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Model: | Silflex |
Category: | Cable |
Suggested Retail Price: | $100/6ft. |
Description: | Lifatech Toslink Silflex Glass Fiber Cables |
Manufacturer URL: | Lifatech |
Review by mr.bear on March 12, 2017 at 13:12:50 IP Address: 47.147.56.52 | Add Your Review for the Silflex |
I recently replaced a Monoprice 'deluxe' 2m Toslink with a Lifatech 6' Silflex Premium Optical Interconnect. The Silflex connects the optical output of my Sony UHP-H1 Universal Disc Player to a Lexicon MC-12. I found the Silflex distinctly improved the sound: it's smoother, less etched and edgy, with less annoying gunk that seems to equate to "digital artifacts" in my experience. SACDs sound 3-dimensional with a stable, deep soundstage that was missing before. The extraordinary build quality of the cable and the knowledge that it is highly engineered are worthy of note. The manufacturer claims a 470-strand glass fiber bundle and a fine optical polish. It's beautifully made cable in any case and extraordinarily flexible and light. The 6' Toslink cost under $100 delivered and arrived 2 days from my order. A comparison between this unit and the much costlier AQ glass cables would be interesting (with a sidebar about why AQ offer 7 different grades of cables, 5 of which are plastic!) I suspect the differences between the Silflex and the high-zoot AQ's will be evanescent. This Lifatech sounds quite good, delivering excellent cost/performance even in my modest-resolution system.
So who is Lifatech? Apparently a super-tech-y maker of medical equipment that incorporates advanced glass fiber optical cables. They claim 35 years of experience in the development and production of advanced medical stuff like "miniature pediatric bronchial scopes" etc. [Hope I never need one of them!]. "The optical borosilicate fibers utilized in all of Lifatec USA's products are manufactured by our partner company, LiFaTeC GmbH, located in Hüttenberg-Rechtenbach, Germany" First-class service from this small firm in upstate NY.
Is Toslink for you? It's not for everybody and not for every piece of gear. Some stuff, however, sounds better IMHO using Toslink than coax. If you want to find out you have to experiment and it's definitely worth owning a length of this Silflex to have around to play with; using cheap plastic fibers doesn't make for a reasonable comparison.
Product Weakness: | None |
Product Strengths: | Cost/performance, great sound, very flexible, excellent build quality |
Amplifier: | Adcom 5003 |
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): | Lexicon MC-12 |
Sources (CDP/Turntable): | Sony UHP-H1 |
Speakers: | Thiel CS3, Focal Cobalt sub |
Cables/Interconnects: | Lifatech Silflex Toslink |
Music Used (Genre/Selections): | Jazz Classical |
Room Size (LxWxH): | 30 x 20 x 10 |
Room Comments/Treatments: | none |
Time Period/Length of Audition: | 1 week |
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): | N/A |
Type of Audition/Review: | Product Owner |
rec by Duster , quite pleased
ET
ET
"If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seed" - Curly Howard 1936
...would you compare it to the performance of a typical digital coax cable?
The Lifatec sounds pretty good. Has resolution and 'bite' and satisfactory tonal discrimination up top. Tones are accurate and realistic.Down below is pretty good for an optical cable too. Reasonable amounts of weight conveyed and overall, rhythmically secure.
That said, the Lifatec / optical link trades away bass articulation and drama when compared to the I2S link (Blue Jean, CAT7). The 1704Ks' way with dramatic, unmitigated bass definition and 'sonic architecture' comes more to the fore with the I2S link.
I have some Belden 8042 coming soon, and can compare that alongside on the same DAC for more insight. I should also note that the I2S upsamples the signal to 96kHz to the DAC, which (to my mind) adds complexity and could make it worse (although easier on the digital filter, presumably).
UPDATE: drama and excellent inner resolution gaining ground with Lifatec in place. Bass still a little rounder and less deep than I2S. But tones more realistic and less 'noisy' than I2S. Interesting.
Big J
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
Edits: 03/24/17
Big J
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
Need to give the digital-to-optical circuits time to break-in I suppose, as I've never used them. I2S still reigns supreme but more time needed for extensive listening.
More defined and more clarity in the lower registers than I recall from optical. But much is changed in my system since then. Nice to have this alternative.
Big J
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
I have a one meter Silflex optical cable. I am very happy with its build quality and sound, especially for the price. I recommend giving them a try.
Remember, it's all about the music.
I've never read a report that another glass Toslink cable performs better than the Lifatec Silflex Glass Toslink cable, only that some prefer the more polite sounding (smoother) characteristic of POF (Plastic Optical Fiber) Toslink cables which tend to sound comparatively bloated, less coherent, less resolving than the Lifatec glass Toslink, IME. In some cases, it could be that a particular digital component features a poorly designed/implemented switch-mode PSU as the culprit, or caused by another aspect within the signal chain, or just a listener dependent issue/preference. YMMV
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