Summary:
My stereo is flawed because of budgetary constraints. My receiver is very powerful but has high T.H.D. and a slightly colored sound. My speakers are excellent[EV Sentry 100 A studio monitor]. My cassette decks[Pioneer CT W606 DR]specs and performance for the money is great. I needed a Cd player. But I could only spend up to $150.00 at that time. I looked around and everything at that price level, as most of you well know is absolute garbage. Plastic carousels, digital nasties galore-junk. Amongst this dung the Sony XE-400 stood out-tremendous build quality and features. I auditioned it and it sounded good in the showroom. I took it home and it sounded harsh-older inferior recordings almost unlistenable. I could have taken it back but everything at that price level or slightly higher sounded worse and the build quality in the others was lacking. I told a freind about my problem and he leant me a set of monster cables. They did improve the harshness on better recordings a little. Being uninformed about other possibilities I was pleased. Shortly thereafterI was asked to return them.I was all set to go out and buy a set of monsters. But a freind insisted that I spend a little more and get solid silver interconnects. He recommended Stager Solid Silver Interconnects. Stager Sound is a company located in New York City. The interconnects can be bought over the internet. The improvement in the overall quality of sound from the CD player after buying these was enormous. The treble and mid-range on almost all recordings were greatly improved. The tone was rounder, warmer with tight bass. Truly horrible recordings would improve but not to the degree of good to excellent discs.Overall I am very pleased. Stager Solid Silver interconnects saved the day until I can afford the upgrade

Strengths:
Overall warmer sound

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Monster-It's monstrous allright. They aren't kidding -garbage.

Summary:
I replaced my previous interconnects (Kimber PBJ and Monster Interlink Reference 2) with Stager Silver Solid interconnects. I have one pair between my CD player and preamp, and the other pair between preamp and amp.
After listening right out of the box, without any initial break-in, there are four observations I would like to share with readers of this review.

First, there is significantly more high frequency energy. At the same time, given well recorded CDs, there is a complete absence of high frequency glare; the kind of glare that makes you squint and grit your teeth on symbol crashes. I found myself squinting and gritting teeth far too often with my previous interconnects. Now, I don't hear a trace of it.

Second, The sound from my speakers fill the room better. There is more life in everything I play. Sound reverberates all over the listening room to a much greater degree than before. This is not subtle. This is the very thing that compels me to break out every CD I own and play them all over again.

Third, the bass is thinner, tighter, and seems to go a little deeper. The "thinner" quality is good because I had a trace of mid-base bloat before; that is now gone. Pitch in the bass region is now more distinguishable; more like live bass.

Fourth, I believe the midrange is more transparent. I say "I believe" because it was fairly transparent before the change in interconnects. The gain in this area is harder for me to quantify.

The thing that convinced me that I was not imagining these observations is what my wife did after the upgrade. My wife is a "words" (as opposed to "music") person. She has always been content with the sound from a table radio. Her constant admonition to me has always been to turn down the sound (to background levels).

So, after installing the Silver Solids, I put on a CD at a volume that you could talk over, but with a raised voice. My wife was working in the kitchen. For the first time in our 25 years of marriage, she suddenly stopped what she was doing and came into the living room, sat down and listened intently to the entire CD. Now this might have happened in somebody else's house, but not ever in mine. During her "listen" she didn't once ask me to turn it down. She did repeatedly remark how great our system sounded and wanted to know what was different.

All I had done was change the interconnect to Stager Silver Solid (from 2-meter Interlink Reference 2 and 1-meter PBJ). You could have knocked me over with a feather.

I am not giving this cable a five because I suspect that if you pay 10 times as much for your cable, you may get an additional half-point of improvement. (Unfortunately, I can't give this 4 1/2 points like I would like to because only whole numbers are allowed.)

In any case, am very happy with the sound I have right now with silver priced at only $100 per meter pair.