Smoothing the Sibilants 2.0:


Good day all, hope that the Audio Gods and Goddesses are smiling upon you. A while back I started a thread about smoothingthe sibilants on a mid-fi system, and here's the followup. Long story short, there's a new digital source living in my house, the Sony SACD '333ES, and I've had the sibilants on the run ever since. We've been playing this player for about 8 hours a day for the last 3 weeks, and it's getting smoother and richer all the time. SACD's are another kettle of fish, of course, but as far as listening to "redbook" CD's, things are MUCH smoother and now sounding richer, too. One of the best features of this player is the selection of adjustable filters that come with the unit, and I'm very happy to report that overall, my humble hifi has taken a s-m-o-o-t-h step forward. Thanks to everyone that responded to Sibilants 1.0, and I'd love to hear some ideas for giant-killer interconnects (the "low-end" Cardas are on duty right now, I still haven't heard anything beter than Silver Audio but I'm open to new product). Thanks for reading, and happy listening.
aldenruss
What is your budget for interconnects? There is a guy on eBay Stu Wein, screen name and eMail audioparts@aol.com who owned Music and Sound "MAS". His digital cable use to come standard with the Wadia DAC and the similar interconnects got favorable reviews in Stereophile at the time. Well he still makes the cables in his spare time and auctions them on eBay. He will also sell them direct if you eMail him. His best MAS Silver Grey cable he will selll for about $85 a meter pair. I have a pair and they are as good as others costing up to $300. He also has his MAS Silver Black which he will sell for about $50 per meter pair. They sound as good to me as cables around $150 to $200 like Nordost Blue Heaven and Van Den Hul D102 Mk3. Stu also make a couple very nice power cords; one for around $50, the other $75 which sold as the MAS Audio One.


If you want a commerically available cable the Siltech "entry level" ST-18G3 is quite nice. I have two pairs; one really makes my Tuner sing.

For the MAS Silver Grey I should have said cables costing up to $400. I compared them to a pair of Nordost Red Dawn once. They were no better or worse, just different. The Red Dawn resolved the highs slightly better and were slightly more dynamic, but the MAS Grey sounded more natural (analog). To use your term, the MAS were smoother.