Silmic II Listening Impressions
Elna Silmic II Listening Impressions:
Low Bass: Cued up and put on The Sound Track from E.T. and played “Abandoned and Pursued.” There are 2 low frequency pulses that are pretty much subterranean, with the Silmic II’s you hear it all and more impressively you feel it, air is being moved you feel it travel on the floor towards you and then up your legs, very impressed by this. When playing Dafos, “The Gates of Dafos” the huge drum called “The Monster” falls on stage huge metallic sounding fall, you can hear it hit you can hear the reverberation of the sound off of the walls and you can feel the wave of low frequency air as it moves out into the room. This is pretty mind blowing for the price paid, Marantz 2220B 65.00 off craigslist, Silmic II caps 14.00!
Bass: The Silmics have a small euphoric bump in the upper bass to lower mids, I do not think I would describe it as a coloration because it just moves it out towards you closer in the sound stage it just really excels here. On Copland’s Appalachian Spring, on the song, “Rodeo,” there are some nice drum thwacks, you can hear the naturalness of the skin and it has drive and slam with impact. The bass is awesome and has that “air” and “bloom” of tubes that you will love. On Rickie Lee Jones, the song, “Easy Money,” it opens up with an upright bass playing by itself, you can hear the finger rubbing over the strings and the sound will rattle things if you turn it up loud enough.
Mids/Vocals: The vocals are huge and fat and oh so tube like. The vocals have body and are very smooth and seductive sounding. The mids have that brazen glow of tube sound, very liquid. The mids ooze high end. On Gino Vanelli, the song, “Getting High,” the vocals are huge and have real body; you get the effect if you close your eyes of the singer standing between the speakers.
Highs: Very extended and sweet sounding. If you hate highs that are strident or shrill, you will love the sound of these. On Pink Floyd, “The Wall” the song, “Another Brick in the Wall Part I,” the crashing cymbals that come down are dead on, sounding very realistic, a lot of energy is conveyed as they are hit.
Solid State or Tube like sound:
I think you already get my drift here. If I had to close my eyes and you put on Joni Mitchell, “Wild Things Run Fast,” or Dire Straits, “Love over Gold,” I would be inclined to guess tubes. The Silmic II’s have that smooth liquid sound, that openness in the midrange and the dimensionality of tubes, an excellent accomplishment.
Soundstage:
Deep and wide, and not only that image wise instruments appear in space and are rock solid in their location. Again sounding like a nice tube amp. On the song “While my Heart is Still Beating,” (Roxy Music) the opening is a wide and deep expanse and it is conveyed very nicely.
Low Level Inner Detail: Although these caps are smooth and liquid you are not missing any detail they are not rolled off in the highs. On the song “Private Investigations,” you
Can hear the whole panting breath sound which starts coming in mid way in the song, on a lot of systems you will not even know it is there.
Rhythm/Drive: Yes while listening to these your toe will tap they will draw you into the music and involve you in the music, which says to me these are sounding pretty damn close to sounding like real music.
Capsule: The Silmics are very tube like and I like that about them. They are smooth, liquid and have that tube bloom and glow. They have the ability to give the music dimensionality in your sound space, which at this level of money is mind blowing.
Looking forward to your impressions of the Silmic II, I have those coming for a friend's 2245 right now.
