ANALYSIS PLUS Silver Oval 2

MJ06.03.2013

Speaker cables

Everytime the Silver Oval 2 returned to my system it reminded me of the immediacy of a live performance. Johnny Cash’s vocal was very emotional and communicative, it created a strong emotional link between the music and the listener. Should I wish something I would personally prefer a tad deeper soundstage that was too forward to me through the Silver Oval 2, but considering the other strengths it is a minor quibble.

Function and form

87%
Ease of use
56%
Sound
80%
Appearance

Analysis Plus Silver Oval 2 is a neat slim and silver wire. Both its conductors are not placed next to each other, rather the cross section looks like a wide flatten figure of 8. My sample of the Silver Oval was equipped by the bananas with extremely firm grip of terminals. The Silver Oval is not directional yet its both ends are marked to exclude any uncertainty.

What Analysis Plus engineers say about the design:

Most of the popular cables on the market employ round diameter cables as conductors. Unfortunately, cylindrical cable designs have a number of serious drawbacks, including current bunching, skin effect phenomenon, and frequency effects that lower the performance of the cable. After many computer simulations and other exhaustive tests, we determined that a hollow oval cable constituted the best possible conductor design.The primary advantage of an oval conductor design rather than cylindrical conductor geometry is that the oval shape allows more of the return current to be closer to the outgoing current, thus reducing the negative effects associated with excessive current bunching.
Since the center part of the conductor is not used at high frequencies, we can simply eliminate it. By using a hollow conductor, we help minimize the change in resistance with frequency and the cable becomes more efficient.

 

Bass management

Weight
60
Slam
62
Articulation
58

After I had auditioned the Analysis Plus’s 12/2 and the Oval 9 I was a bit afraid to review the Silver Oval 2. It is not that cheap and if it should copy any of the issues of the forerunners than it would be waste of time. Fortunately the Silver Oval 2 proved to be a very competent speaker cable. It basically improved on the strengths of the Oval 9 plus removed the slugginess and stickiness in favor of aliveness and musical joy.

 

Clarity & delicacy

Detail
60
Air
58
Transparency
58

Tonal accuracy

Timbre
58
Dynamics
56
Temporal resolution
49

Instead of a tired band I was listening to a well-oiled rock machine. Pink Floyd’s The Wall (Mobile Fidelity Remaster) pleased me with saturated and rich sound, the Analysis Plus managed to balance well between the bass heaviness (the bass is intentionally a bit prominent in the MoFi mix) and its definition so it was neither bloated nor incisive, but rounded and analog-like, supported by punchy kick drum and warmth of the Hammond organ.

Spatial resolution

Holography
60
Soundstage width
66
Soundstage depth
58

Initially I thought the Oval 2 was less detailed than my reference but it was not - a listener receives tons of details, they are, however, very well integrated and blended into the music.

Price as reviewed:18 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

Audiostudio s.r.o., Olomouc, tel. +420 608 752 475

Associated components

  • Sources: Accuphase DP-78
  • Amplifiers: Accuphase C-2410 and Accuphase A-60
  • Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Analysis Plus Oval 9, Analysis Plus Copper Oval-In, Analysis Plus Silver Oval, Cardas Clear, Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder, CrystalConnect Piccolo Diamond, Homegrown Audio DNA
  • Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond
  • Power conditioning: Nordost Thor (modified), Nordost Valhalla, Shunyata Research Black Mamba HC CX, Python Z-tron and Cobra Z-tron, Snakeblock

Gallery

ANALYSIS PLUS Oval 9

I was impressed by the Analysis Plus’ proprietary solid bulk of pure copper – and gold plated – spades. They are really made from a billet of metal and milled into the shape - the mass of the single spade equals the mass of a fistful ...

Recommended resellers

Audiostudio s.r.o., Olomouc, tel. +420 608 752 475

Sound
40%

ANALYSIS PLUS Silver Oval 2

Everytime the Silver Oval 2 returned to my system it reminded me of the immediacy of a live performance. Johnny Cash’s vocal was very emotional and communicative, it created a strong emotional link between the music and the listener. ...

Recommended resellers

Audiostudio s.r.o., Olomouc, tel. +420 608 752 475

Sound
56%

ATOHM ZEF

Well, from a distance of 3 meters the ZEF looks like an ordinary white twin-wire. If you take a closer look it still keeps looking like the ordinary white twin-wire. There was simply nothing to indicate that the ZEFs would be such ...

Recommended resellers

Nisel SK, Bratislava, tel. +421 905 203 078

Sound
42%

AUDIOQUEST CV-4

There is one thing that is common for both the CV-4 and the Rocket 33: the complex perception of a music and analog feel to it. The CV-4 is more mature, however, and the listener hears it.

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
45%

AUDIOQUEST Dragon Zero | Bass BiWire

Supernatural silence. I mean the blacker than black canvas for music, as if the Dragon Zero | Bass was devouring the light. The digital zero is the first day of creation, one can hear molecules splitting in the empty space. Still, ...

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
100%

AUDIOQUEST Redwood

Every great cable I had in my system before the Redwood has a certain feature that made it different from another – a certain quality that made it perfect match for one system and mismatch for another. In this context the Redwood ...

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
89%

AUDIOQUEST Rocket 33

I have to say that I did not expect such a good performer in this price level. When I talked to Joe Harley of Audioquest this spring he kept assuring that the philosophy of Audioquest is to do as less harm as possible to a music ...

Recommended resellers

AQ s.r.o., Červenka, tel. +420 585 342 232

Sound
39%
Back to category