Analysis Plus Silver Apex IC's

[Ron Resnick]

Two weeks ago today I received my SW1X DAC III Balanced. Up until last night I had been listening on a daily basis with signal fed from my Aurender W20 via a well regarded S/PDIF cable from a very well regarded company. Granted it was not a mega dollar cable. Last night just out of interest I substituted a 1.5 meter Silver Apex IC for the dedicated S/PDIF from the other company. I wish I had simply started out with the Silver Apex IC. The sound quality took a significant leap forward in just about every imaginable attribute. Now I have ordered a custom made S/PDIF from Analysis Plus that utilizes the Silver Apex cable rather than AP's standard "single crystal" copper S/PDIF cable. The guy I talked to at AP is Steve Sinkoff who has a very interesting background. A former insurance defense trial lawyer like me (though I am still stuck practicing to afford my toys). He let me know that he was a huge fan of Silver Apex before taking his post-retirement gig at AP and plans to order such a custom S/PDIF for himself. AP has a custom cable division and Steve evidently works for it. I ordered it yesterday and I just got an email notification from UPS that I will have it by tomorrow evening. A lot of you folks have had exposure and experience with far more expensive cables that I have. Cardas Clear Beyond and Auditorium 23 are my previous sweet spots. The Silver Apex is less expensive than Cardas Clear Beyond and I like it far better. Right now the only CCB remaining in my system is a set of XLR's between my ARC Red 6 and Ref 150SE where I continue to think it is well-suited.
Just to say this again, hopefully needlessly, I have zero connection to any aspect of the audio industry and know nobody at AP other than my brief conversation on the phone yesterday with former barrister Sinkoff.

In what sonic ways do you prefer the Silver Apex to the Cardas Clear Beyond? Can you compare and contrast your sonic impressions in detail for us, please?

 

[Fsonicsmith]

I brought up these cables two years ago. Jonathan Weiss of Oswald Mills Audio is evidently a fan too. See-if you wish-Ken Micallef's review of the Fleetwood Sound Co Deville SQ in the latest edition of S'Phile. It sounds like Ken appreciates them too now.

 

[Adco]

Anyone (also) have experience with AP Silver Apex speaker cables?

Late to this old thread ….
I use the Silver Apex speaker cable . I really didn’t have a multitude of options to be honest. My set up demands 26’ of speaker cable and to get them where they need to go without tripping on them the route requires them to be “flattish”…. I had a set of Nordost Red Dawn which were actually a nice match for the Acoustic Zen Crescendos II’s I was using at the time but when I brought the Arteluthe Stilettos in they poorly exposed the Red Dawn in every way I subjectively can articulate. I thought about jumping way up the Nordost line as I use the newest version of the Tyr in my office . So I hauled the Arteluthe in there and hooked them up. While miles better they had some hints of the Red Dawn…. More likely a speaker/cable synergy thing because the two different speakers that go in and out of the office sound great with them…..

anyway, I talked to a local dealer and he had a set of the AP Big Silver Ovals just long enough to reach the speakers if I ran them across the floor where everyone would trip… they were really really good. Actually for the price they sounded stellar . They didn’t do anything wrong , a very even handed cable.

post that trial I ordered the Silver Apex and they were/still are, literally set and forget . They draw zero attention to themselves, I can immediately hear any changes made up stream and if you are feeding them highly resolved material… they present it with a wide open flow.

these really are excellent cables by any metric one would use to choose.

on the other hand I just recently changed out two pairs of AP Silver Apex XLR cables for Shunyata’s current version of the Alpha….from dac to pre and pre to monos….

suffice it to say that once again I didn’t know what I didn’t know. While the AP apex’s are a very good cable , and roughly half the cost of the Shunyatas they simply aren’t in the same league .
I will hold on to the AP interconnects and put them in the office rig because I think they are excellent value . If your budget meets the Silver Apex I can’t imagine you could find too many other cables their equal.

