I’ve already sang the praise of the Silversmith Fidelium speaker cables that replaced my Cardas Beyond Clear, so when I Jeff released the Fidelium interconnects, I kind of expected they to be really good.
From the first second I connected them from my DSS (Mk1 modified) to my preamp (Luxman CL-38uc) and from preamp to power amps (Coincident Frankenstein MkII), they improved on pretty much everything from the get go, but after a few days, they absolutely destroys anything I have ever tried (and that includes the quite amazing, but oh so expensive, Cardas Clear Beyond). More space in a very natural way; drive and tempo, but most of all heart and soul. Jeff Smith must be a cable whisperer! How he can (or wants to) sell these for less than $1000/m is beyond me, but who am I to argue?!
Thanks for posting your impressions! These have been on my mind for a while. I have the Fidelium speaker cables and love them. Unfortunately I have a very offset set up, and would need a 6m long XLR interconnect from my preamp to my left BHK300 monoblock!
I don’t think the cost is $1000/m for each meter over the initial one, but I don’t know how much it would be. Those are pretty long interconnects though, so I’m guess it’s won’t be that inexpensive…
As impressed as I was with the speakers cables, I would say the interconnects made an even bigger impact in my system.
Greg Weaver concluded that they bettered his 18k cables which were his reference for quite a few years.
Affordability And Conclusion
The fact that they are very affordable and bested an otherwise exceptional set of $18,000 world-class cables, and did so in a system with a retail north of $600,000, should tell you just what a total game-changer the new Silversmith Audio Fidelium loudspeaker cables represent within my system.
They’re just getting better and better. I think by now, they are fully settled in and the changes are getting to be very minor. Over the last two weeks (or close to it), the dimensionality (depth, width, height) has expanded, but more than anything else, gotten very solid. Musicians are very clearly placed in space. The high end has also gotten a bit sweeter (not that it was sharp to start with). The midrange and the low end is just as magical as it was after the first few days.
I’ve been intrigued by the Fidelium cables, but the thing that always kept me scratching my head is, the design seem to lend itself to the possibility of varying inductance, depending on how the + and - sides lay and interact with each other. It may ultimately be a non-issue, but the electrical engineer in me thinks about stuff like this.
My friend’s experience with Fidelium cables was funny for me, not funny for him.
We listened and liked what we heard for about 10 minutes, when his cat walked in.
He grabbed his cute little kitty and told her “these are not toys”.
What the cat heard was “wer wer wa wa toot”. And then she jumped on the speaker cables and did what cats do.
I only let my cat in the listening room when I’m present. She’ll stroll about the room and occasionally walk around my speakers and over the elevated speaker cables. She never once has disturbed them even in the slightest. It’s funny watching her step over them with perfectly timed coordination of her front and hind legs. Only time I got a little nervous was when she spotted a fly landing close to one of the woofers. I let out a primordial scream before she took a swipe at my defenseless woofer and she quickly skedaddled away.
The interconnects are available, just not fully released and visible on the website. Email Silversmith to place an order. The 3ft pair (same price for RCA or XLR) is $975 and the 4.5ft pair was $1125. Don’t know if that is the final price or if that is some kind of pre-release price.
As to cats and Fidelium… the interconnects are in a black mesh, so probably a bit more protected.
We have 19 cats (all indoors and most of them special needs and/or elderly; we only adopt cats that are deemed non-adoptable by the shelter), but the audio room is the only room in the house off-limits (unless I bring one in). Interestingly, I do have one true audiophile cat. When the recording is really good and the system is set up correctly, he lies next to me and listens. If the recording is poor, or if I screwed something up with the system, he leaves for the door and sits there until I let him out. I actually do use him to double check and changes I make and so far, he’s never let me down.
We’ve got a dog that is careful not to disturb anything. Even when our kids (now adults) had their study notes spread out on the floor in our lounge room before exams, she would take care to walk around them! My fidelium SCs are safe!
