Stereo Times

Nelson Brill
Stereo Times
January 2006

Big Silver Speaker Cables

If you are already a fan (like me) of Analysis Plus speaker cables, particularly their venerable and affordable Oval Nine series, then you may wish to find a new home for those Oval Nines, save money in your audio stash account and audition a pair of the new Big Silver Ovals in your system. At $835 for a six foot pair, you're going to need to gather some extra acorns over this Fall for your nest, but don't worry: if you think the Oval Nines were good for the price, wait till you hear how the Big Silver Ovals will improve on them, depending upon your system's components and its musical potential. The Big Silver Oval is constructed of 9 gauge cable of pure silver over a stabilizing strand of oxygen-free copper, woven into a hollow oval geometry in an oval-coaxial configuration. According to Analysis Plus' congenial President, Mark Markel, their patented hollow oval design uses the braided conductor in their cables more efficiently, maintaining a low resistance value. The result is claimed to be a minimizing of current bunching, skin depth problems and frequency blurring, and a maximizing of transparency and realism.

The Analysis Plus Oval Nines have been my favorite speaker cables in their price range, notable for their resolution in the treble regions and uncanny weight in the mids and lower registers. Everything from piccolo to piano comes to life with these affordable cables in my system, doing quite the honor to Heifetz's sweet violin tone or the deep plunges of Dave Holland's bass. I still recommend them unconditionally to those looking to polish their listening systems with a new glow of aliveness and dexterity for a very reasonable price. Substituting the Big Silver Ovals for the copper based Oval Nines, I was concerned that I would be faced with either hard crystalline resolution and bracing highs from this new silver based cable, or far worse, days of trying to break in such lightning transients hoping to uncover cool, refreshing breezes of ample detail, yet harmonic rightness in the sound I sought. However, after only a few hours of listening to the Big Silver Ovals connecting the Pathos Logos integrated amp or the solid state McIntosh 501 monoblocks to either the Harbeth Super HL5 loudspeakers or Focus Audio's Signature 68SE monitors, my fears were completely unfounded.

The Big Silver Oval's character, right out of the box, was a deeper, more visceral and musically alive version of what I love about the Oval Nines. The Big Silver Ovals immediately reminded me of another "Big" guy getting lots of press these days: that would be "Big Papi" (aka. David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox) who "has power to all fields." Here, the Big Silver Oval had similar power to all sonic fields, with quick, deep bass punches, fleshed out midrange (with more to explore than with the Oval Nines) and tons more nimble, vibrant treble than the Oval Nines. For example, let these Big Silver Ovals "shake the plaster" off John Hiatt's title song from his new hybrid SACD recording, Master of Disaster [New West 6076] as they capture the grit of Hiatt's deep, husky voice and convey the warmth and air of the strumming, catchy guitar licks. The sax solo on this cut now had an added expansive and breathy tone, with no glare or harshness even into its higher registers. The rocking feel of Hiatt's feel good rhythms really gets an added dose of adrenaline with the Big Silver Ovals in place. Likewise for my man, Lou Reed, whose bitter denunciation of greed and racism in the live version of "Dirty Boulevard" from Perfect Night Live In London [Reprise 46917] gets a mean new workout with the addition of the Big Silver Ovals. Connecting the Big Silver Ovals to the Harbeths delivered all of the great midrange weight that I adore these speakers for, and pushed Reed's irascible lyrics to their edge of raw emotion, without any hint of harshness or glare. Slashing guitars and the power bass driving this live cut were held perfectly in focus with lots of air surrounding the players. Finally, the great image dimensionality of this particular live recording was wonderfully preserved with the Big Silver Ovals, as individual instruments were literally hanging in a three dimensional space. I also especially liked the Big Silver Oval's synergy with my Big McIntosh solid state amps' rolling and wide bass character, never letting that lower register get too out of control or too fat on these rollicking numbers. Bass definition was clean and quick with these cables added to the mix, providing great visceral impact as that felt on Babatunde Olatunji's mesmerizing percussive recording,Circle of Drums [Chesky SACD 295].

Moving from percussive rock to the harmonic richness and delicacy found on such recordings as violinist Jennifer Koh's creative Violin Fantasies [Cedille Records 900073], the Big Silver Ovals took the emotion of this recording to another level of enjoyment. On Schubert's "Fantasie in C Major," Koh and pianist Reiko Uchida work beautifully together to weave a fascinating version of this piece, ranging from Shubert's playful jesting to his great solemn moments. At one point, Koh remains transfixed on a very high, light treble note that literally disappears into the soundstage. With the Big Silver Ovals, Koh's light touch on her bow and the full harmonic tone of this fragile, high treble note was captured perfectly without any glare or any letting go. I have heard this piece many times on my systems with other cables where this high soft treble disintegrates into either a soft screech or simply a note without substance or any natural wood body attached to it. Not so with the Big Silvers, as they consistently rendered such violin treble notes delicate, alive, tonally precise and non fatiguing. The same results were discovered on Uchida's delicate accompaniment on this disc, as his piano comes across without glaze and with lots of tonal detail and harmonic rightness. The nimble playfulness of Uchida echoing the rising and falling melodies of Koh's violin in the next section of the Schubert piece was again perfectly rendered with the addition of the Big Silver Ovals in the mix, and I even sensed the smiles on the artists as they wove through Schubert's ingenious playfulness in this section. This illustrated the character of the Big Silver Ovals: they brought the level of my systems up another notch in terms of natural feel, aliveness and harmonic rightness. Everything was just a little more natural, more alive and dynamic, and this allows one the pleasure of moving a bit closer to the emotional impact of the music and the intentions of the artists involved. In this, the Big Silver Ovals remind me of my other favorite speaker cables in this price range – the David Series from Virtual Dynamics, which I reviewed awhile back. Analysis Plus has come up with another great cable product, one that is highly recommended to audition as a possible next step in polishing an already satisfying musical system.

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