 

[audioquest4life]

Late to this old thread ….
I use the Silver Apex speaker cable . I really didn’t have a multitude of options to be honest. My set up demands 26’ of speaker cable and to get them where they need to go without tripping on them the route requires them to be “flattish”…. I had a set of Nordost Red Dawn which were actually a nice match for the Acoustic Zen Crescendos II’s I was using at the time but when I brought the Arteluthe Stilettos in they poorly exposed the Red Dawn in every way I subjectively can articulate. I thought about jumping way up the Nordost line as I use the newest version of the Tyr in my office . So I hauled the Arteluthe in there and hooked them up. While miles better they had some hints of the Red Dawn…. More likely a speaker/cable synergy thing because the two different speakers that go in and out of the office sound great with them…..

anyway, I talked to a local dealer and he had a set of the AP Big Silver Ovals just long enough to reach the speakers if I ran them across the floor where everyone would trip… they were really really good. Actually for the price they sounded stellar . They didn’t do anything wrong , a very even handed cable.

post that trial I ordered the Silver Apex and they were/still are, literally set and forget . They draw zero attention to themselves, I can immediately hear any changes made up stream and if you are feeding them highly resolved material… they present it with a wide open flow.

these really are excellent cables by any metric one would use to choose.

on the other hand I just recently changed out two pairs of AP Silver Apex XLR cables for Shunyata’s current version of the Alpha….from dac to pre and pre to monos….

suffice it to say that once again I didn’t know what I didn’t know. While the AP apex’s are a very good cable , and roughly half the cost of the Shunyatas they simply aren’t in the same league .
I will hold on to the AP interconnects and put them in the office rig because I think they are excellent value . If your budget meets the Silver Apex I can’t imagine you could find too many other cables their equal.

Interesting outcome. I have a Silver Apex XLR tonearm cable going from the SME V or Transrotor TRA9 arms to an Aesthetix Io phono amp. I am also using 2 meters of the Audioquest Fire XLR from phono amp to preamp and have no reservations with both IC's. They work great in the systems for the positions I selected. I would like to someday experiment with Shunyata's speaker and IC's, but I am utterly satisfied as things are now.

It is also nice to know that you found the Apex silver speaker wires sounding very good for what they are. Can you elaborate on what differences in musical and sound traits you heard with the Shunyata speaker wires that makes you like them better than the Silver Apex speaker wires. Normally., I am big fan of silver wires. I am using reference Neotech OEM speaker wires that look like they just came off the spool of a verizon underground fiber roll, they are that thick. FYI...I have a slew of Shunyata Sigma V2 NR power cables scattered across the system. That was a slow process to get them in the right spots, but they are doing very well in the positions that I now have them in. Someday, I will provide feedback on those experiments.

 

[Adco]

Interesting outcome. I have a Silver Apex XLR tonearm cable going from the SME V or Transrotor TRA9 arms to an Aesthetix Io phono amp. I am also using 2 meters of the Audioquest Fire XLR from phono amp to preamp and have no reservations with both IC's. They work great in the systems for the positions I selected. I would like to someday experiment with Shunyata's speaker and IC's, but I am utterly satisfied as things are now.

It is also nice to know that you found the Apex silver speaker wires sounding very good for what they are. Can you elaborate on what differences in musical and sound traits you heard with the Shunyata speaker wires that makes you like them better than the Silver Apex speaker wires. Normally., I am big fan of silver wires. I am using reference Neotech OEM speaker wires that look like they just came off the spool of a verizon underground fiber roll, they are that thick. FYI...I have a slew of Shunyata Sigma V2 NR power cables scattered across the system. That was a slow process to get them in the right spots, but they are doing very well in the positions that I now have them in. Someday, I will provide feedback on those experiments.

Sorry, my post is a wee bit confusing when I read it back .

the Shunyata units I put in were XLR interconnects not speaker cable. The Solver Apex remain . They likely will remain until I move . The kind of money it would take to best these , given the 26’ length is much better served elsewhere … my opinion

just as a more generalized statement , pretty much all the Silver product I have had from AP have been very good performers and any gains I have made moving from AP either cost a LOT more or are incremental at best

 

[audioquest4life]

Sorry, my post is a wee bit confusing when I read it back .

the Shunyata units I put in were XLR interconnects not speaker cable. The Solver Apex remain . They likely will remain until I move . The kind of money it would take to best these , given the 26’ length is much better served elsewhere … my opinion

just as a more generalized statement , pretty much all the Silver product I have had from AP have been very good performers and any gains I have made moving from AP either cost a LOT more or are incremental at best

Okay, that sounds good, no pun intended,...of course pun intended, LOL. You are right about the Silver Apex that they are a great product that do not call attention themselves. I think that is a fine endorsement and testament as to their positives if they are used within one's system.