Reviewer: Mike Malinowski Source: Walker Black Diamond turntable

Reviewer: Mike Malinowski
Source: Walker Black Diamond turntable; Walker Reference phono preamp; Clearaudio Goldfinger
Preamp: VTL TL-7.5 Reference
Amp: darTZeel NHB-108; VTL S400; Tenor 350M
Speakers: Wilson Audio X-2 Alexandria
Cables: Silent Source The Music Reference [under review],Transparent Opus, OmegaMikro, Purist Silent Source,
Transparent XL w/MM interconnect to amp; Silent Source and Xtreme between phono pre and preamp
Stands: Michael Green racks, VPI phono stand, Zoethecus, Walker Prologue Amp Stand
Powerline conditioning: Furman Balanced Power, Walker Audio Velocitor, PS Audio 300
Sundry accessories: Walker Audio Valid Points resonance control discs; ASC tube traps; Echo Buster absorbent and
diffuser panels; Argent Room Lens; separate 90-amp sub panel feeding five dedicated cryo'd outlets; Loricraft Model 4
record cleaner; Walker Talisman
Room size: 22' x 17' x 8' (double sheetrock on 2"x 6" framing in basement)
Review component retail: 2.5 meter set $5,995 (additional length per 30.5 cm - $449)
1/10
Introduction
Pop quiz: name the top ten cable contenders at the state-of-the-art sedge. I bet Silent Source didn't make your list.
Probably many of you have never even heard of Silent Source, unless that is, you're under the sphere of influence of
Walker Audio or a few other industry gurus. Silent Source is a small company founded by Frank Dickens which has been
around for several years but mostly flown under the radar, essentially making handmade cables in short production runs
with no real marketing or advertising and growing primarily through word-of-mouth recommendations. I think that is about
to change. Frank has something special here and we're going to take a look at his top product - The Music Reference
speaker cables.
Like others in our industry, Frank Dickens combined a strong technical background with a passion for music and
developed both of these into the Silent Source Company. With a technical background honed in the military, Frank, a
lifelongaudiophile and music lover, specialized in military communications equipment and DC telemetry signals. Due to
the sophisticated and sometimes quirky nature of these advanced military circuits, he developed a deep interest and
understanding of shields and grounds which has translated to his cable design. Also, having access to highly advanced
research labs didn't hurt either. After years of research, the Silent Source brand is emerging. With a developing dealer
network and refinement in manufacturing processes to allow increased production, Silent Source is ready to play on the
sometimes slippery slopes of audiophile cabling.
Silent Source manufactures power cables, interconnects and speaker cables in three levels: the Signature line, Silver
Signature and at the top, The Music Reference.The entry-level Signatures are built primarily of very pure copper with
some silver-plated copper strands. Frank believes that his entry level cables are cost effective and high quality. "Our
entry-level is a little bit different than the others and you might characterize them as slightly warmer and slightly less
detailed versus moving up the line but nonetheless, they will stand against many good cables in the market."
The mid-range Silver Signatures contain a combination of silver and silver-plated copper strands. I had these in my
system for approximately six months and believe me, they're really good. If I had never heard the References, these could
possibly have been my cable of choice. But then, The Music Reference cables do exist and they are very clearly a step
up.
Hearing the "all silver' description of The Music Reference cables induced that common knee-jerk reaction: yes, lot's of
detail but silver equals cool and bright with lack of warmth and emotion. Frank strongly disputed this instinctive reaction
and claims the opposite. "Everything in The Music Reference is 100% very pure silver, no copper at all. Interestingly,
most people feel that silver is a little bright and harsh. Yet silver done properly is just the opposite; more relaxed, not
bright and with no harshness. We find that with this silver cable, we can pull out music that was hard to listen to -- say
Rickie Lee Jones -- and found it and other albums actually easier to listen to."
