Virtual Dynamics -- what has it beaten?

VD Nites lost in my system compared to Sonoran Signature. First impression of the Nites was, wow oh so dynamic. However upon further listening back and forth the Nites were only loud. Playing multiple discs of various types of music I noticed that the sound stage never varied nor did the dynamic structure of the music really change, everything was always big and loud.. How could every cd I played,have been produced, engineered, recorded, mixed and manufactured by the same people at the same point in time. This is how the Nite's sounded to me. Going back to the Sonoran Signatures made me aware of varying recording techniques and venues. Dynamics were just that. Now there were quiet passages and all the dynamic coherence in between. Music had regained natural structure, texture and vitality..

Like any cable or cord the Virtual Dynamics line is system dependent.

After two months of use it was clear that the cryo'd Audition Package offered far better soundstaging, detail and transparency than any of the Cardas, Kimber, Mapleshade, Harmonic Tech cables I tried. I should mention that I never had a full compliment of those cables whereas I did with the Virtual Dynamics, so it really isn't comparing apples with apples, but still the difference was very amazing.

A few months ago I tried reinserting a Cardas Lightning L15, Kimber Illuminations D60 and Mapleshade Golden Helix digital cable back into the mix and they all had th effect of collapsing the soundstage. Again, this may have been because the rest of the system was made up entirely of Virtual Dynamics Audition.

A month ago I received a Virtual Dynamics Nite digital and an Acoustic Zen MC2 digital. The Nite extends everything the Audition accomplished, but I was very surprised to find that my system also sounded great with the MC2 in the mix, and it's much cheaper too.

Audiogon member Viggen has written a thorough thread here on the cable test we conducted at his place many weeks ago. The Virtual Dynamics that perform so well in my system didn't do as well in his. We heard exactly that same differences between cables and seemed to like the same qualities in each we tried.

I think it all comes down to system synergy and taste. There have been many, many rave reviews here touting the positives of Virtual Dynamics, but no matter how good they are it's not a lock. Virtual Dynamics cables have given me a level of transparency and soundstage size and focus I thought I'd never achieve, but I've also lost the warmth and organic nature my system had at the start of the year.

Theaudiotweak - you bring up an interesting point of consistent and varying recording levels and the way they seem when reproduced through Virtual Dynamics cables. I've kind of noticed a similar phenomena, but I assumed that's just how it was supposed to be, meaning that recording engineers had a loose but universal scheme for mixing and mastering. Do you think there is something artificial being introduced in the Virtual Dynamics chain? I'm open to any idea or theory.

Interesting! Could it be that the Virtual Dynamics tend to make things sound good by masking some of the problems in the music, sort of like Mark Levinson equipment, which tends to make everything sort of wide, deep, and nice in my opinion. I have heard a lot more raves about their power cords, so maybe they do a better job of eliminating grunge without damping the signal.