"Dear fellow rocket scientist,
If someone tells you how to build his commercial interconnects you won't have much reason to buy them, right Kendrick? "
Harry,
For someone of your expertise, no doubt, your comment has much validity....... But for the less well endowed, lets look at the reality of the situation.
Buy those Eichman bullet plugs -$33 from Percy, if you can deal with that extremely slow turnaround time, misscommunications, and his shipping charges.
Source the flat silver conductors. Well, homgrown audio doesn't carry flat conductors, the prices for silver from Percy are outrageous, and he doesn't carry flat wire, soooo, we are left finding a jewelry supply house like Myron Tobak that will source our needs in the form we want. Pay their minimum $30 and try to communicate that you really need annealed silver.
Source the covering, heatshrink, solder.... from Heatshrink Inc, Techflex, Allied....
Certainly. one with your expertise and experience might well be able to build interconnects less expensively than the kit offered by Kendrick, and certainly substantial savings could be gotten by using generic RCAs, but I doubt the savings would be greater than a third of his $99 price if one actually uses equivalents.
So what do you get for the 'outrageous' margins charged?
A single source for the needed components.
A proven design reflecting, hopefully, the itterative design process, and some level of expertise.
Instructions to keep the builder out of trouble.
Certainly, a scratch builder could save some monies by obtaining the components themselves. I've built some of the Jon Risch designs myself. If someone has the requisite skills and doesn't value their own time in sourcing the components, savings can be had. But, Kendrick is offering his own design, instructions, and a single source, all at a reasonable mark up, far less that that on commercial cables. This is the same reason folks will buy complete kits of Jon Risch's designs from Kevin P.
Certanly, it may have been inappropriate for him to post what he did on this particular forum, inadvertantly. But in the scheme of things, his products appear to be of great value, and for those of us lacking your skills and experience, an extremely viable alternative to commercial cables or pure diy at a minimal incremental cost.
If someone tells you how to build his commercial interconnects you won't have much reason to buy them, right Kendrick? "
Harry,
For someone of your expertise, no doubt, your comment has much validity....... But for the less well endowed, lets look at the reality of the situation.
Buy those Eichman bullet plugs -$33 from Percy, if you can deal with that extremely slow turnaround time, misscommunications, and his shipping charges.
Source the flat silver conductors. Well, homgrown audio doesn't carry flat conductors, the prices for silver from Percy are outrageous, and he doesn't carry flat wire, soooo, we are left finding a jewelry supply house like Myron Tobak that will source our needs in the form we want. Pay their minimum $30 and try to communicate that you really need annealed silver.
Source the covering, heatshrink, solder.... from Heatshrink Inc, Techflex, Allied....
Certainly. one with your expertise and experience might well be able to build interconnects less expensively than the kit offered by Kendrick, and certainly substantial savings could be gotten by using generic RCAs, but I doubt the savings would be greater than a third of his $99 price if one actually uses equivalents.
So what do you get for the 'outrageous' margins charged?
A single source for the needed components.
A proven design reflecting, hopefully, the itterative design process, and some level of expertise.
Instructions to keep the builder out of trouble.
Certainly, a scratch builder could save some monies by obtaining the components themselves. I've built some of the Jon Risch designs myself. If someone has the requisite skills and doesn't value their own time in sourcing the components, savings can be had. But, Kendrick is offering his own design, instructions, and a single source, all at a reasonable mark up, far less that that on commercial cables. This is the same reason folks will buy complete kits of Jon Risch's designs from Kevin P.
Certanly, it may have been inappropriate for him to post what he did on this particular forum, inadvertantly. But in the scheme of things, his products appear to be of great value, and for those of us lacking your skills and experience, an extremely viable alternative to commercial cables or pure diy at a minimal incremental cost.
