Van Den Hul First Ultimate - Page 2

be careful man. if you auditioned these at the store, don't you dare believe what you heard there. psychology is very powerful, and sometimes even a little trickery is evident from the salespeople. make sure you "hear" these at home... then you can develop a real opinion.

what i don't get is why people keep asking others how a cable sounds? if you read an opinion before your audition, it's bound to affect your judgement. personally i couldn't hear the difference between any cable i have ever tried, and i have many here... all the way from my self-made ones to cardas and kimber hero's. and yes, my hearing is average, just like everyone else's.

so, again, take it home to try, and don't ask for anyone's opinions before forming your own.

Fab Audio has no sales people, just two guys that know a sh*t load about audio and love what they do.

Its hard to go there and not buy something hehe..

Biggie.

well, wouldn't call you a skeptic if you already have $80 cables.

Van Den Hul D102-MkIII

If you like the First Ultimate, but want to spend less to get it, these cables have a similar signature.

I like them - and really like the price.

Depending how the components in your system are engineered, cables may make less of a difference. It's not always a question of resolving power. A good source with a low output impedance will naturally be less sensitive to cables than one with an output impedance higher than, say, 2 kOhm. I'm sure the dealer demonstrated the cables on a system that is very sensitive to cables, but yours may not be.

Could very well be that the headphone output has low resolution. My experience is that I hear the difference between cables more clearly in better systems. But this is not the only explanation. Cables are also system dependant and one cable can work better than another because it matches better in electrical properties as impedance and capacitance or what it is (there is little hard evedence about this) rather than becasue it is made of ulta-pure copper, silver etc.
Could also be that the cable has to burn-in 100 hours or so and that you will hear the difference then. A highly debated topic where some are convinced that there is no burn-in effect.

It is hard to predict what will happen with a cable change, you can get no difference, a little difference or a huge difference. So it is always best to try in ones own system before purchasing, if possible.
If you have the option, try it with a better amp and listen.
Yes, Stax owners also mess around with cables, you can see an example in a thread about 10 rows below (currently!).

I have the VDH Fist The Ultimate and I can definetely recommend it if you want a warmer and smoother sound without loosing detail.
If you want an analytical cable you have too look elsewhere.
But I love the VDH First The Ultimate because it sounds very natural. It's probably a very good cable if you use Grados....

Its probably your amp. My system (which has similar cd player and headphones to yours) notices large differences with different interconnects. Not so much with power cords.. my last cd player power cords did make a huge difference. Its all relative.

Biggie.

I'm assuming your headphones resolve about the same detail as my rs-1s. And hey they are both wood. :P

Biggie.

I have a pair of the original First's. They DO have a natural, smooth midband, with great clarity there. I found them a little light on the bass, and rolled off in the high's. I htink it has to do with the capacitance of the carbon.

Aside from the one comment someone made regarding the First's vs. the First Ultimates, has anyone else got anything to say about it ? I'd liek to hear some definite comparison feedback.

I also have the D-102 Mk III Hybrid's. I find them a VERY nice cable, they do the frequency extremes better than the First IMO (maybe they're SLIGHTLY harsh, but not bad at all). But the First still is a clear winner in the mid's, especially vocals.

A couple Audiogon folks make some very nice cables: NotoriousBIG_PJ mentioned the Aural Thrills Gold Force. I have this as well, and can heartily concur. Even their Black Etude cable and Chrome Axiom are way cool for the $$.

The last recommendation is for cables by Audiogon user greggstraley. His name, you might be surprised to hear, is Gregg Straley He makes a twisted pair type cable, stranded copper. He finds the cleanest plug he can (even to the point of using some cheap plastic ones, but they sounded the best of what he had tried up to that point), and he cryo's the cable, then cooks it for a week or so on a Cable Cooker.

I have had $800+ (list) interconnects in my system, this thing beat almost everything out. And it was under $100 ! Gregg now is making rev 3 of the cable, at around $120 IIRC.

The best cableI've heard in my system, though, is by Tritium. These nutcases love music, and they have funky but effective units called Triphazers. Expensive, but I won't take them out of my system. They make an RCA cable with Triphazers built in, and they also make a cable marketingly called the Ultra High Velocity (UHV). I have the UHV made with 6*9's gold wire. This is my champion, price be damned.

OK, I doth ramble. Peace, love and happiness to all...with a side of fries.