But no matter what the metal and level, Frank claims that all of his cables will allow you to develop and change your
system and not be plagued with the problems associated with typical cable interactions. Since my system component list
is stable, I can't address that claim but I can offer some insight into his top speaker cables. For those of you who skip to
the last page in a novel, here is the bottom line: these are good; no, let me change that, these cables are really good.
Visually, one might consider Silent Source the Clark Kent of speaker cables. While attractive, there are no obvious
indicators that these are State-of-the-Art contenders. Visually unassuming, with none of the glitz of Transparent, Nordost,
Tara or even the Omega Mikros, you'll find no network boxes, no power supplies and no fluid-filled, garden hose-sized
conductors.
2/10
Up to this point I stayed away from reviewing audio cables. On one side, active electronic components, including Walker's
turntable system, VTL, Tenor, DarTZeel and others, all brought new additive delicacies to the audio table. Although their
sonic presentation might differ, I assure you that the vast majority of audiophiles in the world would be happy with a
Walker, DarTZeel, VTL, or Tenor component in their system. The problem for me with all cabling is that although it might
be the best in its respective line, each brought only partial pieces of the sonic pie to the table. None of them were truly
close to the Holy Grail – coherence, neutrality, resolution, dynamics and that wonderfully wide holographic 3-D
soundstage. Combine this with the wonderful editorial philosophy at 6moons, which allows individual writers to pursue
and review products of personal interest, I just never found that unique "wow" cable product that truly deserved a
reference position. That is, up to my introduction to the Silent Source Music Reference. First a disclaimer: there are a lot
of cables out there, more than any one reviewer could dissect. Also, I have not compared the Silent Source to the newest
ultra-insane Tara Zero and/or Nordost Odin Cables. Also let's be honest here: no single reviewer can listen to everything
in a reference quality system under controlled conditions and cables tend to be system dependent, interacting for good or
bad with the source and target components. As with all component reviewing, a little grain of salt caution is in order.
Comparisons with different components and different systems might yield different conclusions.
How I got here...
A quick background. When it comes to cables, I've traveled the many paths from zip cord to the exotic fluid-filled Purist
Audio Design and finally to the lunatic fringe insanity of the Transparent Opus cables. At times I've had the cables
positioned in mid-air, on ceramic stands, twisted counter-clockwise and now six inches off the ground on acrylic triangles.
Short of mystic incantations I've tried it all. No, let me correct that, in 2003 I did try some incantations but nothing
happened. It's really been an effort to essentially get them to disappear from the sonic fabric and just let the music flow.
Frankly the journey has been a moderate pain in the ass. Since the ideal cable would theoretically do absolutely nothing
to the signal, one would hope that across the many brands, the best of the best would have a similar sonic flavor with only
minor subtle differences and in the end, hopefully they would be more similar than different. But alas, in my experience
every cable unfortunately had a very unique sonic signature readily apparent to even those diehard believers who insist
that all cables sound the same.
In the beginning, I dabbled in the flavor of the month club, borrowing and sometimes buying the newest and best cable as
defined by the latest super review. When my system went through some later transitions, I found myself in the WilsonLevinson mode with my dealer pushing the Transparent line. With an aggressive dealer and Transparent's everincreasing
product line and upgrade policy, I slowly inched up their line, ultimately landing at Opus. Yes, there is a
Levinson/Wilson/Transparent synergy with the trio doing much of what I was looking for in terms of wide soundstage,
forceful deep bass and more apparent resolution and delineation than I heard from previous contenders. My Opus cables
were not a review sample, they were bought by a crazed audiophile (me) who scrimped and saved for two years. They
were mine and I assumed them to be impenetrable. I went through the well defined, psychological stage that when you
have the most expensive you assume it to be, and want it to be, the best. You're not looking for a low-priced contender to
come in and be a giant killer after spending what amounted to a year's worth of my son's college tuition for just a pair of
wires. So there they remained for years when along came Lloyd Walker, the eclectic crazed audio genius, who quite
honestly assumes nothing and questions everything. His reaction was that the system "sounds good, but I know that with
the right cables it will sound better." Bummer.
