(Looks like maggielurva beat me to the headlines by a few hours, hehe…. )

After I reviewed the Siltech Forbes Lake G6 SATT interconnects, I was certain that my cabling set-up was a weak link. I absolutely loved what the Forbes Lakes did to my system, but I could not afford the admission. I so badly needed something to move my system further along, something that hopefully would not burn as big a hole in my pocket.

Maggielurva has been dropping hints here and there about silver cables since I came to know him. And suddenly I started seeing silver everywhere – my first review assignment of Siltech; master ken’s system has silver in it; CK’s system has silver in it. Maggielurva even lured me with his Stage III Concept silver cables by loaning them to me to try out in my own system, not once but twice! (this guy is bad influence :-) ) What I heard with my ears (the music that is, not the endless raving about silver), convinced me that silver was definitely a road worth going down.

So when the opportunity came along to acquire a 2nd hand pair of Audioquest Sky interconnects at an attractive price, I jumped at it. When I started writing this, they have been in my system for less than 5 hours, their DBS was still charging up, I believe, as they came disconnected. But what I heard did not just put a smile on my face, it actually caused a few chuckles and laughs. No, I was not laughing at my old cables, I was just too excited with what the AQ Sky did to my system. If their effect holds after a few hundred hours, and a few quibbles resolved, then I am in for a real treat.

The lesser of my interconnects – JPS Labs’ Superconductor FX could not hold a candle to the Sky (they are at 1/5 the list price, mind you). The other, a pair of JPS Superconductor 2 (at 1/2 the price), fared better but still beaten in almost all areas, but that was with the FX at the back end while swapping the Sky and the Superconductor 2 in front. I can’t say for sure how big the gap is until I can find another pair of Sky so that I can have a fully Sky’ed chain.

What the Sky told me in this very short span of time was that it has:

Resolution –the proverbial window onto the sound was not just merely cleaned, it was wide open. My ears were in direct contact with the music with no filtering effect in between.

Energy – It was like having a kick up the backside of the music. The musicians and singers sounded more committed to their music making and have more energy and power (contrast that with leisurely or lethargic).

Dimensionality – each sound image became more 3- dimensional. Vocal was not just about the mouth but now came attached with more of a body

Soundstaging capability – the soundstage expanded both in width and depth. More impressive on the depth part – I could better discern soundstage depth and layering which was all along my system’s Achilles’ heel (but in absolute sense still got some way to go, since it is limited by space)

The Sky still have some residual brightness (heard on trumpets and female vocal), which I hope will go away with more play time on the cables and the DBS. The bass went deeper but was thinned out a bit, not that it was a totally bad thing for my system, since it can get slightly heavy at times previously, I’ll wait and see whether I need to work further on this aspect.

Let’s see what happen after a few hundred hours, I’ll post the updates here. Treat this as an initial impression.

I have to thank maggielurva for introducing me to this silver ‘poison’.

P.S., credit also goes to maggielurva for the title of this blog entry, this is what he said to me when we talked about the AQ Sky. :-)

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

welcome to the silver club..

your life will never be the same.


That Maggielurva seems like a nice,sincere friend huh?

I do not think that many people would lend you their expensive cable

Anonymous said...

Think of it as money saved.

Imagine all the upgrades you would have made,when all you need is a bit of silver magic.

Anonymous said...

I think you need to clean your electronic terminals with deoxit first;sound like you have Silver sulphide built up as indicated bu the not so nice bright sound on female vocals.

I am an addict of female vocals and their is nothing better than silver cables to bring the sweet nothing whisper of female vocalists better than silver.

having said that,you must make sure you deoxit the terminals regularly [every 2-3 months] to get the best out of it

Anonymous said...

For me ,ALL interconnect should be made of Silver.

If you can't spend a lot you still get some decent silver cables like Clearer audio[buy direct fr them,superb value],or Acoustic Zen Silver Reference{always good deal on A'Gon]

Anonymous said...

The used AQ Sky is a good place to start the silver journey. Since they were used, they would have been run in and what brightness you hear may be the brightness that resides in the system.

The silver journey begins with Sky.....and i am sure it will not stop here. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

what took you so long before you join in the bandwagon?

Anonymous said...

Magic happens when you prtner silver cables and tube pre amp.

There is something mystical about that mix,like the penang nasi kandar mix.

Anonymous said...

Maggielurva,

This hi fi kaki has got quite a good pair of ears.

He described silver cables likea pro.

Anonymous said...

I know it is difficult,but how many percent of the siltech's performance did sky achieved.?

Do you plan to go all silver?

Anonymous said...

My experience show that as important as the cable s are,we should also be judicious about the type of connectors used.Wbt,Bocchino or at least cardas should be the kind of terminals that you should be looking at.

And I am surprised that some of you have heard of Clearer audio cables.This is where I think you should look for value for money silver cables.

Anonymous said...

sorry it should read crystal clear audio

Lil' KC 小雞雞 said...

Did you buy the version with no carbon insulation?!

Sounds like the non-carbon version to me...

hifikaki said...

silver addict,
ya, maggielurva is definitely a great pal!

kappa,
Good point, it is money well spent as an upgrade.
With the Sky’s capability I also believe it can last my next few equipment upgrades.

joakim,
Thanks for your suggestion, I’ll try it out.

kokooi,
Why I joined the silver bandwagon so late? Well, it was a matter of exposure, first, the hifi dealers I usually frequent do not carry silver cables… second, you’d need someone who is passionate about it to advocate it to you, and in this case, it was maggielurva!

chekyin,
Thanks for the endorsement…!

heng,
Forbes Lake vs. Sky? Well, when I recall my experience with the Siltech Forbes Lake, it still overwhelms, honestly. In terms of musical enjoyment, I think the Sky gives about 70% of Forbes Lake’s level overall, that is my subjective assessment at the moment. Siltech and AQ take slightly different sonic directions, I would try to describe their differences in the future once I have a full handle on the Sky’s sound.
I would think full silver is a possible future path for me, but I’ll take it one step at a time.

lil’kc,
Hi, I don’t know which version of the Sky I have, how to tell?

All others,
Thanks for your feedback and sharing!