The SWG Connections All Silver Speaker Cables
I recently purchased a set of speaker wires at auction on eBay. I won without contest at the asking price of $148. I traded email with the designer and he custom built me a pair...

The SWG Connections all silver speaker wires were impressive right out of the box. Their unique fiberglass sheathing reflected a cool silvery lustre, hinting at the pure silver wire within. The spade ends I specified were of a surprisingly high quality themselves.

They look great, expensive even, but how will they sound? A final reference listening to my PSB Stratus Gold i's with the MIT Terminator II Biwires (s.r. $440 8 ft. pr.). Then, I hooked up the non-Biwire SWG cables, ($148 for a 7.5 ft. CUSTOM terminated pr.!!!!).

Ouch, jaw hit floor.

Honesty is the first word that comes to mind. These are one of the most honest, uncolored, unfussy, unTHERE speaker cables I've heard. It's like removing the wire from the equation, as if the speaker is self-amplified.

Lightning fast transients, seemingly absolute resolution, what sounds like full flat response from top to bottom, especially the bottom. I was stunned. The far more costly MIT's were trounced, they were heavily "tuned" in comparison, (albeit nicely for my particular room acoustics). The SWG wires were telling the truth. (And I seriously need some bass resonance treatment for my room.)

Their accuracy with regard to timbre is the essence of this "honesty". They seem to leave the harmonics and phase relatively intact, and issue forth a brutally real sound. This may not appeal to some, other cables have all been warmer and more forgiving in my system. These SWG's are a pitch black background with cool air all around. They seem to balance nicely the inherent warmth and bloom of my tube amp.

The ability of the demure, almost wispy, 18 gauge conduit of pure silver to usher the sound unchanged versus the literally fat "snakes", (like the MIT's), is a Samson and Goliath juxtaposition. The highly conductive silver, in a high current capable single strand design, elegantly and effortlessly handles power laden passages. No longer do enormous orchestral crescendos and insane rock climaxes sound congested and confused just when the going gets good. Detail and nuance are maintained even at high power levels.

Please understand when I earlier referred to my final "reference" listening with the MIT T2 Biwires I do not consider them reference. What I do consider reference are the Nordost SPM ($3800 3 m.)and Quattro Fils ($more!) and perhaps Goertz AG-3 ($2544 8 ft.) pure silver speaker cables. Alas, I have not coaxed these costly exotic snakes near my home system. I did home audition the Nordost Red Dawn ($1000 3 m. pr.) pure silver speaker cables some six months ago.

Unable to now A-B the Red Dawn and SWG wires back to back, to be fair to both I put them on or near par for now. (The Red Dawns, being loaners, I'd guess were at least somewhat burnt in, the SWG's are new.) I would also venture to guess that the SWG product with some WBT connectors might edge up towards the Goertz and SPM echelons. Gee, that could run you over $200 though...

Byron Gregory, who designs and builds these wires, says, "Amps love to drive silver." Well, they seem to especially like to drive Byron's wires. These are single strand, 18 awg (read: high-current, low skin-effect), 99.99% pure silver (read: the best conductor) individually sheathed in fiberglass (read: exotic dielectric) to produce four individual cables. This is a formula that normally adds up to a ridiculous price. Byron contends that the dielectric itself contributes significantly to the sound: teflon is ok, but pvc is better. He says cotton sounds great but is problemmatic, and he stubled upon fiberglass which sounds great and is practical. (Apparently there's a cotton sheathed wire phenomenon in Japan.)

Hey, at any rate, these cables sound truly great, and Byron's pricing straight from the source is like he's giving them away. Add a few distributor levels and some dealer markup and you'd could be paying close to a grand for these cables...

Check it out:
http://sites.netscape.net/swgconnections


The SWG Connections - Byron's email
Beeges_Blues_Group@Excite.com

Related equipment:
PS Audio P300 Power Plant > Counterpoint DA-10A Transport ('pods) >Illuminations D-60 > Counterpoint DA-11.5A DAC ('pods) > Nordost Red Dawn > Music Reference RM-9 Tube Amp ('pods) > SWG All Silver > PSB Stratus Gold i ('pods!).

Recently while browsing the Decware website (the makers of my beloved Zen Triode Amplifier -- www.decware.com) I began to browse various links the site had to various enthusiast sites. One in particular caught my attention. SWG Connections. Their site and information were both very unassuming and comparatively low key (in comparison to the hype machine of much of the audio industry) What seized my attention was their offering of a 7.5ft pair of single strand silver speaker cable for $148US (or $234 Canadian)
To top it off, they too use the Zen triode for their own listening and claimed solid benefits to its sound. Well, given I was using the cheapest monster cable possible as cable, I decided to splurge and buy these wires, sight and ears unseen.

Dealing with the folks as SWGConnections was easy and hassle free. Our email exchanges were friendly and inspired confidence that I was dealing with scam artists or the like.

Now on to the fun.....

Receiving the cables was perfectly timed to my birthday so it was a particular treat to install these babies. Opening the box, I'm looking at diminutive silvery cables coiled together. Unravelling them took a bit of effort, especially with the sense that these cables were delecate and not up for rough handling. Installation using the spades was quick and easy and it is not difficult to see the quality found in this product.

And the sound......

Transparent. These cables don't get in the way of good music. Silver cable is often characterized as bright or harsh. Not here and not when hooked up to my Zen tube amp. Coming from my cheapo cables, these gained a sense of timing, better attack and decay to the sound and a clarity that is reflective of my upstream electronics rather than the cables themselves. While the cables havn't yet burnt in (maybe 30 hours so far) I do notice a drop of ambient information in the sound, I expect this will improve with further burn in.

Given the improvement of these cables to my system for $148 incl shipping, I can't but help give a hearty recomendation to SWG and their product. check them out at..http://sites.netscape.net/swgconnections

Cheers!

excellent sound, great transparencies, much cheaper than comparable silver cabling.

At this price? none.

My system is now cabled exclusively by SWG connections; interconnects and speaker wire. All 4n, custom terminated. It has helped to open the sound up over my old Audioquest cabling. Great deal!

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