A brief review: my new Silver Eclipse speaker cables

[AVphile]

Earlier today, I received, drop shipped directly to me from Wireworld Cable Technology, my new Silver Eclipse speaker cables – two 10’ ones for my main left and right speakers and one 8’ one for my center channel speaker. I am writing to briefly relate my initial impressions after listening to my system for the past three hours.

These Silver Eclipse speaker cables replaced Transparent Audio MusicWave Super speaker cables which I had purchased approximately 20 years ago. The catalyst for their replacement was a failure in the center channel speaker cable; Transparent believes it is likely to be a break somewhere around the split of the + and – wires at the cable’s speaker end. Anyhow, I had been thinking about modernizing/upgrading these speaker cables ever since I bought new Wireworld Equinox balanced analog interconnect cables about a year ago, as they effected a demonstrable sonic improvement over the replaced Blue Jeans ones I had purchased nearly 15 years ago.

In essence, “Wow! What an improvement!” Here is why:

• Microdynamics. Sounds do not just abruptly stop; they fade away. Moreover, particularly in more complex recordings there is a lot going on at the same time. The new cables enable me to hear deeper into the music without effort, and for what I do hear to sound much more natural realistic.
• Detail. Playing the 4th movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, the vocals were utterly amazing. Rather than a massed chorus, I heard many, many voices – a true delight. In another recording, I never realized the singer had actually two tracks of her voice laid one over the other. I had never been able to hear that before.
• Frequency extension. Heretofore, cymbals, triangles and other high energy high frequency instruments were just a little less lifelike, a little dulled. No longer. Amazing.
• Imaging. There is one duet of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson I play where they sing about five or six feet apart. With the Transparent cables, the two performers seemed around four feet wide each and their images were, well, vague. With the Silver Eclipse cables, their individual images are rock solid. I found this to be hugely impressive. In all fairness, in one regard possibly the Transparent cables, at least so far, fare a little better: depth. In Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”, there is a chorus of three female singers who walk toward the microphones starting from the rear of the stage; that sense of depth seems slightly shallower with the new cables. It will be interesting to see whether the Silver Eclipses improve in this regard over the next week or two.
• Soundstage. My speakers have completely disappeared. In playing more than 30 different tracks, I did not experience in even one track a sense of the sound emanating between the left and right speakers. This is a dramatic enhancement of the ability to suspend belief.
• Realism. At the end of the day, the whole raison d’etre for an audio system is to recreate the sense of “being there”. Whether I was listening to Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D, Rhapsody in Blue, Leonard Cohen, Shania Twain, the Eagles, or the Rolling Stones (among many), the one consistency was my sense that the “reproductive veil” was lifted. I was simply there.

Let me end this dissertation of mine with one caveat. My speakers, amps, preamp, music server/DAC, cabling, and power conditioners are all high quality units. I think that the overall quality of my audio system enabled me to hear – and enjoy – what the Silver Eclipse speaker cables were capable of delivering. In this way, my new speaker cables were an appropriate companion to the rest of my components. I do not think that, say, the still more expensive Gold Eclipse version of my speaker cables would have made a truly discernable improvement in what I was hearing because my audio system just is not good enough. (My equipment is listed below my signature.) On the other hand, I wonder if I shall start developing a nagging doubt whether I didn't shortchange myself with the Equinox interconnects, notwithstanding the outstanding improvement in my system they provided last year. What I am attempting to say is that, when going for that upgrade, doing one's homework needs to be part of the investment so that money isn't wasted in either direction.

All that said, my bottom line is that I have “buyer’s delight”!