New silversmith fidelium cable

Mine arrived yesterday. It's early but currently clapping my hands in glee, just like a schoolgirl in her new uniform! 

stereo 5 you replace the 1500 of speaker cable with 129 one? you must have a really good system LOL LOL

stereo 5 you replace the $1,500 speaker cable with 129 speaker cable LOL LOL great system you must have.

if you want to see a good comparison of the silversmith fidelium cables go Google the review done by Greg Weaver he's been reviewing for 40 years and he put it up against his $18,000 reference cable that nothing has beat in the last 6 years and he said that the silversmith fidelium was better and he also compared it to his other cables in his cable stable from 6,000 to 11,000 and he said the silversmith fidelium was better than all of them.

Hi Fxman  -  I  am certainly aware of the hype that is repeated ad nauseam, but I want to hear if anyone has actually sat down and done the hard work of doing A/B comparisons with the best. 

I just wanted to add my two cents to this forum where I have been lurking for a while.

So based on all the buzz, I ordered the SS Fidelium downunder about a month ago and have been listening to them ever since.
These are the most transparent cables I have ever heard.

My first impression written down after receipt with the reference being a pair of Chord Company Shawlines (which IMHO are excellent value cables in their own right and about half the price retail). 

The sound is...interesting. Everything went up a notch or two.
It was immediately more holographic with the speakers seeming to disappear more than previously. High frequency instruments seemed to have more detail and body sounding more fleshed out.
The bass gained a level in terms of detail, tautness and impact.
Upgrading my speaker terminal connects produced further gains - I think this is an essential package deal purchase.

I then upgraded my power cables to a full loom of the ’NRG custom 5’ and saw scalar increases increases in harmonic texture, colour, high frequency sound and bass texture and 3 dimensionality, thought the biggest gain seemed to be in the treble. Once again the Fideliums seemed totally transparent to the improvements up the signal chain. Voices were a particular feature - gaining corporeal form in my living room.

Overall I am very impressed and delighted with the result, though my previous reference cable was quite modest compared to many of the reference cables people here are making comparisons to.

I have yet to hear how they compare in my system with the ultra high end of the cable world - I cannot comment on whether these stand equal with the esoteric top end in terms of pricing as many here claim (or refute).

Last post deleted I'll try again

@ tsushima

Well Gowleeeee....Yet another thread where Chuckies little familiars attempt to assimilate

Well Gowleeeee....Yet another post where attacking others and disregarding the view points is much more important than contributing

@benzman - your house (and especially listening room) is quite a bit gorgeous. Thanks for sharing your system page with us.

I understand that Fidelium RCA interconnects are in development ;0}

Without a doubt the Fidelium may sound more reserved at first listen. I was coming from Audience Au24 SX ( 3 times the price) and Cerious Technologies Matrix.
My Personas are very revealing in the upper midrange and treble. Perfect cable for my system. Took them over to my buds with Martin Logan/Krell and another with Salon/Jeff Rowland’s monos and they sounded great. If you like a very energetic/lively cable this may not be the one.  

Yup... The very best speaker connection is No speaker connection

“PS: I purchased the 10 foot pair and soldered them directly to my full-range drivers, so there is nothing but Fideliums between the amp and driver. ”

I haven't heard the F1, but I admire their build. However, the Silversmith Fideliums are the best upgrade I've made (except perhaps for moving up to a LTA zotl amp). Yes, they seemed more reserved in the mids and bass when I first put them in: all it took was notching up the volume and I realized I was hearing a much better, balanced, natural, and -- to borrow a term from this discussion, more articulate overall sound. What the Fideliums do best is the leading edge and upper end detail; for the rest of the spectrum they are natural and precise--bass is tighter, mid-range warmer. PS: I purchased the 10 foot pair and soldered them directly to my full-range drivers, so there is nothing but Fideliums between the amp and driver. Simply a huge jump up in quality of sound for me.

Right back atcha
I haven't forgotten the jalapeno cornbread recipe.  I'm in process of moving and I only remember when I'm somewhere else.

Have you paid your millercarbon tax , that was an interaction with Krissy and myself.

G'day Danager, nice to see you in here, after meeting you in person.

danager-

I was at the MillerFest( Chuxpona 2021 ???)

Right, Chuxpona. Coulda sworn you were there when the term was coined. Not by me, sad to say. Was thinking it was you came up with it? Or were you the one who came up with, "Have you paid your millercarbon tax?"  

In any case we want to be careful, MillerFest could be confused with the upcoming Chuctoberfest. Then the big one some time early next year, the coveted MCES.   

I am not sure if three a year will be enough, but it is getting harder and harder to keep coming up with established events to rip off!

Thank you for revealing yourself.

I concede.
Concede (verb) - to relinquish grudgingly or hesitantly.

