December 2000

Silver Audio Appassionata Interconnects

by Jeff Fritz

Review Summary Sound "Detailed, yet delicate," with "none of the brightness some have associated with silver cables"; " The soundstage was well layered," imparting "a great sense of depth to music that is recorded in a way that captures the venue." Features "Eight ultra-fine-gauge silver conductors are braided in a geometry that is said to reduce field effects, and the air-core dielectric configuration is used because, well, air as good a dielectric as there is." Use Jeff heard lots of detail but "none of the brightness some have associated with silver cables," even with his highly resolving system. Value Top-of-the-line interconnects that "can take an already excellent system and improve it in some important ways."

Whether you are a politician or an audio reviewer, comments taken out of context can be misleading. This is, of course, most important when the subject involves national security and the like, but it can still be harmful to consumers when their hard-earned money is on the line. Having said this, I would like to make a couple of points clear based on my experience as a reviewer. First, cables do add their sonic signature to the sound of your system. No surprise. Since we cannot listen without them in the chain, we don't really know what our system would sound like without them. Therefore, we can conclude that every system is affected by their use in some way or another. This means that audiophiles must choose carefully in order to achieve the full performance of which their systems are capable.

But what I offer above is not really news to anyone. You can find reviews galore that tout similar views. The question is really one of magnitude. You should be skeptical when someone tells you that a system was transformed from sounding absolutely horrible to the next best thing to live music by the simple change of an interconnect. This does not necessarily mean that the reviewer was being dishonest in his or her evaluation. It could simply mean that the comment was not placed in proper context. The bottom line is that other components make more of a difference than cables. Your speaker selection, for example, will be a more profound determinate of the overall sound of your system than a single interconnect. Those who listen to a variety of gear already know this.

The cable

The Silver Audio Appassionata will not make your old Advents sound like Wilsons, but they can take an already excellent system and improve it in some important ways. The Appassionata is claimed to represent everything Silver Audio has learned about cable design. It is the company's most ambitious effort to date, which includes a full line of interconnects and speaker cables. The cable itself is constructed of what the company calls "Silver Silk" conductors. The eight ultra-fine-gauge silver conductors are braided in a geometry that is said to reduce field effects, and the air-core dielectric configuration is used because, well, air as good a dielectric as there is. The review set of interconnects was terminated with XLO balanced connectors, but Silver Audio also terminates the translucently striking Appassionata with locking WBT RCA connectors.

The cables are said to offer a shunt capacitance of 55pF and a series inductance of less than 100nH per meter, both at 1kHz for a meter set. Silver Audio offers a lifetime warranty on the Appassionata, which costs $700 per meter pair, and on all of their cables.

The sound

My immediate observation upon installing the Silver Audio interconnects into my system was that of resolution. Through the years I have usually preferred silver conductors used in interconnects rather than as speaker cables. Without any proof to back up the claim, it has simply seemed to me that silver is an excellent material for the more delicate signals between source and preamp, preamp and amplifier. Copper tends to be terrific in heavy-gauge speaker cables, especially in the bass, where high current is demanded. I was able to achieve a very detailed, yet delicate sound with the Silver Audio Appassionata interconnects in my system. This was noticeable on well-recorded acoustic music such as piano and guitar. Some of the better live music I have in my collection also benefited. The track "A Most Peculiar Man" from Simon and Garfunkel's Old Friends [Columbia C3K 64780] compilation illustrates this clearly. I could hear deep into the acoustic space, which gave me a profound understanding of what it was like to hear this song live. Such are the pleasures of high-end audio, eh?

No frequency-response variations could be detected with the Appassionata in use. I heard none of the brightness some have associated with silver cables. The detail was excellent, with none of the grain or etch you may expect with a highly detailed component. It would certainly be interesting to match this silver interconnect with a silver speaker cable. Would this be an over-the-top combination in terms resolution, enhancing the already excellent detail of my system even further? Or is the combination of the copper Harmonic Technology Pro-9 Plus adding a needed mellowness to the sound? Hmmm.

The soundstage was well layered, with distant sounds sounding, well, distant. This gives a great sense of depth to music that is recorded in a way that captures the venue. "Something More Than This" from the October Project’s Falling Farther In CD [Epic EK 67019] sounds three-dimensional. The Appassionata revealed the nuances that captured the essence of the music. Very convincing! The Appassionata will definitely please those of you who value excellent soundstaging capabilities, provided your electronics are up to the task, that is.

Comparison

Among the cables I've heard, the natural comparison in terms of price for the Appassionata is the Nirvana S-X Ltd. The Nirvana cable was used as a source-to-preamp connector in my SoundStage! review, while the Silver Audio Appassionata linked the preamp to power amplifier in this review. I can’t say if the different placement in the chain is sonically significant, but it is worth noting. There are quite a few similarities in these two excellent performers -- most notably, their high resolution. Both cables gave me an insider’s view of the performance. Highly detailed, never harsh, and tonally accurate sound can be had from either.

However, the Appassionata and S-X Ltd. are not interchangeable. The Silver Audio Appassionata is simply the champ when it comes to producing 3D sound. The Nirvana S-X Ltd. was no slouch, mind you, but it did portray some of the same recordings I used to evaluate the Appassionata in a more up-front, yet highly focused way -- but with not quite the palpability. One related characteristic is that of midrange clarity. The Nirvana interconnect was fully fleshed out in the midrange, providing an intimate feel. In comparison, the Silver Audio interconnect placed the performers slightly further away, hence the depth I spoke of earlier. This is a slight difference in perspective, but it could be important with certain recordings. Although these are not night-and-day differences between these two fine interconnects, it would be wise to evaluate both to hear how they interact with your components. Of course, this is always advisable.

Conclusion

The Silver Audio Appassionata is a relatively expensive cable. It does have some strong performance characteristics that will augment the right system. If you value a tonally neutral cable that has excellent staging capabilities and resolution, you must hear the Appassionata. The marketplace is crowded with excellent performers in this price range, but the Silver Audio Appassionata offers a lot and will prove to be at or near the top rung in many areas.

...Jeff Fritz
jeff@soundstage.com

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