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Burn in time for Virtual Dynamics Cables

Hi,
I just received a Power 3 power cord and Audition interconnects for my CD player. After doing some research and talking to lots of people, this seemed like a good first step in bringing my system into balance ... I've been suffering from a somewhat bright tonal balance and some hardness/glare in the upper mids/low trebble.

So far, after about 40 hours of playing, I'm hearing some improvement. A slight smoothing out of the mids and trebble, and some more weight to the bass. The difference is by no means dramatic, though. I'm wondering how much more improvement I might expect, and how long it should take to show up. If it's a long time, I may have to ask the folks at VD to extend my audition period.

Rick at VD is ultimately suggesting that I do my whole system with Audition cable and that this will make all my dreams come true. This initial test is really just to wet my appetite for what's possible. How big a difference do you think the speaker cables would make? My current cables are a wildcard ... they might be terrible, but i have no way of comparing to anything at the moment.

Here's my system:
Rega Planet 2000, with VD power 3 cord and audition ICs
Unison Unico hybrid integrated, stock power cord
Triangle Zerius speakers (about 400 hours of break in)
20 feet of Audioquest GR8 speaker wire

Thank you for any input!
Paul
paulraphael

Showing 1 response by cosmic_void

cosmic_void
142 posts
 
I have the complete Audition package. They are very good cables. For the price they are hard to beat. I find them to be a bit lacking in air on the highest frequencies. Deep Purple's Machine Head which has lots of tape hiss from the original tape virtually disappears with this cable package. Which means that they aren't quite neutral. However, I haven't missed any treble on most other discs I listen to. Cymbals come through as they are supposed to but without, perhaps, the decay of the note that one would expect. Bass is there in spades and mid range is solid. Not the last word on soundstaging but realistic enough to enjoy - I love a deep soundstage but hate it when it sounds artificially deep. I think perhaps that the IC's are the weakest link in the package being a little on the dark side but they could be changed down the road if desired. One can never have enough good IC's. If you can afford the more expensive product like the Signature or Nite you may prefer that all on it's own. Said to be very good by the folks who frequent this forum - but too expensive for me, especially as I have to pay in Monopoly money ($C).

Go ahead and buy the Audition package, I don't think you'll regret it. It will make a great foundation for experimenting afterwards - I intend to try a balanced silver cable between amp and pre to return a bit of the HF air but am happy enough with what I have now that I'm in no rush at all.

Burn in will take a good month. In point of fact your cables may sound so bad in the first few days that you may wonder what you 've gotten yourself into. Patience grasshopper. All will be revealed. The cables start to stabalize around the three week mark. Good luck.
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