Hirsch
Why is there a chaplain standing over his wallet?
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2001
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This is more or less a continuation of the initial impression posted here.
The Virtual Dynamics Nite cables have been in my system for several weeks now, and it’s time for me to try and sum up what’s going on with them. I’m going to start with a confession, of sorts. I’ve believed for a long time that cables are an important part of an audio system, and that there were very real differences in sound between cables. However, I didn’t really believe that power cables could make that much of a difference, even after I had heard the differences. I didn’t really believe that the amount of difference that an interconnect would make in a system would be as large as it has been. I stand corrected. My reference system is the Creek CD53 CDP, EAR HP4 amp with Valvo 6SL7GT tubes, Sony MDR-R10, Virtual Dynamics Nite Series Power Cords, and Virtual Dynamics Nite Series Interconnects, and a Monster HTS-2000 power conditioner. Each of these is a component of the system. It would not sound the same if any of them were altered. The power cords and interconnects are especially important. This system did not sound as good as it should have until I got those right.
Early posts have described the cables, and the break-in process. The stiffness and weight of these cables is very imposing on someone new to them. There is the potential present for large amounts of pressure on IEC connectors and RCA jacks. However, over time, this has gotten much easier to deal with. The trick seems to be not to be shy, and have a good picture in your mind of where you want the cable to go. Measurements don’t hurt. Then simply bend the cable to fit. If done right, the very stiffness of the cable will hold it where you put it. I’ve learned how to add a creative bend or two so that some of the weight rests on a nearby shelf. The danger has passed, and I’m comfortable running these cables now. I also reported a sonic coloration early in the burn-in process. If it’s there now, I can’t hear it. These cables are burning in beautifully.
So, what’s the big deal about these things? If I had to give a one-word review of the thing that stands out most, I’d say silence. Strange descriptor for an audio cable. Yet, that may well be the sonic feature that stands out. The VD Nites do silence better than any other cable I’ve heard. Background noise? Forget about it. But possibly the most important silence is the one between notes. The silences between various instruments that tell us that they are in different locations. Using the Nites, those silences are rendered perfectly. Taking it further, because there is nothing there but the sound of the instrument, each instrument is more realistically reproduced than I have ever heard previously. Further, the combination of instruments and voices that we call “music” is reproduced as well as I’ve heard it. I’ve heard a lot of systems that have detail, or accuracy, or warmth, or transparency or [insert favorite audiophile adjective here]. However, simply by displaying those characteristics, those components that show them are, in a subtle way, coloring the music with their own signature. In many ways, the sound of the Virtual Dynamics Nite series is very hard to pin down. Quite simply, it’s more fun to listen to the music than the equipment. That makes these cable difficult to review. I’m going to try it anyway.
The name Virtual Dynamics says something about another major feature of the sound. This is an aggressive cable. I’d almost have to say that they increase the dynamic range of my system. This happens to be completely necessary for the R10. As beautiful as the R10 can sound, it will lay down and sound lazy if it’s not fed properly. Bass dries up, and attack, while fast, doesn’t reach the peaks it should. In my setup, the Virtual Dynamic Nites have been a major part of the cure. With them in the system, the R10 has real impact that I haven’t heard with any of my other cables. Drums sound like drums, bass guitar sounds like a bass guitar. If I had to stick an audiophile type adjective on it, let’s try transparent. With the Nites, the barrier that the equipment puts between the music and the listener is almost gone. You get to listen to what a musical instrument sounds like, not how the equipment is distorting the sound of the instrument. Perfect? No. Just better than anything else I’ve heard so far.
Installing both the power cords and the interconnects at the same time was a bad experimental design. It makes it difficult to tell what’s causing audible changes the cables made in my system. Is it the power cords or the interconnects? I’ve got some clues…
I don’t have a lot of experience with other cables at this price level, however, I do have a set of Cardas Golden Reference XLR interconnects that I tried between the Creek and the EAR (both can do balanced as well as single-ended I/O). While the Cardas was every bit as detailed as the Nites, something was missing. The emotion that drives the music just wasn’t as strong. The Cardas made the system sound like an absolutely top-notch audio system. The Nites simply played the music. I’m not using the Cardas anymore.