3/10
Over the years, Lloyd's tweaks have taken my
system several steps forward. The first was with
ultra-delicate, ultra-tweaky OmegaMikro cables;
frankly a somewhat ugly system both for the flat
ribbon speaker cables and even more so for the
ultra-thin interconnects with hair-thin wires
enclosed in silver tubes. Just as I had moved up
and around the Transparent line, I also moved
up and through the OmegaMikro product line.
While the Transparent products produced a
deep, full, rich, robust, almost tube-like sound,
the Omega's claim to fame was pacing, detail
and resolution, the polar opposite of
Transparent with a totally different view of the
sonic palate. Yet even as good as they were,
their delicate physical nature was wearing,
especially in a review system with component
changes. Walker, who has apparently infinite
patience with the smallest details and seemingly
tolerates any type of audio pain in the pursuit of
sonic perfection, also grew weary of the fragility
of the OmegaMikro line. A phone call one day
from Lloyd with an almost child-like glee
announced that he had finally found a
replacement for the maddeningly delicate
Omegas: "It's well-built, robust, musical and
even as cables go, somewhat attractive." The
cables at the time were the Silver Signature. Shortly thereafter when Lloyd was applying some such update or
modification to my turntable, he suggested an upgrade by swapping out the Omegas for the Silver Signatures, and by
gosh, he was right. In fact, he somewhat understated the virtues of the Silent Source in my system which came pretty
darn close to bringing the soundstage and weight of the Transparent line, yet with a finer resolution and a quieter
background. So I settled in once again, happy, for about a year or so.
One evening Lloyd, with a prospective dealer from Singapore, descended for a short demo. The system was well-tuned
and humming along quite nicely but within an hour Lloyd said that he had a pretty special cable with him and asked if I
wanted to try it. Ten minutes later it was in. A drop of the needle and a few minutes into the next cut, I was begging to
have the cables remain for a longer audition. No such luck – denied. I had to wait for a review pair. So here we are and it
appears that at first blush, the Silent Source Music Reference has finally brought it all together.
4/10
In general, when Lloyd Walker claims a dramatic improvement, smart audiophiles listen. He claimed the Silent Source to
be special – sturdy construction, reasonable pricing and great sound. Shortly after his initial visit, I secured a review pair.
To be honest though, I still had no real enthusiasm to play the cable game. The first night I pulled out Stravinsky's Firebird
[Dorati, London Symphony orchestra, Mercury] and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet [Leinsdorf, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Orchestra, Sheffield lab Direct to Disk]. My original intrigue turned to a pleasant surprise. I was extraordinarily skeptical
and to be honest with you, didn't really want to hear any major improvement. That changed after a short listening session
followed by an involuntary expletive of "holy something or other". They had the bass and soundstage of the Transparents,
more detail resolution and texture than the Omegas, with an improvement to the natural realistic soundstage and
emotional impact of the Silver Signatures. But hold on, we'll get to the comparisons later.
Design
Check out the marketing data for your favorite high-end cable of choice and you're likely to find specifications prominently
displayed for insulation, metallurgy, capacitance, inductance and speed. It's trendy for manufacturers to focus on one or
more specs as the key to sonic nirvana. Some of them tout low capacitance or inductance; some, the wire purity; and
others, the propagation speed of the signal relative to the speed of light. Well, right or wrong, you're not going to find that
specmanship game at Silent Source. While there apparently is solid science, engineering and construction behind the
cables, there is not however the macho sword fighting as to who has the lowest capacitance or the fastest transmission
speed.
Frank is refreshingly plainspoken, direct and to the point. When pressed for more information concerning the
measurements of his cables, Frank stopped me in mid sentence and offered a somewhat blunt assessment as to
designers and engineers who put numbers first. "Look at two companies that are anal about numbers: Halcro and Wilson.
