After exchanging several emails with Silversmith founder/President Jeffrey Smith, I ordered a 4 ft pair of Fidelium speaker cables to replace my Performance Audio cables using Mogami W3104 cable, which I considered to be quite good. Jeffrey took the time, in several emails, to answer several questions. I ordered the cables after also reading a number of reviews, including reviews by customers. I also ordered the bi-wire adapters and the adapters for tight installations, the latter which I ended up using on my two Odyssey mono bloc amplifiers that drive my Fyne F-702 speakers.
After ensuring all connections were properly oriented and sufficiently tight, I plugged in and powered up my amps and put a CD (Moody Blues “On the Threshold of a Dream”) and sat back to listen. My immediate reaction was WOW! Both my wife—who is not as “into” listening as am I, although she loves good music—and I immediately noticed several things: first, the music did not seem to be coming from the speakers, and even our Shetland Sheepdog went not to the speaker between them to voice his response. Placement of vocalists and instruments was behind, between, and beyond the space between the speakers, and there was excellent vertical placement, as well. I also noticed improvement in the tonal qualities of voices and instruments. Bass reproduction was also modestly but noticeably improved, being somewhat tighter, and I heard some brief music parts in the lower registers that I had not noticed before, and I am familiar with those parts having played French Horn as a youth in a concert band. Finally, there was a marked improvement in sound quality at lower listening levels. We then played male and female vocalists, more Moody Blues, and some classical music, including the Akademie für Alte Musik’Berlin’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastorale,” by Beethoven. Everything we played was, in an admittedly memory-based judgment, significantly improved.
The Fidelium are the most expensive cables I have purchased. Although I have used mostly Morrow Audio level 5, Audioquest, and IceAge Audio cables, the latter being used for power cables. Jeffrey said he is planning to release interconnects using the same flat/ribbon cable technology, and I am probably going to “have to” try and XLR pair to connect my Bifrost 2/64 DAC to my Rogue Audio RP-7 tube preamp. I also asked Jeffrey about using his cable for my subwoofer, but he said the improvement for a subwoofer would not be as noticeable with a subwoofer—frankness and honesty that is greatly appreciated.
i will do more listening today, but I must admit to being stunned by the overall sound quality improvement. The Fidelium cables have made listening to music even more enjoyable. I am quite sure there are other cables that do the same, but, for me, such a significant improvement at what in today’s market is a reasonable cost is both remarkable and quite enjoyable.
By the way, the company has a 30-day return period, but it took me less than 30 minutes (seconds?) to decide these cables are keepers!
