Review: Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition GEN. II Interconnect
Category: Cables
Associated Music:
Patricia Barber Companion Count Basie 88 Basie Street Tracy Chapman New Beginning Golden String Audio Repertory Top 12 In Gold Norah Jones Come Away With Me Luther Kent Luther Kent & Trick Bag Live Diana Krall Live In Paris Hugh Masekela Hope Buddy Rich Keep the Customer Satisfied Sonny Rollins This Is What I Do Santana Supernatural Keb Mo The Phip Collins Big Band "A Hot Night In Paris"
Many of you might remember that in May of 2003 I wrote a review on the Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition Interconnect. Since that time, Robert C. Schult, proprietor/designer, has developed a Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnect.
Since I was thoroughly impressed with the original interconnect and speaker cable, I could not imagine what improvements could have been made. Therefore, out of curiosity, I had to hear the Midnight Silver Edition Generation II.
I recommend you read the original review first (http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1052269499&openusid&zzLak&4&5#Lak) to better understand this current review of the Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnect.
The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II interconnects continue to be extremely smooth, fast, neutral and transparent. They don’t favor one frequency over another and continue to be very coherent, allowing one to hear deep within a recording. The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnects continue to convey the force, speed and robustness of a live music performance (if the rest of your system is capable of handling it).
The improvements I heard, original Midnight Silver Edition vs. the Generation II, are as follows:
1) I hesitate to use the cliche, but the music sounded as if a veil had been lifted. In a very positive respect, the music sounded more forward (but relaxed), as if I had changed my seating at a live concert and moved several rows closer to the stage.
2) The mids and highs were crisper, while the entire spectrum of music was even more dynamic in the area of micro details and resolution.
3) There was more bass slam.
I did notice that while the original Midnight Silver Edition sounded good as soon as I installed them, they continued to improve with two hours of use. The Generation IIs sounded good as soon as they were installed; however, they matured and sounded even better after four hours of use.
When I received the Generation II interconnects, the literature which was included inside of the package stated they were the Generation II. When I compared my original Midnight Silver Edition to the Generation II, they looked identical (although the generation II was an improvement in sound as stated above). I assume in the future there will be some type of permanent marking designating them as Generation II.
Construction of the Midnight Silver Edition interconnects continues to be excellent.
I continue to highly recommend you give the Midnight Silver Edition Original or Generation II a try if you are in the market for interconnects.
Associated gear Parasound C/BD-2000 Belt Drive Transport Dodson Audio DA-217 mkII DA converter / Upgrade to 218 software First Sound Presence Tube preamp / with upgreded power supply Cary Audio Design CAD-2a3 SE Tube amp Bel Canto Evo 200.2 Digital Amp Cain & Cain Abby Speaker with Fostex FE 199 E driver Fostex T90A Horn Super Tweeter Velodyne F-1200x Subwoofer Ridge Street Audio Designs Midnight Silver Edition Interconnects and Speaker Cables i2Digital Interconnect Bass Euphoria Speaker cable Purist Audio Proteus Rev.B Power cord (20 amp IEC) BMI Whale Elite MK II Power cord BMI Shark Power cord Absolute Power Cords Cryogenically Treated #4 VH Audio Flavor Cryo’d power cable 220 Amp Isolation Transformer feeding dedicated sub-panel Equi=Tech 2Q AC Balanced-filter Clear Image T-4 power line isolator DeZorel G2 power line isolator Sistrum Platform SP-6 Rack Star Sound Audio Points/Coupling Disc's Tweak Star Sound SP 004 Sistrum Platforms Tweak Bybee Quantum Force Filters (IC’s) Tweak Bybee Quantum Speaker Filters Tweak Virtual Dynamic Cryo'd # 10 Copper Wire & Breaker Tweak Hubbell’s 5362 Tweak Wattgate 381 Outlet Tweak Furutech Outlet Tweak Acme Silver Cryo’d Outlet Tweak Polycrystal Cable Towers Tweak
Similar products Cardas Golden Reference IC’s and SC. Maple Shade Clearview IC’s Silver Audio Appassionata IC's and Silver Symphony 48 SC. Bear Lab Silver Lighting IC and SC. Granite Audio # 470 IC Audience Au24 IC and SC HMS Topline IC and SC (not the brand new ones they came out with recently). Pure Note Epsilon Reference IC’s and S/C Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition
Miker, your system is decent--what you might need is to tackle power delivery/noise control and room acoustics. The first one should be rather simple--take a look at Lak's rig. It is similar to mine (except that I'm a nomad)and you can do something along those lines pretty inexpensively. A 220V/110V transformer, two dedicated lines w/ cryo'ed outlets and some good, inexpensive power cords will take you really far. I would suggest a second 110V isolation transformer for your CDP.
In my current tube system I have one pair of the SME IC’s, one pair of SME Gen.II IC’s, MSE speaker cable and two pair of MSE hook-up wire inside my Abby’s and connecting the Fostex T90A Horn super tweeter to the crossover.
I added each item separately, with at least a week in-between each added piece.
Each time I added an item as described above everything associated with good sounding music improved and the synergy continued to improve overall.
In a week or so, I should receive a second pair of the SME Gen.II IC’s and a set of the SME Gen.II speaker cables. At that time I could provide additional information.
To the best of my knowledge (if I’m incorrect, someone please correct me) the Ridge Street power cords and digital cable are not available yet. I think they would also be interesting to audition in my systems.
Pschicanimal, funny you should mention that. I just finished doing some rewiring in another room (took out a wall), which got me thinking about putting in a dedicated line for the stereo. It would be a bit of work and involve removing some drywall for access, but I might be doing that in a couple months anyways. I am a bit ignorant about home wiring, I assume that there already is a 220/110 transformer for the whole house, are you suggesting a separate one for the dedicated lines?
Lak, I`m not sure about the power cord’s availablity but Robert not only made me up a 2 meter digital link, he was kind enough to install a Bybee in each end for me. Sorry for the misunderstanding on the speaker cables as I was under the impression that you hadn`t tried them yet. Regards, Robin
Was wondering if anyone has tried the MSE II in XLR. Maybe I missed it but it looks like everyone is talking about the rca ic's. I understand that RSA makes a TRUE balanced ic. All your posts have peaked my interest in RSA. Thanks in advance, Frank
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