Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Bogdan Audio Silver Spirit Reference IC Cable by dvb Interconnects, speaker wire, power cords. Ask the Cable Guys.

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Model:	Silver Spirit Reference IC
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$269.00
Description:	Silver & Teflon IC terminated with Silver Eichmann Bullet Plug
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by dvb ( A ) on August 18, 2003 at 21:18:16 IP Address: 207.6.161.136

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What can we ask of interconnects, except that they convey as much musical information as possible, as faithfully as possible, from one component to another? To do their job so well that they are invisible?

That musical information provides not only the most obvious characteristics of pitch, timbre, bass, mid range, and treble, but also those “extra-musical” cues that provide spatial dimension, dynamics and quickness. Perhaps all these characteristics might be summed up in the word “transparency”.

The transparency and neutrality of the Silver Spirit Reference IC is such that it is difficult to describe the cables without in fact describing the rest of my system and the music I have chosen. Looking for a cable with a particular colour to act as a tone control to patch up some other flaw in your rig? This is not the cable for you. On the other hand, if you have avoided silver ICs for fear they might be overly bright or tilted to the upper end, have no such fears with the Bogdans.

The highs are indeed clear and finely articulated, but so is the bass. If you came for the treble, you will stay for the midrange. The speakers disappeared, and the musicians and the music took on physical dimension. The trumpets in the XRCD of Kenny Dorham’s “Quiet Kenny” and of Ray Nance in Ellington’s “Blues in Orbit” (Classic Records 45s) take on fullness and presence. All the overtones are there, with roundness and depth of the trumpets’ timbre, and a presence that you can “get around behind”. But, I am describing the cables now, or what the cables are now allowing the rest of my system to display, by conveying all that information and then getting out of the way?

I have been enjoying working my way up the range of Bogdan interconnects over the past few months. I have already posted reviews of the copper and silver Eichmann RCAs. Each has been an excellent cable, and each has built on the strengths of the one before: Neutrality from bass to treble, transparency, and sound stage dimensionality are characteristics of each, but more so as you move up the line.

Therefore, I am not going to say the Spirit Reference cables “trounce” or “blow away” the other ICs in the Bogdan line. However, for what I consider to be a very reasonable price (even with the recent increase to $350/m), I doubt that you could find a better cable at any price. I am certainly not motivated to look for one.

I suppose I should be looking for some negatives to balance this review, but I would have to strain to do so. Physically, each cable has also been larger than the previous in the line. The Spirit References are quite imposing, as each interconnect appears to be two large Teflon tubes, separated by an ebony “H”. Two, of course, are required to connect to the red and the black, so from each component there are four substantial tubes, and two “H”s. Because the tubes are pale blue, they essentially disappear, leaving only the “Cheshire Cat” “H”s visible behind the component stand. The silver wire within the tube spirals. It would be interesting to know what the actual length of silver wire the signal travels to achieve its effective length of 1 m; however, the capacitance of these cables is so low, I doubt that the distance matters.

I should mention that Ben at Bogdan has been a delight to deal with. Very quick to respond to orders, very fair on shipping costs. So, although the marketing through Audiogon may seem a little unorthodox, have no fear. Ben certainly passes the resulting lower overhead on to his customers.

I started down the silver wire path in order to obtain a lower capacitance cable to use with a passive preamp. I hoped the passive would give an openness and transparency I felt I was missing. Ironically, now that I have inserted the Silver Spirits between my sources and my Bryston B60, I no longer feel I am missing that openness and transparency.

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Product Weakness:	Really none, but an unusual configuration (see photo on Audiogon)
Product Strengths:	Transparency, imaging, soundstage

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Bryston B60
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Wrightsound WPP100C phono pre
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Bolder Mensa DIO/Spacedeck/DV20XH
Speakers:	PSB Silver Stratus
Cables/Interconnects:	Bogdan Silver Spirit Reference
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz
Room Comments/Treatments:	Room long and narrow
Time Period/Length of Audition:	2 weeks (after 100 h burn-in)
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Monster 2000
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	My complete system is posted

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