You look at the numbers and I don't relate to those numbers at all relative to distortion. Look at any high-end amplifier
manufacturer and look at what they claim for distortion levels. It's like the national budget, I can't relate the sound to the
numbers. When I listen to these people's products, sometimes they are musical and sometimes they are not. It's like
when we originally changed from tubes to transistors - at that point solid-state was spectacular but not very real and never
emotional. When I listen to a system and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, then we've got something! It may not
measure the very best - but who cares!"
Yet, from my discussions it's obvious that Frank and his company do pay attention to capacitance and other measurable
specifications and they are integral to the design but clearly secondary to the sound. "It's really pretty cut, dry and simple.
It's the metallurgy and the way the cable is constructed, and the way the cables are built to transmit the leading edge of
the music transient as close to real time as possible - specifications do not exist in a vacuum. If you build it correctly with
the right metals in the right configuration, keep the noise and vibrations out, do the shielding correctly; then it 'happens.'"
So what are the fundamental design philosophies of this emerging contender?
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A design that allows hidden detail and resolution to emerge by the elimination or suppression of background
noise, RFI or other such grunge.
The use of proprietary shielding, allowing silky clean, dead silent backgrounds - in essence, a silence source.
Get it?
Neutral and uncolored with the ability to transmit all the information as 'safely' as possible.
Compatibility with a large variety of equipment.
An extraordinary attention to detail in the mechanical construction.
Priced affordably for the real world (or at least affordable relative to audiophile standards).
5/10
"... I always believed that cables were an important part of the system equation. But they really shouldn't influence the
system. You should be able to change whatever components you want to and then hang with the cable that you have and
not worry about re-voicing the entire system. We always felt that cables should be mechanically sound, easy to handle
and should not have a sound. They should transfer current or signal from point A to point B. So to be honest with you, we
are not interested in sound with the Silent Source cables. Our cables have never been accused of having a sonic
signature of their own. But what they do is transfer either signal or power in a very special way from point A to point B. We
get it done with resolution, speed, dynamics and focus, but to me these are not sonic signatures, they are just the
characteristics that the sound would have if you were able to transmit it in a perfectly ideal way."
Another pet peeve of Frank's is cables that are system and component dependent. "Cables should be neutral and
shouldn't care what you hook them up to. I solicited reports from systems all over the world with our cables with an
amazing variety of equipment. The reports consistently stated that our cables were neutral. The only time we had a
problem was from the old-time audiophiles who tune their system to a particular sound and if you put our cables and their
system, you lose that tone control."
While Frank was somewhat tight lipped about measurements and specifications, when it came to the materials and
manufacturing, he was quite open and proud of the quality of the components and the manufacturing processes. "A
singleended cable is a simple design but how you execute that design - the material you use, how the materials are
configured and your construction methods, mean everything. As an example, our speaker spades are pretty substantial.
They do a better job than hooking even bare wire directly to a binding post and they actually do a better job than small
ones do, which goes against conventional theory. I can't even theorize on the design of the Eichmann Bullet Plugs, but I
know that they do a better job than anything out there because we've tried everything."
"If you look at our products, we use similar material in all of the lines: machined aircraft alloy for all of our housings,
Eichmann Bullet Plugs and Xhadow XLRs. In our research and development, we tried everything in terms of other
people's products in a very controlled procedure and then using sophisticated computers, we wring out the designs."
Construction
The cable itself is flexible, pliant with a dark jacket and an external mesh covering. It's pretty thin as high-end speaker
cables go, no more than ½" in diameter. An eight foot length probably weighs no more than a pound or two, quite a
difference from the 25 lbs Transparent Opus monsters. Anyone who's even dabbled in the cable world is aware of the
dielectric debate. To the layman, the term dielectric and insulator are often used interchangeably but to scientists and
engineers, the term dielectric means far more than a plastic wire coating which keeps clumsy users from getting an
electric shock. Although beyond my technical knowledge, dielectric theory delves deeply into the properties of insulation
and its interaction to an electric field generated by the signal flowing in the wire. Do a quick search of any audio site and
look for Teflon, cotton or vacuum and you will be inundated with tons of opinions and theories. As one might expect,
Frank has some thoughts on the issue.
