REVIEW: SoundSilver Cables Trilogy Cable

Model:	Trilogy
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$69.00 (introductory)
Description:	pure silver interconnects
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by jrb15 on January 26, 2011 at 00:11:22
IP Address: 71.156.34.160 Add Your Review
for the Trilogy

This is a remarkable product. I was looking over a thread at AudioCircle when I tripped over the fact that someone was manufacturing and selling silver cables for $69 on Audiogon. That any cable would be offered these days for so little seemed to me unlikely, but a couple of folks had tried them and had nothing but good, though measured, things to say. And so, I ordered a pair.

To jump to the end before I begin: the cables are ridiculously good. They genuinely do compete with almost every cable I've heard in my home. So folks are either cautious in public because they believe the cable police will take them away, or are simply afraid other folks will find out and Stewart--Stewart Prior is the maker's name--will be too busy to make more for them. And that's the epilogue: Stewart will accommodate as best he can custom orders.

This is like going back in time. Stewart is clearly a maker, not a manufacturer. From what I sense of him through an email exchange, I gather there's much more common sense and intuition called upon in the design of these cables than weird science. They've been sold in a couple of iterations. This last is called the Trilogy: I suppose because of how he configures the wires. The interconnects are made of a pure, soft silver. They don't look to me like they have much, if any, exotic shielding, nor slabs of teflon hugging the conductors. They're light, feel delicate, but certainly professionally prepared and presented. And the sound is . .. well there's really not much
to describe. You pretty much listen through them.

And that's been a rare experience for me. Three or four years ago I landed on a YBA preamp to drive my active ATC 50 speakers. And the dealer brought over all sorts of interconnects to try: from many of the usual players. The YBA/ATC combination is, it seems to me, always in a precarious balance: just colorful enough with the right interconnects both from the source to the preamp and the preamp to the amp pack in the speakers; but tipping too dark or too light in a heartbeat with the wrong interconnects. So I spent a few months or so going, like Goldilocks, "too dark, too light;" " too light, too dark." Not surprisingly, I ended up with YBA's own "Diamond" interconnect that listed at the time between four and five hundred dollars. The other cables the set up could tolerate were the Linn silver interconnects at, I think, just over three hundred dollars.

All the others--all by the way more expensive--exhibited a range of problems. Stewart's Trilogies, in my system, exhibit none: not too dark, not too light, not too bright and etched, not bass shy, not too forward, not too recessed, not too shallow a soundstage. Are they as good as the YBA Diamonds? That seems to me the wrong question. They are indeed a little different. The YBAs are a little more reserved in the upper mids, and, almost certainly as a result throw the sound stage a little further back. But listening to each, I never feel I'm listening to the cable, as I have felt repeatedly in trying almost every other. They both in the moment sound neutral and let the music pass and sort itself in a wide and deep space. I couldn't say which was right: though I could say which I prefer. That seems sort of beside the point. When I put the Trilogies in the system, I'm perfectly happy and listen to music. And that goes with the Chord Blu/DAC64 as well as the Linn LP12 and EAR phono stage. In fact, when I listen to vinyl, I keep forgetting I'm trying to evaluate the Trilogies and just keep listening to more LPs. I should add that in my upstairs near-fieId system of Exposure CD player, YBA Passion 100 integrated, and passive ATC 10s, the Trilogies might be even better.

I haven't written about audio in years, but I thought that someone needed to get the word out. The price of course can't last long. Even from a home workshop, you can't make a profit with a labor-intensive project at this price. And, while a number of relatively inexpensive cables are competent, Stewart's are different. I think the whole enterprise feels different.

So, to add a bit of cautiousness: I'm not saying these are the best cables you can find. I am saying that they are remarkably neutral, have good color, good bass, refined highs, and allow the music to develop naturally in space; and they are better in my systems than nearly all of the other cables that have visited. They come that way pretty much out of the box: no waiting around hundreds of hours and hoping what you've bought will stop shrieking at you. Did I mention that they are, for the moment, $69?

As I said, remarkable stuff. And I don't mean "for the price."

Product Weakness:	still listening for it
Product Strengths:	color, balance, just gets out of the way

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: ATC amp pack 350 watts; YBA Passion Integrated, 100 watts
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): YBA Passion 400
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Transport/DAC: Chord Blu/DAC64; Linn LP12/Ekos SE/Akiva/EAR phono stage
Speakers: ATC Anniversary Active 50s; ATC passive 10s
Cables/Interconnects: YBA Diamond; Linn Silver; Wired4Sound; Apogee
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical, Country, Pop, Rock
Room Size (LxWxH): 27 x 15 x 9
Time Period/Length of Audition: one week
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

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Amplifier:	ATC amp pack 350 watts; YBA Passion Integrated, 100 watts
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	YBA Passion 400
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Transport/DAC: Chord Blu/DAC64; Linn LP12/Ekos SE/Akiva/EAR phono stage
Speakers:	ATC Anniversary Active 50s; ATC passive 10s
Cables/Interconnects:	YBA Diamond; Linn Silver; Wired4Sound; Apogee
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, Country, Pop, Rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	27 x 15 x 9
Time Period/Length of Audition:	one week
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

REVIEW: SoundSilver Cables Trilogy Cable

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