As is often the case with hobbies: the sky is the limit. This applies to cars, watches, wine and also hifi. And even within hifi there are segments to be made again: electronics, acoustics and of course: cables. The reason we bring this up is that we have the top line from Audiomica lying around. A serious set of cables. We have the Cristal Silver Signature speaker cables and Veroni. Both cables with nice pure copper and silver conductors. And very good shielding.
Audiomica is a Polish company that specializes in cables, although they also make power products and filters. The company is now 15 years young, but already has a healthy distribution network (ERCT in the Netherlands).
Multiple lines
Now the Silver Signature line is a serious investment. It is a “happy few” product. Fortunately, Audiomica also has some affordable models that, of course, also enjoy the R&D done within the company. Think about the geometry, metal machining and anti-static materials Audiomica uses in the sleeves.
The big difference between the series is in the type of material and, of course, the amount of material used. And, for example, the advanced shielding that we find on the Signature series or Consequence series. Just like more expensive plugs.
Now it goes too far to explain all the differences here: both on the Audiomica and ERCT websites you will find a configurator to put together cables. Very handy.
Silver Signature
The Audiomica Silver Signature is Audiomica’s Halo Product. And with a price of 15,485 Euros for the speaker cable (2.5m) and 13,755 Euros for the interlink (1m), we should expect a very, very good quality. In sound ánd in finish.
Moreover, with these kinds of prices they compete with the top-producs in the cable market. Think of Siltech, Audioquest and Van den Hul for example. Companies that have a lot of experience and have invested the necessary R&D money.
To give an example of a serious competitor: the Van den Hul CNT XLR interlink costs 7500 Euros for 1 meter. 1.5 meters costs 11,250 Euro. That is a wonderful cable that we now have as a reference in the system. With a reason.
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Research
If you’re going to fight with the “big boys,” you have to be at least as good. And offer something unique. Audioquest has its DBS system and perfect surface technology and, for example, “cold soldering,” which means they don’t just solder, but ‘clamp’ the plugs on the cable. According to Audioquest, that sounds better. Van den Hul has CNT conductors in the top products and their Halogen Free materials for the jackets, among other things. Not to mention carbon insulation.
Audiomica reports on their Web site that they use advanced shielding, filters (anti-interference filters) and research anti-static materials and carbon technology in their own lab. They also have access to advanced metallurgical technologies. What that exactly is, they don’t say, unfortunately. We are glad to see, however, that the brand is serious about research. That’s not nearly always the case in our industry.
The test setup
- TAD Evolution 2 loudspeakers
- Pass Labs XP-12
- Pass Labs X150.8
- Grimm TPM cabling (compare)
- Van den Hul CNT (compare)
- Isotek Titan
- AAI pucks under the Mutec
- Yeti Reference filter (sources)
- YETI Power cables
- Van den Hul Nova speaker cable / Driade Flow (compare)
The Audiomica Sound
We received from ECRT the Silver Signature single ended interlink and speaker cable from Audiomica. We used the interlink between the Grimm MU2 and the Pass Labs preamplifier and the speaker cable between the Pass labs X150.8 and the TAD Evolution Two speakers.
Fast and smooth
What iimmediately stands out when connecting the Silver Signature interlink is the imaging. It plays very large. In width as well as depth and height. Now the difference should also be quite audible, since we are replacing the Grimm TPM interlink. This one costs about 600 Euros. So you can buy more than twenty pairs of TPM for one Silver Signature.
Still: the Audiomica is overwhelmingly a better interlink. More air and scale, more insight into the music and clearly more structure audible. Think in the attack of a piano note, or the deep bass. Still, extraordinary what one cable can do.
Looking at the CNT, we can’t make a direct comparison: the CNT we have is a balanced cable. The Audiomica is single ended. We know that the Pass plays better with a balanced connection. In our estimation, the CNT plays a bit “blacker” and with more calmness than the Audiomica. The Audiomica will instinctively bring more air. And perhaps play a bit more energetically. Qualitatively, it is very close.
