In this month’s editorial, I spent a fair bit of time relating how I perceive certain products in the world of high-end audio. I didn’t dwell much on sound quality, although that aspect of performance is obviously the most important factor when choosing an audio component. But still, there’s more than sound quality to consider.
Although price isn’t always the arbiter here, once a component reaches a particular level of luxury, it ceases to be simply about reproducing music. My neighbor Ron puts it most succinctly when he says, “That’s a nice thing.” He could be talking about a turntable, a pocketknife, a motorcycle—essentially any well-made product that impresses beyond its primary purpose.
In that editorial, I introduced the Siltech Royal Single Crown speaker cables and explained how they affected my perception of luxury. But no matter what its level of presentation, no matter how refined its feel, no matter how elevated its reputation, such a product must perform its intended purpose at a level commensurate with its price and aspirations. It all falls apart if the sound quality isn’t there.
The Siltech Royal Single Crown speaker cable is not inexpensive. My 3m review pair retails for $33,105 (all prices in USD). That’s a fair chunk of change, but the Royal Single Crown cables are far from the most expensive made by Siltech. As you ascend through the Royal Crown line, the price increases substantially. The same length in the Royal Double Crown series sells for $55,635 per pair, and for the Royal Triple Crown version, you’re looking at an eye-watering $115,245.
But commensurate with its price, the Royal Single Crown cable line combines all of Siltech’s advanced technologies into one elegant package. Each cable in the Royal Single Crown line incorporates six conductors comprised of Siltech’s top-end materials. These conductors are made from the company’s S10 Monocrystal Silver, now in its tenth generation. Siltech has long championed the use of silver in its cables, originally using gold to fill in the microcracks found in alloyed silver. The S10 Monocrystal Silver conductors, each of which are one long crystal, don’t require this approach. Siltech states that their S10 Monocrystal Silver is more conductive and exhibits less distortion than regular silver wire.
The insulation of the S10 Monocrystal Silver conductors is a combination of Teflon and Kapton. The conductors are wound in a hexagonal configuration. This geometry also results in an additional air gap, providing further insulation.
My review samples were fitted with Siltech’s proprietary SSP009 spades fabricated from the company’s G9 silver-gold alloy. These are chunky, solid spades—no-nonsense connectors that inspire confidence. Repeated use—a reviewer’s curse—caused some wear to the gold surface, unearthing a glimpse of the alloy beneath. A close examination revealed that the spades showed small amounts of rainbow-colored tarnish, which I found most endearing.
Siltech takes shielding very seriously. Their hexagonal geometry, combined with the Kapton and Teflon insulation and a floating shield, helps reduce electrical noise. The aforementioned internal air gap physically damps the cable to further reduce mechanical interference.
These are physically lovely cables. As I stated in my editorial, the Royal Single Crown speaker cables exude luxury. The jackets are tight, smooth, and sensuous. Construction and finish are flawless. The metal junction boxes are beautifully anodized and smoothly machined, and the heat shrink that leads up to the spade connectors is cleanly applied.
It seems that there’s a substantial cottage industry devoted to manufacturing counterfeit Siltech cables; imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? Siltech is aware of the proliferation of fake cables, and has implemented several measures aimed at watermarking their cables to assure authenticity. In partnership with Selinko, a leader in NFC technology, Siltech has fitted each of their cables with an NFC tag that contains a unique digital ID that’s authenticated when the cable is registered to the purchaser.
This tag can be scanned via the Siltech smartphone app, making it simple to identify a genuine Siltech cable—a source of reassurance for retail and secondhand purchasers.
The main body of the cable is reasonably flexible. I found feeding the cable around my equipment rack simple, the tight weave of the jacket helping it slide around obstacles. The cable loses some of its compliance after it breaks out and exits the junction box. It’s actually quite stiff near the connectors, which seems counterintuitive, but there you are. Still, overall, the Royal Single Crown speaker cable is surprisingly manageable. It is heavy, though, so you want to ensure the terminals on your components and speakers are sturdy enough to accommodate the weight.
As I moved the cables in and out of my rack, both for comparison’s sake and for photography, I was thankful for the cloth covers that Siltech provides to protect the junction boxes. Without those covers, the chunky junction boxes would either get themselves scratched up or potentially damage the floors or other equipment.
I used the Royal Single Crown cables exclusively with the Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 Signature speakers, which were powered by my Hegel Music Systems H30A amplifier. For comparison, I used Crystal Cable Art Series Monet speaker cables.