Cables
A reasonable and well thought out reply. I think Kendrick needs to put you in charge of marketing. There are sources of good silver wire on the net. And not jewelry store grade, but wire designed for electronics that is very good. Kendrick said nothing about kits which would have made all this in a different matter. If he had been half as eloquent as you been, none of this thread would have happened. I buy bullet plugs from my local audio shop and round silver wire sounds fine. Kendrick.... come back please.
H.H.
A reasonable and well thought out reply. I think Kendrick needs to put you in charge of marketing. There are sources of good silver wire on the net. And not jewelry store grade, but wire designed for electronics that is very good. Kendrick said nothing about kits which would have made all this in a different matter. If he had been half as eloquent as you been, none of this thread would have happened. I buy bullet plugs from my local audio shop and round silver wire sounds fine. Kendrick.... come back please.
H.H.
Harry,
".... I think Kendrick needs to put you in charge of marketing. "
If he did, how would he pay me? What I would tell him is - You're out of your fook'n mind, you don't have the margins, or a potential market size, to be a viable enterprise from an economic prespective. Which is why I give thanks to 'whatever' each and every day that folks such a Hugh and Kendrick are out there. For Lord knows what reasons (ego, self fufillment, satisfaction, missguided economic perspectives...) they are out there, offering products that they truly believe in. At best, they are niche operations with minimal upside.
Look at Steve McCormak's growth from Mod Squad, growing into McCormack Audio, then bankruptcy, SmC Audio, and then Conrad/Johnson (those guys know how to market in a niche, their Phd.s are in econ, not EE).
Or look at PS Audio, a company that realized that to be successful one has to continually blow smoke up the *** of the customer base. Not that their products aren't good, but a 'balun' ? Fer chrisssake. Certainly, you could look at the Ultimate outlet and say - A simple common mode choke, similar to a Corcom. But they were clever enough to use a #26 torroid instead of a high permeability ferrite so with non-common mode noise it will function as a non-saturating inductor, with minimal reactive....
I can source those $3 torroids with windings for $12 each (ever try and tape and then wind 10ga solid core on 3" core?) and put together the whole thing for a BOM of less than $30. Do I begrudge them that %1000 markup. Not at all. What I do resent is the reality that they have to resort to maketing hypebole (which I consider diengenuous crap), 'the first use, in line conditioners, of a balun???? lower impedence????. Unfortuneately, this appears to be required to be successful.
Sorry for the direction I've taken this rant, but folks like Kendrick (and others) have much to offer those of us lacking your experience. And we should all be cognizant that the costs of any bussiness is far greater than the bill of materials, unless, like our wives, we value our time at 0. Its not the labor in assembling the whatever, that is part of the enjoyment, its the finding and aquiring all those frigg'n pieces that represent the major 'savings' to me. That, and the fact that I hope the passion which they bring to the enterprise results in a well thought out, high performance product.
Paul
".... I think Kendrick needs to put you in charge of marketing. "
If he did, how would he pay me? What I would tell him is - You're out of your fook'n mind, you don't have the margins, or a potential market size, to be a viable enterprise from an economic prespective. Which is why I give thanks to 'whatever' each and every day that folks such a Hugh and Kendrick are out there. For Lord knows what reasons (ego, self fufillment, satisfaction, missguided economic perspectives...) they are out there, offering products that they truly believe in. At best, they are niche operations with minimal upside.
Look at Steve McCormak's growth from Mod Squad, growing into McCormack Audio, then bankruptcy, SmC Audio, and then Conrad/Johnson (those guys know how to market in a niche, their Phd.s are in econ, not EE).
Or look at PS Audio, a company that realized that to be successful one has to continually blow smoke up the *** of the customer base. Not that their products aren't good, but a 'balun' ? Fer chrisssake. Certainly, you could look at the Ultimate outlet and say - A simple common mode choke, similar to a Corcom. But they were clever enough to use a #26 torroid instead of a high permeability ferrite so with non-common mode noise it will function as a non-saturating inductor, with minimal reactive....
