear a difference between the three IC's....to see which I thought sounded the best to me. The easy way....cdp, amp, speakers. Only other cable were the speaker cables....Tara Labs. Of the three, I prefered the Shaman....it being the most neutral to my ears. The Elixir...was good, but short on details. The Phrygian...more bass and details...but a touch too much. So...the Shaman it was. I did play around with different combo's of these IC's, adding in a preamp, and different other equipment....sounded good with whatever I used....but I was after just one IC...back to the Shaman. Having decided on the SilverFi Shaman IC, I gathered a few other IC's that I use...here's a photo of them.......left to right, Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition I, Zu Warmouth, and VH Audio Pulsar. I also gathered about ten different Cd's to test with....rock, jazz, classical, Cd's we use at the Rave's. Once again, back to the simple system....Phillips CD-80 player with volume on remote, Butler 2250 amp, Tara speaker cables out to a pair of Candence Audio Avita speaker's......simple meaning any changes in IC's, and you can hear it. Now...what was I looking for. I love detail's in the music....I WANT TO HEAR IT ALL. I want depth, and a clear soundstage. I want to hear dynamics's....and I want it clean....not fuzzy. I want clarity all across the board....like a bullseye. OK...their not audiophile terms....but that's what I'm looking for. Music...lets take Dead Can Dance - Memento....track #2..."The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove" Zu Warmouth...good details, good bass, but highs stand out. VH Audio Pulsar....smooth, but seems veiled, lower impact in bass. RSA Midnight Silver....more bass, deeper, clean-clear details...more depth than Warmouth or Pulsar. SilverFi Shaman....deep clear bass, less than RSA, very good details,more control of sound...difference between RSA and SilverFi...mainly amount of bass. But they were close. In the music....deep bass to start, sitar, percussion and cymbals (in background), horn instrument, bongo's and vocals....alot to listen for. I scored it...a tie...between RSA and SilverFi...similar sounding...but slightly more bass to RSA...but SilverFi was cleaner. Deciding to drop the Warmouth and Pulsar, and another head to head with RSA and SilverFi. The Music....Ben Harper - Fight For Your Mind...tracks 5 and 9...."Gold To Me' and "Fight For Your Mind". Listening for the details....chime in "Gold"....sleighbells in "Fight"...and the overall sound. This is a good CD....many good tracks....alot to listen for. The RSA....once again good bass, able to hear deep and hear the details that I know are there. Clean...wide...dynamic...nice !! The SilverFi....good bass, a tad cleaner  - but focused, good soundstage, clean, dynamic. Hmmm.....very similar....but to my ears the RSA did have a higher output of bass, but the SilverFi had a cleaner bass. Heard details...excellent with both IC's. To tell you the truth....I'd be happy with either....both good IC's....just slightly different. So....there is a difference...comes down to price. The RSA is at least twice the price of the SilverFi Shaman...and both are similar in sound, except the RSA did have more bass coming thru, but the SilverFi had good bass, which was a little clearer. Both excelled in detail, dynamics, soundstage....things I like. Final word....I liked the SilverFi Shaman IC... ....good quality, good performance, good value $$$ wise. I'm happy I got to try them out. And....since its a tour running here on AudioCircle...I think you should give these three SilverFi IC's a try in your system....see what you hear...its not voodoo....just listen. Chris Link to the SilverFi site.....for further reading.

[zybar]

Very nice write-up Chris.

George

[lonewolfny42]

Very nice write-up Chris.

George

For a two finger typist...not bad. Thanks George...

Chris

[Captain Humble]

Very nice write-up Chris.

George

Ditto
Jeff

[earlmarc]

Thanks for the feedback, Chris.

