2. cables
  3. 156958-3695

Analysis Plus Silver Apex Speaker cable

Hi All, I am a fan of Analysis Plus for several years now. I've tried several of their cables having been generally satisfied with the upgrades along the way. I just bought a pair of the new Silver Apex speaker cables. I've been listening for about one week so far. This is definitely a dynamic cable! Sometimes with improvements comes a down side. As I said, this cable is dynamic. A large sound stage with really nice bass on the up side. On the down side, it's bright on my Snell Type B's. I know that silver has a reputation for being bright. I was wondering if it's the age of my tweeters? Perhaps a shortcoming on the now 28 year crossover? I called the company today and spoke with a rep from AP. He basically said that he wasn't familiar with my speakers so he had no advice. Nice! I asked what speakers they used to test their cables on. One set was Watt Puppies. Another was a ribbon speaker from Australia (I wrote the brand down at work and left the note there). Another set of speakers they had on hand was Von  Schweikert. Who among you are using (and enjoying these cables? Any help is appreciated. Oh ,my equipment consists of PS Audio Directstream DAC and transport, Pass Labs XP20 and Pass 250.8 amp. Cabling is AP. Thank you. Joe 
128x128jnovak
grk
228 posts
 
I  own them and I think they are wonderful! They have  around 80-100 hours on them I have not heard any brightness through my DeVore Super Nine speakers, so it could indeed be your speakers or you need more hours on them. The cables use a solid copper core with a coating of silver. Te Absolute Sound review of the cables I think is spot on and gave me the incentive to take a leap of faith and purchase them unheard.

As far as AP being a mostly a " marketing company"...huh? They just don't come out with a new model every couple of years like so many other companies do. The triple oval design is their newest  in a number of years. Also, a number of musicians and NASA use their cables, so they must be doing something right.
decooney
2,194 posts
 
@grk
Your Super Nines run Paper-in-Oil caps in the crossovers, smaller 3/4" textile tweeters with paper woofers at 91db in the sweet spot and would not expect them to be overly forward or edgy or bright. Sounds like a good match for the AP Silvers. Wait till you get 300hrs on the cables, should smooth out a little more with time. Sounds like you hit a good balance, all about matching and finding that complimentary synergy. Nice!

-----------------------

Home Audio cabling is more like a side business for AP. In addition to prior R&D Designs already paid for years ago with government funded projects (with patents) AP sells pro audio cabling to musicians all over the world.
"if it aint broke, don’t fix it", their patented hardware cabling designs work. No need to redesign it every few years if it works well. Analysis Plus cabling works good with neutral sounding sources and amplifiers. If you try them with overly bright sources or forward sounding speakers, the cables are just revealing what’s already "there". They tend to hide nothing, just passes it through, and they are not veiled over cables nor are the designed to work as tone controls to filter out harshness or detail. You will hear all of it with AP cables good or bad.  

grk
228 posts
 
Thanks Decooney and I am looking forward to how they sound with more hours!
jtcf's avatar
jtcf
1,620 posts
 
I agree with Decooney.I have AP speaker cables also and they take a very long time to settle in.In the past if I didn't like a cable after 25-50 hrs I gave up and moved on.These things are completely different and were worth the wait.Hopefully they'll work out for , and be  good match.
decooney
2,194 posts
 
It does take an AA Audiophile Anonymous support group to help each other through the ridiculous 300hr wait time on these cables. :)

Would have never believed it myself, even called the cable designer and the owner of the company to pester them about this claim. Thousands of customers and musicians report the same to them, oddly enough.

The interconnects and ICs don’t like to be moved much. Similar to some of the older and more dense cables from Cardas too. After 3-4 weeks of setting and letting the cable unbind and relax helps too, new or used.

I kinda joke about it now with friends and we say, "you want to be the 3rd owner of any pair of AP cables", let the 1st and 2nd owner take the purchase hit, burn it in for you 70% of the way". Buy them at less cost, save time and money! Love them or hate them, they are interesting cables to say the least. The AP OCC Crystal Solos and Silvers are kinda similar to Cardas Clear and Clear Beyond in some ways.

More to discover