I can source those $3 torroids with windings for $12 each (ever try and tape and then wind 10ga solid core on 3" core?) and put together the whole thing for a BOM of less than $30. Do I begrudge them that %1000 markup. Not at all. What I do resent is the reality that they have to resort to maketing hypebole (which I consider diengenuous crap), 'the first use, in line conditioners, of a balun???? lower impedence????. Unfortuneately, this appears to be required to be successful.
Sorry for the direction I've taken this rant, but folks like Kendrick (and others) have much to offer those of us lacking your experience. And we should all be cognizant that the costs of any bussiness is far greater than the bill of materials, unless, like our wives, we value our time at 0. Its not the labor in assembling the whatever, that is part of the enjoyment, its the finding and aquiring all those frigg'n pieces that represent the major 'savings' to me. That, and the fact that I hope the passion which they bring to the enterprise results in a well thought out, high performance product.
Paul
pmkap
This is not a rant, it is the cold facts. I wish I could tell everyone to go do what they love. I did High End audio for three or four years and made chump change doing it. I had reviews in FI, Positive Feedback, Audio Adventures and other mags. I had a unique well received product line in a niche part the audio market. I had a distributer, CES presence , and an export market. Guess what folks? That wasn't enough. The heavyweights in High End are struggling. A start up in the saturated wire market? Good Luck! I built digital cables with networks that I would put up against anything out there but no more. I did consulting for other designers. The market is saturated and in bad shape. I would be back in it if it wasn't....
H.H.
This is not a rant, it is the cold facts. I wish I could tell everyone to go do what they love. I did High End audio for three or four years and made chump change doing it. I had reviews in FI, Positive Feedback, Audio Adventures and other mags. I had a unique well received product line in a niche part the audio market. I had a distributer, CES presence , and an export market. Guess what folks? That wasn't enough. The heavyweights in High End are struggling. A start up in the saturated wire market? Good Luck! I built digital cables with networks that I would put up against anything out there but no more. I did consulting for other designers. The market is saturated and in bad shape. I would be back in it if it wasn't....
H.H.
Digital Cable
It just so happens that I can listen to digital data streams.
I've stopped using any sort of DAC. I just run the digital output stream (from coax) into a preamp and then listen with very neutral phones or speakers.
Now, I'd imagine Harry and others are saying that's ridiculous. Well don't be too quick to judge.
Initially, all I heard was digital noise, not unlike what you hear when you listen in on a dial-up modem connection.
But with a fair amount of time and patience, using CDs I was very familiar with, I became able to translate the digital "noise" stream into the equivalent analogue music in my head. It's sort of like mastering a foreign language. You have to sort of listen "into" the data sound. First you can detect the basic rhythm, and then after a while, everything just clicks and and your ears and brain effectivley become the "DAC" itself, with no jitter, artifacts, or distortion.
Interestingly, I have been unable to do this with an compressed digital stream, probably because of the complex compression algorhythm, but I bet I could figure it out eventually. When i am really good i should be able to listen in on mobile phone conversations
Now, using this kind of high quality listening set-up, i am now able to judge the diffrence between analog AND digital cables. If you post me a set i can give you a fair and unbiased opinion
It just so happens that I can listen to digital data streams.
I've stopped using any sort of DAC. I just run the digital output stream (from coax) into a preamp and then listen with very neutral phones or speakers.
Now, I'd imagine Harry and others are saying that's ridiculous. Well don't be too quick to judge.
Initially, all I heard was digital noise, not unlike what you hear when you listen in on a dial-up modem connection.
But with a fair amount of time and patience, using CDs I was very familiar with, I became able to translate the digital "noise" stream into the equivalent analogue music in my head. It's sort of like mastering a foreign language. You have to sort of listen "into" the data sound. First you can detect the basic rhythm, and then after a while, everything just clicks and and your ears and brain effectivley become the "DAC" itself, with no jitter, artifacts, or distortion.
