Cable Asylum: REVIEW: DIY Silver Goertz AG Cable DIY Goertz AG Cable by Jim

I would first like to thank Chris Venhaus for the recipe and ideas for the DIY Silver Foil / Goertz AG clones and also Pat Wen for arranging the group purchase of the silver foil (a group purchase over the internet is dificult but Pat pulled it off).

A picture of the silver foil that we received is posted at the following address (http://hk.y42.photos.yahoo.com/patwen.hk) or at (http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/cables/messages/27296.html).

The silver foil was ordered from (http://www.handyharman.com/lucas.htm). It is 0.008" x 1.25" in dimension which is somewhere between Goertz AG 2 and AG 3 in total wire guage. I was concerned that it might be pretty flimsy but it is actually quite heavy and proved to be very easy to work with. I ordered 70 feet thinking that I would make a biwire set but as noted below, I am very happy with a single wire configuration. I paid $415 total for the 70 feet (It was made in the US but Pat Wen is in Hong Kogn so we had to pay for shipping to Hong Kong and back to the US - the details of the transaction were a long story). This worked out to about $6 per foot of foil or about $12 per foot of speaker cable (pos and neg leads). In other words, my 8 foot pair of cables cost about $200 in comparison to an 8 ft pair of Goertz AG-2 at $1288 and AG-3 at $2204. It is of note that it took a group purchase to get this price. Apparently, they can only be made in fairly large volumns so it may be difficult to get small lengths for a single individual. I do recall Chris saying once that they occasionally have leftover lengths from larger orders that they may sell.

The cables were very easy to make (it took me one evening). I cut four 8 foot lengths of the foil (it can be cut easily with small metal shears or probably a heavy pair of scissors). I did not want to use spades (to minimize the signal path) so on the ends of the foil I bent the metal so that the positive lead would taper to the right and the negative lead would taper to the left. I then carefully cut small indentation the exact size of a spade connector opening. It is a little difficult to describe but looking down at the final cable end (total of 1.25" wide), the positive lead ends up on the right 5/8" and the negative lead ends up on the left 5/8" with spade sized cutouts exactly 3/4" apart (my amp terminals are exactly 3/4" apart). To connect to the amp terminals, I simply slide them into the terminals and tighten them down (with Caig Progold). I could have done the same at the speaker end but instead I have removed the spade terminals on my speakers and clamp my cables directly to the crossover wires. The foil is easy to bend. I simply layed a straight edge over the foil where the bend was needed and lifted the exposed foil up. I then tapped it down with a small hammer to complete the neat looking bend.

Once I had the ends shaped and cut properly, I mummy wrapped each pos and neg foil length with teflon plumbers tape ($12 worth) overlapping each wrapping about 50% (ie a double layer in the end). I then combined the pos and neg foils and wrapped the entire cable with another layer of teflon tape. I wasn't sure exactly how to secure and finish off the ends so I decided to use a thin wrapping of black electrical tape and it seemed to work fine. You really couldn't use heatwrap as it would collapse the foil when heated. I was concerned that they might end up kind of flimsy but they seem very sturdy to me. I will use them with some small cable stands and I think that it would take a pretty significant disturbance to tear the teflon tape. With any reasonable care, these should last a long time.

I also decided to use the silver foil to rewire my Maggie crossovers in order to keep as much silver as possible in the signal path. This was a simple process also but in some places I had to fold the 1.25" foil in half to achieve a smaller width of wire. I then again wrapped the foil with teflon after soldering together my upgraded crossover caps and inductors.

I connected them to my system and let them play break in with radio static for about 30 hours or so before critical listening. They may improve more yet with more breakin but it has been said that silver requires less breakin than copper. The speaker cables that I replaced were Chris Venhaus's Cat-5 cables - a biwire set with 27 pair on the bottom and a 9 pair cable on the top. Until now I have been very happy with the Cat-5 cables. I have tried several other cables over the years including heavy guage Monster, Kimber 4-TC and 8-TC and about 6 months ago Goertz MI-2. I liked the Goertz in particular but decided that there wasn't a big enough improvement to justify the cost. I have not tried any other high quality silver cables previously (couldn't afford them).

When I first turned on my system with the Silver Foils I could hear an instant change. The level of detail went up substantially in the upper octaves especially and I have a pretty detailed system to start with (Sony 777 - silver IC - Placette passive - Maggie 1.6's with crossover upgrades) . I heard cymbals like I have never heard them before. In fact, my system almost sounded bright. I quickly realized that I had to readjust my speakers positioning and room treatments. I reduced the speaker toe in slightly and shifted my rear room treatment panels closer together. This easily eliminated the feeling of brightness without reducing the level of detail (I bet this would be required with most good silver cable).

I have seen multiple improvements to my system with the silver foils. The most striking differences seems to be more separation between different instruments (again a factor of more detail). Everything just seems more realistic including vocals. I had some concern that these cables may be less musical because of the greater detail but this is clearly not the case. These cables are some real toe tappers.

I don't think that the soundstage is wider or deeper but I can more easily pinpoint specific musicians. On some of my SACD's with vocals, I can now tell exactly where each person is standing within a few inches it seems (it is at times almost frightening with my eyes closed). I haven't decided if the base is better or not. There wasn't a dramatic change over the Cat-5's but I think that it may be slightly tighter and more distinct (but not deeper).

The one problem that I can see with the silver foils is that may be almost too revealing. They will reveal everything upstream. Some of my older CD's are almost hard to listen to as the recordings are poor. I have for the first time been cleaning my CD's religiously - every defect can be heard. I am pretty happy with the quality of my components but some of the older gear I have owned would probably sound lousy with these cables.

The bottom line is that I am very happy with these cables. I had always wanted to try Goertz AG's or some of the other high priced silver cables but I could have never justified the expence. For a very modest price, I think that these will be the cables I will use for many years.

REVIEW: DIY Silver Goertz AG Cable DIY Goertz AG Cable Review by Jim at Audio Asylum