I feared that maybe I had made my life more difficult than it needed to be by attempting this comparison. Back in late 2023 I reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed the Monet speaker cables, and am still using them. Crystal Cable and Siltech are sister companies, both part of International Audio Holding, and there’s likely some crossover in technology. The Art Series Monets employ Infinite Crystal Silver conductors, whereas the Royal Single Crowns are based around S10 Monocrystal Silver conductors. I don’t want to try to deconstruct the pedigrees of these two types of silver, but the marketing literature from the two brands’ websites, along with the close corporate relationship, seems to indicate that the processes and benefits are similar. As such, I’d expect some similarities in the resultant sound quality.
And now it’s time to untangle all of this. I inserted the cables into my system and hooked them up. I spent more time than I’d anticipated dressing them, routing their paths so that they looked symmetrical and elegant. The Siltech cables made me want to take that care.
Upon receipt I’d initially diverted the Siltechs over to my neighbor Ron’s place, and he’d burned them in for me over the space of a week, so the Royal Single Crown cables were ready to go. I’d expected that I’d have to puzzle over the differences wrought by the Siltech cables compared to my Monets, but that wasn’t the case. The change from the Crystal Cable Monets to the Royal Single Crown cables was instantly audible.
The humanity
The Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 Signature speakers are space monsters. In my room, these speakers deliver the most precise, realistic, holographic soundstage I’ve yet experienced, easily rivalling that of the big-brother 801 D4 Signatures, which blew up my skirt late last year. The 805s are extremely resolving speakers, and they certainly helped me with this evaluation.
Short and sweet: with the Siltech cables added into the chain, the 805s’ soundstage gained a tighter image focus, along with more definition and slightly more body through the midrange, and increased resolution of depth. Those are the basics, but there’s much more involved than just that. As I wrote that sentence, Roon shuffled up Miles Davis’s “Pharaoh’s Dance” from Bitches Brew (16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC, Sony Music / Tidal), and I had to stop typing and listen. As John McLaughlin’s guitar back-and-forthed with Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, and Larry Young all banging away on keyboards, I found myself drawn into this world of organized Brownian motion.
Those three keyboards were spread out laterally in front of me, well defined as they had been in the past, but now, with the Royal Single Crown cables in the signal path, the boundaries between them were clearer, and I could make out the actual physical positions with increased clarity. Continuing on to “Bitches Brew,” I noticed, for the first time, some finger snaps right around the three-minute mark. Going back to replay this section, I juiced the volume on the Meitner Audio MA3 (I just love that it’s got a transparent volume control I can access through Roon on my phone) and gave it another spin.
The Siltechs improved soundstage definition and image placement while simultaneously relaxing the highs. I heard (and welcomed) an unwinding of the harmonics accompanying the fundamental note. “The Rainbow” from Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden (LP, EMI E1-46977) begins with an incisive and abrasive guitar, one technique the band uses to build tension. It’s a balancing act—that guitar has to be a difficult listen, but it can’t overshadow everything else that’s going on in the track. The Royal Single Crown cables kept that edge, but they added clarity around the borders by reducing artifacts, essentially polishing the soundstage.
Listening further, into “Eden,” that guitar gets even more abrasive, lashing out with trails that come deep into the room. Here again, I noted how the Siltechs did that double-whammy of accentuating the crisp bite of the edges of each string while removing a trace of abrasion that’s right at the top of the note. With the Siltechs in the chain, I could listen louder without strain, which increased the impact of this dramatic, exhilarating music.
Because it’s so instructive, I’d like to stick with “Eden” for another moment. Lee Harris’s muted snare is a constant through much of Talk Talk’s music, leaping forward in the soundstage as a counterpoint to the sparse, minimalistic melodic passages. I could almost write this entire review recounting how the Royal Single Crown cables reproduced that snare. Via the Siltechs, I felt that I could hear Harris’s stick, if not before it made contact with the skin, then at the very least right at that moment. The actual moment of initiation, of the leading edge of the wave, gained a feeling of distinct motion—an impression of a real instrument, right there.
