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Review: Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition Interconnect

Category: Cables

Associated Music:

Patricia Barber Companion
Count Basie 88 Basie Street
Tracy Chapman New Beginning
Golden String Audio Repertory Top 12 In Gold
Norah Jones Come Away With Me
Luther Kent Luther Kent & Trick Bag Live
Diana Krall Live In Paris
Hugh Masekela Hope
Buddy Rich Keep the Customer Satisfied
Sonny Rollins This Is What I Do
Santana Supernatural

I’m an independent audiophile and have no association with any manufacturer whatsoever. I was very content with my interconnects and speaker cables, which I purchased in March of 2002. A friend had purchased a pair of Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition Interconnects and told me I had to hear these, so he brought them over and we put them into my system. Since I need to use two pairs of interconnects in order to make sure my reference interconnects weren’t masking any sounds. I ended up with two pairs of Midnight Silver Edition interconnects and a pair of Midnight Silver Edition speaker cables for review purpose.

Before I begin the review, let me state up front that I believe interconnects and speaker cables can be system-dependent. In addition, I also think audiophiles are capable of liking different products. Just because I prefer item A and you like item B does not mean one of us is wrong. We can agree to disagree over personal choices. My review is based upon listening results from my tube system and my Solid State system.

The Midnight Silver Edition interconnects and speaker cables are fantastic sounding products. If I had not heard them for myself, I never would have believed that they could have sounded better than my reference interconnects and speaker cables that I was very happy with!

The Midnight Silver Edition are extremely fast, neutral and transparent. They don’t favor one frequency band over another, and are very coherent, allowing me to hear deep within a recording. There is a wider and more dimensional soundstage with a deep fast bass, sweeter mids and extended silky highs with a timbre to kill for. There is a very black background that reveals the detail in a very positive manner, even when listening at very quiet levels.

Construction of the Midnight Silver Edition interconnects and speaker cables is excellent.

The Midnight Silver Edition speaker cables bettered my reference speaker cables (no doubt in my mind) by a larger margin. (I heard the same improvements as mentioned above).

The interconnects that I have owned over the past four years were all good. However, the Midnight Silver Edition interconnects and speaker cables are number one to me in my audio systems. I highly recommend you give them a try if you are in the market for interconnects and/or speaker cables.

Associated gear
Tube:
First Sound Presence Audio Linestage I
Wadia Transport #20
Dodson Audio Model DA-217 MK II D
Cary 2A3 Monoblocks that sit upon SP 004 Sistrum Platforms including three direct coupled Audio Points or Bel-Canto EVO 200.2 Amp
Equi=Tech 2Q Power Balancer
Abby Speakers ported, modified Voight pipe with Fostex FE 166 E speakers or Legacy Studio Speakers
Velodyne F-1200X Subwoofer with Bass Euphoria RAC interconnects
Bybee Quantum Force – single ended Interconnect Filters
Bybee Quantum speaker filters
Pure Note Epsilon Reference Speaker Cables
Pure Note Epsilon Reference Interconnects
Purist Proteus Digital Cable
Purist Proteus 20 Amp Power Cord
BMI Whale Elite MK I Power Cord
BMI Whale Elite MK II Power Cords
BMI Shark Power Cords
Absolute Power Cord (cryogenically treated)
Virtual Dynamic Power Three Cryo Power Cord
Audio Points under all componenty
Salamander Archetype 5.0 with Mega-spikes
Dedicated 20 Amp circuits with FIM #880 (cryogenically treated), Wattgate 381 (cryogenically treated), Hubbell 8300’s and 5362 (cryogenically treated) outlets.

Solid State:

Legacy High Current Amplifier 250 watts/ 8 ohms, 400 watts/ 4 ohms
Legacy High Current Preamp
Legacy Signature III Speakers (4 ohms)

Similar products
Cardas Golden Reference IC’s and SC.
Maple Shade Clearview IC’s
Silver Audio Appassionata IC's and Silver Symphony 48 SC.
Bear Lab Silver Lighting IC and SC.
Granite Audio # 470 IC
Audience Au24 IC and SC
HMS Topline IC and SC (not the brand new ones they came out with recently).
Pure Note Epsilon Reference IC’s and S/C.
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aponter4
30 posts
 
I have now been using my 1-mtr. pair of XLR balanced MSE interconnect and a pair of 6-ft. MSE speaker cable for ~ 2 weeks with my system consisting of an audio aero capitole MKII CDP, a Krell FPB 300cx power amp. and a pair of Egglestonworks andra-to-andraII upgraded speakers. These cables sound and perform spectacularly. They are smooth, accurate, fast, tonally balanced and very musical. They compare very well with my significantly more expensive MIT 850 SC and proline ic's. These cables are simply very good and for the money an unbelievable deal.
vrsola
31 posts
 
Ridge Street Audio Designs: Midnight Silver Edition Interconnects

Purchased from Audiogon.

