Cabledyne Silver Reference RCA review

Bigerik

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I have to start this test with a confession. I’m not much of a cable guy. Sure I use them - Hard to run a stereo systems without them, of course. I’ve even run many high quality and high dollar sets, but it’s never been something I put a lot of time and thought into. I knew that quality was important, but I was not one to fuss much over my selection of cables or interconnects.

I had first learned the difference between interconnects when I was persuaded to try some Grover Cables in place of the Kimber PBJ’s I was running. I didn’t expect to hear a difference, and I did the swap to be a good host, but I was shocked when the Grovers sounded noticeably cleaner and smoother than the PBJ’s. And yes, all the contacts were good and clean before the swap. However, I could never find the enthusiasm in myself to play too much with cables. I just kept what I thought was good and enjoyed it.

When the opportunity to test the Cabledynes came up, I must say I approached it with some trepidation. I was running an updated version of the Grovers, between my Underwood Marantz DVD-2900 and my Manley Stingray, that was driving my lovely old Spendor SP 1/2e’s. I was not entirely happy with the sound though. Yes, it was about the best sound I had ever had, but I was fighting some extra upper midrange energy in my system. Not that it was unlistenable, but it was just a little “hotter” through the upper mids than I preferred. I had done some minor tweaking to correct it, but I figured I needed some mellower tubes in the Stingray to balance things out. Where the trepidation came was because conventional wisdom suggests that silver cables would accentuate the area that I was the least happy with in my system. I expected a silver cable to make that upper midrange energy even more noticeable. I feared this might not be a good time!

Per the manufacturers recommendation, I let the cables burn-in in my system for more than 50 hours. Between my work schedule, and no desire to leave the space heater that is the Stingray running constantly, it took two weeks to get to that point. Then I settled in for some listening.

My first impression on seeing them was that these cables were amazingly well made. As a long time Grover cable user, I was used to a somewhat more pedestrian build quality. I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw the Cabledynes. These are some very attractive, very well built cables. They are not flashy in the “look at me”, garden hose way. I hate cables that are so big they are hard to use, or even cables that are so stiff they want to lift the gear off your shelf. Another pet peeve is connectors with a death grip on your jacks. Is this stuff really necessary? From a usability perspective, the Cabledynes got it just right. The connectors grip well, without any worry that your jacks are gonna come out of your gear when you unplug them. The cable is flexible enough to use easily in my rack. Well done, Cabledyne. Why can’t more cable companies do this so right?

What I haven’t yet addressed is how they sounded. As I said, I started into this test with the worry that they would not match well with my system. Even worse, I thought they would take an existing problem, and make it more noticeable.

The Cabledynes had about 60 hours on them, I figure, when I started listening. The first cd I tried was an old favorite, Simpatico, by Suzy Boggus and Chet Atkins. I must have listened to this album about a thousand times of the last two decades. This is not an audiophile cd, but a well recorded standard release. Before the Cabledynes, I had heard a touch of hardness with this cd, so I figured this would be a good indication of what might come. I settled in to listen, trying hard not to concentrate too much on differences, but rather to just enjoy the music. I have to say I was surprised when I started hearing little difference that I hadn’t heard before. Sounds seemed both clearer, and more distinct in space. Chet’s guitar had more clarity and just seemed more real. And Suzy’s voice? Just beautiful. It took a bit of listening before I realized that the extra upper middle energy I was concerned about wasn’t an issue.

I tried a bunch more cd’s. The new Nat Kind Cole Story SACD. The Skydiggers Road Radio. The Blue Shadows On the Floor of Heaven. Dave Brubeck Time Out K2HD. The Emperor Quartet Hors D’Oeuvres. All cd’s I know and love. And over and over again, I heard the same thing. More detail in a musical, not “HiFi” way, and the harshness in the upper mids is definitely reduced.