Speaker cable
When it comes to speaker cable, the Audiomica replaces the Van den Hul Nova. Connecting is easy, although we must say: we do not find the plugs top notch. It is a screw system that “pushes” the plug open, causing it to clamp. We’d rather not demolish 15,000 Euro cables, so we proceeded with caution. However, it is not quite clear how hard we can clamp now.
Now the VdH Nova is already an impressively good cable…. let’s face it. So here we hear slightly different things change. The difference is not as black and white as with the Grimm versus the Audiomica.
The VdH Nova has more high extension and clearly more midrange focus than the Audiomica Silver Signature. And if we listen very critically, the Nova is actually more neutral across the audio range. But the Audiomica is overwhelmingly calmner in the midrange. And slightly less harsh in the highs.
With Hania Rani, the calmer midrange means we hear less “ringing” on the notes than with the Van den Hul. That makes longer listening a little easier. So this is a good cable for those seeking resolution without it ever becoming intrusive. The Nova, however, leaves the balance a little more intact…. it’s subtleties, but it’s audible. And measurable. In the end, it’s taste.
The focus of the Van den Hul is also different. Slightly less wide, but it does seem to give a bit more of a sense of depth than the Audiomica, although this may also be due to projection. The Audiomica projects more in width and depth.
Overall picture
If we have to paint an overall picture of these cables, the first thing we hear is a lot of air in the reproduction. And that with particularly well shielded cables! That is without a doubt impressive.
A second point is the flow that these cables bring. The Silver Signature lets the music flow wonderfully. That sounds logical, but there are cables that do play a bit more “stacato”. Why causes that, we don’t know exactly. Anyway: not everything is still measurable, of course.
A third point is insight into musical structures. This series does that very nicely. The CNT can also do that incredibly well. Hearing the structure of a note through the speakers is very easy with CNT. These Audiomics also manage to do that beautifully. Unfortunately, the Grimm is not as good at that. Anyway: all value for money…. Right?
Measurements and conclusion
We measured the Audiomica Silver Signature with our Sourcetronic LCR meter as well as the Prism dScope III. The latter measurement was done with the speaker cable on a real speaker. We look at the differences with the Van den Hul Nova, Driade Flow Reference and Art Speak Solid Core Silver.
The impedance of the cable is nice and low. And it doesn’t rise high either with a maximum of 1.7 Ohms at 300 kHz. At 20 KHz we’re at 1.4 Ohms approximately. Perfect. Phase is also within limits. Certainly within the audio range.
Because impedance is low, conduction is high. That’s how it goes. We see about 50 Siemens, indicating quite a bit of copper and silver.
Inductance is well under control. It sits around a healthy average in this case. The Nova sits lower, but this is certainly within a healthy range.
Capacitance is low. Lower than the Nova. And well below average.
Audiomica Silver Signature Cristal – measurement on speaker
We see an interesting behavior in this measurement. The Audiomica is right in between the Art Speak, Driade and the Nova. The Nova makes almost a straight line. The Audiomica in the beginning at the bottom, but pulls through straighter from 10 KHz than the Driade and Art Speak. The Driade has a lot of high roll-off (which is audible). All in all, we see here that the Audiomica speaker cable has a relaxed midrange and a healthy high extension.
Audiomica Silver Signature Veroni – LCR measurements
We see a couple of things here: the conduction is healthy. This is due to the use of nice silver. Partly because of that, impedance is low. Inductance is also very low, which is nice. Capacitance is a bit higher than we see on average. This is definitely a result of the shielding and geometry. To what extent that is audible is, of course, the question.
Conclusion
Audiomica has a beautiful product with the Silver Signature. Its strength is without a doubt in its imaging and flow. It really puts out a nice, big stereo image and manages to pass on the textures of instruments beautifully. In this price range, however, it should. And even in this class, the competition is killing. Look at Audioquest, Siltech and Van den Hul to name a few. They too have wonderful products. Can Audiomica not compete? We’re certainly not saying so. We’re just saying: be sure to try a few cables: it has to match and serious amounts of money are involved!