Interestingly, I have been unable to do this with an compressed digital stream, probably because of the complex compression algorhythm, but I bet I could figure it out eventually. When i am really good i should be able to listen in on mobile phone conversations
Now, using this kind of high quality listening set-up, i am now able to judge the diffrence between analog AND digital cables. If you post me a set i can give you a fair and unbiased opinion
Organic DSP ?
Yes Harry I agree - I was being cheeky with my last post.
Indeed thinking about it, you ought to get some idea of the audio content by listening to the data stream.
I'll try it this morning, as soon as I get to work.
Also, was it not Bernard who commented a while back that we all contain a self programming DSP between our ears, thats gets better with age and experience, despite ageing related hearing loss ?.
IME listening to the sevo stage and digital power supplies is revealing - also power amp rails.
Eric.
Yes Harry I agree - I was being cheeky with my last post.
Indeed thinking about it, you ought to get some idea of the audio content by listening to the data stream.
I'll try it this morning, as soon as I get to work.
Also, was it not Bernard who commented a while back that we all contain a self programming DSP between our ears, thats gets better with age and experience, despite ageing related hearing loss ?.
IME listening to the sevo stage and digital power supplies is revealing - also power amp rails.
Eric.
I'm back
Well, thanks guys for your humour and understanding. My apologies for taking so long to get back here - work has just been nuts leading up to launch and MBA assignments due...
BIKES
Ok, so lets get to the important stuff. Motorbikes. I'm a keen motorcyclist, and currently have a 1990 Honda VFR750FL (first of the single sided swingarms). Before that had a CBR1000FK, GT550, GS500E, CB250RS and probably something else not worth owning up to. The VFR mighten't be the quickest set of hoops around, but by god it has mucho character, a lovely exhaust note (often been accused of being a Duke on the overrun - with Staintune muffler), and the whir of the gear driven cams just gives me ...uh, never mind. If you wanna see a wicked picture of a Veefer doing a burnout, checkout the section Breakin' the Law - School of Bad Ideas - Tire Popping 101 on www.motorcycle.com - literary genius for the two wheeled crowd...
If you want some wicked riding in Australia, my fave road is the Murray Valley Highway, between Tallangatta and Corryong, leading up to Batlow, Tumbarumba, Tumut and then heading down the Snowy Mountain Highway to Bega on the coast. Great road (not withstanding roadworks), very few cops, and sweepers that just keep on coming. Also some cool caves around the Yarrongabilly middle section - check em out. Makes me wanna get on the beast now just thinking about it...
FORD
Can't say too much here, but lets just say we're not sitting on our hands. We've some terrific, no, fully sick models coming out over the next year that should redefine value for money performance and put Ford back up where it belongs. More info at http://www.newfalcon.com.au I'm proud to be associated with these programs. Go Ford!
CABLES
There's been a request for general info on cables and why my cables might be worth checking out. This is a cool question, so I'll attempt a response:
First of all, some background on the average consumer mindset and where I think it can be flawed.
Many think the value chain of audio improvements is in the component hardware - preamp, poweramp, speakers etc. Of course anything in the signal path is important. Speakers are probably the most coloured of all things next to our room itself (the latter unfortunately often never remedied or treated), and undeniably chopping and changing source and amplification components can make significant improvements.
(If you want to treat your room with great value products in Australia, I recommend Mark Hathaway's bass traps - around $A350/pair in a variety of colours - http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/139.html - great bass control improvement and took much of the overhang of the room away! I've also had great success making a diffraction panel behind my couch as its so close to the rear wall with 'basslines' at www.basslinear.com . Luke there is very helpful, and around a dozen of these behind your listening sweetspot hung on MDF like a picture with some material drawn over it will bowl you over with the improvement). No bull. Anyone wants a more detailed review, email me. I did one in the past for Melbourne Audio Club. Anyway, I digress...
