[Audio Jester]

Nice follow up review Maguire! I am looking forward to trying them myself.

 

[maguire]

I hope so mate, you need to hear these for yourself.
 To be honest though..but im kinda liking these, sorta rediscovering them again now  that their back in my system....
I know I must part with them sometime soon...BUT.........

 

 

[Audio Jester]

It has finally arrived! So far everything is working...what a relief!

I will continue to burn in the setup and once things have settled in I will contact Maguire.

I look forward to testing these cables.

 

[Blackmore]

Great news, this is going to be the most exciting time for you and us of course, congratulations mate!

 

[Audio Jester]

Great news, this is going to be the most exciting time for you and us of course, congratulations mate!

lol, thanks mate! I can't say it has been the easiest experience, I'm just happy it arrived in working condition. The box had a decent hole in the side (thanks Australian couriers) but luckily nothing seems to be damaged.

 

[Happy Camper]

Now to get used to your amp sound. Oh the wait......

 

[Audio Jester]

I have received the cables from Maguire. Looking forward to putting them in my rig.

 

[Blackmore]

Its 17 audio hours already, since you place that post mate, are you still on this planet?

 
Quote:

I have received the cables from Maguire. Looking forward to putting them in my rig.

 

[Audio Jester]

Lol, i have to say my current rig is pretty damn impressive. So much so that I will have to sell some of my other gear as it has become very mediocre in comparison. I hope to be doing some cable tests this weekend.

 

[Blackmore]

I will take Fostex for AUD 500

 
Quote:

Lol, i have to say my current rig is pretty damn impressive. So much so that I will have to sell some of my other gear as it has become very mediocre in comparison. I hope to be doing some cable tests this weekend.

 

[Audio Jester]

The fostex is going nowhere.

 

[Audio Jester]

After a much extended delay I have finally been able to review the SilverFi interconnects from Sezai Saktanber.  I would like to thank Sezai for his extreme patience as well as the Head-Fiers who have waited calmly for this review.  So, let’s get into it…
 
System:
Macbook Pro >
Audiophilleo 1 + Pure Power >
Sonic Frontiers SFD-1 >
Head Amp Blue Hawaii SE >
Stax 009
 
Cables: 
Audio Art Cable – Power 1 Classic (R)
WyWires – Juice II Power Cable
WireWorld – Ultraviolet USB
 
Primary Test Tracks
Michael Hedges – Java Man (Beyond Boundaries)
Maaya Sakamoto - 空気と星 (Lucy)
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Riot in Lagos (/04)
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (Three)
Yoko Kanno – Myung Theme (Macross Plus OST 1)
Steve Reich – Music for 18 Musicians: Section IIIA (Music for 18 Musicians)
Quatuor Ebene - Assez Vif, Tres Rythme (Ravel, Debussy & Faure - String Quartets)
Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Primordial Germination (Ecophony Rinne)
Arvo Pärt – Adam’s Lament (Adam’s Lament)
Bueno Vista Social Club – Chan Chan (Bueno Vista Social Club)
Harry Manx – Take This Hammer ( Road Ragas Live)
Katherine Bryan - Flute Concerto: II. Alla Marcia
Lars Danielsson – Ballerina (Tarantella)
Mathias Eick – June (Skala)
Me'Shell Ndegéocello - Who Is He And What Is He To You (Peace Beyond Passion)
Murray Perahia - Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, op.30 no.2 (Songs Without Words)
Soil & "Pimp" Sessions – Pop Korn (6)
 
I also spent time listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash; Opeth; Goldfrapp; Röyksopp; Dragon Force; Múm; and Tan Dun’s Hero soundtrack (to give an idea of breadth of genres).
 
Bias:
Please note that I am not receiving any payment or discounted product for this review.  I had previously requested to purchase a cable from Sezai prior to receiving the sample cables, but he requested that I wait until after testing them to avoid any possible conflict of interest.  I would acknowledge that due to the time taken for me to present this review I do feel some degree of moral pressure to put together a decent review, but this only relates to the quality of the review and not my personal opinion of the cables.
 
 
Review:
 
Upon opening the box I received from the courier I was impressed with the simple beauty in the design of the cables.  The braided white strands between the solid connectors allowed an excellent degree of flexibility and ease of use while still feeling robust.  The craftsmanship is superb and they give you a sense that these cables are primarily designed for purpose rather than adding copious layers of shielding and jacketing for aesthetics.
 