There are some possible systems where this could be too much of a good thing. The R10 requires dynamic input to sound its best. A headphone that isn’t as demanding might sound overly forward with the Nites. I have a slight preference for the Cardas when using the Grado HP-1. The sound of the HP-1 is already forward, compared to the R10, and the Nites push it almost to the point of too much dynamics. So, if you’re looking for a polite system that doesn’t really push the barriers hard, the Nites may be a bit much. If you’ve got a system that can handle the full dynamics that these cables transmit, you won’t settle for less.
The EAR has passthrough outputs, that I run the Berning MicroZOTL off of. The ZOTL had been hooked up using Nite interconnects and power cords. A couple of days ago, I switched the ZOTL back to a Virtual Dynamics Power 3 cord (the reason why is coming up shortly). The immediacy of the sound of the ZOTL was reduced. Not as much as I’d feared. The Power 3 is still a good cable, IMO. But there’s a distinct lack of the focus that was present when the Nite cable was in use. I’m keeping the interconnects in place. I don’t want to lose too much.
In addition to the changes that these cables make in the sound of the system, they also change the listening capability of the user. This is pretty much true of most high-end equipment. As you graduate to higher resolution equipment, you learn perceptual discriminations you simply weren’t sensitive to previously. This was driven home to me listening to the CD-3000 on my Melos SHA-1. The SHA-1 one has a captive power cord, and was connected by DH Labs Silver Sonic BL-1 based interconnects. When I listened, there was an unpleasant sibilance in the highs, going down into the midrange. Easily heard on a cymbal hit, or vocal…now. I’m not entirely sure I would have been able to define it prior to using the Nites. So, I took my remaining Nite interconnect, and used it with the SHA-1. Sibilance cured. It was a cable issue. The Melos started sounding smoother, and like much more like the high-end amp that it is. I suspect that interconnects play a greater role in the “graininess” that we hear on some amps than we think. Even pretty decent interconnects may contribute to the problem. The Nites don’t.
The Nites did something else that was surprising to me. I was listening to my speaker setup, and realized that it was sounding thin to me. I’ve always preferred speakers to headphones, despite having some rather good headphones. However, my headphone setup has finally overtaken my speaker setup. In an attempt to restore parity, I moved a couple of the Nite power cords over to my speaker setup. One went to the Sony DVP-S9000ES player, and another to the Outlaw 950 pre/pro. My Electrocompaniet power amp has its own proprietary power cord from Electrompaniet, and I haven’t tried the Nites with it. Yet. In any event, the sound became much fuller with the Nites in place. Imaging became larger and deeper. A surprising effect came when I watched DVD’s with the 9000ES. Colors are sharper and more vivid. Proper convergence is more critical, but the image seems to be sharper than it was previously. Hmmm… expense could be a major factor here. Right now, I’ve got two VD Nite power cords attached. But my speaker setup is part of my home theater. For multichannel sound, I’m eventually going to need three pairs of analog interconnects and a digital interconnect from my player to the pre/pro, and four pairs of analog interconnects from the pre/pro to various power amps. Then there’s the speaker cables of a 7.1 channel system, not to mention the video cables… Alas, the Nites are simply out of my price range to do the whole setup. So, at some point, I may try a downgrade, keeping the Nites for my headphone setups, but rewiring the whole speaker setup with something a bit more affordable in the Virtual Dynamics line. Someday…
Anyway, I think I’ve found my cables. I know better than to say that they are the ultimate solution. There’s always something else coming along. However, I’d bet that this will be the last major cable purchase I make for several years. For me, these cables have unlocked the potential of my main headphone setup. The sound has been stable for several weeks now, indicating burn-in of the cables and any other components is done. It’s time to leave this system alone, and just listen to it. All of the pieces are in place now. The Virtual Dynamics Nite power cords and interconnects were the final component needed to let this system sing.
