FAQ
Q : “Silver cables are often associated with faster but more edgy and sometimes even aggressive sound. Why would Argento be different?” The aggressive sound of the common silver cables is not really a characteristic of the silver conductors. It is the characteristic of poor choice of material for the rest of the cable, which will actually influence the sound of the final product more than the material chosen for the conductor. Silver, Copper, Gold, Palladium and aluminum, etc. do not sound the same, but the differences between these are not as big as the differences between the “sound” of the materials around the conductor. This basic knowledge is very important for the way Argento designs cables that are completely without the classic “silver-edge”. Do not misunderstand that the conductor material is not important at all. It is important and that is why Argento uses silver, which is the most conductive material on earth, measured at room temperature.
Q : “Why are Argento speaker cables not available with banana terminations?” During the design phase Argento tried many banana plugs to evaluate their performance, but every time Argento spades were replaced with a banana connector the drop in performance was rather noticeable, to say the least. That is why the Argento speaker cables are not offered with banana plugs. That might be bad for business, but it is good for music.
Q : “Why does Argento not make bi-wiring cables?” Argento does not make bi-wire cables because they found that splitting the speaker cable in two to use half for each frequency range almost always lowers the sound quality. The reason is that each frequency range only has half the total amount of conductors available in bi-wire configuration, and the loss introduced by that are simply bigger than the gain of running bi-wire. In other words if you want to run bi-wire you need two set of speaker cables to show the true performance gain that bi-wire can offer. In some cases the cost can be justified, and in other cases the gain is smaller. Bi-wiring will remain one of the final tweaks in a system bordering on perfection. If you choose to bi-wire with either the Serenity or the Serenity Reference, Argento suggests you use one pair of speaker cables for the positive signal and another pair of speaker cable for the negative part of the signal. By choosing this configuration you will achieve a higher degree of separation because of the positive and the negative conductors--like the configuration featured in the Serenity Master Reference. The increased separation leads to further improvement in sound quality that will make your investment in bi-wiring even better.Q : “I’ve heard many things about ideal cable length. What is Argento's recommendation?” The ideal length for signal carrying cables is SHORT because less cable sounds better no matter how good the cable is. On the other hand you should NEVER pull your cable to make it work. It might destroy your cable. The recommended length for power cords is 2m. Going much below the standard 2m length seems to remove some of the effect of the power cord.
Q : “Do connectors make a difference?” As a part of the cable that conducts the electricity for a part of the total length of the cable, the connectors are an important part of the cable. The importance is further increased by the fact that the connectors interface to both the conductor and the piece of electronics being connected. For this reason Argento chose to use Xhadow and Bocchino connectors for this integral portion of the signal chain.
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