"Well, I'll first start off by suggesting that a vacuum dielectric in high-end cables is a myth. In my opinion it's impossible.
There are only two dielectrics that we use - Teflon and cotton, which mechanically is very difficult. We buy the wire to our
specification for the Signature and Silver Signature, either oxygen-free copper with a very high purity, silver or silverplated
copper depending on the cable. The coating is extruded Teflon. I know there are some in our industry who claim to
hear the effects of Teflon. Well, they must be better than I because frankly, I can't hear it."
6/10
While the Signature cables are sourced with the Teflon coating, The Music Reference cables are built from bare wire. To
give you some idea of the manufacturing complexity, "we jacket the bare silver wire in cotton; we use twisted pairs with a
particular twist to deal with capacitance and other issues. We pull our shields over the top of that in a jacket of proprietary
material to handle microphonics, followed by more shields and then the outside jacket... The result is truly greater than the
sum of its parts. There is one source in the world for our conductors and that source will go to the grave with me. It is as
close to hand drawn as possible using mechanical devices."
For the non-metallurgist in the audience, "drawing the wire" is a process where the wire is pulled through successive
smaller dyes which narrow the wire diameter. The problem is that the metal distorts under this manufacturing process and
its electric properties are altered. The solution used by a handful of manufacturers is a cryogenic treatment to restore the
metal's original properties. As with his other manufacturing processes, Frank claims his treatment to be superior. "Deep
immersion cryogenic treatment [using liquid nitrogen] is not what most people do when they take it [the cable] down into a
gaseous medium and back out. We have one of the foremost metallurgists in the country. He has been doing cryogenic
treatment for 30 years and through this treatment, we restore the metal as best as possible to the characteristics that we
originally started with."
Shielding
Every company's product offering has a sweet spot, that special claim to fame that makes it unique. With Silent Source it's
their grounds and shields. Let's be realistic, compared to a speaker or amplifier, cables are really not that complex.
Therefore according to Frank, much of the success of any cable focuses on the materials, connectors, shields and
grounding. Viewed as a system, Frank claims the Silent Source shielding to be effective and quite intricate. "There's a lot
going on inside our jackets, with several proprietary shields. We worked really hard designing shields that don't do any
filtering. There are a few things that you have to get rid of – all the extraneous noise floating around, electromagnetics and
microphonics."
"The first thing is to have a quiet background so we have an outer shield with custom designed braid which is the best
antenna we can make. Then we add an inner shield referenced to the most common point in the system that is a
reference ground – one that doesn't flow anything, a true shield. So in essence, we use one shield to drain off noise and
one shield to keep noise from penetrating. Then we have a propriety material we use to jacket all of the cables that
reduces microphonics. The material extends into the housing because it is somewhat useless to have all that dampening
material in the middle of your cable when almost all noise is transmitted through the connector housing. Therefore we are
able to achieve very natural and quiet backgrounds and against that we configure the wire and connectors in the system
to transmit the signal as good as possible."
While some of Frank's discussion of his grounding theory was over my head, his passionate beliefs were clear. If the
minutiae of cable-grounding turns you on, enjoy: "Most people don't fully understand the concept of grounds. Ground can
be at different levels - you have system ground, you have power supply ground and signal ground with other intermediate
stops. But you need to keep those in proper order to keep noise out of the system. Using earth ground as reference,
system ground is at some level above earth ground. Component power supply ground should be at a level above system
ground with signal ground being at some level above power supply ground. So if you order the grounds when you are
trying to get rid of noise, you tie it to the closest point that it can be removed from the system."
