Next up for new products is a line that you may be somewhat familiar with: Siltech. Siltech was founded in 1983 with a foundation in electrical engineering and metallurgy, using silver conductors and silver/gold alloys to increase the conductivity and wire durability for higher fidelity. Siltech has since added more affordable copper cables in their Explorer line that use true single-crystal technology (known as “Mono-Xtal,” wire drawn from a single crystal of metal to prevent any micro-fractures in the wire) for improved conductivity and lower distortion, as well as a loudspeakers, amp, preamp, and power distribution products. They also have what we consider to be the best fit, finish, and packaging in the audio cable industry. No cheesy heatshrink to hide cheap terminations, no plastic “zip lock” bags or bubble boxes for packaging, but instead properly dressed and terminated cable ends and die-cut and laser-engraved packaging foam inside of canvas covered boxes.
There are three series of Siltech cables, Explorer, Classic, and Royal Signature. Explorer is the least expensive cable line. All Explorer cables feature Mono-Xtal copper conductors and the same level of fit and finish as every other series. Classic is made from their traditional, silver/gold alloy wire that allows a small amount of gold to fill in the micro-fractures or tiny gaps that occur when drawing silver wire via traditional methods to improve conductivity as well as durability. And finally, Royal Signature is the product line that applies everything gained over nearly 40 years of engineering into audio cable development: larger, pure, Mono-Xtal silver conductors that are wound with multiple insulators to keep the cable geometry stable regardless of bends. Interconnect, speaker, digital (S/PDIF, AES, USB, HDMI and Network), and power products are available.
“What does it sound like?” Glad you asked. Siltech is engineered to be a neutral cable with exceptional noise immunity, extremely high conductivity, rise time, and little capacitance and/or inductance imbalance throughout the length of the cable. Bla, bla, bla – tech speak. What all this means is that image focus is stunning, it’s got excellent detail and resolution, it’s extremely dynamic to make big music pop, and it’s neither bright nor dark and allows you to hear the recording instead of the cabling in the system.