Review: Stager Silver Solids Interconnect Cables

It seems to be a rarity to find something that has both value and significant quality, but that is exactly what fell into my lap with the Stager Silver Solids Interconnect cables. I didn’t seek out these cables for review, and in fact, I had never heard of Stager Sound before Marc Stager sent an email to Jack at The Audio Beatnik offering a review opportunity. But, I’m very happy that he reached out and offered this opportunity to review a set of interconnects. Jack said, “Hey, Adam likes to review cables. We can ask him if he’s interested.”

Now, I may be an unusual reviewer, but I really do like to review cables. I think cables make a difference, and I can hear that difference. I don’t think price matters. I think that finding the right cables for your system and your ears is all that matters. Though, unfortunately, with high-end audio cables, the right cables tend to come at a significant cost for what are usually subtle, nearly impossible to measure, and often hard to describe changes in sound quality.

Stager Sound

As I had not heard of Stager Sound before, I decided to do a little reading about who Marc Stager is. Come to find out, Marc has been in the pro audio field for a long time. He has worked with many respected artists as a recording engineer, designing speaker systems for live music and running mixing boards. His website stagersound.com goes into more detail, but suffice it to say, Marc appears to be very knowledgeable in both the live and studio audio environments. 

About the Cables

After a couple of quick emails, Marc built two pairs of one meter, interconnect cables and mailed them to me for review. My plan was to use one pair for two weeks between the Orchard Audio PecanPi USB DAC (reviewed here) and my Burson Soloist headphone amplifier. Then, I planned to connect the unused second pair to gauge any burn-in effect. After that, I then wanted to use them between my turntable and phono-amp leading into my integrated Mystere ia11 amplifier.

The cables arrived quickly from New York in a small, air bubble shipment bag, and each came individually wrapped in a zip lock bag. There were no frills or added costs. The cables looked just like they do on the website, unshielded symmetrical pair of 99.9% pure silver 24 gauge cables with Canare F-10 RCA connectors.

Stager uses translucent Teflon (PTEE) to insulate the cables. While their size and lack of a covering may give you the impression that they are delicate, they are well constructed and can handle being connected and disconnected numerous times. Though I found one of the Canare F-10 connectors to be a bit tighter than it really needed to be, it caused no significant troubles. 

Initial Impressions

For the first two weeks, I connected a pair of interconnects between the PecanPi DAC and the Burson Soloist headphone amplifier. I used a Raspberry Pi computer running Volumio and connected to a PecanPi DAC with a WyWires USB cable as the source.  Using Volumio to control everything from my iPhone or desktop computer, I was able to stage enough music to run continuously for two weeks.

From my initial listening impressions, I noticed two enhancements in the sound of my system with the Stager Sound Silver Solids interconnects that stood out most to me. First, the interconnects enhanced the low end and increased the size of the sonic environment/soundstage. Second, I also noticed that the interconnects could retain the level of detail that the PecanPi DAC offered. 

The Bass and Some Selected Cuts

While I like my Audeze LCD-2 headphones, they always seem a bit thin in the bass. Even when driven by an ample power supply like the older Burson Soloist headphone amplifier, or by a more costly and larger headphone amplifier, the bass on the LCD-2 always just sounds a bit thin.  The Stager Silver Solids interconnects seemed to resolve this without adding bloat or a hump in the bass mid-range. Rather, the bass fills out more while retaining detail, speed, and impact.

For example, the bass on the XX self-titled album, which I’ve had the pleasure to hear on systems ranging from $50 Bluetooth JBL earphones to $100K + vinyl rigs, is supposed to sound big, powerful, and should take the empty up space in this minimalist recording.  But with the LCD-2 and other cables I’ve had on hand with the same components, it never really seemed to be as present as it should be. With the Stager Silver Solids interconnects, however, the bass finally made itself known without the rest of the spectrum suffering.

I also clearly noticed a larger and more detailed soundstage when I listened to Sam Baker’s Cotton. There is a lot of subtle production work on that album that doesn’t reveal itself unless it’s played on a very detailed system. I could hear the hidden reverb gems, environmental background sounds, and the overall construction of each layer of sound with these interconnects.

