[Scrith]

My impression, after reading your description of the lengthy and difficult process you went through just to install these cables, is that there was no way you would not be delighted with the way these cables sounded after all of that work. I would love to hear some impressions vs. a more generic cable in which you were not aware of which one you were listening to.

 

[chesebert]

VD cable sounds signifcantly different from most others, which means if you can hear a cable change in your headphone you can hear the VD difference.

 

[markl]

Quote:

My impression, after reading your description of the lengthy and difficult process you went through just to install these cables, is that there was no way you would not be delighted with the way these cables sounded after all of that work.

If anything a difficult install makes you mad at the product, not ready to love it. I would definitely say I like these cables *despite* any installation issues.

As I said, installing them is no big deal for me now, you get good at it. And BTW, I have A/B-ed (no, not blind

), dozens of power cables and ICs with the VD stuff, swapping them in and out many many times.

 

[UseName]

I'm curious about the exotic features of this product. The two specifically are the Fluid Compression Chamber and the Rare Earth Magnets... I doubt you will be opening this up(maybe Patrick will be

). Perhaps you can answer a question about the earth magnets. I guess I am wondering how strong these are, for example does the cable stick to the fridge at any point?

 

[JohnFerrier]

Makes me wonder how many recording studios work behind "foggy" windshields not clearly seeing "the road ahead".


.

 

[markl]

Quote:

I guess I am wondering how strong these are, for example does the cable stick to the fridge at any point?

Yes they are magnetic, and yes attracted to one another.

Quote:

Makes me wonder how many recording studios work behind "foggy" windshields not clearly seeing "the road ahead".

You mean the ones so concerned with sound quality they record with ProTools, and compress the sound to hell, and leave everything in digital clip? Those studios?

Please, if you can't resist drive-by trolling, find another thread, or save it up so you can rant and rave all you like when the new Skeptics forum opens, you will have free reign there. This thread is not for you and you aren't welcome in this conversation. Goodbye.

 

[pompon]

Ty for this good review.

I have Master 3.0 PC .. and I have Nite Platinum PC too.
I can't wait to know your impression about the genesis PC.

 

[JohnFerrier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markl /img/forum/go_quote.gif You mean the ones so concerned with sound quality they record with ProTools, and compress the sound to hell, and leave everything in digital clip? Those studios?

The recordings I've checked in my collection have enormous headroom (mostly contemporary orchestral music). Even for peaks it's like >10db down. It surprised me how much headroom there is. Being that I've checked the loudest passages in my collection (for hearing safety reasons; like Beat Furrer's Fama, and John Zorn's Hammerhead), I doubt that most of my CDs come close to clipping. (I say most because I do have some old '50s recordings that may have some clipping.)


.

 

[IPodPJ]

Congrats on your new cables, Mark. I'd love to try them out one day, but only if I had the money to buy them. That's what happened with the Master LE 2.0 Power cord and I wound up buying something I couldn't really afford because I couldn't go back to listening without it.

 

[markl]

More Impressions of Genesis 1.1 RCA
They've been burning in since my last post and my appreciation for them just grows and grows. I actually teared up earlier listening to a perfectly happy song, maybe a tear or two of joy (so shoot me). I'd never heard that song sound that great, and it just *moved me*, man, and ain't that the whole damn point?

These cables bring me ever closer to the music, ever closer to the "absolute sound" of the master recording, ever closer to being in the studio with the band while they're playing. The degree of "effort" it takes for my mind's eye to recreate the sound of dudes playing in a room is reduced ever more, which puts me more at ease and allows the music to just "happen" in an easier more relaxed way. The brain has that many fewer holes to fill...

Where is the noise floor on the Genesis 1.1 IC? Way below that of my gear, I'm pretty sure of that. I'm confident they are allowing me to hear everything my CDP and heaphone amp are capable of delivering, with absolutely no bottleneck. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

The skeptic crowd will likely crucify me, but so what, I'm going to rhapsodize anyway. The fact is that (to me, in my system) this cable is like a major component upgrade. In all my days of cable swapping, I can honestly say I've never heard this much of an improvement from going from one cable to another.