Overall, I must say I was very pleasantly surprised by what I heard. I’ve never viewed cables or wires as being something that changed the sound of a system dramatically. For me, the effect has usually been subtler; more a way to fine-tune an already nice system, and squeeze the best out of it. Going in, I was expecting little difference, as I already had some interconnects I really liked. Actually, as I stated previously, I was worried that there might be a slight worsening of the issues I was dealing with in the upper mids. What I got instead was more clarity, less harshness and an overall more musical system. With the improvements I heard, and the great build quality of these cables, I give the Cabledyne Silver Reference my highest recommendation. These are truly great interconnects, and they won’t be leaving my system anytime soon. Only down side of this test is that now I’m thinking I might have to invest in a matching set of speaker cables!


Big thanks to Ed at Cabledyne for making this test possible.
 
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Isn't it great that we can still have preconceived notions shattered like that?

Thanks for the review.

p.s. Did you remember to post this to Cabledyne's product page on Amazon?
 
Isn't it great that we can still have preconceived notions shattered like that?

Thanks for the review.

p.s. Did you remember to post this to Cabledyne's product page on Amazon?

Thanks Ernie.
I did remember. Just haven't done it yet. :)

Edit: Done.
 
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Good stuff, Erik. Sorry I didn't notice this thread until now. And now for those speaker cables....
 
Sorry I didn't notice this thread until now.

Erik I'm sorry too, somehow this one slipped by me until tonight or I would have read it and commented right away.

Good review, and I have to say, even though I'm firmly in the cable "believer" camp, I'm a little surprised they made such a large improvement, but not at all surprised that there was a significant one (those two are not always one and the same IME). Now, what have I been saying? Silver, yes. ;) But it has to be done "right," and from the reviews so far it seems this company has pulled it off.
 
I have to say...I'm happier with the Cabledyne XLRs than I have been any cable I've used. They're excellent. And I'm not a "cable guy" either. A means to an end for me, not a destination...but these really helped my system out, and solved a problem that until I made a comparison with what they replaced, I didn't know I had.
 
Glad to read this thread. An admitted skeptic, I also am quite open-minded to this sort of thing. I've been reeding up on various types of copper and the extrusion processes, cryogenic treatments, plating, skin effect, and use of solders with and without lead/silver.

I recently spoke at length with Bobby Palkovich- founder of Merlin (I now own Merlin speakers, by the way- review to come later down the road), and picked up a wire brand he had recommended for use with solid state amplification (his recommendation was different for tube). I also have a collection I've put together of pre-owned products- Tara Labs, Audioquest, Kimber, Supra and a few others.

Plan is two weeks from today to have a few AKers over to do some speaker-wire swapping and see what we think. The Merlins are an exceptional speaker, and if ever there was a speaker I've owned that I felt could be influenced by a cable choice, it is these.

This Cabledyne cabling on paper looks like an excellent contender with some serious performance potential, granted my system is at that level now.

Thank you for an open-minded review.
 
I have to say...I'm happier with the Cabledyne XLRs than I have been any cable I've used. They're excellent. And I'm not a "cable guy" either. A means to an end for me, not a destination...but these really helped my system out, and solved a problem that until I made a comparison with what they replaced, I didn't know I had.

I want to say thank you for this comment as well. I'm not what anyone would consider a "cable guy" either, but with the science behind materials and applications I've kept as much an open mind to it all as a weary fella can. If such things as temperature and minute ingredient changes in cooking can sometimes have dramatic and varying end results, I find it totally possible that it can apply to our hobby and things such as caps, wires, the stands one uses, obviously tube rolling, etc...
 
Erik,

Thank you for your detailed review and I appreciate your efforts. I am pleased that our silver RCAs have increased the musicality of your audio system.

Ed Bowman
 
If the load was a static DC variety, no big deal. But it ain't. It's anything but. Phased, transient, frequency dependent, current vs voltage all in the same time frame (song), it's a mess to transmit. And, it's not self correcting and error recoverable. It's being listened to by someone who will not tolerate "glitches" (us). It's something to be admired when they get it right :)
 
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