The Virtual Dynamics Nite cables have been in my system for several weeks now, and it’s time for me to try and sum up what’s going on with them. I’m going to start with a confession, of sorts. I’ve believed for a long time that cables are an important part of an audio system, and that there were very real differences in sound between cables. However, I didn’t really believe that power cables could make that much of a difference, even after I had heard the differences. I didn’t really believe that the amount of difference that an interconnect would make in a system would be as large as it has been. I stand corrected. My reference system is the Creek CD53 CDP, EAR HP4 amp with Valvo 6SL7GT tubes, Sony MDR-R10, Virtual Dynamics Nite Series Power Cords, and Virtual Dynamics Nite Series Interconnects, and a Monster HTS-2000 power conditioner. Each of these is a component of the system. It would not sound the same if any of them were altered. The power cords and interconnects are especially important. This system did not sound as good as it should have until I got those right.
Early posts have described the cables, and the break-in process. The stiffness and weight of these cables is very imposing on someone new to them. There is the potential present for large amounts of pressure on IEC connectors and RCA jacks. However, over time, this has gotten much easier to deal with. The trick seems to be not to be shy, and have a good picture in your mind of where you want the cable to go. Measurements don’t hurt. Then simply bend the cable to fit. If done right, the very stiffness of the cable will hold it where you put it. I’ve learned how to add a creative bend or two so that some of the weight rests on a nearby shelf. The danger has passed, and I’m comfortable running these cables now. I also reported a sonic coloration early in the burn-in process. If it’s there now, I can’t hear it. These cables are burning in beautifully.
So, what’s the big deal about these things? If I had to give a one-word review of the thing that stands out most, I’d say silence. Strange descriptor for an audio cable. Yet, that may well be the sonic feature that stands out. The VD Nites do silence better than any other cable I’ve heard. Background noise? Forget about it. But possibly the most important silence is the one between notes. The silences between various instruments that tell us that they are in different locations. Using the Nites, those silences are rendered perfectly. Taking it further, because there is nothing there but the sound of the instrument, each instrument is more realistically reproduced than I have ever heard previously. Further, the combination of instruments and voices that we call “music” is reproduced as well as I’ve heard it. I’ve heard a lot of systems that have detail, or accuracy, or warmth, or transparency or [insert favorite audiophile adjective here]. However, simply by displaying those characteristics, those components that show them are, in a subtle way, coloring the music with their own signature. In many ways, the sound of the Virtual Dynamics Nite series is very hard to pin down. Quite simply, it’s more fun to listen to the music than the equipment. That makes these cable difficult to review. I’m going to try it anyway.
The name Virtual Dynamics says something about another major feature of the sound. This is an aggressive cable. I’d almost have to say that they increase the dynamic range of my system. This happens to be completely necessary for the R10. As beautiful as the R10 can sound, it will lay down and sound lazy if it’s not fed properly. Bass dries up, and attack, while fast, doesn’t reach the peaks it should. In my setup, the Virtual Dynamic Nites have been a major part of the cure. With them in the system, the R10 has real impact that I haven’t heard with any of my other cables. Drums sound like drums, bass guitar sounds like a bass guitar. If I had to stick an audiophile type adjective on it, let’s try transparent. With the Nites, the barrier that the equipment puts between the music and the listener is almost gone. You get to listen to what a musical instrument sounds like, not how the equipment is distorting the sound of the instrument. Perfect? No. Just better than anything else I’ve heard so far.
Installing both the power cords and the interconnects at the same time was a bad experimental design. It makes it difficult to tell what’s causing audible changes the cables made in my system. Is it the power cords or the interconnects? I’ve got some clues…
I don’t have a lot of experience with other cables at this price level, however, I do have a set of Cardas Golden Reference XLR interconnects that I tried between the Creek and the EAR (both can do balanced as well as single-ended I/O). While the Cardas was every bit as detailed as the Nites, something was missing. The emotion that drives the music just wasn’t as strong. The Cardas made the system sound like an absolutely top-notch audio system. The Nites simply played the music. I’m not using the Cardas anymore.
