System:
Speakers: Magnepan 1.7i
Amplifier: Hegel H590
Previous speaker cables: Kimber 8PR
I'm an old music lover but relatively new (2 years) to "hi-fi" audio. I've built a simple system of a Hegel H590 driving Magnepan 1.7i speakers. For a while I thought I might go through a carousel of auditions with various brands/types of speaker cable in a reasonable but expensive budget that suits the exceptional Hegel/Magnepan combo. I soon realized that would ultimately be a game of trading Peter and Paul back and forth, if you will. Then somehow I stumbled upon Silversmith Audio and the Fidelium speaker cable. The unique engineering philosophy/approach appealed to me, as well as the specific application of metallurgy expertise. After a few awesome, educational phone calls with Jeff, I placed an order and I've been living with my 8ft pair of Fideliums going on two and a half months now. As soon as I first listened to the Fideliums I was struck with simply a full spectrum of rightness. There wasn't one aspect of the sonic spectrum improved more than any other, but in that case we have coherence, overall coherence is astounding, particularly at high volumes, soundstages remain stable and the imagining within very tangible. There's none of the typical smearing during crescendos...those things really stood out on the first listens and those observations hold up. What I also get with these cables in regards to "rightness", is tone. I'm kind of a tone-hound, considering my fav soloists like Miles or Jerry Garcia have so much of it, well, the Fideliums have never made Jerry sound as real as he does now. I feel like I'm getting the full spectrum of his tone where most every system I have heard till now tends to diminish him just a bit. These cables are amazing, and for a very fair price they've totally cured me of any speaker cable upgrade-itis. It won't take long to realize you can't do better.