And I was further delighted when switching over to Jennifer Warnes recording of Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire.  I had to wonder where all these chimes, cymbals, and other percussion production work had been.  I guess it was just all lost in incoherent background highs. It makes me sad that I have listened to that album so many times before, and have not been privileged to actually hear it.

I started to wonder why I could now hear all of this detail. A good part of it did have to do with PecanPi DAC, but when I switched to other interconnects I have on hand, I still found that the Stager Silver Solids interconnects had better detail, speed, and stage size.  They basically sounded better across the board.

Editor’s Note: Album cover images are courtesy of Discogs.

Adding a Stager Headphone Cable

Needless to say that within a couple of weeks I was sold.  I paid Marc for the two review cables and ordered a Stager Silver Solids headphone cable and another half meter interconnect.

Moving from the Audeze headphone cable to the Stager Silver Solids cables only made things better.  I have had a couple of different cables for my LCD-2 headphones over the years, and while most sound good, they all have failed mechanically at some time or another. So, I had gone back to the basic cables that come with the headphones, which in their own right sound pretty good.  But, when compared to the Stager Silver Solids, the difference, especially in the extension and openness of the high-end, was easily apparent.

Between the new PecanPi DAC and the Stager Silver Solids interconnects, for the first time ever I think I’ve heard enough detail in the recordings I have that I don’t really need to hear any deeper. I’m sure there are options out there to reveal even more detail, and there is obviously a range of components out there to tweak the sound to be a bit more emotional, or whatever you desire for your ear. But for me, I think I finally hear enough detail in the recording. 

Heck, I was listening to a song from a recording a friend had made some 10 years previously and that I’ve been listening to from when it was even being mixed. I texted my friends and asked, “Is that your voice on such and such track sounding like an electronic munchkin?” After a bit, he texted back and said, “Oh, yeah, I totally forgot I had done that! Man, I used to be so much more creative in my youth.”

Stager Silver Solids and My Big System

I mentioned above that after I was finished burning in the interconnect cables, about two weeks after receiving them, I was planning to use two sets to go between my turntable and phono amplifier into my integrated power amplifier. So I set everything up and have left it that way since. My bigger system consists of a Rega P3 amplifier with upgraded Cardas tonearm wire, a Soundsmith Carmen cartridge, the MMP-3 phono amplifier (also from Soundsmith), a Mystere ia11 integrated EL34 tube amplifier, and either a set of PMC TBi2s or Teresonic Magus A-55 bookshelf speakers.

The overall benefits of the Stager Silver Solids cables were effectively the same in the bigger system as they were in my headphone system. They were just a bit less obvious in the larger system, especially since the speaker cables and integrated amplifier have a lot of influence in the final sound.

Specifically, the Magus A-55 speakers, which do have a fairly steep roll-off starting around 50Hz, benefited from the more powerful and faster bass frequencies. This helped to balance out what is a very nice sounding speaker, even though it does lean a bit too forward in the highs.

Speakers and Turntable

Just like upgrading the tonearm wire helped add improvements to the overall sound of the turntable, the Stager Silver Solids interconnects between the turntable and phono-amp also added a bit more.  Though since we are talking about cables, it isn’t really adding sound, that comes from the source, rather it is retaining the quality of the sound as it travels through the cable, getting out of the way, and allowing more details and subtleties of the music to be revealed to the amplifier, and finally to the speakers themselves.

The very low capacitance of the Stager Silver Solids interconnects helps retain the quality of the high-end extension and detail, giving the overall sound more headroom and space to breathe.

I asked Marc about making a set of Stager Silver Solids speaker cables. The difference between the Stager Silver Solids headphone cable and the default Audeze cable, was so apparent that it only seemed natural to want to try out Stager speaker cables. He said he has actually made a set before, so they are a possibility, but at this time they are beyond my price point. Even at their very affordable price. We’ll see what next year brings.

Final Thoughts

If you have made it thus far, then you already know my opinion on these cables. And if you happened to just skip to the end, then let me reiterate.  I could not be happier, and I have been enjoying my music even more, especially during this time while we are all stuck inside.

There’s not too much more that I can say. I’m sold. I was happy to purchase these cables from Marc and I’m very glad he connected with The Audio Beatnik and made this review possible.