The three cables tested were:
Shaman (XLR) [NOTE: This cable is now discontinued]
Spirit (XLR)
Rumi (XLR)
 
Since some considerable time had passed since I last looked at the SilverFi site I had completely forgotten the relative positions each cable held in the product lineup, so I just started with the first one I touched and decided to try and guess this through listening.  Prior to connecting the first SilverFi cable (the Shaman) into my system I was using a Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 stereo RCA to connect the SFD-1 to the BHSE.  It is not really fair to compare an RCA to an XLR cable, but the change in audio quality was immediately noticeable in favor of the XLR.  I noted that the Shaman had a more open soundstage with more coherent imaging, better dynamics in the music and more body to the lower mids and bass.  One thing that caught my attention was the vocals in Maaya Sakamoto’s track which sounded gritty with the RCA as if they had used a bad microphone, but it cleared up quite a bit with the use of the Shaman XLR.
 
The following observations are based on comparisons between the SilverFi cables only.  Hopefully another reviewer will be able to compare them against XLR cables from other brands.
[EDIT]:  Please note that this review was conducted with a system that was not completely burned in.  Some of the acoustic artifacts that I refer to will originate from the components rather than the cables, although the changes noted will give you an indication of the affects of the cables.
 
- The Shaman
The soundstage of this cable was the smallest of the three.  The edge of the soundstage was quite close and the imaging was moderately coherent.  I noticed in my system the Shaman lacked body in the mid-range and bass which made the hand claps in “Riot in Lagos” sound too light.  There was some sharpness in the treble, which resulted in some sibilance in a few songs.  A key factor that I kept noticing was ringing smear in the 700–1400hz range, particularly with pianos.
 
- The Spirit
The soundstage was considerably wider as compared to the Shaman, but I could still hear an edge to it.  The imaging was precise which brought a good level of coherency to the music.  The grittiness in the vocals of Maaya Sakamoto’s track was further reduced, which brought more realism to her voice.  The dynamics were fantastic, with clear punctuation of each instrument in more complicated passages as found in Soil and “Pimp” Sessions – Pop Korn and Alla Marcia from Katherine Bryan.  The ringing smear was further reduced, but it was still noticeable.  Something that caught my attention was a page turn sound in Myung Theme by Yoko Kanno which for the first time to my ears sounded like real paper being moved in the room.  Overall, the sound was much improved, but it lacked body in the mids and bass which affected the realism of the presentation.
 
- The Rumi
For each cable I drew little diagrams to express the size of the soundstage as I was listening.  I could not hear an edge to the soundstage for this cable so the diagram ended up being more like a donut around my head.  Suffice to say the soundstage of this cable is very impressive, but in conjunction with this the imaging was tightened up a little more as compared to the Spirit creating a very coherent presentation.  The grittiness in Maaya Sakamoto’s track was gone.  The dynamics were tightened up further, which gave the drums in “Pop Korn” a realistic attack, but also produced a haunting quality to the decay of the strings in the introduction of “Adam’s Lament”.  The overall presentation was smoother and effortless which allowed me to pick up more texture in the music.  I did notice a little bit of ringing smear around 600hz, but it was only evident a few tracks.  The most noticeable improvement from the Rumi was in the mids and bass.  This cable brought the amount of body to the music that I felt it needed and in turn left me in awe of the realism my system produced.  One word that really stood out to me in my listening notes on the Rumi was “emotive”.
 
Conclusion (TL;DR)
The cables sent to me from SilverFi were very impressive and really opened my eyes to the dramatic changes that can be made with a single pair of interconnects.  The changes were immediately noticeable, so much so that I easily picked the position of each cable in the SilverFi product lineup.  I feel that some systems may benefit from the use of the Spirit cable if you already have a very full-sounding signature.  If you, like myself currently, are using some basic RCA interconnects I would suggest you give the Shaman a try as it is the cheapest in the SilverFi range and offers a significant step up in performance (IMO).  Lastly there is the Rumi, put simply it brought a level of realism to my system that shifted it to a completely different and superior level.  I have absolutely no reservations about recommending the SilverFi Rumi XLR interconnect.

 

[Blackmore]

Thanks Brook, reading your impressions is like having done this myself again, very nice and to the point. These are very addicting and more you listen, the level of appreciation will grow only.
One thing is very important and that is full burn in process, which takes time of course, 300 hours preferably.
 
Good job mate! 

 

[Audio Jester]

  Thanks Brook, reading your impressions is like having done this myself again, very nice and to the point. These are very addicting and more you listen, the level of appreciation will grow only.
 
Good job mate! 

For me it is simple.  I will be purchasing a Rumi interconnect for my system.  My system takes a decent step backward without it.

 

[MikePortnoy]

 
For me it is simple.  I will be purchasing a Rumi interconnect for my system.  My system takes a decent step backward without it.

 
Very nice impressions mate. I was also impressed by a few interconnects plugged into my friend's desktop system. Like IEM cables, Mr.Saktaber's interconnects make a real difference on tonality. And also improve instrument separation and blackness of background.