Report published:
∙ in Polish on Dec 1st 2011, No. 92
∙ in English on Jan 3th 2012, No.92

ariniAUDIO (the company insists to have its name written like this) is the newest, known to me, Polish cable manufacturer. It turned out, that this is the third Polish cable company that just starts business and about which I learned this year. Let me remind you, that those were Sevenrods (HERE) and Audiomica Laboratory (HERE), both tested in the “Polish” edition of “High Fidelity” (No. 81. September 2011).
Similar to the two companies mentioned before, also ariniAUDIO starts its audio adventure in a place, where most cable companies ends it, unable to make the next step: from preparation of professional packaging, warranty cards, complete offering, thought through technological “tale”, so important in case of cables and even preparing holograms, protecting against copying. And although a hologram brings names in my mind like Acrolink or Oyaide, it may make sense also in this case – ariniAUDIO cables are very inexpensive, not to say cheap. And this always encourages homebrew “cablemakers” to participate in someone’s success.

The tested interconnect belongs to the cheapest cables I tested in “High Fidelity”. It is not the cheapest one, because the Monacor GAC-202 tested in 2004 cost 37zl (test HERE), but it cannot be denied, that among audiophile cables, made according to all the rules in the book, with listening sessions, etc, it is a bargain.
The cable is very nicely looking, it has a grey-silver coating, without a mesh, and is terminated with small RCA plugs covered with black heat shrink tubes. On the latter, under a transparent sleeve, there is the name of the company and the model name, as well as a proud statement: “Made in Europe”. The cable is made from silver coated copper and is very flexible. On one of the ends directionality of the cable is marked. I think that it is not about the cable itself, but it is related to the construction of the cable – it is pseudo-balanced, with the same conductor for the positive and negative leads, and the shield connected at the side of the sound source.
But this is only my suspicion and nothing else is known about this cable. I think, that it would be worthwhile to mention some information about that on the manufacturers web page, besides the general discussion.
From the manufacturer, Mr. Panasewicz, I received the following information, which shed a little more light in this case: “The company ariniAUDIO exists on the market for more than a year now, but the work on constructing cables started many years ago. The brand name ariniAUDIO is a one word name and an acronym, which means: ARgentum INtelligence In Audio.
For the manufacturing of the cables combinations of different materials are used, conductors and isolators. It is interesting, that Teflon is not the best isolator. Due to that the company also uses natural materials, and this is also true for the silverStarr.
The cables are listened to in many systems. Those are: a reference system, designed from the beginning, recording studios and professional gear, high quality audio systems (also headphone systems), solid state and tube based. The directionality of the cable comes from the construction of the conductor, so from technical and objective reasons. The plugs are a proprietary construction, designed for technical and sound qualities.”

Additional information from the manufacturer regarding the model silverStarr:

• Isolators are natural materials, Teflon and air
• The material for the conductor is high purity silver and special structure (there is no copper)
• Manufacturing only in Europe
• Each cable has a serial number
• Each cable has a registered hologram
• Each cable has a warranty card with three years of warranty.

SOUND

Recordings used for the listening sessions:

• Audiofeels, Uncovered, Penguin Records, 5865033, CD (2009).
• Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Ella and Louis, Verve/Lasting Impression Music, LIM UHD 045, UltraHD CD (2010).
• Frank Sinatra, Nice’N’Easy, Capitol/Mobile Fidelity, UDCD 790, gold-CD;
• Glen Gould, Bach: The Art Of The Fugue, Sony Music/Sony Classical, SMK 52 595, The Glen Gould Edition, SBM CD (1997).
• Ida Sand, The Gospel Truth, ACT Music + Vision, ACT 9518-2, CD (2011).
• Jean Michel Jarre, Magnetic Fields,Epic/Sony Music, 488138 2, CD (1997).
• Johnny Hartman, All Of Me – The Debonair Mr. Hartman, Bethlehem/Victor Entertainment, VICJ-61460, K2HD CD (2007).
• Miles Davis, Seven Steps To Heaven, Columbia/Sony Music/Analogue Productions, CAPJ-8851, SACD/CD (2010).
• Nat “King” Cole, Love is the Thing, Capitol/Analogue Productions, CAPP 824 SA, SACD/CD (2010).
• Pink Floyd, The Wall, EMI Records/EMI Music Japan, TOCP-71142-43, 2 x CD (2011).

