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REVIEW: Lifatech Silflex Cable

Model: Silflex
Category: Cable
Suggested Retail Price: $100/6ft.
Description: Lifatech Toslink Silflex Glass Fiber Cables
Manufacturer URL: Lifatech

Review by mr.bear on March 12, 2017 at 13:12:50
IP Address: 47.147.56.52
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for the Silflex


I recently replaced a Monoprice 'deluxe' 2m Toslink with a Lifatech 6' Silflex Premium Optical Interconnect. The Silflex connects the optical output of my Sony UHP-H1 Universal Disc Player to a Lexicon MC-12. I found the Silflex distinctly improved the sound: it's smoother, less etched and edgy, with less annoying gunk that seems to equate to "digital artifacts" in my experience. SACDs sound 3-dimensional with a stable, deep soundstage that was missing before. The extraordinary build quality of the cable and the knowledge that it is highly engineered are worthy of note. The manufacturer claims a 470-strand glass fiber bundle and a fine optical polish. It's beautifully made cable in any case and extraordinarily flexible and light. The 6' Toslink cost under $100 delivered and arrived 2 days from my order. A comparison between this unit and the much costlier AQ glass cables would be interesting (with a sidebar about why AQ offer 7 different grades of cables, 5 of which are plastic!) I suspect the differences between the Silflex and the high-zoot AQ's will be evanescent. This Lifatech sounds quite good, delivering excellent cost/performance even in my modest-resolution system.

So who is Lifatech? Apparently a super-tech-y maker of medical equipment that incorporates advanced glass fiber optical cables. They claim 35 years of experience in the development and production of advanced medical stuff like "miniature pediatric bronchial scopes" etc. [Hope I never need one of them!]. "The optical borosilicate fibers utilized in all of Lifatec USA's products are manufactured by our partner company, LiFaTeC GmbH, located in Huttenberg-Rechtenbach, Germany" First-class service from this small firm in upstate NY.

Is Toslink for you? It's not for everybody and not for every piece of gear. Some stuff, however, sounds better IMHO using Toslink than coax. If you want to find out you have to experiment and it's definitely worth owning a length of this Silflex to have around to play with; using cheap plastic fibers doesn't make for a reasonable comparison.


Product Weakness: None
Product Strengths: Cost/performance, great sound, very flexible, excellent build quality


Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Adcom 5003
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Lexicon MC-12
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Sony UHP-H1
Speakers: Thiel CS3, Focal Cobalt sub
Cables/Interconnects: Lifatech Silflex Toslink
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Jazz Classical
Room Size (LxWxH): 30 x 20 x 10
Room Comments/Treatments: none
Time Period/Length of Audition: 1 week
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): N/A
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner





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Topic - REVIEW: Lifatech Silflex Cable - mr.bear 13:12:49 03/12/17 (7)

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