The cables are often overlooked, because the market is saturated with many alternatives, prices are usually high, and everyone claims there's sounds better than an all expenses paid getway island retreat with Elle MacPherson for two weeks sponsored by Fosters. Sounds great, eh? Well maybe with Boags instead of Fosters...
Well I can't explain why some cables prices are so high, but I can explain why they are so important.
Obviously enough they are directly in the signal path. There is no getting away from this in a seperates system. Less obviously perhaps, they are positioned in an area of high EMI, both from the PSUs of the components usually near the rear of each component, and the radiating EMI from many powercords usually in a dogs breakfast layout. Many cheap powercords are not shielded which makes things significantly worse. (Do yourself a favour and tidy the abomination up! Wrap the power cords together if you can with rubber bands
What makes the Silver Stealth special?
Being an Engineer, I'll start with the logical stuff and work my way down to the more contentious.
High quality plugs - Eichmann plugs are the best I've tried by a long way. If you're using any kind of base brass metal plug, do yourself a favour and stick em in the next swap meet and get the Eichs (or Yikes and Hugh and I have joked about). The main benefits in the plugs are low mass, and high conductivity - around 95% as conductive as copper. Beats brass which is 27% as conductive as copper. I rest my case here!
Silver strip - the stuff just sounds better than wire of the same type. It is claimed this is skin effect related (whereby attenuation will occur at the surface of the conductor if it is too thick). Some claim this occurs at 0.4mm, the Silver Stealths are less than half this thickness. Even though you do not hear the full potential bandwidth of the cable, I consider the analogy similar to that of the over/upsampling DACs - it keeps the area of audible interest free of colouration/phase shifts, etc. I also keep the stuff wide enough though to have adequate gauge (around 0.5mm sq) and the thickness is strong enough to withstand the rigours of normal use (I know mine get inserted and removed continuously as I tweak my pre, power amp and DAC regularly)
Personally IMHO, IMS, I didn't like the cross connected 89259, nor Cat 5, nor copper lead lighting tape (a bit flimsy!). The silver strip stood out because of the subterranean bass extention and visceral control, and the top end was open, airy and pure sounding. Others had certain strengths, but none came together as a whole like the Silver Stealths did. More resolution without the harshness, which I thought actually was more grainy with copper.
The other thing that made a significant improvement was the shield. In some instances, I've heard other cables sound worse with a shield. I'm not sure if that is because it's multi stranded, or if it's connected at both ends. In the Silver Stealth, it is simple and effective - a single piece of silver wrapped on the other side of the duo of silvers, but open circuited at one end. This makes a -/+/- sandwich but still keeps the shielding solid core and high coverage. Over the effective surface area of the conductors, there is only 5% not covered on the sides. Avoiding the multistrand earth I believe is the right thing to do.
Which brings me to multi strand cables. I believe you can lose image precision, depth and focus with multi strand designs - this can happen because the cables do not establish optimal fields between opposing conductors (earth and active). Worse still in designs where the conductors touch each other along their length, the signal path has no defined direction and smearing will occur. That's an engineering and subjective judgement, based on my observation and listening.
Lastly I've found a very sexy covering to compliment the design which is robust, is resistant to fraying and even fire retardant. The end assembly looks as good as it sounds.
This silver can also be used in biwiring to mid/tweeters for speaker cable, a few of my customers have done this in conjunction with the 3mm sq Silver Stealth Speaker Cable for the woofer for truly awesome bass. The latter, not yet released on Hugh's site should be around $350/2m kitset. Pretty good value considering there's around 7x more silver in the speaker kitset.
I think I've put around 150 hours into the instructions and quite a deal of that supported by the editing genius of Hugh. Lots and lots of pictures to make it straightforward the first time around to assemble and extensive trouble shooting guides to decipher problems should they occur.
