My cat tore up my Virtual Dynamics Power 3... - Page 21  

It means you have too much time on your hands.

It'll be fine. Just to be safe, I'd rearrange the wires a bit in the strain relief area.

Arrange them like this side by side before clamping them down again.

White - Green - Black.

Or

Black - Green - White.

Whichever fits better, either way, put the green one in the middle, and keep the White and Black wires away from each other.

-Ed

I'm curious.

Do you think threads like this add or subtract from the amount of people wanting to hear your cables?

Acoustic Chef, it would be helpful to this thread if you could provide the studies/data upon which your company relies to substantiate its claims. Or, in the alternative, please point to where that information can be found on the VD website. Thanks!

i bet it adds.

just how a "controversy" increases sales of a book, movie.

P.T. Barnum said there's one born every minute.

See ya
Steve

P.T. Barnum was conservative in his estimate.

I hardly know where to begin or end with this one. I guess, firstly, I know quite a few people who have made a lot of money in their lives. But almost without exception, it took considerable effort and/or ingenuity on their part to do so. I know far more people who have not made much money in their lives. From my experience, the ratio of schmucks to non-schmucks is much higher in the latter group than in the former. As a general rule, idiots don't become wealthy. The reward systems in life are heavily stacked up against that outcome.

Here's a perfect example of a friend of mine from Audiogon who has labored for 30 years in this hobby to gradually (after many trials and tribulations) put together one of the most amazingly realistic and impactful 2 channel audio systems you could possibly lend your ears to:

AudiogoN Forums: Albert Porter's System

While Albert does not use any Virtual Dynamics cables in his system, if you were to click on some of the links he provides (above), you will see that his cables are not at all cheap (at retail at least, I don't know what he paid for them).

Does that make him and his MBA (I can only assume that he has one, for he must if he's spent this much on cables) a schmuck? In your eyes?

Well, maybe so. But consider the alternative hypothesis: perhaps after 30 years of being extremely active in the high end audio hobby, he may have accidentally stumbled across something of real value to his ears! Maybe in an utterly remarkable system such as the one he has assembled, cables really do make an audible difference, and one that he values in proportion to his overall investment in that system.

As to Albert's level of schmuckness, judge for yourself:Albert Porter Photography

Now, if someone without an MBA (and all of the free money that I'm now just learning comes from it) were to spend $10,000 on cables to be fitted into his mediocre system, then I think quite clearly we would have identified our schmuck.

Just my opinion, of course, but I'm a 40-something MBA who happens to own some expensive cables, many of which are Virtual Dynamics cables if truth be told. But honestly, I'm not "attached" to them in any way. They're not at all part of my identity. I don't pet them before going to bed at night. I've got nothing to "lose" other than perhaps a tiny bit of pride (but even then, it wouldn't be much of an ego blow) if it were to be scientifically proven that my cables are in fact made out of snake oil.

I'd imagine, even if that were the case, I'd still break in no time. I'd just invest a good chuck of money in snake oil futures and watch the market react. If snake oil improves the sound of my system as much as my Virtual Dynamics Master Series cables suggests it does (if indeed snake oil oozes out when they're cut), then I might even consider making an additional investment somewhere along the supply chain. Perhaps a snake farm or a snake oil refinery? Damn MBA. Makes me think too much sometimes.

If you attack the "science" of virtual dynamics he will just reply back with nonsense and not address anything you say.

as evident in the sponsor forum:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f97/poor-skeptics-278199/

As a newb here just putting together their first decent setup which includes increasing the output quality through better interconnects and power cords, this thread is very interesting. Power cable parts and build quality (other then purely looks) I have no idea about as I am no expert. I was looking more at cheap upgrade over stock power cables around $40-50 shipped such as Iron-lung Jellyfish and Sonikleer. Nothing past that price range really, like these VD Power 3 cables.

A few people are stating that its nothing more then placebo effect for these fancy power cables having any effect on sound quality while others say there is definately a noticable difference. It may not be a night and day difference but who would refuse any improvement regardless of said cost of cable.

Going by what some people in this thread mention, it's very interesting reading that a well regarded company is selling a cable at a $150 mark at which value seems to be simply pulled out of the air, no matter how low cost the sum of the parts with the total amount of labor and craftmanship factored in.

After reading through every post in this thread (yes I did O_o ), I just walk away wanting nothing to do with VD in the future. This personally has nothing to do with supposed shoddy craftmanship issue or not getting what people pay far (which I really have no say about either) but mainly has to do with the customer service. Besides attacking some of the nay sayers (though some of the nay sayers did attack repeatedly but no company should retaliate anyways), they seem to not even know what they are building. VD have flat out ignored answering any comments about the UL issue which is a completely valid argument for a would be customer interested in wanting gauranteed safety in use, and they also seem to have also misstated what actually goes into the cable. They didn't answer anyone questioning their craftmanship quality. All VD did was post pictures of individual component parts and a clean work stations (with no explainations) as if that will explain the craftmanship issues dealing with the OP's cables (which he clearly explained what his issues are). None of those pictures show any stages of build of the Power 3 cable.

Hopefully VD resolves the questions with actually explainations and not random pictures. A company with 6 years of supposed well regarded service for a niche market should have more to say then nothing.

On a lighter note, I would like to say two things. A quick thankyou to Markl in his time consuming and expensive endeavor on reviewing a ton of costly aftermarket power cables. His review is a good read and has great credibility in the fact a more expensive power cable over stock can affect the audio chain and is not just possibly placebo effect. The other thing I'd like to say is this thread has read like a WWF wrestling match, some parts tag team and some parts cage match.

Thanks for the link. At least he posted something there, although the study clearly leaves a lot to be desired.

The purpose of my question is not so much to fan the flames of the science v. true believers debate. Rather, I am curious what VD--and its competitors--rely upon for the reasonable basis for their claims. Personally, I would not be confident using that linked study. Chef, perhaps you can provide some clarity around this issue.

I've been saying this for years....it's possible that the ferrite powder is raising the inductance of the cable, and thus having a filtering effect. Whether it's audible, I don't know.

Has anyone else tried the tinfoil turkey neck mod yet?