November 2024

World Premiere Review
Siltech Master Crown Cables Review
A first listen to the paragon in today's world of connectology.
Review By Greg Weaver

A New Benchmark From The Netherlands
During the third week in June, I was invited to attend a limited press event in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The event was sponsored by Monarch Systems, based in Englewood, CO, Siltech's US Importer, to introduce and promote the launch of Siltech's new flagship line of cables, Master Crown. I reported on that event here, at Enjoy the Music.com, on June 29th, with Siltech Launches Master Crown Cables. I also provided coverage on my audio analyst YouTube channel, with E181: Siltech's Master Crown Cable, on June 30, 2024 (video is near the bottom of this review).

Siltech, a reduction of SILverTECHnology, cables are a product of the Netherlands and the company was founded in 1983 in the small Dutch city of Elst, located midway between Arnhem to the north and Nijmegen - a two-thousand-year-old city founded and thriving since Roman times, to the south, in the Dutch province of Gelderland. Known as NoviomagusBatavorum in Roman times, Nijmegen was founded by the Romans around 19 BC as a military camp on the strategic crossing of the Waal River. It quickly grew into a bustling settlement and became an important administrative and military center in the Roman province of Germania Inferior. Sorry, my fascination with history occasionally rears its head in my work....

The company was founded with the inspired efforts of two music students, Hans de Ligt and Michel de Goey. These two were exploring the fabrication of cables, not by chance, luck, or intuition, but by applying science and metallurgical knowledge. They began offering designs using their self-developed, pure silver conductors (Siltech G1), and with time, Siltech has grown into one of the most respected, top-tier audio manufacturers in our industry.

The company's direction took a decided change in its core mission when Edwin Rynveld acquired the company in 1992. An accomplished electronics engineer with considerable experience working with several large and resourceful corporations like Phillips and Exxon, as the company's new lead and technical director, he realigned Siltech's priorities. Under his direction, Siltech bolstered its commitment to research and development and to making better use of advanced measurement techniques. Edwin brought with him his more complete and comprehensive understanding of the existing, diverse hi-fi market, along with his familiarity with the limitations of the day's existing audio products. Under his deft direction, Siltech was poised to make its mark on our industry.

It may be of interest to note that further transformation came when Gabi Rynveld, Edwin's wife and a prodigal concert pianist who has performed around the globe from the age of nine years old, joined the team. Though not directly relevant to this conversation, that soon led to the founding of a second premium brand, Crystal Cable, in 2004.

Before the introduction of Master Crown, Siltech offered five tiers of cables, including their Explorer, Classic Legend, Ruby Crown, Royal Crown, and previous flagship, Royal Triple Crown series. As the previous finest series, the Triple Crown products featured their 9th generation of silver metallurgy.

When examined with a microscope, one can readily see that metal is a complex lattice, or matrix, constructed from individual atoms. A resultant strand of wire may clearly be seen to be an imperfect construct assembled from multiple large crystals, all bonded together. The S9 alloy was a proprietary Silver-Gold alloy and one that used gold plating of the silver to fill the tiny gaps that naturally occur in the silver's crystal structure, gaps which - if left unaddressed - contribute to micro distortions of the signal it conveys. Although Siltech asserts that filling in these microscopic cracks brings enormous sonic benefits, such a process cannot match the more seamless performance of a conductor where those voids and fractures are entirely eliminated in the first place.

Enter the new 10th-generation silver metallurgy, one which Siltech says delivers a continuous, single silver crystal, one which completely eliminates the gaps and microcracks of the previous alloy's crystal structure. The result is a single-crystal silver said to offer the lowest possible resistance and distortion presented by the conductor itself, reducing the damage that those flaws cause to the audio signal passing through them.

The construction geometry and fabrication techniques have been further augmented using advanced software like COMSOL Multiphysics, a simulation platform that provides fully coupled Multiphysics and single-physics modeling capabilities of the interactions between multiple aspects of a physical system, to further optimize their capabilities, maximizing Siltech's ongoing efforts to push the boundaries of high-performance audio cable technology.