Most of the system problems have to do with hooking the ground planes to different design philosophies and each
component together. Once you link the ground planes together though the cable system, then whatever is going on
between the grounds and the levels of the grounds from one component to the next affects everything! It is a major
reason that when you put a component in your system and determine that it's just not compatible, generally speaking it's
the grounds that are not compatible. Printed circuit boards make things difficult. Point-to-point wiring was the best - you
could keep things ordered. Circuit board design, by its nature, limits you. We used to put jumpers on circuit boards to
solve those problems but big manufacturers don't want to do that. So you end up with the grounds not being ordered
correctly. In very high-end sensitive equipment, this becomes audible."
7/10
Break-in
There are break-in believers and non-believers. I am a card-carrying believer and all new equipment gets some break-in,
period. By far, The Music References required the least break-in of any speaker cable in my experience. Frank attributes
the out-of-the-box performance to the in-house break-in combined with their cryogenic treatment.
"It's pretty simple. Anything that is formed under heat and pressure alters the structure of the materials. For instance,
flowing wire through high-speed dies fractures or distorts the structure of the wire. As with vacuum tubes, the cryogenic
treatment relieves the stress. If we don't cryogenically treat cables, there are a couple of areas in the frequency spectrum
which are quite irritating without extended break-in. We treat our cables cryogenically and do a minimum break-in of 72
hours. They will continue to get better but are 90% there out of the box." Agreed, the cables are almost there out-ofthebox with a slight easing of the presentation and a little more detail after another 20 hours. Subtle things though. Believe
me, you'll be happy with their initial performance.
Sound
Now that we're past the esotericism of dielectrics, grounds, shields and cryogenics, let's get to the sound. With cables you
need an open mind so set aside the belief that silver cables, high resolution and detail are the antithesis of an emotional
musical experience. Silent Source has taken that theory, crumpled it and drop kicked it out of the stadium. Yup, these
babies serve up real detail without the brightness of a tilted response curve, combined with a listening experience that just
grabs hold of you. Live and learn.
It seems that Silent Source might be correct; it's the low-level noise that produces graininess
and masking, impacting the musical experience. An orchestra in real space displays clearly
defined micro details with leading and trailing edges of the music that flow naturally. Silent
Source allows us one step closer to this ideal. Bells and chimes are great indicators of attack
and decay. How does the initial impact present itself? Is it an instantaneous appearance of a
blaring sound, or a natural fast rising transient exploding into the room? And does the natural
decay die off into a silky background or just abruptly stop? I dug out several bell & chime
records to test the References - Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition [Lorin Maazel, Telarc
10042]; John Klemmer's Touch [Mobile Fidelity 1-006] and Faith's Brazilian Sleigh Bells
[Fennell, Mercury SR90144]. The verdict was unanimous. In each of these uniquely divergent
recordings, the initial impact was clearly audible and the ending decay floated into the room
eventually dissolving into silence. This result matches Frank's design theory. A cable's job is
to deliver a signal. Grunge, noise, or RFI interference of any kind mask the lowest-level
resolution, altering the subtle musical cues that distinguish recorded from live music. It's the
initial moment of attack and final moment of decay where the signal levels are so low that they
are often obscured by the inherent filtering effects of the cable. Frank's complaint against
most if not all cables on the market is that they obscure these crucial low-level elements.
There is no doubt that The Music References are superior in this respect to any cable in my
experience. The only possible exception might be the darTZeel's connections, which are a proprietary impedancematched
interconnect system. They too have an extraordinarily low noise floor and superior resolution. But in reality it's an
apples and oranges comparison since the Zeel cables only work with darTZeel equipment.
