VDH The Inspiration Hybrid and Straight Wire Virtuoso H - Old chickens make good soup -

Do we need to change cables ? Or better if some cables were good more then 10 years ago how do they compare with more recents ones ?

The more time passes the more I think that we get something but at a price. We are overexposed to way too many products, way too many reviews, way too many everything and less to real products. And if we are not directly exposed to real products, how do we know what we like? How do we develop or maintain our passion alive?

In my younger years, I could actually listen to a real confrontations of many gears with different speakers, different cartridges and so on. Everybody was way more relaxed, and you were not feeling in the obligation of buying something after you have compared gears for few hours in a shop, since you were a potential customer. Today you are much more a potential listener that will buy elsewhere if you find a better deal of it.

This was actually true also when I started working as a responsable in an hifi shop. People were
listening, comparing, taking your advise and sometimes buying. That sometimes buying became more and more a rare thing with the passing years. More and more people wanted to listen and then searching on the net the best price for that product or the shop that offered the best price for it. Only few companies were protecting their dealers, like Naim or Linn. For the rest it was a jungle. Except for very few good customers, I started little by little been reluctunt in spending hours for giving the potential customers what they wanted, so at the end I changed job. Many of the good selling point and reference hifi shops started closing. I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in a period when I could buy something without being hunted by the right price for it, or the less expensive offer for it. But now it is different, or maybe it is me that see things this way.

These two cables were considered good cables back in the time they were presented. They had competition of course, and now not only they have the competition from the same old cables they were competing with, but also from new cables that came out in all these years.

The point to find out is: how these cables sound today?  The answer was very simple after only few hours listening to them: very good! Maybe better then today offers in the respective price range. At least musically better.

It is like they were doing some fundumentals better then today offers of the same price range. In a way, I can generalize saying today offers are more accomplished, more hifi accomplished at the expenses of some... emotions. Yes, this is how I can sum it up. These two cables put musicality as a priority at the cost of something else. Today cables put something else at the expense of musicality. Of course this is not for all cables in the same price range, but most of them do this.

I could compare the effect of newer cable, of course not all, like a research at improving certain aspect of the hifi reproduction and not of music reproduction. Something like most power conditioners do.

Let's talk about the sound of these two cables. First of all I would like to say that both cables are highly satisfing taken on their own when used with the right gears, that is most gears. They are not cables of a very marked signature. Not slow, but not hyperfast, not dark neither too bright, so they are not risky cable to buy blind and even if you change speakers or another component, they can be kept, and they will diligently deliver the same good musicality.

Which are the differences between them? Let's start with the easiest one: timbre and tonality is slightly better with the VDH. Slightly. With the VDH you will ear the wood of an instrument, less with the Strightwire. But the attack of the notes is slightly better with the Straightwire. This last will let you enjoying the rithmic message of the music more easily. It is more propulsive. The VDH is rithmically valid but less then the Straightwire. Now a strange thing: generally more rithmic components tends to have a better contrast, not in this case. The richer texture makes instruments contrast   better portrayed,more spotlighted with the VDH. I was expecting the contrary. It is like the VDH is a more "resistive" cable. you feel like the flow of the signal encounter a little more resistence then with the Staightwire.
Now the strangest thing of all. It is as evident as a rare characteristic, at least for me, and this is very distinctive of the Virtuoso H: the Straightwire has a special way of portraying the silence, the nothing between the sounds. It is not a question of blackness, since the silence is not extremely deep (like in Purist Audio Design cables or in Cardas) )  in both cables and tends more to the greysh then to the absolute black. This space is evidently calmer in the SW then the VDH. It does not contain anything, it is not more deep but it is obviously calmer, denser, more plastic, it has more substance... very strange. It is more peacefull it conteins less not apparteining to the musical message but belonging to the musical message. It is of the same nature of the sounds. This is different then the impenetrable blackness of certain cable that I don't like. It is a space and a silence that is perfectly permeable to the sounds. This is the first time I ear it this way. And moreso I will say that no other cable in the market portray it in this way, with this certain calmness.  Why it is like that I cannot say. I thought it was an elimination of electric ash, but it is not that, it is a special thing. For the first time I could say it is not the quantity of the silence between the notes, but the quality. It is like velvet. It is soothing. And this characteristic of the Straightwire Virtuoso is, in my opinion, its peculiar and distinctive caracteristic. It allows it to be fluid and rithmic at the same time. The VDH is not as fluid and ritmic as the Straightwire, that goes also a little bit deeper in the bass, but fight the Straightwire with slightly more nuanced timbric colours, more textured, and with a slighter more transparent midrange. You feel more the presence of the SW then the VDH, you feel more its imprint on the musical message. It is not a bad thing, but I feel the SW it is slightly more manipulative and less raw. Slightly more polished but in a good way.

