Cable Asylum: REVIEW: Revelation Audio Labs Silver i2s Cable by Pete Watt

Model:	Silver i2s
Category:	Cable
Suggested Retail Price:	$399.00
Description:	i2s Digital Cable
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by Pete Watt on April 23, 2003 at 11:26:05
IP Address: 198.81.26.172

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for the Silver i2s

Over the last two months, I have been auditioning Revelation Audio Labs' Silver I2S. Overall, the Revelation was a significant improvement over the stock I2S provided by Perpetual Technologies and was clearly superior to my previous reference I2S, the Audio Magic Mystic Reference.
My current Perpetual digital front-end is configured to interprolate to 24 bits and upsample to 96k in the P-1A, which in turn is connected in I2S Direct mode to my P-3A (with ModWright version 2) running solely as a DAC. In addition, I have the beta test version of Perpetual's speaker correction software (SOCS) running in the P-1A.
In head to head listening tests with the Audio Magic, the results were not even close. The Revelation I2S was more natural and less bright in the treble, had greater clarity in the bass, and sounded very real almost sweet in the mid-range, with slightly greater transparency. The soundstage was more ambient and dimensional, and there was an improvement in overall detail and definition. Overall, the Revelation made even my older CD's sound more musical and analog-like.
I did not have an opportunity (as I had hoped) to match the Revelation Silver directly against Dan Wright's I2S, which I had earlier beta tested. In a prior review, I indicated that I found Dan's I2S to be an excellent interconnect, but unfortunately Dan was forced to drop this project due to shielding problems. Reviewing my past listening notes, my impression is that the Revelation I2S is very close to the ModWright in overall performance, with Dan's I2S having a slight edge in soundstage ambience and transparency.
Interestingly, prior to auditioning the Revelation and ModWright I2S interconnects, I was convinced that the Perpetual P-1A/P-3A combo sounded best running in non-direct mode connected by an Audience AU24 balanced digital interconnect. The improved quality of the sonics I experienced with both the Revelation and ModWright I2S Direct connect convinced me to switch to I2S Direct mode. I can only conclude that I2S Direct does not really come into its own until you connect the two units with high quality cable. I only wish that Audience (whose AU24 analog and digital interconnects I have found to be outstanding) would come out with an AU24 I2S so I could make a true apples to apples comparison.
In any case, at its very competitive price point (which is much lower than the suggested retail price), the Revelation I2S appears to be the only game in town, particularly if you want to run in Direct mode.

Product Weakness: Transparency and soundstage ambience
Product Strengths: Improved sonics across the board. Very well matched to running the Perpetual P-1A/P-3A in Direct Mode

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Spectron Digital One (Class D)
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Conrad Johnson PV-12 (highly modified)
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Perpetual P-1A (SOCS) & P-3A (ModWright II)
Speakers:	B&W Nautilus 802's
Cables/Interconnects:	Audience AU24 IC's, Alpha Core Goertz MI2 cables
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, Jazz
Room Size (LxWxH):	20ft. x 18ft. x 12ft
Room Comments/Treatments:	None
Time Period/Length of Audition:	March 2003 --14 days
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Exact Power 1000
Type of Audition/Review:	Home Audition

Product Weakness:	Transparency and soundstage ambience
Product Strengths:	Improved sonics across the board. Very well matched to running the Perpetual P-1A/P-3A in Direct Mode