HIFI+ Magazine’s Directory of High-End Audio Manufacturers 2019 features an interview with Siltech & Crystal Cable.
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Hi-Fi+:
As companies evolve they inevitably pass milestones that mark particular achievements or turning points in the company’s growth. What are five or six key milestones on your company’s evolutionary timeline?

Gabi Rynveld:
International Audio Holding is the company behind high-end brands Siltech & Crystal Cable. Siltech celebrated 35 years in 2018 and Crystal Cable 15 in 2019 so there are quite a few milestones to be proud of:
1983: Siltech was ‘born’ with its name deriving from the breakthrough cables using Silver Technology with Teflon insulation.
1992: Marked our first big investment in electro-technical magnetic and optical measurement devices. This meant our research became less experimental and more controlled, minimizing any distortion to the extreme leading to the worlds’ first truly silent cable.
1997: Achieved major improvement in our metallurgic process which resulted in a unique silver-gold alloy conductor. High tech PEEK and Kapton insulation enabled even better performances. This was the start of continuous metallurgic improvements, resulting in our current world-renowned ‘G7-technology’, which we use in many of our cables.
2004: Crystal Cable debuted in the high end audio world with extremely thin and flexible cables though using the same high quality materials as Siltech. 2006: COMSOL Multiphysics® was implemented to take our research and development for both brands to yet another level.
2009: Introduction of our unique and very rare monocrystal silver conductors, which give our top-level cables even more transparency and musicality. 2014: Crystal Cable partnered with Astell & Kern and developed high end portable cables. Currently, Crystal Cable now very successfully produces a portable cable line under its own name.
2018: Siltech celebrated 35 years.
2019: Crystal Cable celebrates 15 years.

Hi-Fi+:
What are four or five interesting ‘factoids’ about your company that you think the high-end audio community might want to know about?

Gabi Rynveld:
We are currently very busy with the expansion of our factory in Elst, the Netherlands. Our production facilities which we have been using for the past 25 years will be doubled in size by the end of 2018. International Audio Holding is a family-run business, led by Edwin and Gabi Rynveld and with their son(s) working in the company. This year, apart from the anniversary of our brands, we celebrate that two of our co-workers have been working with us for 20 years! Siltech and Crystal Cable are patrons of the Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to share and support our passion for (classical) music.

Hi-Fi+:
What are your firm’s specific areas of product design expertise?

Gabi Rynveld:
While both Siltech and Crystal Cable share the same production facility, technology, and focus on the highest quality possible there are some distinct differences regarding their design philosophy. Siltech’s products highlight the over-all technology while Crystal Cable’s product design emphasizes more on lifestyle. Both brands are specialists in cable design and through years of (shared) experience our award-winning loudspeakers and amplifiers have made both brands quite all-round high end audio specialists.

Hi-Fi+:
What do you consider to be your firm’s ‘landmark’ products, past or present, and what makes them landmarks?

Gabi Rynveld:
Siltech’s G3 cable series: the first series using Siltech’s revolutionary silver-gold technology.
Siltech’s SEPA: Siltech’s first amplifier. A revolution almost 20 years ago, still sought after today.
Crystal Cable’s Piccolo: A radically different approach to cable design, creating ultra thin and flexible cables.
Arabesque GLASS MASTER: Crystal Cable’s first loudspeaker and the first all glass one of this absolute high end quality. It was noticed even beyond the hifi audio world.
Crystal Cable Portable: Crystal Cable’s first venture outside traditional home-audio hifi and by doing so being the first one delivering this level of high end sound quality to the portable audio world.
Triple Crown & The Ultimate Dream: Siltech’s & Crystal Cable’s absolute best cable to date, demonstrating our knowledge and abilities over the last 35 years.

Hi-Fi+:
Are there particular design or manufacturing techniques that help set your products apart from the competition? Could you briefly explain what some of those techniques are?

Gabi Rynveld:
Our many years of experience – using the most advanced programs and best possible quality materials – ensures constant improvement in both sound quality and design. Through the years, we’ve had breakthroughs like G7 silver-gold alloys, amorphous silver wire and monocrystal silver and gold wire. Insulating those cables with Kapton, PEEK and Teflon and implanting those cables in all of our products (loudspeakers, amplifiers) creates a complete audio system of the highest sound quality. Designing, developing and manufacturing everything in our own factory in The Netherlands sets us apart, [we believe…]

Hi-Fi+:
Suppose you overheard a group of audiophiles discussing your brand at a hi-fi show. What do you hope they would be saying about your company?

Gabi Rynveld:
Crystal Cable and Siltech are high end cable brands, with true engineering, using the highest purity materials, and exceptional design for all kind of music lovers. With their cable, speaker, and electronic products, all made in The Netherlands, music will sound the closest possible to live music heard in a concert hall, stadium, or jazz café.

Designing, developing and manufacturing everything in our own factory in The Netherlands sets us apart.

Gabi Rynveld

Hi-Fi+:
If you are at liberty to say, what kinds of new products can we expect to see from your company in the next year or so? (We’re not looking for you to reveal trade secrets, so feel free to answer in a deliberately general way, if you wish.)

Gabi Rynveld:
There will be some news on the speaker side and certainly a special cable for Crystal Cable’s 15th anniversary. As usual we will have some new and innovative materials to try for both brands.

Hi-Fi+:
Gazing into your figurative ‘Crystal Ball’, where do you see high-end audio headed in the next five years? If your predictions come to pass, how will your company respond?

Gabi Rynveld:
We believe the high end world will keep on growing. With a population which also keeps getting larger, people will want to differentiate, and products of true craftsmanship will become more and more desirable. That’s what excites us for the future: expand our already large range of products and models, attracting an increasing younger audience in the process.

Hi-Fi+:
Do you have three or four specific recordings you might recommend for purposes of evaluating hi-fi equipment?

Gabi Rynveld:
We have a specific playlist of very different kinds of music to test and improve our equipment – cables, speakers, even connectors and other parts. These recordings can be of audiophile quality, but not necessarily. This list contains jazz, classical recordings, pop, male and female voice, small and big ensembles, orchestra, piano etc. Often great performances, always interesting music. The essential part of evaluating hi-fi equipment is getting the best live sound – from mediocre or high end recordings, showing the quality of the smallest parts or the whole system.

Hi-Fi+:
What are the two or three most important pieces of advice you would give to enthusiasts looking either to build new audio systems or improve existing ones?

Gabi Rynveld:
Look for synergy between the components, listen to the balance in your favorite music. With just cables, you can tremendously improve an existing system, this is even more obvious with portable cable products.

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