Silverline Speaker Opinion

The current "non plus" Prelude is an amazing speaker when paired with a good sub. I've had a pair for years and it's somewhat unique in the Silverline line (!) in that it has magnesium/aluminum woofers and tweeters, not shared with other Silverlines for reasons I find mysterious. The "Plus" has doped paper woofers with a silk dome tweeter which are fine (and I'm sure they sound great as do pretty much all the things Alan Yun designs), but the Prelude has the little screens on the metal tweeters that keep 'em "poke proofed," a feature I like. I use a tube amp and 2 REL subs (although they worked fine with one sub, I found another used REL and added it in the mix, thus making my "one sub" arguments less valid) with the Preludes, and lift them up about 4 inches on maple blocks (Vibrapods under the Preludes de-couple them from floor vibes and make them sound even better to my earballs) . My only quibble about the Preludes is the fact that they aren't cladded in a real wood veneer, but I suppose that keeps them at a certain price point. Maybe I'll get a cabinet maker to put a striped ebony veneer on 'em. Yun told me in a phone conversation (I thought I needed a woofer, but didn't) to single wire the Preludes for "more coherency"…his words…and he was right (I did try bi-wiring anyway, at which point I discovered for myself that single wiring was much righter).

I bought a beautiful used (Ebay) REL Q150e a few years ago (around the time I bought the Preludes) and it's all the sub most people might need…modded with a "chicken head" knob on the High Level pot so it's easier to know where it (the pot) is. The second sub is a Q108e MKII that isn't quite as powerful as the 150, but is still amazingly good...I put a chicken head knob on that one too. Both were bought for around 200 bucks each on Ebay, which I mention as I don't want my fabulous taste and Ebay scouring abilities to go unnoticed.

I had some chicken heads left over from a guitar amp "knobulation" mod. Easier to see what's what, if you get my drift. Note the chicken head knobs will reflect sound differently than round knobs, but coating them with feathers will tame this issue.

A well designed sub doesn’t merely add bass range, it "charges" the room with the ambience that exists in most places naturally, thus fooling the listener into thinking they’re having more fun which is very much like actually having more fun. This is why non bass heavy recordings can sound better with a sub that you wouldn't think is doing anything, but a good sub is ever vigilant, looking out for your fun needs.