How good are these reference cables? Here’s an email from the reviewer comparing them to his reference Skogrand Beethoven cables!
——– Original message ——–
From: Malcolm Gomes <malcolmgomes@hotmail.com>
Date: 12/18/23 9:27 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: “‘SOS .'” <sklein@soundsofsilence.com>
Subject: Re: Review
Hi Steve,
I hope you had a good weekend.
The Silver Signatures have broken in and I have begun auditioning them.
They matched and, in one aspect, surpassed the sound quality of the Cardas Clear Beyond (my $7,000/$15,000 category reference). In a couple of ways, they came surprisingly close to the sound quality of even the Skogrand Beethoven cables (my $25,000+ category reference). Many of the 14 audiophiles (readers who follow my reviews), that I hosted for auditioning sessions over the past 2 weekends, concurred.
Hitherto, for my readers who crave Skogrand performance but find them unaffordable, I’ve been recommending the Cardas Clear Beyond. I am now leaning towards also recommending the Silver Signatures.
To lend credibility to my recommendations, I like to have the product on hand so that I can offer to demo their performance. Since I’m now retired & living on a fixed pension, I can’t afford your review samples, so could you please cost out the accommodation price of a 72-cm (the minimum length I can work with) Silver Signature speaker cable with spades? If it is a price I can afford, I’ll purchase & add them to my reference system.
The Silver Signatures are a strong contender for my next Positive Feedback Writers Choice Award.
I hope to complete and submit the review in around a month from now.
Kind regards,
Malcolm J. Gomes
I’ve had the pleasure of listening to these Audiomica silver cables and they are something special but totally out of my price point. From the review it doesn’t say if Malcolm Gomes bought the cables, curious why not. I can only guess he wanted them FREE.
Your guess is right!!!!!!!!
As a disclaimer, I own Audiomica cables and I am very happy with them. I will hand it to Mr. Gomes, he is candid. I wonder if you give him 2 sets of the silver cables he might be willing to say they are best cables ever produced by anybody.
JMB
Ouch! I’ve heard similar stories about reviewers who ask—sometimes demand—to keep the equipment they review, and if they don’t get it, the review doesn’t happen or suddenly changes to imply the product isn’t as good as they originally claimed. I checked Positive Feedback and it looks like this reviewer is still active. Did you ever bring the issue to the Editor?
Of course, I talked to the Editor of PF. Had a talk at Axpona face-to-face. He was disappointed and said he’d take care of it, told me over the years he’d let reviewers be dismissed over similar things. But yet nothing ever happened! And to be clear, this isn’t the 1st time this has happened to me.
I have had Audiomica cables for a while, I couldn’t resist buying the Silver Interconnect Cables once I heard them. I am saving my pennies to buy an additional one for my analog source. It is such a shame how a reviewer can treat a dealer or a manufacturer, it’s his loss that will never know the full potential to his own system, they really are a make or break ones system.
Thanks Kwame. Yes, once heard it’s hard to listen to other cables. ENJOY
I too own Audiomica cables from the Red Series, and they have opened my ears to what cables can do. I’m now a believer. So sad reviewers are like this but not surprising.
Another Audiomica fan. I would have thought Positive Feedback was more above board, sorry to see they are like all the rest. I will not be following or reading them from this point on. Thanks for the heads up.
It is deeply problematic when an audio reviewer allows access to free gear to influence the tone or enthusiasm of a review. When a reviewer withholds genuine impressions simply because they are not provided complimentary equipment, the integrity of the evaluation is compromised. Readers rely on reviewers for transparency and unbiased judgment, and anything less is a disservice to the manufacturers, the audience, and the industry as a whole. Sorry this was the situation, so now I will NOT be reading Positive Feedback any longer.