Stealth Audio MLT hybrid speaker cables

Cable Asylum

Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

Last month I posted a review of the Stealth Audio PGS interconnects that had, literally, redefined for me what was possible in sound reproduction. I later purchased a set of Stealth's top-of-the-line MLT (multi-layer technology) hybrid speaker cables. I have been listening constantly and passionately to these cables for more than a month, and am ready to report what they have taught me.
The system i am using these cables in is composed of an FIM
dedicated outlet feeding an Eichmann Express 2 power cable that goes to an ExactPower 2000 regenerating power conditoner.
My source is a highly modified Modwright Philips SA1000 SACD player with addtional upgrades such as Superclock II and power supply, new CD/SACD chips, more Blackgate pieces where necesary, etc. I chose the Philips (which replaced my Sony SCD 1, and an Audiomeca Mephisto II) due to it's inherent musicality. It just sounded more like music to me than anything else I had heard or could afford. The Philips drives a highly modified Response Audio modified Dared 845 SET intergrated. Bill Baker virtually guts the Dared and rebuilds it with V-caps, Reikins, silver wire, WBT and Cardas connectors, etc. Both the Philips and Dared are fed power by Eichmann Express II power cords.
On to the MLT speaker cables. I suppose the "best" previous speaker cables I ahd in my system (as measured by$$$) were the Nordost SPM bi-wire spekaer cables or the NBS Monitor I speaker cables, both of which had great sound and even greater cost. My all-time favorite cables before the Stealth MLT were the
Acoutsic Zen Satori bi-wire that I used with Von Schweikert VR 4.5's and Magnepan 3.6 R's. It is when I decided to go back to tubes (the Philips has a tube output section) that I wanted to see if I could hear all the sound that was available. I realize now that if I would have known about, and purchased, Stealth cables years agao I would have saved thousands of dollars in equipment upgrades, and would have been immensely more satisfied with the equipment that I did have at any particular time. TAS has done a series of round tables on which is more important, the equipment upstream of the speakers, or the speakers downstream of the equpment. I feel that they are both wrong. It is the cables that connect the two that yield the most clarity and definition a system can provide. The PGS and Stealth combination are just such an example.
It is not that I am hearing things I have never heard before, though I am, it is that I am hearing the music the way it sounds in a concert hall unamplified, in a nightclub with just the voice miked, or at a rock/jazz concert with everthything amplified. To say that this is the most natural sounding cable I have ever heard is an underestimate. I have had at least one iteration of most cables maker's upscale cable, and these Stealth cables are in a class of their own. Soundstage front and back is wide, clear and perfectly delineated. Instruments have their full tone and resonance, especially acoustic guitars and cellos, two of my favorite instruments. YoYo ma was born to be heard on Stealth MLT cables. They seem to bring all sound whether bass, mids, or treble at the same time, with absolutely no smearing.. I was a firm believer in copper over silver, but these gold hybrid cables have a sonic rightness that I have not heard before. The closest I had heard before, in a friend's system was Siltech, but even those did not have the breadth of sound that Stealth has top to bottom. While these cables are not cheap, they do more than compete with cables that run into the stratosphere. I am reminded of a quote form a recent review of a Lamm tubed amplifier. The reviewer stated something like, "Bass was presented without boom or bloom. What bass was there was reporduced exactly as it had been recorded with no sonic signature of it's own." This is what I believe these hybrid speaker cables do with the entire musical specturm, reproduce it exactly as it was recorded, adding or subtracting nothing of it's own.
A final note is that I have had many interactions with Serguei Timachev, father and founder of Stealth cables. He is a consumate gentleman, a passioniate and driven audio engineer, and a man of more than his word. In today's world where I usually wait weeks to hear back from e-mails or phone calls, becuase manufacturers are too busy raking in profits, it is tremendously refreshing to be treatied as if I am an important customer, even if I am "small change" in today's market.
If you are looking to upgrade your interconnects or speaker cables, I heartily encourage you to give Stealth a call and try these msot unusual music makers. Good listening!

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

K&K Audio / Lundahl Transformers

[ K&K Audio / Lundahl Transformers Forum ]

Topic - Stealth Audio MLT hybrid speaker cables - thomasj 11:12:26 04/10/05 (2)

Re: Stealth Audio MLT hybrid speaker cables - Bob Olson 19:13:33 04/10/05 (0)

the one major problem with Stealth cables is.... - tonemaniac 12:14:19 04/10/05 (0)

You can not post to an archived thread.