If you've been at this a while, you probably share my experience with certain new components that seem to open up whole new sonic doors for you that you may not even have known were there before, and allow you to walk around in a whole other room that was locked to you before. Once you are aware that that new room exists and is possible, you want to explore other componnets that do it even better or show it to you even more clearly. After a lot of this, you might develop an "audiophile imagination", where you go on faith that there is some way somewhere of further enhancing this or that new trait of audio that you have just became aware of. You can mentally picture that sound, and you go about chasing it until you find it.

For me, the Genesis 1.1 RCA takes me to the very limits of my (current) audiophile imagination (for now). I always suspected my gear could sound this good, and now I know it can.

The danger, of course, as always, is that now that I know my system can sound like this, I develop a new benchmark, and my "audiophile imagination" of what might be expands and develops anew.

'Twas ever thus, but for now, standing here for these precious moments at the very edge of what I always thought possible, I am happy.

I know it won't last (it never does)..............

But that's the whole fun of the quest, and what keeps you looking.


Genesis 1.1 Power Cable
This one I've swapped in and out of my system over the last few days, trying it in different spots, and at this time, I'm not so sure about it. It's incredibly precise and immaculately clean, firm and solid, but it lacks a bit of air and top-end extension that the humble Nite 3.0 and slightly less humble Master LE has.

My guess is that it needs A LOT of burn-in before it fully opens up and blooms. OTOH, the ICs sounded fully cooked straight out of the box, and we're talking about the same conductors and accompanying technology. I'll give it more time and report back...

 

[883dave]

Mark

Thanks for the review and the update...glad to hear you are enjoying.

Did Virtual Dynamics put either of these cable on a cooker before they were sent to you?

 

[markl]

Yes, they've both been cooked and conditioned. I have had experiences with cooked and conditioned VD cables that still needed regular good old fashioned burn in to sound their best, so we'll see...

 

[Scrith]

I really want this cable to be as good as you say it is. But, based on my own experience (wherein I was certain, for example, an audio component was doing something amazing, only to learn from blind tests that I was imagining the whole thing), I cannot accept a subjective test.

Is there any way at all you can have someone help you out with 10-15 minutes of blind testing, at least (i.e. both are unplugged and next to each other, the person plugs in cable A, you listen with music of your choice, then plugs in cable B, and you listen to the same music, and you tell us about what you heard from cable A, then cable B, then the person tells you which was which, and you write back to tell us which cable A and cable B were)? This is an amazing opportunity...a potentially great cable that you have given glowing reviews in subjective listening tests, put to the test by the same person with a more objective testing format. It would be amazing to see the two sides of this debate come together with a more scientific viewpoint on this cable.

 

