Preparation

My honeymoon with the Argentos did not begin immediately. In fact, at first I disliked them quite a bit. Compared to the energy and extension of my reference cables, the Flow Ultimas were initially soft, polite, and closed in. The only silver lining, so to speak, was that they didn’t sound like silver. In a bizarre way, that was encouraging. 

In speaking with Argento, I learned that their cables require a lot of break-in. I had already submitted them to about 50 hours, but that, they told me, wasn’t enough. The interconnects and speaker wire needed about 100 hours, while the power cords required several times that. 

Sure enough, in reasonably short order the interconnects and speaker wire began to flourish. On the other hand, the power cords stubbornly refused to open up. Eventually I ran out of time and patience, at which point I asked Argento to simply send me some broken-in power cords. They complied, and when I put them in my system the difference was immediate and dramatic. The sound I’ll describe below applies to the broken-in interconnects, speaker cable, and power cords. They all have the same sonic imprint, so there’s no need to describe them separately.

Once broken in, the sound of the Argento Flow Ultimas not only excelled but came as a complete surprise to me. They did not sound like any silver cable I’d ever heard. Rather than sounding cold, they were as warm as my copper references. Nor were they the slightest bit analytical. Instead, the Flow Ultimas delivered the same organic musicality as my references. This would have been news enough for me, but the fact is that the Flow Ultimas go well beyond upending expectations about silver. They are simply superior cables and in a multitude of ways. 

The greatest asset of the Flow Ultimas is an uncanny level of resolution. They achieve this not by etching details, but rather by affording the signal an unobstructed path—no connections, no material or impedance changes, minimized crystalline defects—through the cable. (How did they do that? Please see the sidebar.) In this way, the Argentos can deliver resolution without the usually attendant exaggerated detail. 

You can hear this resolution easily in the way the Argentos handle decays and reverb. Listen, for example, to the percussion on the opening of London Grammar’s “Hey Now.” The decays ebbed and ebbed for far longer than I’m used to. And on Neil Young’s peerless Live at Massey Hall, 1971, the hall reverb was far more evident than it is without the Argentos in the system. 

The latter recording revealed another area of the Flow Ultima’s superiority: dimensionality. Through these cables, both the acoustic guitar and Neil’s voice took on a 3-D character I’d not previously heard on this LP. On orchestral recordings, the soundstage itself also became more 3-D, with significantly greater depth. In addition to this resolution in the spatial domain, the Flow Ultimas also better resolved timbres, making it easier to hear the difference between instruments. 

Another area where the Argentos distinguished themselves—even beyond the already superb capabilities of my reference cables—was in transients. Bass, for example, took a leap in tautness. On a really dynamic track like “Los” by Rammstein, the Argento cables served up a formidable “pow” on the drums.

At this price point, a cable’s ergonomics should be as excellent as its sound quality. This brings up another admirable quality of the Flow Ultima cables, and one that is far from universal within high-end cables: They’re easy to work with. The Argentos aren’t overly stiff, and their terminations are robust. I must say that I also appreciated the beautiful leather cases that enshroud the cables when they’re delivered. The user experience here is as elevated as you could ask for. 

Which brings us to the matter of price. There is no question that the Flow Ultima cables are expensive. However, if you peruse the cable terrain, you’ll see that they are nowhere near the outrageous end of the spectrum; they’re more in the middle. Further, the Flow Ultimas contain a lot of pure silver—no alloy conductors or non-silver terminations here—and silver is expensive. With the Flow Ultima, you are getting what you pay for. 

For anyone who has internalized a concept of how silver cables sound, the Argento Flow Ultima will come as a surprise. They sound nothing like typical silver cables. They are warm, resolved, dynamic, dimensional, articulate, and highly musical. 

Yet these are not simply better silver cables; they’re better cables altogether. The Flow Ultima outperformed what I’ve come to feel are the best copper cable out there. I’m backing that up by making the first change in my reference cables in well over a decade. The Flow Ultimas are my new references. 

Specs & Pricing

MUSICAL ARTISANS (U.S. Distributor)
4826 Main St.
Skokie, IL
(847) 877-2791
rreyes@musicalartisans.com
musicalartisans.com

Prices: 1m interconnect, $6850; 1.2m phono cable, $7750; 1m speaker cable, $10,250; 2m power cord, $6850

Associated Equipment

Analog source: Lyra Etna Lambda Edition cartridge, Goldmund Studietto turntable, Graham 2.2 tonearm
Digital source: Bryston BCD-3 CD player
Electronics: CH Precision I1 integrated amplifier (phonostage, DAC, streamer, linestage, power amplifier), Goldmund Telos 800 stereo power amp
Speaker: Wilson Audio Sasha V, Estelon Forza
Cables and cords (except Ethernet): Empirical Design
Network switch: Reiki Audio
Ethernet cable: Reiki Audio