 

Thanks for confirming my comprehension of your intended message.
Look at you, koo koo katchu! Come out, come out whoever you are?

@tsushima1
Sure, but AFAIK the term familiars wouldn't be accurate, not that I am not a fan of that genre of fiction, or movies.

I was at the MillerFest( Chuxpona 2021 ???) also and heard the Fidelium cables. What Jeff described as an echo type of sound produced by the interaction by the dielectric eliminated by his design was a very good description of what I heard. They appeared to me to eliminate the background hash present with the previous cables.

I can’t comment on the bass as I was too unfamiliar with all that I was hearing to concentrate on a specific thing.

What stands out to me is that the AWG was minimized as not important which I’m not sure I agree with. Thinner AWG seems to accentuate higher frequencies at the cost of lower bass response. A single pair are both out of my wire budget and also don’t get long enough but with no other reason than instinct would think they would benefit from bi wiring.

Oh, and while I was at the Chuxpona 2021(sorry if I spelt it wrong MC?) my Fidelium pair were on (I need to buy more) the freshly unboxed Audioquest fog lifters (ha, there goes that name dropping Aussie).
Someone tripped over the Fideliums, pulling them off the light stands, and I joked with Jeff Smith and suggested they would also double as good trip hazards for would be burglars. So keep that in mind, they sound good and could be used in home security!

The point being, they are more durable than they look and feel, I had a look later and they are perfectly fine. Though, please don’t use them as a tow strap to prove me wrong, they probably wouldn’t yield much and you might break something.

Thanks. We had them here and the difference was as you describe. This is not to knock them. They are very fast and articulate, clean and clear, virtually as free of glare and tonal coloration as F1. They just fall a little short in terms of body, bass, dynamics and overall realness- exactly what you said. But a fast articulate sound almost always impresses listeners short term- and some actually like that. It is not a huge difference and it could also be these were all very brief auditions (only a few songs per component) and it may be they fill out and warm up when used longer. In any case they do cost less and so are certainly worth considering for anyone not able to afford F1.

Opinions vary, and sometimes enough by a large margin, just like the differences I heard between the F1 and my own cables (Lenehan Audio FoilFlex, which MC didn’t think much of) compared to the Fideliums. From my perspective and I will readily admit the speakers I listen to have a very different sound and temprament than the Moabs, the Fideliums were quite markedly more capable of taming noise that I perceived in the large floor standers, not virtually the same, but by no small margin.

Based upon the lively sound that Chuck evidently loves (and yes it’s entertaining, and fun, enjoyable) it’s pulled back, so to speak with Silversmith cables, tamed is possibly the easiest adjective.

Does that make either of us right? Or wrong, for that matter? Preference, like food, in the world of Audio is always a matter of taste.

Before I can write any sort of detailed review, I’m going to need time with the Fideliums, to have a clearer understanding of what’s entirely going on. However, straight out of the box, with absolutely no time on them, they appeared to reveal more information and lowered the noise floor, by no small amount. Most guys here have had a lot more time with them in their systems, and it’s akin to the difference I heard that changed my system.

I am going to use another product that I and others have grown to enjoy in our systems, and like the Fideliums are to be had for not much money for the investment. What the Puritan PSM-156 did to my digital front end by lowering the noise floor considerably took a little time to settle in, and get used to. There is a certain sense of density in sound when it’s accompanied with distortion, which I often perceive as loudness.

I need more time with the Fideliums, to really hear what’s going on with them, and to clear away my own acknowledged bias to that which I am accustomed as the reference.

So I am going to acknowledge my own perceived short comings as an audiophile, when it comes to critical listening, going forward (unless it’s a triple jump leap) for me isn’t generally as easy to discern as stepping back in sound quality. And I accept that I am fussy and biased and very human. I’m Australian, yeah, I’m opinionated.

The Fideliums did not lose bass, they did seem to remove distortion throughout the entire audible spectrum and certainly in the broad upper region where violin is heard. The violin, tubed instruments, bells and such - just wow.

LIke the Puritan PSM-156, I need more time to ensure that I understand the difference between distortion making the sound fatter (a technique used with reverb on voice, guitars and other instruments) and the lean sharp authentic sound heard in nature, or it’s possibly not that which I’m assuming. I hope to get back to live performance listening again soon, perspective is a real thing.

I do like them very much, I am not returning them to Mr Jeff Smith.
Assuming his interconnects are as good as the development cables he brought to share with us, I’m going to be all over ’em like a randy puppy on a squeaky toy! I need time on them too

Respected members ozzy and glory gave their honest appraisal of these cables, yet these other two cannot handle the truth.  Another low for Audiogon.

All these ribbon cables are not going to be as compatible with equipment as normal stranded/solid core cables would be. Ozzy has maybe identified one such setup with his tube amp and found a cable better - for him - at 5x times the price.