Under the Jacket
The Master Crown interconnects, both single-ended and balanced, incorporate four of the solid S10 monocrystal silver conductors in their new Balanced Principle construction geometry, a method of assembly that also helps them address the reduction of magnetic field distortions (MFD) related to the composition of the conducting materials and insulators. All contacts are S10 monocrystal-silver pins, which are gold-plated using a direct plasma-plating process. Improvements to the clamping mechanism on the RCA connectors used are said to improve and reduce the influence of eddy currents, and all these efforts contribute to a further lowering of their exceptionally low noise floor.

Of special interest on Master Crown interconnects is the inclusion of a two-position switch allowing the user to select from a true, fully balanced configuration with directional grounding, or the ability to “float” or lift the shield connection entirely, depending on your system's requirements.

The Master Crown loudspeaker cables use six of the ultra-thick S10 monocrystal-silver conductors, in their perfectly symmetrical hexagon construction, and feature plasma gold-plated S10 monocrystal silver spades. Here again, the use of their advanced software optimization allows them to optimize their geometry in a way to help reject both magnetic field distortion (MFD) and current shielding distortion (CSD).

Siltech states that while these speaker cables will safely handle up to 10 kW (10,000 watts!), they are also able to conduct and let you hear down to 8 Femtowatts (0.000000000000008 Watt) of sound! Recalling that femto is a prefix that represents a factor of 10⁻¹⁵, or one quadrillionth of a unit, in this case, a watt, you may begin to understand how this insanely broad power range is said to allow for the audibility of every possible minute detail.

The Master Crown AC cables use an eighteen-conductor configuration that uses a combination of both S10 monocrystal silver and G9 silver-gold wires. They are terminated using pure silver contacts on the power connector, and they have adopted a special grounding configuration in an attempt to circumvent the need for ground lifting.

Sonic Seduction
For the most salient of comparisons in my reference system, after installing the two-an-a-half meter spade terminated speaker cables ($150,900/pair) between my True Life Audio SSA-350 monos and my Von Schweikert Audio ULTRA 9 loudspeakers, I installed the one-meter balanced interconnects ($68,000/pair) between my DSA Phono III phonostage and my True Life Audio SSP-1 linestage, and the two meter AC power cord ($51,800) to power the DSA Phono III as well. And, I did them in that order, with considerable time in between each installation, in the hopes that I would be able to identify each product's individual contribution to the resultant sound.

Once the Master Crown speaker cables were installed, from the moment I lit up the system, from the first needle drop, there was such an apparent and considerable difference in the density, texture, and bloom of the deep bass that I could hardly believe what I was hearing!

Beyond the appreciably more authentic bass presentation, and I'm talking about from the deepest, most subterranean levels (my VSA ULTRA 9's will play down into the 15Hz region), on up through the upper midbass, there was a clear and immediate awareness of broadband enhancement clarity and resolution, resulting in the rendering of more complexly dense tonalities, allowing for a more faithful conveyance of the richness and vibrancy of tone color and more complete, intricate textural expression. This degree of such an expressive sonic transformation was more than merely surprising, and seemed to be something that I would not have believed possible by merely changing cables!

The insertion of the balanced interconnects simply served to amplify all the notable positive sonic attributes I'd realized with the installation of the speaker cables. The result was, in essence, a furtherance of the same kinds of enhanced nuances and expanded improvements I had noted with the loudspeaker cables. More vivid tone color, and more faithful instrumental texture, especially with the veracity of the rendering of select stringed, horn, and percussion instruments. With the right recordings, I was presented with a more immediate and intimate expression of the space, air, and ambiance around the musicians, their instruments, and the venue where the recording was made.