The Siltechs surprised me with a very slight, extremely endearing warmth in the midrange, continuing up to the low treble. This characteristic goes some way toward explaining how that snare attained its enhanced feeling of reality. Completeness and complexity of image can’t be conveyed solely by an increase in detail—you can easily detail your way to an aggressive, unsatisfying listen. The Royal Single Crown cables provided just a very slight nudge in the midrange. My reissued copy of the Tragically Hip’s Road Apples (LP, MCA 3844804) is never far from the VPI Prime Signature’s frequent-play stack. “Fight” alternates between sparse backbeats and all-out fast-paced rocking, and it’s a midrange workout that can easily degenerate into a messy conglomeration.
I found myself leaning back while listening to “Fight,” letting Gord Downie’s evocative vocals wash over me; the Siltechs gave his voice just a little bit of extra depth, a sense of increased realism. This fleshing out of images was especially evident on both Rob Baker’s and Paul Langlois’s guitars—via the Royal Single Crowns, I could feel the harmonic sizzle of both the rhythm guitars and that sudden break into the lead plus rhythm. But along with the snap and attack—of which there was plenty—the Siltechs kept things from getting icy. The effect wasn’t nearly enough to muddy things up, and I hesitate to call it warmth—maybe a more appropriate description is additive humanity.
After all this, I’d conclude that the Royal Single Crown is an expansive, honest, and, yes, humane-sounding cable. It’s kind to aggressive, abrasive music, and looking back at this point, I see that I’ve described its sound with records that are a touch on the bitey side. The Hip, Miles Davis, Talk Talk. Okay, one more. Slint’s Spiderland (LP, Touch And Go TG64) is all about distorted guitars, hollering vocals, and not much else. Yet it’s a brilliant album defined by the space around the notes, by what’s not played. With “Nosferatu Man” beating me about the head and neck, I found that I could easily crank the volume without strain. The Siltechs delivered all the track’s nastiness while letting me past the noise, allowing me to hear into the complexity of the guitars and appreciate the disparate odd-order harmonics that help this track make its emotional impact.
Mark this: there’s no smoothing of the rough edges here. The Siltechs carried treble extension into the stratosphere. Where there is bite and snap, the Royal Single Crowns relay it without mercy, with utter truthfulness. That humanity I mentioned? It’s not by way of a rolled-off treble. Top-end extension is all there; it’s just managed so very well, becoming so very coherent, that the result is utterly listenable, almost delicious.
“Don, Aman,” one of the more listenable tracks on Spiderland, is built on a repetitively droning guitar that’s not distorted, but it is very closely miked. The Siltechs gave it a burnished gloss that I could almost taste. I wanted to lean in closer; I could feel that guitar on my tongue, like I was sucking on house keys. The Royal Single Crowns projected that metallic, uncomfortable guitar outward without mercy.
And yet.
And yet I wanted to increase the volume. Louder I played it, bringing the guitar closer to me until it was truly uncomfortable, both due to the overall volume and also because it’s such dark, unsettling music. The Royal Single Crowns lit up the sparse ride cymbal, giving it appropriate shimmer while increasing the space around the drumstick as it struck metal. This was a balancing act, with the Siltechs acting as arbitrators, passing along all of the information, all of the meaning and intent, while blocking any hash or distortion that would initiate ear strain.
I had some work to do to evaluate the Siltechs’ bass performance. I’ve been augmenting the 805s with two Bowers & Wilkins DB2D subwoofers. While the 805s are running full-range, with the DB2Ds only kicking in below the 805s’ low-frequency rolloff, it wouldn’t be a fair test, as the lowest frequencies aren’t running through the Royal Single Crown cables. So I spent most of my time with the Royal Single Crowns listening to the 805s without the DB2Ds helping things along. You’ll read my review of the 805 D4 Signatures shortly, and I’ll also be filling you in on my experiences with the full 805-plus-subs setup to let you know how close they come to replicating the full-house 801 D4 Signature experience.
But for now, I was startled at how well the 805s performed on their own. The Siltechs undoubtedly helped, providing grip and control down in the lower midrange, right down through the bass. It’s been a while since I’ve dragged out a Rush record during a review, but I’ll correct that now. “The Camera Eye” from Moving Pictures (LP, Anthem B0022380-01) is one of my all-time favorite tracks, and it’s one that perhaps even Rush haters might be able to tolerate. Neil Peart’s drums move in from a distance, like walking artillery, the bass drum punctuating each musical sentence. With the Royal Single Crowns, that kick drum displayed all the requisite extension and impact that I know is lurking in the grooves of this record.