That's fine. But the Fidelium 8 foot pair for $1195 really seems to be a huge deal if the user reports are any indication. It's not often cables little over a grand are replacing 10k+ cables in this hobby.

NO

NO

YES

Was this comment made by yourself really necessary ?

“I just purchased the Townshend F1 speaker cables. Awesome! Puts the Silversmith to shame.

ozzy”

@agisthos 

Don’t even bother asking him...based on his posting history,  here and elsewhere,  this person clearly has a personal issue with Jeff and his cables...

• yesterday  at 8:34 

“I just purchased the Townshend F1 speaker cables. Awesome! Puts the Silversmith to shame.

ozzy”

I do remember many years ago having custom 2" wide mundorf copper foils, some of the best sounding SC’s I ever had.

But the positive and negative were sandwiched together with a thin layer of teflon double sided tape - the only thing keeping them from shorting out.

Those cables, and the Geortz, and the Townshend F1, they all sandwich the positive and negative close together.

Other like this Fidelium, the Lenehan foils e.t.c do the opposite and have them separated.

I wonder what effect this will have an system matching, because one will suit your amp/speaker combo better than the other.

For Ozzy and others who found the Fidelium's did not work, have you tried other copper foil cables and had the same results? 

It could be a tube/amp/speaker mismatch problem. Large thin foils have an electrical characteristic (either high/low capacitance/inductance, I forget which) that just does not play well with some amps and speaker crossovers. 

To me one of big advantages is how well they fit under the carpet.  Jeff didn't much care for that observation and felt they needed to be elevated depending upon your floor material.

The other option I guess  if you had wooden floors is to cut holes and hang them under the floor.

Thanks. We had them here and the difference was as you describe. This is not to knock them. They are very fast and articulate, clean and clear, virtually as free of glare and tonal coloration as F1. They just fall a little short in terms of body, bass, dynamics and overall realness- exactly what you said. But a fast articulate sound almost always impresses listeners short term- and some actually like that. It is not a huge difference and it could also be these were all very brief auditions (only a few songs per component) and it may be they fill out and warm up when used longer. In any case they do cost less and so are certainly worth considering for anyone not able to afford F1.

The performance of these shocked me. In an A/B comparison that I had the pleasure of experiencing, care of Jeff Smith, the owner of Silversmith, there were immediate improvements in dynamics, a smoother overall response, much more coherent wave front, fine detail in instrument decay and room tone. Overall just a great product. I will be ordering a pair as soon as Jeff gets back home after the audition we had here in Redmond, Wa over the weekend. Also looking forward to the interconnects that are in development. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Good Post ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Don’t waste your money on Hemingway. A company that offers 10’ speaker cable as only choice. They claim that their magic doesn’t work in a shorter length. What crap is that. Lean sounding overall. Over priced. They don’t win any awards and no one talks about them. Never got as much conversation as silversmith. Just enjoy your system. Spend your time listening and enjoying music. Isn’t it cool someone makes a product that blows away the competitors overpriced hyped goods. Smart design and innovative. Way to go Jeff!!!!

What's the capacitance of these SCs? Lots of numbers touted on their website and yet, no capacitance mentioned. It wouldn't betray any trade secrets if they did. People here on these forums are always complaining about lack of candor from vendors.

All the best,
Nonoise

Performance of speaker cables are all system dependent. When someone compares 27K cables to 800 dollars SC and don't like SS, it is OK. We have to be mature enough to move past and be happy with our results, rather than pushing it to others. If there was one universal speaker cable every one likes, then there will not be so many brands. I am happy with SS fideliums and at some point would like to change, just to get different flavor. 

Stereo 5, you must have a real expensive stereo system if you're using speaker cables for $129. LOL

Look on my system pics. Only one pic for T1.

It’s the SilverSmith F SC’s 

Ts,

Why is so hard to take that they are beginner cables?

gary.anderson9@icloud.com 

You folks who think I am pulling your leg then email me and I will take a pic of the cables and send the pic to you. 🤹🎪

HI,

I have to sort of concur with Ozzy.  I also purchased the Fideliums and had them in my system for two months.  I read all the great reviews and was really looking forward to a possible upgrade from my previous speaker cables. 

In my system I also had to increase the volume on my integrated to match the sound level with my other two speaker cables which was odd.  I also noticed they lacked some dynamics compared to my other cables and lacked a bit of bass as well.  They were very revealing but in the end a bit too smooth and lacking a bit of dynamics so I sold them recently for a good price as they are very good cables.

My system consists of the Pathos Twin towers integrated, Metrum acoustics upgraded Onyx DAC and Metrum ambre streamer.  My speakers are the Spatial audio X 5 open baffles 97 db efficient.

Again I believe cables are all about synergy and in my system my Ridge street audio poiemas III and Ven haus Chela speaker cables sounded better to me.  I've had both for over ten years and they are keepers.