Finally, they're pretty good value for money, all things considered. Yeah, you might, if you go to a lot of trouble ,source all the parts yourself from around five different sources, but the whole package comes in a box raring to go. That's got to be worth something for your time.
Lastly, I support my customers with Newsletters, including record reviews, system tweaks and tips, industry updates, and even food and wine reviews! The late Harvey Rosenberg inspired me to think broadly about the enjoyment of music, and to get into the coolosity of silver cables. This is my way of thanking those who support me. Anyone who wants to see the first edition, email me for a copy. I'd gladly receive reviews on good US food, wine and music (and give them credit) to those who'd like to contribute. Share the love I say.
Hope that helps answer some questions about the Silver Stealths.
Cheers, Kendrick
Well, thanks guys for your humour and understanding. My apologies for taking so long to get back here - work has just been nuts leading up to launch and MBA assignments due...
BIKES
Ok, so lets get to the important stuff. Motorbikes. I'm a keen motorcyclist, and currently have a 1990 Honda VFR750FL (first of the single sided swingarms). Before that had a CBR1000FK, GT550, GS500E, CB250RS and probably something else not worth owning up to. The VFR mighten't be the quickest set of hoops around, but by god it has mucho character, a lovely exhaust note (often been accused of being a Duke on the overrun - with Staintune muffler), and the whir of the gear driven cams just gives me ...uh, never mind. If you wanna see a wicked picture of a Veefer doing a burnout, checkout the section Breakin' the Law - School of Bad Ideas - Tire Popping 101 on www.motorcycle.com - literary genius for the two wheeled crowd...
If you want some wicked riding in Australia, my fave road is the Murray Valley Highway, between Tallangatta and Corryong, leading up to Batlow, Tumbarumba, Tumut and then heading down the Snowy Mountain Highway to Bega on the coast. Great road (not withstanding roadworks), very few cops, and sweepers that just keep on coming. Also some cool caves around the Yarrongabilly middle section - check em out. Makes me wanna get on the beast now just thinking about it...
FORD
Can't say too much here, but lets just say we're not sitting on our hands. We've some terrific, no, fully sick models coming out over the next year that should redefine value for money performance and put Ford back up where it belongs. More info at http://www.newfalcon.com.au I'm proud to be associated with these programs. Go Ford!
CABLES
There's been a request for general info on cables and why my cables might be worth checking out. This is a cool question, so I'll attempt a response:
First of all, some background on the average consumer mindset and where I think it can be flawed.
Many think the value chain of audio improvements is in the component hardware - preamp, poweramp, speakers etc. Of course anything in the signal path is important. Speakers are probably the most coloured of all things next to our room itself (the latter unfortunately often never remedied or treated), and undeniably chopping and changing source and amplification components can make significant improvements.
(If you want to treat your room with great value products in Australia, I recommend Mark Hathaway's bass traps - around $A350/pair in a variety of colours - http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/139.html - great bass control improvement and took much of the overhang of the room away! I've also had great success making a diffraction panel behind my couch as its so close to the rear wall with 'basslines' at www.basslinear.com . Luke there is very helpful, and around a dozen of these behind your listening sweetspot hung on MDF like a picture with some material drawn over it will bowl you over with the improvement). No bull. Anyone wants a more detailed review, email me. I did one in the past for Melbourne Audio Club. Anyway, I digress...
The cables are often overlooked, because the market is saturated with many alternatives, prices are usually high, and everyone claims there's sounds better than an all expenses paid getway island retreat with Elle MacPherson for two weeks sponsored by Fosters. Sounds great, eh? Well maybe with Boags instead of Fosters...
Well I can't explain why some cables prices are so high, but I can explain why they are so important.
Obviously enough they are directly in the signal path. There is no getting away from this in a seperates system. Less obviously perhaps, they are positioned in an area of high EMI, both from the PSUs of the components usually near the rear of each component, and the radiating EMI from many powercords usually in a dogs breakfast layout. Many cheap powercords are not shielded which makes things significantly worse. (Do yourself a favour and tidy the abomination up! Wrap the power cords together if you can with rubber bands
What makes the Silver Stealth special?
