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Oct 9, 2021 at 9:22 AM Post #8,027 of 12,513
Happy birthday baby !

Tomorrow, these babies are 2y old. I've managed to get some hours in most days. I'm just as thankful and excited today as I was in the beginning. Long may it last!

#zmf4thewin

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Oct 9, 2021 at 9:35 PM Post #8,030 of 12,513
I think the platinum removes a certain amount of noise and distortion that smears and hardens upper frequencies. It definitely does not diminish them in any way. I found it to be both smoother, more even and a bit more detailed and airy compared to a silver gold OCC harness and a graphene carbon cable I had. It did sound a bit more organic and integrated but tamed is not what I would describe. I did find after burning it in that I preferred the The Auteur Lambskin pads to the hybrid version of the same which are a bit more relaxed in that region. The Lambskin are the more harmonically balanced of the two sets and I think more accurate. But yes they do have a bit more energy there. Before full burn in I still slightly preferred the tonal balance of the hybrids and was paying less attention to harmonic structure, air, detail and slightly more vivid quality of the lambskins. So overall it may accomplish what you want without actually lessening the energy in the mid highs. Curious to see what your impressions are.

Give it 200 full hours plus before you fully decide and run a broad range of music and burn in sweeps. The Tara Labs freebie offered on there site is excellent for fully accomplishing that.

Happy listening,

jgwtriode
 
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Oct 9, 2021 at 9:55 PM Post #8,031 of 12,513
jgwtriode said:
I think the platinum removes a certain amount of noise and distortion that smears and hardens upper frequencies. It definitely does not diminish them in any way. I found it to be both smoother, more even and a bit more detailed and airy compared to a silver gold OCC harness and a graphene carbon cable I had. It did sound a bit more organic and integrated but tamed is not what I would describe. I did find after burning it in that I preferred the The Auteur Lambskin pads to the hybrid version of the same which are a bit more relaxed in that region. The Lambskin are the more harmonically balanced of the two sets and I think more accurate. But yes they do have a bit more energy there. Before full burn in I still slightly preferred the tonal balance of the hybrids and was paying less attention to harmonic structure, air, detail and slightly more vivid quality of the lambskins. So overall it may accomplish what you want without actually lessening the energy in the mid highs. Curious to see what your impressions are.

Give it 200 full hours plus before you fully decide and run a broad range of music and burn in sweeps. The Tara Labs freebie offered on there site is excellent for fully accomplishing that.

Happy listening,

jgwtriode
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Thanks a lot. I will let it my VC burn in completely and see where it goes from there. So far I have come across to like universal hybrid slightly more than Auteur hybrid.
 
Oct 9, 2021 at 10:01 PM Post #8,032 of 12,513
Make sure you let the cable burn at least that long as well! Wywires cable really improves after burn in all though it's pretty amazing stuff out the gate. I have a platinum
headphone cable. A diamond USB and a platinum power cable all connected to my DAC/amp. The thing has been beyond transformed compared to what I previously had.
Which was still some pretty serious stuff.

Any way, happy listening,

jgwtriode
 
Oct 10, 2021 at 12:19 AM Post #8,034 of 12,513
PrTv said:
I've just put back my tube amp (that has been neglected for more than 4 years) in my rig, and I can immediately say that VC seemed to pair better with this tube amp (at high impedance / high gain setting) than with my V281.



Mid-high that used to annoy me seemed to be tamed down (but not completely gone), and vocal seems to be smoother and more pleasing. I don't feel any lack of details (despite the fact that the V281 is fed by XLR signal through Audience AU24SE, whilst my tube amp is single ended with good RCA cables that's nowhere as expensive as the Audience).

The VC now has around >360 hours on it, so I can say it's fully broken in. Waiting for WyWires Platinum and hope it can tame that mid-high down a tad more. Would be perfect if it does that! I think I won't have to part with this beautiful headphones given that they're very enjoyable with this setup.