The result was a further augmented degree of refinement to individual expressiveness of instrumental character. This more finely honed level of expression was manifest as superior delineation of instrumental spatial corporality, textural complexity, and physical size and location. Everything, from staging and imaging cues and expansiveness to instrumental size and shape, to the more faithful regeneration of hall ambiance and space, as well as the subtle reconstruction of the attributes of shading and decay, were more starkly revealed, constituting a more candid and credible perception of the sonic event being reconstructed.

And damned if the installation of the final piece of this Master Crown cable puzzle, the insertion of the two-meter AC power cord on my phonostage, didn't intensify those perceptible advances further…yet again moving the bar a notable step forward, further reinforcing the overall credibility that the sound that I was hearing was that of a live performance rather than a recording. It was with this addition that the final measure of instrumental dimension, of their credible shape and size and especially of the recreation of the air and space around them, and that of the recording venue itself, took its final notable upturn, revealing new measures of continuousness, expanse, and focus, merging to create a more honest and believable musical event than I have ever previously experienced from my reference music system. Its final degree of added fluency, coherence, naturalness, and enrichment of the recreated musical tapestry simply reinforced my frustrations with the knowledge that so many “cable deniers” overlook the significance of the contributions of an AC power cord.

What It All Means
Saying that this looms effect provided a clearer step closer to allowing for the suspension of disbelief, allowing me to hear further into the recorded event, its space, and its vibrance than any I have previously experienced, while fair, would also be inadequately incomplete. This loom took me closer to the convincing reality, especially with the best recordings, than I would have believed could be accomplished with only a substitution of cables.

I want to make it clear that this audition has been an unexpected and remarkably pleasant experience – and if I'm honest, was a bit surprising as well. I have always felt, or more fairly, believed, that – all else being equal – when creating an audio cable, employing lower mass, minimal termination techniques, and less complex plating schemes and interfacing,  would deliver the most exceptional results. These cables – which seem to rail against all of those parameters – offer the most remarkable and authentic musical experience I've yet been treated to.

Their ability to offer an expanded degree of resolution and articulation, to be able to deliver more of every little nuance and subtlety, in a manner that is unprecedented in my previous experience, is indisputable. Every listener who visited my music room during their stay, with NO PROMPTING, and uninformed of what had been changed, all commented on the substantive improvements in the system's ability to generate a more convincing musical reality. And they offer such refinement to individual expressiveness, instrumental character, and delineation... The resultant sense of ease and naturalness that they afford is intoxicating.

While I am clearly a proponent of Hyper-Audio level of products, I have no intention of defending the pricing of these products; they are absurdly expensive. But by the same token, value must be seen as the subjective quality that it is. Given that this loom offers such a considerably more authentic musical experience, one that I was so hard-pressed to describe precisely, its significance, in the nuances and genuineness that it affords, is just as substantial. Could one leverage a similar degree of improvement, or even more, with different purchases, such as more effective (not necessarily more) room treatment, more refined electronics, loudspeakers, or isolation methods? I cannot say with any certainty.

What I am prepared to say is that my experience with this absurdly expensive loom of Siltech Master Crown audio cables is that they appear to impose less destruction, harm, or degradation to the delicate and sensitive music signal it conveys, and by some obvious degree, than any other loom of cables in my experience… In my experience, they represent the paragon in today's world of connectology.

Specifications
Master Crown 1.0-meter pair balanced XLR Interconnects - $68,000
Master Crown 2.0-meter pair balanced XLR Interconnects 2.0m - $114,000
Master Crown 2.5-meter pair of spade-terminated loudspeaker cables - $150,900
Master Crown 2.0-meter AC power cord - $51,800

Manufacturer
Siltech
Edisonweg 8
6662 NW
Elst, The Netherlands

Voice: +31 481 374 783
E-mail: info@siltechcables.com 
Website: www.Siltechcables.com

USA Distributor
Monarch Systems
16 Inverness Place E
Building B
Englewood, CO 80112

Voice: (720) 399-0072
E-mail: info@monarch-systems.com 
Website: www.Monarch-Systems.com