Cryok95
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Review of Toxic Cable’s Silver Poison for HD600
Intro:
Toxic cable is a relatively new company that has taken the audio scene by storm. Frank specializes in providing a wide variety of high quality and beautifully made cables at reasonable prices. Among his cable lineup is the Silver poison, a cable made from 26AWG Cryo-Treated OCC stranded Silver and injected with up to 1% gold. I was privileged enough to get my hands on a silver poison cable for my Sennhiser HD600s.
Build quality:
The build quality is nothing short of amazing, beautifully and painstakingly hand braided with solidly built terminations. There is no doubt this cable is made to last. The chromed y-splitter is very eye-catching and amazing to look at, it gives a premium feel to the cable and every time I wear it I feel as if I am wearing a work of art. Just in case some of you are unaware, Frank builds all his cables by himself so as to maintain this level of quality.
Sound:
So enough with the pictures, let’s get on with the most important thing, how does this cable sound? Well, I can say that this cable immediately gets rid of the infamous Sennhiser “veil”, no longer do I have to put up with a lack of detail in my HD600s. What jumps out at me the first time I listened to it were the highs. The silver poison has very extended highs which are a characteristic of silver cables, oozing with detail and clarity. Bells, chimes and cymbals are reproduced in a very lifelike manner, not over emphasized but just right.
Mids are smooth and has a hint of warmness; the best thing about this silver/gold wire is that it retains the detail and clarity of pure silver cable while never sounding fatiguing; most other silver cables out there in the market tend to do. As a result vocals sound very natural rather than clinical. Piano notes on these cables are reproduced so naturally that it sounds extremely similar to the real thing. The upper mids have a slight emphasis, which gives the vocals slightly more presence without sounding overwhelming. The bass on these cables are impactful and full while remaining slightly punchy. Bass reverb is perfect, not too long or short. The bass on these cables seem to have slightly more warmth and smoothness compared to the mids. Sub-bass extends deep and low, giving the bass presence and authority.
Soundstage is wide and deep, musical cues can be heard with proper instrument placement. Instrument separation is very good as well, better in fact compared to other cables that I have heard over the years. With the right equipment pairing, this cable can be a gem in your system. This cable is neutral sounding overall with great detail and clarity across the spectrum; it makes my music seem more alive than ever possible with the stock cable.
Conclusion:
I would wholeheartedly recommend this to people who are looking for an affordable, well-built silver cable but are afraid of the fatiguing sound that other aftermarket silver cables have. The silver poison has a very nice balance of smoothness and clarity which will appeal to many people. Currently, wait times may be a bit long due to Frank building each cable personally; however I do feel the resultant build quality is worth it in the end. Any HD600 owner should thoroughly consider this cable; it pairs very nicely with the HD600s, to say the least.
Note: This review was done using my HD600s and my system of a Centrance DACport LX> Bottlehead Crack OTL Amp(Modded)> Silver Poison> HD600. The cable itself has had at least 100 hours of burn in before this review.