Also hope that the Denafrips Terminator Plus would elevate the sound to the next level when it arrives in next 2 weeks. Hopefully it's better than my current dac (Ayre QB9 Twenty) -would be so sad if it isn't.
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I had a similar issue when I first heard the VC through my system. I ended up switching my ICs from my Kimber Hero's to some Schiit PYSTs which actually tamed the sibilance for me. The PYSTs had several more hours on it than the Hero FWIW.
 
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Oct 10, 2021 at 12:51 AM Post #8,035 of 12,513
jgwtriode said:
Make sure you let the cable burn at least that long as well! Wywires cable really improves after burn in all though it's pretty amazing stuff out the gate. I have a platinum
headphone cable. A diamond USB and a platinum power cable all connected to my DAC/amp. The thing has been beyond transformed compared to what I previously had.
Which was still some pretty serious stuff.
Click to expand...
I'm curious and skeptical about WyWires. They are too vague for my tastes about what's in it.
  • Cotton-wrapped copper Litz wire
  • Carbon/Graphene materials, protected by small tube
That's it. No wire gauge, strand count, purity claims, etc. Some other manufacturers do much better in that regard.

I've grown partial to OCC copper lately, I'm using Wireworld Equinox 8 RCA and Eclipse 8 XLR cables and ZMF 2K Copper for my DCA headphones. Was wondering whether you have some experience with those.

Previously I used Lavricables silver cables which supposedly need 150h of burn in, but I can't say I noticed them improving over time, unlike the DCA headphones themselves, which definitely need their 200h or so of burn in. How would you describe the changes you noticed over time?
 
Oct 10, 2021 at 1:59 AM Post #8,037 of 12,513
Alcophone said:
I'm curious and skeptical about WyWires. They are too vague for my tastes about what's in it.
  • Cotton-wrapped copper Litz wire
  • Carbon/Graphene materials, protected by small tube
That's it. No wire gauge, strand count, purity claims, etc. Some other manufacturers do much better in that regard.

I've grown partial to OCC copper lately, I'm using Wireworld Equinox 8 RCA and Eclipse 8 XLR cables and ZMF 2K Copper for my DCA headphones. Was wondering whether you have some experience with those.

Previously I used Lavricables silver cables which supposedly need 150h of burn in, but I can't say I noticed them improving over time, unlike the DCA headphones themselves, which definitely need their 200h or so of burn in. How would you describe the changes you noticed over time?
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That’s definitely the frustrating aspect of the cable industry. There may be sonic differences between cables but how is the manufacturer supposed to convince people if they don’t provide any specifications? In addition to what you mentioned; strand count, inductance, capacitance, resistance, dielectrics, cable geometry, and metallurgy are all variables that affect the sound or our expectation of sound as someone researching their next purchase. The only way to know about a cable’s synergy is through personal demo, reviews, or word of mouth.

With that said, my favorite cables with the VC so far are OFC, Vérité Silver and Heimdall 2. OFC has the best slam out of the cables I’ve heard, but it may be bested by the 2K, which I remember had the best slam on the VO. Vérité Silver has the most natural timbre, faster transients and retains fullness in the mids. Heimdall 2 has more slam than Vérité Silver, adds some air that the other cables lack, and has better image distinction.

VC are capable of revealing the individual components in your system, and is notably sensitive to cable changes (at least to my ears). As I’ve mentioned previously, when I first got the VC I thought it had a sibilance issue until I swapped out the interconnects to a pair with better synergy. Now I hear the euphony everyone talks about.
 
Oct 10, 2021 at 2:16 AM Post #8,038 of 12,513
Alcophone said:
I'm curious and skeptical about WyWires. They are too vague for my tastes about what's in it.
Click to expand...
Again, I’m totally with you with the skepticism. I did however decide to take a chance and try out the WyWires Diamond USB to much acclaim by @jgwtriode and to give credit to WyWires despite the lack of specifications. Subjectively, it has been an improvement in several areas over my previous cable (Audioquest Diamond); improvements noted in resolution, macrodynamics, image solidity, and bass performance.
 
Oct 10, 2021 at 3:47 AM Post #8,039 of 12,513
What are the pads that come attached to the stabilized VC? They come with Universe, Auteur, and BE2. I know it's not the BE2.

Edit: They're Auteur
 
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