Website: RidgeStreetAudioDesigns.com

Purchase decision of this cable was based upon my prior experience 0f 9 months with the RSA Reference Mark II Interconnect. They worked well in my three systems in my home including my tube and Hybrid pre & power ampler and the cheaper outlaw 1050 receiver.

After using them for 9 months I feel they are a good value and very much enjoyable. The Midnight Silver Edition is one of the few cables with Eichmann silver bullets close to 300 $ price point with good reviews and opinions. This is a cable to keep long time and not the cable of month.

My other earlier purchase of their RSA Reference is neutral and it is like a copy machine without any significant additions or subtractions and it is non-fatiguing. It is also a well-made cable with Copper Eichmann Bullet Plugs. It took less than 15 hours of break in time unlike my other cables that took 250 hrs+. Silver cables, when designed right, have good tonal balance and smoothness and lack the brightness associated with silver.

I expected the Midnight Silver Edition cable to be better based on the reviews, the use of Eichmann Silver Bullet Plugs, damping, proprietary materials and treatment along with other technical stuff. It is! Not a huge difference but good enough to justify this purchase.

It is delivered after being broken in by the manufacturer but still needed about 10-12 hours more break in. There is no brightness, edginess or any “silver” sound. The Eichmann Bullet Plugs fit well after using a hair dryer.

The Midnight Silver Edition works very well in my three systems and suites my musical tastes. I only listen to music about an hour or less and mostly to voice recordings with out much of instrumental music. I also like violin (Stephen Grapeelli, L. Subramanyam and Shankar). For me, the representation of flute and of the human voice and their tonal variations are important. It does those extremely well preserving emotional impact (provided the other components can do that in the chain).

Though it is against conventional wisdom, I prefer the Midnight Silver Edition between the pre and power amplifier and the RSA Reference MkII between DAC and pre amplifier.

It sounds different and distinctive with openness and expansion without interfering with the frequency spectrum.The high frequencies are smooth, crystal clear, and well detailed without any fatigue. It is not shy in the home theater set up either. It has good low end for all action movies. In all my three systems they are enjoyable. System dependency is not a problem with what I have.

The differences are easily appreciable when compared to Home Grown Audio Silver Lace and Zu Varial interconnects from Zu cables. The Z cables are also good but more pricey.
In all I can say these cables are to keep.
Associated equipment
Van alstine fet valve pre and power amplifier.
EFE T 36 speakers
omega DAC.
Onkyo CD player.
Audio magic stealth power conditioner
Quantum electro clearpower conditioner.
V.R. Sola
gillesl
1 posts
 
I've been using my Midnight Silver Edition Cables (Interconnect & Speaker Cables) for +/-3 Weeks. They sounded great when I connected them but now they are extremely transparent and at the same time, very neutral. The Interconnect alone is very good but when you connect the Speaker Cables with it, it is a whole different ball game. These cables has to be used together to have the full benefit of them. They are still improving and at the moment they are so reveiling that if you have a weak link in your System or you are listening to a recording that has some default, you will automatically her it. Very, Very IMPRESSIVE!!! Before buying any Cables, you have to try them because they really are GIANT KILLER Cables and the prices are very low for the quality. Also, you can't lose with their 30 Day Buy Back Policy.
lak's avatar
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lak OP
4,529 posts
 
I will be burning in a new pair of the Midnight Silver Edition Gen.II Interconnects. I'll post a review sometime in September.
gbmcleod
428 posts
 
This question is actually in regard to the associated equipment you used in the review.
Is the First Sound Presence the Deluxe (current) version, or the older version from around 1996? I'm wanting to determine if I would get the same results with my First Presence, which is a Mk. I version.
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