Being an Engineer, I'll start with the logical stuff and work my way down to the more contentious.
High quality plugs - Eichmann plugs are the best I've tried by a long way. If you're using any kind of base brass metal plug, do yourself a favour and stick em in the next swap meet and get the Eichs (or Yikes and Hugh and I have joked about). The main benefits in the plugs are low mass, and high conductivity - around 95% as conductive as copper. Beats brass which is 27% as conductive as copper. I rest my case here!
Silver strip - the stuff just sounds better than wire of the same type. It is claimed this is skin effect related (whereby attenuation will occur at the surface of the conductor if it is too thick). Some claim this occurs at 0.4mm, the Silver Stealths are less than half this thickness. Even though you do not hear the full potential bandwidth of the cable, I consider the analogy similar to that of the over/upsampling DACs - it keeps the area of audible interest free of colouration/phase shifts, etc. I also keep the stuff wide enough though to have adequate gauge (around 0.5mm sq) and the thickness is strong enough to withstand the rigours of normal use (I know mine get inserted and removed continuously as I tweak my pre, power amp and DAC regularly)
Personally IMHO, IMS, I didn't like the cross connected 89259, nor Cat 5, nor copper lead lighting tape (a bit flimsy!). The silver strip stood out because of the subterranean bass extention and visceral control, and the top end was open, airy and pure sounding. Others had certain strengths, but none came together as a whole like the Silver Stealths did. More resolution without the harshness, which I thought actually was more grainy with copper.
The other thing that made a significant improvement was the shield. In some instances, I've heard other cables sound worse with a shield. I'm not sure if that is because it's multi stranded, or if it's connected at both ends. In the Silver Stealth, it is simple and effective - a single piece of silver wrapped on the other side of the duo of silvers, but open circuited at one end. This makes a -/+/- sandwich but still keeps the shielding solid core and high coverage. Over the effective surface area of the conductors, there is only 5% not covered on the sides. Avoiding the multistrand earth I believe is the right thing to do.
Which brings me to multi strand cables. I believe you can lose image precision, depth and focus with multi strand designs - this can happen because the cables do not establish optimal fields between opposing conductors (earth and active). Worse still in designs where the conductors touch each other along their length, the signal path has no defined direction and smearing will occur. That's an engineering and subjective judgement, based on my observation and listening.
Lastly I've found a very sexy covering to compliment the design which is robust, is resistant to fraying and even fire retardant. The end assembly looks as good as it sounds.
This silver can also be used in biwiring to mid/tweeters for speaker cable, a few of my customers have done this in conjunction with the 3mm sq Silver Stealth Speaker Cable for the woofer for truly awesome bass. The latter, not yet released on Hugh's site should be around $350/2m kitset. Pretty good value considering there's around 7x more silver in the speaker kitset.
I think I've put around 150 hours into the instructions and quite a deal of that supported by the editing genius of Hugh. Lots and lots of pictures to make it straightforward the first time around to assemble and extensive trouble shooting guides to decipher problems should they occur.
Finally, they're pretty good value for money, all things considered. Yeah, you might, if you go to a lot of trouble ,source all the parts yourself from around five different sources, but the whole package comes in a box raring to go. That's got to be worth something for your time.
Lastly, I support my customers with Newsletters, including record reviews, system tweaks and tips, industry updates, and even food and wine reviews! The late Harvey Rosenberg inspired me to think broadly about the enjoyment of music, and to get into the coolosity of silver cables. This is my way of thanking those who support me. Anyone who wants to see the first edition, email me for a copy. I'd gladly receive reviews on good US food, wine and music (and give them credit) to those who'd like to contribute. Share the love I say.
Hope that helps answer some questions about the Silver Stealths.
Cheers, Kendrick
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