From my experience, you achieve the most realistic sound when the air clearly surrounds each instrument and
simultaneously the entire musical event is held together from top to bottom with focus and coherence. Again The Music
References excel, with an ease that allows the sound to just flow naturally. As good as the Silver Signatures are -- and
they are very good in absolute terms and certainly for the money -- the sound from the References just snaps further into
place. While obviously cut from the same sonic cloth as the Signatures, they are a significant step forward in terms of
musical detail and resolution. Also, the music just floats from a much darker, quieter and blacker background. Discussing
this phenomenon with Frank Dickens made him cringe at the term blackness. "It actually leads to a minor pet peeve of
mine when someone says our cables have a black background. I really don't like that term where the background takes
on almost a life or sound of its own. To me that comes about from filtering and ends up actually taking away low level
information. What we did was create cables that helped to eliminate lots of noise and therefore have a naturally quiet
background without that blackness that in reality has a 'sound' of its own."
8/10
Whether you accept the terms blackness or call it lack of noise or go for the romantically inclined "velvety void of
nothingness from which sound emerges", it's obvious the Silent Source cables are certainly at or near the top. As to the
description, I'll still use the term blackness as I believe it best conveys the musical reality of the cables. After a rather long
audition, I view the Silent Source cables analogous to a giant pipe, allowing the complexity of the music to flow with a
smooth yet detailed presentation. Yes you read it correctly. "Smooth and detailed." The characterization is not a
contradiction. I know that many believe cool, bright, and edgy are often synonyms for detail, with smooth at times
representing warmer, more laid-back and rolled off sound sans detail. Not here. The Music Reference is the best of both
worlds. The effect is instantly obvious - silky elegance combined with resolution yields detail without the nasty side
effects. It's an instant reaction. You don't have to struggle to hear minute differences. Silent Source gets the fundamentals
right, a glorious midrange set in a correctly proportioned soundstage. The cables don't hit you over the head with any
single element of the music reproduction, just a wonderful consistency from top to bottom.
There's a lot right with these cables and at the top of the list would be the silent background and low-level detail. There is
just a cleanliness to the sound that differentiates it. Again, don't substitute that for coolness, edginess, hardness or grain they are the polar opposite to those characteristics. The detailed and textured images are presented in a highly cohesive
whole, not carved and disembodied but floating within a musical sphere emerging from a 3-D space dramatically different
and superior to any of the cables that I've heard. Leading edge transients, ultra clean precision and speed that truly
popped from the background. No gray areas. They sneak up with low level information presented on a beautiful delicate
air. The overall soundstage was satisfyingly deep and wide. Again, from discussions with Frank, he attributes this to the
subtle musical cues of the signal previously filtered out or buried. The emotional impact is there in full force, evoking what
I call the "goose bump" factor. The Music Reference has it in spades, presenting complex harmonic detail and air
between the instruments, letting the essence of the musical experience effortlessly flow.
As to the low end, the deep weight of an orchestral foundation was presented with full articulation and allowed the
subtleties of the low end their own distinct character. If you want low end authority, listen to Beethoven's "Sonata Opus
57", Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, [Carol Rosenberger, Top Music Intl], the Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand Piano is
deep and resolute without the slightest hint of boominess combined with spectacular but natural decay.
Comparison
The really big question is how do The Music Reference cables compare to some competitors? Like many audiophiles who
randomly accumulate cables, at the time of the review I had several divergent sets of speaker cables hanging around.
First the magnificent, ultra-expensive Transparent Opus, the Omega Micros, an old pair of Purist Maximus cables and the
Silent Source predecessor in my system, the Silver Signatures. Some might question the Purist cables. You could be
asking, why bring out a decade-old design three generations removed and compare it to a state-of-the-art contender?
Well, Purist has a reputation for quiet backgrounds and lots of low-level information. Since that's the Silent Source claim
to fame, I dug the Purist out of the box, cleaned the terminals, applied the Walker SST and let them settle in to fight it out.
I didn't do this mini shoot out to rank the cables or to review the competitors but to give you an overall comparison
between vastly different cable technologies and to let you know where The Music References fit into this small but eclectic
group.
