[eric343]

A fellow Head-Fier was kind enough to lend me his Nites so I could hear them myself (since I'm too poor at the moment to even put aside $1500 as a deposit for a demo from VD), and they arrived today.

First thing I did was hook them up to my system. They're exactly the same stiffness as my current cables, however the Nites are 5 feet long, compared to the 6 inch length (custom cut to minimize stress on the connectors due to the EXTREMELY cramped quarters behind my system) of my current cables. As a result, I had to put the KGSS temporarily on top of the Exabyte tape library that was doing duty as a surface to put CDs on.

Immediately after hitting 'play', I noticed that the cables were louder. As in, to match volumes with other cables, you need to turn down the volume knob. Go figure... this is however a big 'caveat reviewer' - it's a well known fact that a slightly louder component sounds better.

The Nites have an awesome soundstage and amazing imaging - they really let the HE90s' capabilities shine in this regard. What the Nites do is unchain the music from the drivers.

Similarly, their bass response is the best I've heard out of a cable so far - the bass harmonics are really evident, and the Nites bring the bass response of the HE90 out nicely; the bass response of the He90s is in my opinon one of the weaker points of this headphone and the Nites bring it into line with the standards of such a headphone.

Unfortunately, the Nite is not perfect either. The bass response, while excellent, is not as well-defined or detailed as I would expect. Similarly, the Nites as a whole are not a particularly detailed cable (for reasons I'll go into below), with this becoming critcally apparent in the mid- to lower-midrange that can be very warm or even downright fuzzy. Compared to the DH Labs Silver Sonic BL-1s I have on hand, the Nites also lack a lot of air. (the BL-1s, however, are inferior to the Nites in terms of tonality.) The Nites also lack a degree of space between notes, resulting in a more 'gutsy' sound.

Having done some listening to the cables, I then wired them up to my time delay reflectometer to see how they stacked up electrically. I was quite surprised with the results - the return pulse is considerably lower in amplitude but much wider than the initial pulse! The energy of the initial pulse was being distributed over a longer time period, apparently by the neodymium magnets that the center conductor of the cables pass through. This is almost certainly responsible for the lack of high frequency response (though strangely enough, not treble) that causes the aforementioned lack of air, blackness between notes, and detail. Unfortunately the RCA plugs are filled with hot glue, making it impossible to see much detail beyond the fact that the center conductor has copper on the outside and is quite thick.

 

[markl]

Quote:

Having done some listening to the cables, I then wired them up to my time delay reflectometer to see how they stacked up electrically. I was quite surprised with the results - the return pulse is considerably lower in amplitude but much wider than the initial pulse! The energy of the initial pulse was being distributed over a longer time period, apparently by the neodymium magnets that the center conductor of the cables pass through.

Erm..... eric343, this means what, exactly?

man, I think you've nailed the VD sound, great soundstaging, strong bass, extremely natural tone/timbre.
Quote:

Immediately after hitting 'play', I noticed that the cables were louder.

Yes, they are louder, which indicates to me they are letting more signal through at it's original strength, not diluting and diminishing it.

Mark

 

[eric343]

Quote:

Originally posted by markl Erm..... eric343, this means what, exactly? man, I think you've nailed the VD sound, great soundstaging, strong bass, extremely natural tone/timbre. Yes, they are louder, which indicates to me they are letting more signal through at it's original strength, not diluting and diminishing it. Mark

Well, once I find my digital camera I'll post pics, they make it much easier to understand.

Regarding the loudness thing, I'm not sure whether that has anything to do with 'diluting and diminishing' the signal. It's perfectly possible to simply reduce the amplitude of a signal without affecting the sound quality (that is, after all, what your volume control is for!). For me, it indicates that VD's cable is very low-loss.
While it may seem to be a trivial point, I try to adhere to scientific standards of accuracy; in my opinon the applications of such terms as 'diluting and diminishing a signal', without corresponding evidence (I don't notice any dilution or diminishment compared to the BL-1s) is highly misleading, and brings the review, and reviewer, out of the domain of science and into the domain of mysticism and romanticism. It is my opinion that high end audio is not a 'black art', 'magic', 'mystical', or similar - rather, that all phenomena we hear can be attributed to a logical, measurable factor; even if we do not have the capability to measure or determine this factor with our current technology. I believe that it is the lack of knowledge about these things that holds us back from ever better sound.



Whoa, that was a rant. Sorry about that!

 

[Hirsch]

Here's where it gets interesting. Leave them in system, even if the cable is fully burned in, and let them burn in in your setup . Then listen again and see if there have been changes.

I think you've nailed the sound of the Nite's pretty well. There are differences depending on which version you have. If it's a steel jacket with WBT plugs, it will have the loosest focus of the series. The latest version has a plastic jacket and Cardas plugs. Focus in that series is much improved over the original.

However, to get maximal definition while retaining the tonality and dynamic range...that's where Master Series is an improvement over the Nites.

 

[eric343]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch Here's where it gets interesting. Leave them in system, even if the cable is fully burned in, and let them burn in in your setup . Then listen again and see if there have been changes. I think you've nailed the sound of the Nite's pretty well. There are differences depending on which version you have. If it's a steel jacket with WBT plugs, it will have the loosest focus of the series. The latest version has a plastic jacket and Cardas plugs. Focus in that series is much improved over the original. However, to get maximal definition while retaining the tonality and dynamic range...that's where Master Series is an improvement over the Nites.

