I've been using this cable in my system for just over a week. Here is a short review:
Straight out of the package the Stealth Varidig Sextet had a transformational effect on my system. I wasn’t at all prepared for what I heard. My system sounded very good prior to inserting the cable but, as is true with all systems, it had its short-comings.
I am trying to drive 81dB efficient MBL 101E loudspeakers using EL34-based tube amps. Even though this combination produces a wonderfully natural sound, it is, as you might expect a light on slam and low frequency information. I figured that I could live with this and if it even really bothered me I could hunt for some solid state amps. Little did I know that a digital cable (of all things) would come along and help out my system in this regard? Drum hits now have a lot more attack, kick drum has more definition and everything has more weight and density. Bass guitar and drums are now felt as significantly as they are heard. In short, my system rocks!
I’ve used a number of very good linestages in my system but I was never able to get the depth of soundstage that I was looking for. I had assumed that this was either because I had not found the right linestage or that my speakers and room were not working well together. Here we go again: the Varidig Sextet added what appears to be about 9’ of soundstage depth to the presentation.
Though I never had trouble getting the soundstage out past the front axis of my speakers, the Varidig Sextet took this to another level as well. I sit about 8’ from the speaker plane and on a number of recordings, the leading edge of the soundstage is now behind me! This is all well and good but what is most important is that this cable helps the music to flow out from the performers to the listener. The listener is not left ‘watching’ the performance; she is immersed in it. The listener doesn’t have to go looking for images on the soundstage; those images breath and send their music to her. It has always been my opinion that if a system can’t do this then one is left listening to a stereo, not music.
Good digital is hard to find. My tube amps helped to flesh out images but my system still sounded to thin and two-dimensional for my tastes. I thought about switching to a tubed DAC to try and remedy this problem. The Sextet Varidig helped enormously in this area. Images now have a much more complex harmonic structure. Acoustics guitars are incredible well-drawn. The physical appearance of all instruments is so much more real and tactile. Singers are no longer just a face; they come across as real people with throats and chests. Their words are clearer and their presence is more prominent.
The Varidig Sextet is so good that I now prefer to listen to the Redbook layer of SACDs through it rather than listen to the SACD layer through the proprietary cables provided by the manufacturer of my digital front end.
Straight out of the package the Stealth Varidig Sextet had a transformational effect on my system. I wasn’t at all prepared for what I heard. My system sounded very good prior to inserting the cable but, as is true with all systems, it had its short-comings.
I am trying to drive 81dB efficient MBL 101E loudspeakers using EL34-based tube amps. Even though this combination produces a wonderfully natural sound, it is, as you might expect a light on slam and low frequency information. I figured that I could live with this and if it even really bothered me I could hunt for some solid state amps. Little did I know that a digital cable (of all things) would come along and help out my system in this regard? Drum hits now have a lot more attack, kick drum has more definition and everything has more weight and density. Bass guitar and drums are now felt as significantly as they are heard. In short, my system rocks!
I’ve used a number of very good linestages in my system but I was never able to get the depth of soundstage that I was looking for. I had assumed that this was either because I had not found the right linestage or that my speakers and room were not working well together. Here we go again: the Varidig Sextet added what appears to be about 9’ of soundstage depth to the presentation.
Though I never had trouble getting the soundstage out past the front axis of my speakers, the Varidig Sextet took this to another level as well. I sit about 8’ from the speaker plane and on a number of recordings, the leading edge of the soundstage is now behind me! This is all well and good but what is most important is that this cable helps the music to flow out from the performers to the listener. The listener is not left ‘watching’ the performance; she is immersed in it. The listener doesn’t have to go looking for images on the soundstage; those images breath and send their music to her. It has always been my opinion that if a system can’t do this then one is left listening to a stereo, not music.
Good digital is hard to find. My tube amps helped to flesh out images but my system still sounded to thin and two-dimensional for my tastes. I thought about switching to a tubed DAC to try and remedy this problem. The Sextet Varidig helped enormously in this area. Images now have a much more complex harmonic structure. Acoustics guitars are incredible well-drawn. The physical appearance of all instruments is so much more real and tactile. Singers are no longer just a face; they come across as real people with throats and chests. Their words are clearer and their presence is more prominent.
The Varidig Sextet is so good that I now prefer to listen to the Redbook layer of SACDs through it rather than listen to the SACD layer through the proprietary cables provided by the manufacturer of my digital front end.