I guess the first question on most people's minds is the comparison to the Transparent Opus. Can a $5,995 cable be the
giant killer? Drum roll please. The answer for my system with my components is yes. While both cables produce a wide
and deep soundstage, The Music Reference did it with more cohesion. With the References, the sphere of music
emanating from the speakers was more precise and the images more delineated. The bass from both was deep, rich and
full with a touch more resolution from The Music Reference. The Music Reference is also a win in terms of transparency.
For a real instructive comparison, I listened to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Sure it's been analyzed to death. But it
remains a complex and layered piece which makes the Transparent/Silent Source comparison interesting. With The Music
References, subtle details pop to the surface with far more clarity. A recurring Sax riff that was buried now floats free.
9/10
Other textures emerge. As a food analogy, the Transparent offers a wonderfully tasty pie with all the flavors present, but
with the Silent Source it's a delicate layer cake with far more individual tastes, the sound producing an almost tangible
presence. Now I am going to put in a minor disclaimer here. I do not know what is in the network box of the Opus but I'm
assuming some type of Zobel configuration. I can tell you from my experience that this external circuit does not interact
well with the Wilson X-2s and in my opinion, degrades the cable's performance.
The comparison with the Omega Mikros is very interesting. The Omega's frequency response seemed tilted up in
comparison not only to The Music References but to all of the other speaker cables. It's as if there was a slight treble
boost around 10k. All the recordings seemed a touch brighter with the Omegas and against the Silent Source, slightly less
natural. If you want to read into that that the Omegas sounded a touch cooler and with slightly less deep bass than The
Music Reference, be my guest because it's true. Both cables displayed a ton of detail and resolution but the Silent Source
noise floor and blacker background was clearly superior.
I was actually interested in the Purist after reading some reviews and Internet blogs claiming that their newest cables with
their Ferox shielding are vastly superior. The discussions jogged my memory and I brought out an old pair of Purist
Maximus cables. Historically Jim Aud promotes some of the same philosophies as Silent Source - superior construction,
materials and most importantly, elimination of the noise and garbage in the signal. However, Purist has taken a different
path with their internal fluid and Ferox compounds. Yes, my Maximus are over a decade old and yes, they are at least
three generations removed from the current Purist top line; and yes, a used pair probably costs only a few hundred dollars
but what's the harm? Listening to the Purist first showed that they are still capable of a decent, acceptable sound but as
one would rationally expect, they were no match for The Music References. In a critical comparison, the soundstage was
compressed to the space between the speakers and the References clearly brought more low-level info, life and sparkle
to the sound. I would be curious however to listen to the newest Purist designs.
Then we have the middle sibling of the Silent
Source line, the Silver Signatures. Here the
comparison actually was more difficult. As one
would expect, they paint a very similar sonic
picture but the difference is that the less
expensive Silver Signatures present the music
with slightly less continuity. With the
References the entire picture just snaps
together. With the Silver Signatures you get
almost all of the detail but it seems presented
in slightly more discrete elements and to use
an unfair analogy, the Silver Signatures would
be digital music and the References, analog.
For someone like myself with a Walker Black
Diamond Turntable, the analog version is
obviously superior. The differences are audible
especially in a high resolution system where
the Silver Signatures provide perhaps 80% of
the sonic glory for 60% of the price. To be quite
honest, I believe that the Silver Signatures
would stand stiff competition with some of the
top cables in the market today.
Summary
There are people who don't view cables as
components. With all due respect, they're
making a mistake. The improvement brought
by the Silent Source speaker cable was not
subtle. They are extraordinarily musical,
coherent and neutral. While not inexpensive,
they are certainly reasonably priced in a crazy
market that can command megabucks for eight
feet of cable. They blew away my expectations.
If you are looking for the best, you must try
them. Highly recommended.
10/10