There are some possible systems where this could be too much of a good thing. The R10 requires dynamic input to sound its best. A headphone that isn’t as demanding might sound overly forward with the Nites. I have a slight preference for the Cardas when using the Grado HP-1. The sound of the HP-1 is already forward, compared to the R10, and the Nites push it almost to the point of too much dynamics. So, if you’re looking for a polite system that doesn’t really push the barriers hard, the Nites may be a bit much. If you’ve got a system that can handle the full dynamics that these cables transmit, you won’t settle for less.
The EAR has passthrough outputs, that I run the Berning MicroZOTL off of. The ZOTL had been hooked up using Nite interconnects and power cords. A couple of days ago, I switched the ZOTL back to a Virtual Dynamics Power 3 cord (the reason why is coming up shortly). The immediacy of the sound of the ZOTL was reduced. Not as much as I’d feared. The Power 3 is still a good cable, IMO. But there’s a distinct lack of the focus that was present when the Nite cable was in use. I’m keeping the interconnects in place. I don’t want to lose too much.
In addition to the changes that these cables make in the sound of the system, they also change the listening capability of the user. This is pretty much true of most high-end equipment. As you graduate to higher resolution equipment, you learn perceptual discriminations you simply weren’t sensitive to previously. This was driven home to me listening to the CD-3000 on my Melos SHA-1. The SHA-1 one has a captive power cord, and was connected by DH Labs Silver Sonic BL-1 based interconnects. When I listened, there was an unpleasant sibilance in the highs, going down into the midrange. Easily heard on a cymbal hit, or vocal…now. I’m not entirely sure I would have been able to define it prior to using the Nites. So, I took my remaining Nite interconnect, and used it with the SHA-1. Sibilance cured. It was a cable issue. The Melos started sounding smoother, and like much more like the high-end amp that it is. I suspect that interconnects play a greater role in the “graininess” that we hear on some amps than we think. Even pretty decent interconnects may contribute to the problem. The Nites don’t.
The Nites did something else that was surprising to me. I was listening to my speaker setup, and realized that it was sounding thin to me. I’ve always preferred speakers to headphones, despite having some rather good headphones. However, my headphone setup has finally overtaken my speaker setup. In an attempt to restore parity, I moved a couple of the Nite power cords over to my speaker setup. One went to the Sony DVP-S9000ES player, and another to the Outlaw 950 pre/pro. My Electrocompaniet power amp has its own proprietary power cord from Electrompaniet, and I haven’t tried the Nites with it. Yet. In any event, the sound became much fuller with the Nites in place. Imaging became larger and deeper. A surprising effect came when I watched DVD’s with the 9000ES. Colors are sharper and more vivid. Proper convergence is more critical, but the image seems to be sharper than it was previously. Hmmm… expense could be a major factor here. Right now, I’ve got two VD Nite power cords attached. But my speaker setup is part of my home theater. For multichannel sound, I’m eventually going to need three pairs of analog interconnects and a digital interconnect from my player to the pre/pro, and four pairs of analog interconnects from the pre/pro to various power amps. Then there’s the speaker cables of a 7.1 channel system, not to mention the video cables… Alas, the Nites are simply out of my price range to do the whole setup. So, at some point, I may try a downgrade, keeping the Nites for my headphone setups, but rewiring the whole speaker setup with something a bit more affordable in the Virtual Dynamics line. Someday…
Anyway, I think I’ve found my cables. I know better than to say that they are the ultimate solution. There’s always something else coming along. However, I’d bet that this will be the last major cable purchase I make for several years. For me, these cables have unlocked the potential of my main headphone setup. The sound has been stable for several weeks now, indicating burn-in of the cables and any other components is done. It’s time to leave this system alone, and just listen to it. All of the pieces are in place now. The Virtual Dynamics Nite power cords and interconnects were the final component needed to let this system sing.