Meanwhile, the bass is tuneful and lithe. Geddy Lee’s Rickenbacker bass has a warm, rich tone that’s immediately recognizable, dominated as it is by a lower-midrange growl. The Siltechs made the top end of Lee’s bass jump out of the speakers while retaining the deep, quick attack. I could hear this in Lee’s top-to-bottom runs, with the Royal Single Crowns keeping the bottom tight and extended while highlighting the rapid-fire fingering. What was most impressive here was the coherence, the continuity in the way the Siltechs propelled Lee’s bass outward from the speakers. Rounded, complete, huge—that bass had a presence that made it just pop out at me.
There’s more to it
I stand by my extremely favorable review of the Crystal Cable Art Series Monet cables—they’re neutral, resolving, and—like these Siltechs—exceptionally elegant. What’s most important to this review is the overall neutrality of the Monets, which makes the comparison to the Siltech cables a valid exercise. The Siltech Royal Single Crowns are close to 50% more expensive than the Monets, which is a big jump as a ratio, and an even more substantial increase in actual cash money, but it was immediately apparent to me that the Siltechs were superior cables. I had posited that there would likely be some similarity in sound quality, and sure enough there was.
The overall neutrality of the Art Series Monets, their quick, insightful nature, and their coherence and imaging is certainly part of a family sound that translates over to the Royal Single Crowns. The Siltechs, though, add in a most endearing character through the midrange, fleshing out instruments and voices in a manner that the Monets can’t quite match. I noted other improvements in the frequency extremes, like increased definition that better focused the flying wedge of basses and drums, and a clearer, more incisive treble that provided more easily digestible information, especially at higher volumes.
Long drink of water
The Siltech Royal Single Crown is a superb speaker cable. No qualifications needed. While moving up the Royal Crown line may reveal a better-sounding product, I’d be surprised if it could really get much better. When I propositioned Siltech for this review, I specifically asked for the lowest-level cable in their line that would net me all of their top-line proprietary technologies. I would like to think that I’m correct in assuming this cable occupies the prime real estate within the knee in Siltech’s price-performance chart.
Holy hell, do I want to be correct, as these are expensive cables. My sense of proportion rebels at considering speaker cables more expensive than this. Still, these cables stand on their own merit, combining excellent sound, impeccable workmanship, and an overt feeling of luxury. Of course, it would be presumptive of me to declare that the Royal Single Crown speaker cable is a bargain. No, it would be ridiculous–offensive, even; thirty-three large is far beyond the realm of a bargain product.
The Siltech Royal Single Crown speaker cables are nothing as pedestrian as a bargain. They are an heirloom product, one that’s made as well as they can be, by craftsmen, from premium materials.
How do you put a price on that?
. . . Jason Thorpe
jasont@soundstagenetwork.com
Associated Equipment
- Digital sources: Logitech Squeezebox Touch, Meitner Audio MA3
- Analog sources: VPI Prime Signature, European Audio Team Fortissimo S turntables; European Audio Team Jo N°8, DS Audio DS 003 cartridges
- Phono preamplifiers: Aqvox Phono 2 CI, Hegel Music Systems V10, EMM Labs DS-EQ1, Meitner Audio DS-EQ2
- Preamplifiers: Hegel Music Systems P30A, Meitner Audio PRE, Simaudio Moon Evolution 740P
- Power amplifiers: Hegel Music Systems H30A, Balanced Audio Technology REX 300
- Integrated amplifiers: Hegel Music Systems H120, Eico HF-81
- Speakers: Focus Audio FP60 BE, Aurelia Cerica XL, Totem Acoustic Sky Tower, Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 Signature
- Subwoofers: Bowers & Wilkins DB2D (2)
- Speaker cables: Audience Au24 SX, Nordost Tyr 2, Crystal Cable Art Series Monet
- Interconnects: Audience Au24 SX, Furutech Ag-16, Nordost Tyr 2, Crystal Cable Diamond Series 2
- Power cords: Audience FrontRow, Nordost Vishnu
- Power conditioner: Quantum QBase QB8 Mk II
- Accessories: Little Fwend tonearm lift, VPI Cyclone record-cleaning machine
Siltech Royal Single Crown speaker cable
Price: $33,105 per 3m pair
Warranty: Lifetime
Siltech
Edisonweg 8
6662 NW, Elst
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 481 374 783
Email: info@siltechcables.com
Website: www.siltechcables.com