[woodsyi]

I have been listening to these cables for about 10 days now.  First, I want to confess that I am somewhat of a cheapskate when it comes to cables.  I am of the opinion that actively triamping my speakers with moderately priced ICs give more return than driving the speakers full way with a pair of good and expensive ICs.  I was originally going to use my bedroom system to test these since it only requires one pair of IC between a source and the integrated amp but for the fact that my wife wouldn't let me turn it up while she slept -- an hour or two after she and my daughter goes to sleep is the only time I can do this kind of listening. So, I tried these between my source and the preamp on my main system.  Consequently, the Silver Fi cables were being used in conjunction with my other ICs.  I use 4 pairs of these http://www.rscables.com/page4.html between my preamp, active crossover and the amps. The three Silver Fi models clearly presented different sounds relative to each other.  I also compared my RS cable Illume (my current IC), Audioquest Jaguar http://store.acousticsounds.com/browse_detail.cfm?Title_ID=12267&section=music and Stout-interconnects http://stoutinterconnects.bravepages.com/index.html.  I told you I was a cable cheapskate.  aa  This is what I found. 

Music used: Ileana Cortrubas singing Dupuis le jour in Charpentier's Louise with Placido Domingo, Joan Sutherland singing Caro nomo in Verdi's Rigoletto, Rebecca Pidgeon singing Spanish Harlem, Wayra playing Wind Beneath My Wings with a Peruvian pan pipe, Arthur Rubinstein playing Chopin's Ballade No. 1 and Ray Brown playing Just Friends.

Among the Silver Fi models, my findings mirrored Lonewolf's when I use my ss output Northstar DAC.  Elixir was a bit gritty and with rolled off  highs and lows.  Shaman was very real with good extension.  Phrygian showed promise of very liquid sound but was over saturated with Sopranos singing some high musical passages, giving them a bit of metallic tinge.  Things changed when I put the newly acquired Paradisea DAC which has a tube buffer.  Phrygian worked better with this DAC.  The overly saturated highs become clear and airy, the midrange was just right and the bass was precise.  Listening to Phrygian here makes you realize that Shaman had a layer of fine grit over it's presentation.   

Illume was very similar to Shaman, but it presented more tonal consistency whereas Shaman showed a bit more robustness in the mid range.  It, too, displayed a little of graininess compared to Phrygian with Paradisea.  Jaguar was good with either DAC displaying a good heft to the sound even if the highs weren't as extended as Shaman or Phrygian.  I don't know if the DBS feature makes this more immune to differences in gear or not, but it alone sounded the same with either DAC.  Stout cable was surprisingly decent given it's price.  It had good extention with both DACs but overall sound was leaner than the others.  It worked better with Paradisea than Northstar since Paradisea sounds fuller than Northstar albeit with less extention and less precision.  If I were buying a Silver Fi Cable, I would choose Phrygian with Paradisea DAC and Shaman with Northstar DAC. 

Of all the cables on hand presently, I think I will stick with Illume not because it is better than all the others which it is not but because I already have them.  I don't think the differences are great enough to warrent the cost of changing so many cable.  If cost was not an issue, however, I surely would like to try a whole lot of other Silver Fi models, of which there apparently are a legion of models, to see what works the best with my system.  I think Silver Fi cables are priced very reasonably and commensurate with their performance.  They sure are very good looking and sturdily made cables. 

What I got out of this exercise is that ICs in general really can work differently with different associate gears.  I don't know what makes them different but there are audible differences.  Since sonic difference doesn't necessarily correlate with price difference, I am always looking for synergistic bargains out there for my system.  Isn't this a great hobby?

P.S.  I am a sucker for tonal timber and concentrated on what I hear the best.  I apologize for neglecting other critaria like imaging, soundstaging and so forth.  I am not sure I would be good at them anyway. 

[silverfi]

A note on my interconnects used in the AC. SilverFi USA. audition tour:

We have 3 IC's on the tour and they are the "Standard" versions (recently SilverFi introduced improved versions:  Mark I and Mark II). My current preference and recommendation goes for the Mark II versions which offer improved transparency, better tone and dynamics.

Elixir interconnect is currently discontinued. So it might be appropriate to discard it from the audition classification.


Warmest regards.


Sezai Saktanber
SilverFi Cable Atelier
http://silverfi.blogspot.com