The jacket is clear monofilament rendered steely by the black color of the cable underneath... it uses WBT plugs.

 

[eric343]

Something I've noticed with the Nites... they don't sound that good at lower volume. It's once the volume has gotten nice and loud that the Nites shine...


Go figure.

 

[ServinginEcuador]

Eric,

Like Hirsch says, make sure to let the Nites burn-in for a good week or two IN YOUR SYSTEM. I don't know how to explain it, but that magic pixie dust needs some time when moved into a new system to work its voodoo. After a good two week burn-in the whole system's sound improves.

I thought that from what Wilson W and others said that you listen to stuff pretty loud anyway. Maybe these are just the cables for you?

 

[eric343]

Heh, there's a difference between 'meet volume' (people yakking in the background) and 'normal volume' (total silence except for computer going and fingers typing)...


Yeah, I'll have the 'ol CDP repeating 24/7 for awhile... volume on the amp is at minimum, though, because I can't sleep with Strauss in the background

(technically it should not affect the burn in, since the cables see the 100k load of the potentiometer regardless of where it's set at. strictly speaking the load does vary slightly because of the 500k input impedance in parallel with the wiper-ground resistance, but it REALLY won't make a difference. Now, if you mean the headphones and amp have to 'break in' to the cables... that's a whole 'nother animal.)

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by eric343 The jacket is clear monofilament rendered steely by the black color of the cable underneath... it uses WBT plugs.

There are some intermediate Nite versions between v1 and v2, I think. The steel jacket ones are all v1, and I don't think VD switched to the Cardas until v2. However, if you've got the plastic jacket and WBT plugs, I think it could be either version. I don't know any way to tell.

 

[Howie]

I didn't have the newest Nites but probably the second newest. At it's discounted price (when they had the discounts) I do feel it was a solid buy as it does some things better than other cables and gets beat on some things by other cables. Even at the Nite's price class this is no surprise.

Quote:

man, I think you've nailed the VD sound, great soundstaging, strong bass, extremely natural tone/timbre

I hold a different opinion on the Nites and from Eric's comments, "natural tone/timbre" were not something he heard.

Bass was something you can immediately notice with VD cords IMO especially the powercords. I actually found the VD cords to be a little bit forward. It was quiet but I feel that something has been filtered out. On noisy recordings such as some classic classical recordings, some of the emotion of the music can be filtered out. On something like solo acoustic guitar however, the clean sound can be quite pleasing in it's own way.

Overall, I did like the Nites. I wouldn't use the words natural or truth of timbre to describe the cables but they were quiet and like the company's name dynamic but can have a hard edge to it.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Howie Bass was something you can immediately notice with VD cords IMO especially the powercords. I actually found the VD cords to be a little bit forward. It was quiet but I feel that something has been filtered out. On noisy recordings such as some classic classical recordings, some of the emotion of the music can be filtered out. On something like solo acoustic guitar however, the clean sound can be quite pleasing in it's own way.

Your profile isn't filled out, so I have no idea what kind of system you're listening to.

I agree that bass is noticeable. It's also critical with the headphones I use (Sony R10). Forwardness is also there, and also a synergistic match with the R10. The R10 can lay back and sound flat if its not being fed a dynamic signal. It needs a dynamic and forward signal to wake up completely. A different headphone might have very different signal requirements to sound its best.

I did a comparison of the Nites with Cardas Golden Reference. The Cardas beat out the Nites in terms of pure detail. Everything was there and imaging was precise...but the emotion was lost. It was as though the Cardas was performing some kind of dynamic range compression. The dynamic swing that the R10 needed just wasn't there. The Nites were a polar opposite. Dynamics and bass, but lack of precision. I sometimes had trouble with image placement listening to the Nites. Still, the emotion got through much better, and I sold off the Cardas cables. The issue of definition/focus has been improved in the series 2 Nites, and really taken to a higher level with the Master Series.

 

[bluesaint]

Hisrch, That's how i came to my conclusion as well. The Nite's while great with the R10's, i still find myself going back to the Golden Reference.

 

[eric343]

Well, I'm an imaging/precision freak, so I don't think I'll end up ever buying these cables...

Hirsch, what you also might have been hearing was the louder nature of the Nites coupled with the slow/frequency difffuse nature of same. The fact that they are louder means they will sound more dynamic (less 'compressed') than other cables assuming you don't compensate for the volume; the EXTREMELY high frequency dispersion (spreading of a short pulse over time, I say extremely high compared to the other cables I've tested) of the Nites makes them more active, gutsy, emotional.

 

[eric343]

Preliminary TDR results: (first two are single cable, next is two cables tied together, next is two cables tied together with a 100nS pulse)

What that 100nS pulse is more or less SUPPOSED to look like (one cable only):

 

[Ebonyks]

Eric, i think you perfectly described the nature of nites, and how they polarize the head-fi community.

I heard the nites in chicago at the last meet (april), i wasn't in the least bit impressed by the nites, and perfered my outlaws (and greatly perfered the netural referances which i tried out and eventually bought). I felt the same "fuzzyness" that you described so well.

I think many head-fi'ers simply perfer the wider soundstage and greater bass extention in exchange for some detail. Just a matter of sonic preferance, i suppose. Can any nite owners verify that?