I found these two cables to be musically  better then many of today cables of the same price range and beyond. They focus on the essential of the music message. These are cables that you can keep even if you upgrade other components. Even at double price I cannot think of better cables, and even spending more will get some better image depth or silence or trasparency, but it won't be globally more satisfying.
For me these two cables can be considered classics. In the meaning that time passed to show their strengths not their weaknesses.
Not all old cickens make good soup, but these two makes great soups!

AStri Audio acoustic correctors

This is going to be a very short review. It is about acoustic pannels to correct room acoustic reflections.

I am lucky enough to have a room that I dedicate to my hifi system, that is not that acoustically bad, and I am talking about its dimensions. When your room is too hard sounding you can do something, but when you cannot place your speakers and your listening postion at the right distances from the walls, just because there is not enough space, then things get complicated. But things can improve markedly with acoustic correctors! I find it ABSOLUTELY useless to change cables, and other things if you don't improve your room, if your room is that bad. You will end up with impredictible result and with conclusions and choices that will only work in that room.

I have a friend that has a fairly bad room where he has installed his hifi system. It is a rectangular shaped one and he listen on the long side, so no room at the rear wall behind his listening position...

With many experimentation he has found a fairly decent sound. One day he has told me he was going to have a shot with some acoustic correctors. I have always proposed him to do this but apparently the decition to use acoustic correctors is more an act of faith then anything else... I have found that for too many it is easier to believe to achieve a certain resul changing a component that with acoustic correctors. Or just becouse because components are more fun then acosutic correctors, I don't know. 

So he positioned 3 AStri audio absorbing acoustic correctors at the rear wall, since the rear wall was at  about 25 cm of distance from his ears. Then he called me for a listen.

I perfectly know how his system sound but when I listened with these correctors I can with certainty affirm that he has gained much more then when he has tried different preamps and amps. Simply stunning. At least 30% more transparency. And something more: playing with the position of just three suqre absorbing elements, in some position you could get more grounded bass with a fuller mid bass range, in another position more airy immage, in another configuration you could have more pronounced note attack nevertheless loosing some focus and body. 

Very simple experience. Very clear results and obvious conclusion: correct your room before everything else. If not all that everything else will sound not has it should. And the more problematic your room the more important this is. You don't believe it? Your room is an acoustic resonator. Do you really think that changing the shape or the volume or the material of a violin or a guitar body does not change its sound? Of course it will! I am absolutely sure that you can improve any room even the best one with the right combination of absorbing - reflecting elements; I say the right combination. You cannot put absorbing elements everywhere you think is too reflective, maybe you need some reflection in that spot. If you don't have knowledge or time to experiment just pay somebody with the right knowledge or start looking at the AStri page where you will find some very good explications. You cannot go wrong rightly correcting your room. It is not like buying some speaker that you end up not liking or a cable that you realize it is not for you. You must consider this like the very base of all your other upgrade.

This  AStri pannels are well made, not too expensive and proposed with different colours. If I understood it well you can buy absorbing ones or relective ones (you have to specify it before buying) and also others room correction elements, just have a look at their website, but you have to specify it before buying.

Great product!