Japanese versions of the discs are available on CD Japan.

SilverStarr is a cable with a nice, slightly softened sound. At the same time this is a cable which does not have a muffled or fogged sound. Its low price is reflected most of all in homogenized sound, blunting of the attack and shortening of the reverb. This all just means that the resolution is lower. But this does not define the cable as it is – we cannot really hear that we deal with a budget cable – and this is always a good sign.

The most important thing is what I started with, and what is often missing in budget systems: the cable sounds in an incredibly coherent way. Its sonority is surprising, because knowing, that this is silver covered copper, knowing its price I expected – how to say that – something more primitive, dry and thin. And I got something completely different, this cable does not make the sound thinner. Yes, the middle bass is not as strong, as saturated as in more expensive, good cable, but it is not really disturbing, I would be surprised, when somebody would mention that as a weakness.
At the same time the silverStarr has a certain characteristic, which will HELP many systems. It sounds in a very well balanced way on the turn of midrange and treble and at the upper treble. That latter subrange is slightly warmed and rounded, and in a system corresponding to the cable in price we would perceive that as bettering of the tonal balance, making the sound more vivid. Even more – with this cable, material which was not perfectly prepared, or having some characteristics we would not like to have (read: brightened) sound really good, as if the cable would correct it slightly, throwing away the sibilants, stronger attack, the elements that can ruin even a very good disc.
I listened to the newest album of Audiofeels UnFinished and stereophonic version of Love is the Thing Nat „King” Cole just to assess that. On both discs the sound engineers could not fully manage the treble, there is too much of it. I think, that they wanted to improve the readability of the sound, to expose the clarity of the voices. But simple upping of the treble ends up in what we have here – sibilants without being related to the basic sound, without continuity. The ariniAUDIO cable modifies it slightly, really slightly, softening the attack of the sound and slightly withdrawing this subrange, at least compared to the midrange and upper bass.

With Audiofeels, and later with The Gospel Truth Ida Sand, and also Magnetic Fields Jarre we could also hear another asset of the Polish cable – nicely built bass and its transition to the midrange. Like I said, the sound is slightly soft, what helps in building large virtual sources. This is a part of not thinning the sound, so common not only on this price level. Bass is strong and well developed. It has the role of an “anchor” connecting the sound with the “soil”, placing it on stage. Differentiation of this subrange is nice and does not deviate from what we can get for the money.

The cable sounds nice, in a big way, delicately handling the musical matter. Resolution is not exceptional, but it will not be heard with budget gear, electronics and loudspeakers will have much bigger issues. I think that the silverStarr will fit in any well balanced system, in places where a Supra cable would also be a good match. The Polish interconnect will be more dynamic and slightly more open, but the timbre will be very similar. An inexpensive, fantastic proposition for those people, who enter now the incredible world of sound. It will be a good start with the silverStarr.

CONDITIONS AND METHODOLOGY

The silverStarr cable was placed in my reference system, connecting the Ancient Audio Lektor Air V-Edition player and preamplifier Ayon Audio Polaris III. In a part of the session I also used DACs, which I tested in parallel for “Audio”. Those were: Music Hall dac25.3, Advance Acoustic MDX-600, Hegel HD20 and Blacknote DAC30. Especially good was the combination with organic sounding, saturated DACs from Music Hall and Hegel. With the quite bright AA and open (this is not the same) Blacknote the ariniAUDIO cable withdrew the treble nicely, but it did not convert it to something so exquisite as in the Hegel. Listening sessions were made in the schematics A/B/A and B/A/B with known A and B, using 2 minute long sound pieces. Quick switching between A and B did not lead to any sensible conclusions – differences could be heard, the better cable could be indicated, but the sound of each of them could not be described. This is why I do not use double blind A/B/X testing. The Polish interconnect was compared to the reference, the Acrolink Mexcel 7N-AD6300 (27 900zł/1m), and in the listening sessions with the DACs I also used the cable Oyaide Tunami Terzo RR (1490zł/ m). It turned out, that the arniAUDIO has the sound character very similar to the Oyaide. The cable silverStarr is very flexible and is very easy to place in a system. The packaging is nice and without special glamour.