Comparative Review: Virtual Dynamics Nite vs. DH Labs Silver Sonic BL-1

[eric343]

A Bit of Background
A while ago, a fellow Head-Fier was kind enough to send me some Virtual Dynamics Nite cables so I could get the chance to hear them. Needless to say, I was overjoyed, and jumped at the chance to listen to what have to be some of the most-hyped cables these forums have ever seen. The Nites, when they arrived, lived up to everything I'd heard about them on Head-Fi, physically speaking. They're simply massive in every sense of the way. Not quite Elrod power cord massive, but still, enough that my amplifier is sitting on a tape library that I have in front of my shelf, and my Arcam is at a 90º angle to where it normally is - it's half sticking out of the shelf, so that I have enough room to comfortably maneuver the cables. Stiffness wise, were I to attach a Nite to my wall by both RCA connectors and form a 'tongue' sticking out and up, I could easily hang my headphones on it. In keeping with this philosophy of sheer size, the Nites use huge, polished, and over-engineered locking WBT RCA plugs, at the end of three whole inches of two layers of heat shrink tubing! (On a related note, the Nites' RCA lugs are filled with hot glue, which makes talking about their internal structure rather more difficult.) On a philosophically similar note, the marketing claims of Virtual Dynamics seem to be designed to overwhelm, too... but that's something for another post.

The DH Labs Silver Sonic BL-1s I borrowed from DanG for testing and listening (he, in turn, is borrowing some of my cables). They're physically similar to the Clou Blue cables I have on my HD600s, though the Clous are slightly more flexible and a much more vivid shade of blue. Compared to the Nites, of course, the BL-1s are simply dwarfed - if I was only reviewing the BL-1s, my setup would require no moving at all as they would easily flex their comparatively lithe bodies around the corners and intricacies of my shelving. The DH Labs website at least makes a pretense at rationality, giving numbers and even a conductor arrangement diagram. This more practical philosophy seems to have been carried over into the design of the BL-1s, since their connectors are simple yet elegant designs with no extraneous heat-shrink or labeling (the cable jacket itself is silkscreened with information including directional arrows). Interestingly enough, when I hooked the BL-1s up to my time delay reflectometer, I found that directionality is very important with these cables; when wired up backwards, the TDR display showed some truly ugly impedance variations and artifacts due to the shield being connected on the wrong end of the cables.

Regarding the burn-in issue that Doug brought up in my First Impressions thread, I gave the Nites a good 5 days of continuous playing in my system, or about 120 hours. After this time I didn't notice much difference, so I assume that my system is electrically similar to his. Come to think of it, it would be interesting to see how electrical differences between systems affect burn in - how does the load (sink) impedance affect the cable's sound or changes through the burn-in period, if at all?

The Sound

To be honest, both the BL-1s and the Nites sound excellent. Both excel in soundstage, have plenty of bass, a nice midrange, and a nice high end.

If I had to characterize, I would say that the BL-1s are the more analytical. The BL-1s simply resolve more detail than the Nites and have a cooler high end, while at the same time are considerably faster. The BL-1s have a precision of imaging that has to be heard to be believed, and excellent depth of soundstage. While the majority of the musical action occurs in a fairly flat plane, the BL-1s manage to layer very well and the occasional instrument or effect manages to make me sit up and say whoa. The drums in the Not only do the sound-staging abilities of the BL-1s give me the abilities to precisely place each player in the orchestra seats, but little details like the cymbal crashes are reproduced with absolute fidelity. No muddiness or smoothing over of details here, not only is the pressure wave of a bass drum immediately audible, but the attack of the trumpets is sudden and their decay is as quick as their arrival. The BL-1s take a simple ornament such as the 'ting' of a triangle and let me hear the slight shuddering quality to the sound caused by tremors in the player's arm. Not to say that the BL-1s are limited to reproducing the finer details! With the cannon-shots in the Telarc/Kunzel recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture, my HE90s literally vibrate on my ears, while the carillon bells are clear, pure, and well-defined. The closing sequence of the 1812 is simply awesome. The speed of the BL-1 makes it possible for them to coordinate the trumpet fanfare, cannon shots, and drums to the degree that I only once noticed a loss of low-level detail as a result of high-level activity.

The Nites, on the other hand, have some ever-present bass harmonics and sound more pleasing to the ear on lower fidelity recordings. This difference is most vividly audible on tracks such as Elvis' Jailhouse Rock, one of my favorite just-for-fun pieces of all time. The Nites smooth over the harsh, crude nature of the primitive recording and bring out the bass line to warm up the whole performance. While Elvis still sounds a bit thin, the whole Great Performances CD has an antique warmness with the cables that just sounds cool. Mono tracks (that is, most of the tracks on the disc) gain some front-back soundstage, even if their single channel nature precludes side-side soundstage. I'm inclined to think that the thinness is a fault in the recording, though, as King Creole has much more body and life. The midrange is full and lush with plenty of activity, with a corresponding nice fat bass that lets the music really boogie. In comparison, the BL-1s bring out a more crispy fried Elvis - their more detailed nature means that they reveal much more of the primitive production technology used. Elvis still boogies, he just sounds a lot more low-fi doing it. I can hear every little distortion in Elvis' voice, the sibilance of "sings a song" goes from barely noticed to downright annoying. In Jailhouse Rock, the BL-1s are simply brighter.

This is not to say that the domain of the Nites is entirely in badly recorded music! Overall, the Nites seem to have a more natural tonality than the BL-1s. Perhaps it is the silver-plated-copper nature of the BL-1s, but the BL-1s simply have a slightly metallic quality to them. In comparison, the Nites sound much more natural; similar to the difference between vinyl and CD, though less extreme. What the Nites do, however, is make the music sound more alive. There is a low-frequency harmonic, or perhaps it is warmth, constantly present that gives the music a slight fuzziness that is very natural in tonality. In comparison to the BL-1s, though, the Nites are simply slower. During the ending of the 1812 mentioned above, where the carillon bells are clear and pure, the Nites make them sound confused and cacaphonic, without as much precise definition of where each ring of the bells starts and ends.

Still, though, the Nites manage to come out on top in regards to soundstage. The BL-1s give excellent soundstage, with precise imaging and fine accuracy. They sound very high-end, indeed. The Nites, on the other hand, give 'the' soundstage. While no cable can turn my HE90s into a pair of speakers (or AKG K1000s), with the Nites I'm simply less aware of the position of the drivers. To explain this, let me present an analogy sufficiently strange to fit the 1AM time at which I'm writing this, and the Pink Floyd I'm listening to. Imagine a room with two doors, one on either end. Now, put some fine art on the walls of the room, and let hordes of tourists through, entering and exiting the room through whichever door they please, until they've worn out the carpet. Even if you took away the walls and doors, you would be able to tell where the doors were, and where the walls were, and where the most popular works of art were. Similarly, with the BL-1s, I can tell you exactly where the drivers are. With the Nites, the walls and doorways have been replaced by an invisible barrier, one that our tourists don't know the location of until they run into it. It's still possible to tell where the doorways are because the tourists can't walk through the barrier, but they don't consciously avoid the walls - they are simply more free to move about in the room, just as the music is simply more free to move about my head.

Soundstage aside, I don't think that I can truly say I prefer one over the other. Whereas the Nites have a wonderful warm and natural quality, the BL-1s have the detail and precision that I love.

A quick note about conflict of interest is in order. While it is true that I do design and build cables for sale, I purposely decided to write a comparative review to avoid the possibility of any subconscious bias I might have, since the review discusses each cable's merits and faults in comparison with the other's.