[JohnFerrier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markl /img/forum/go_quote.gif More Impressions of Genesis 1.1 RCA They've been burning in since my last post and my appreciation for them just grows and grows. I actually teared up earlier listening to a perfectly happy song, maybe a tear or two of joy (so shoot me). I'd never heard that song sound that great, and it just *moved me*, man, and ain't that the whole damn point? These cables bring me ever closer to the music, ever closer to the "absolute sound" of the master recording, ever closer to being in the studio with the band while they're playing. The degree of "effort" it takes for my mind's eye to recreate the sound of dudes playing in a room is reduced ever more, which puts me more at ease and allows the music to just "happen" in an easier more relaxed way. The brain has that many fewer holes to fill... Where is the noise floor on the Genesis 1.1 IC? Way below that of my gear, I'm pretty sure of that. I'm confident they are allowing me to hear everything my CDP and heaphone amp are capable of delivering, with absolutely no bottleneck. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! The skeptic crowd will likely crucify me, but so what, I'm going to rhapsodize anyway. The fact is that (to me, in my system) this cable is like a major component upgrade. In all my days of cable swapping, I can honestly say I've never heard this much of an improvement from going from one cable to another. If you've been at this a while, you probably share my experience with certain new components that seem to open up whole new sonic doors for you that you may not even have known were there before, and allow you to walk around in a whole other room that was locked to you before. Once you are aware that that new room exists and is possible, you want to explore other componnets that do it even better or show it to you even more clearly. After a lot of this, you might develop an "audiophile imagination", where you go on faith that there is some way somewhere of further enhancing this or that new trait of audio that you have just became aware of. You can mentally picture that sound, and you go about chasing it until you find it. For me, the Genesis 1.1 RCA takes me to the very limits of my (current) audiophile imagination (for now). I always suspected my gear could sound this good, and now I know it can. The danger, of course, as always, is that now that I know my system can sound like this, I develop a new benchmark, and my "audiophile imagination" of what might be expands and develops anew. 'Twas ever thus, but for now, standing here for these precious moments at the very edge of what I always thought possible, I am happy. I know it won't last (it never does).............. But that's the whole fun of the quest, and what keeps you looking. Genesis 1.1 Power Cable This one I've swapped in and out of my system over the last few days, trying it in different spots, and at this time, I'm not so sure about it. It's incredibly precise and immaculately clean, firm and solid, but it lacks a bit of air and top-end extension that the humble Nite 3.0 and slightly less humble Master LE has. My guess is that it needs A LOT of burn-in before it fully opens up and blooms. OTOH, the ICs sounded fully cooked straight out of the box, and we're talking about the same conductors and accompanying technology. I'll give it more time and report back...

Thanks for bearing all the "slings and arrows" of the skeptics. I've got it. Enjoy.


.

 

[markl]

[size=small]Follow-Up on Genesis 1.1 Power Cable[/size]
I had removed the cord from my system a few days ago and put it on something else to continuously burn-in. I re-attached it to my source today, replacing a VD Nite 3.0.

Well, the Genesis has opened up considerably, and has taken on the same traits as the Genesis 1.1 IC I raved about earlier. While not quite adding the same degree/level of "wow" factor (the effect may not be 100% additive for each new Genesis put in place) as the ICs, this is still the best power cord I've heard to date (out of 24 or so). The background is almost impossibly black. Everything stands out from it in sharp relief. It allows every molecule, every bit of information contained on every tiny metallic grain of the master tape to come through and stand up and be counted and contribute to the whole gestalt. This makes the picture/image it throws more complete/whole/solid/believable than I've heard it to date.

But, just like the ICs, the tone is 100% neutral and natural (to my ears); there is no real "signature" to the Genesis, unless you count more and cleaner water coming through a bigger pipe as a "coloration". The level of pure "realism" in the overall presentation is greatly appreciated. YOU. ARE. THERE. PERIOD.

I've got to hand it to Rick, as absurd and over-built as these cables are, they really do fully represent and demonstrate to the nth absurd degree, everything he's been raving about for the past 7 years or so (and implemented so far in much more limited ways). It's easy to laugh at (or be intimidated) by the sheer bulk of these cables until you realize just how important that is to their sound. The fat-guage wire, the layers and layers of shielding, the additional layers of vibration dampening, metallic clamps and heavy magnets all add up to create this sound.

Rick has some wild theories, and some even wilder technologies, no doubt about it. But just listen to the results! He's on to something, even if he arrived at it via intuition. The proof is in the pudding.

I could afford a lot of different cables, and I've owned dozens and dozens. Recently, I've tried a few other expensive copper cables to compare against the VD stuff. They don't cut it, and don't offer what Rick's do. Again, I have no idea which of his unique technologies does or does not contribute to the sound. But I can compare the final result against others. The fact that no other cable sounds like a VD cable with its unique technologies tells me that something is working. You can't get this sound anywhere else.

Rick does have a problem, though, and that's where to go from here. I saw some pictures of an even fatter, more gargantuan cable than the Genesis, and for now, I'm just choosing to ignore it. At some point (and for many the Genesis is already way over any reasonable line), you run out of the ability to fatten up the guage of the cable, or add more layers of pixie-dust Dynamic Filtering, or add bigger magnets and larger, tighter clamps.

Rick, the Genesis is already at the level of absurdity. Let it rest, already. You've proved your point!

Mark