Van Den Hul Interconnect

[stephennic]

crusaderlord:After an evening testing the thunderline and Audioquest emerald. Now these do show more of a change to the VDH Name and Chord Cobra 3. The thunderline has a smoother approach to my ears which wasnt actually what my music needed to be fair but i can see a real benefit to a sharper system like Cammbridge Audio. The Emerald does have a step up on clarity albeit not huge. This is a quality cable that i thought was worth considering at a good price. But overall it amazes me that the Name and Cobra 3 are simply fantastic value for the money.

Hi,

I really like the chord cobra 3, how did you think it compare with vandenhul 102iii?. I actually found it on my system a little more musical and fluid but I think the vandenhul was little more detailed.

Regards,

Steve.

 

[crusaderlord]

Personally i found the chord 3 to be very slightly tighter in its bass defenition and the D-102 to be slightly more vibrant or open in its midrange.

At the moment i have kept the VDH in my system but there is very little to choose between these 2 cables. I couldnt hear any difference between the VDH D102 and the Name interconnects.

Any of these 3 are great value.

 

[stephennic]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I thought the vandenhul was slightly more open in the mids, I thought the cobra was very close and has a slightly tighter image and warmer more fluid sound.

Regards,

Steve.

 

[crusaderlord]

For the moment i gave up on trying interconnect upgrades and tried a speaker cable improvement instead going from Chord Silverscreen (£6 pm) to Chord Epic Twin (£35 pm) as a test.

I wasnt expecting too much after the whole interconnect testing but what i found was quite exciting. The new cable really did make a difference.

I still think the Silverscreen is great value cable but the Epic Twin tightened up the bass, added in a touch more clarity but more importantly defined the layers of instruments much better so that when there is a lot going on it is easier to follow any of the different rhythms. It has the same sound and tone which is expected from using the same company but is definately worth the upgrade to me.

Thankfully i dont need much of the cable at 2m max each side and obviously i am keeping the new cable - i hope to re-try the interconnects again as just maybe the speaker cable was limiting my ability to hear discernable differences.

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:
crusaderlord:So back to thinking about bi-wiring then............

Spend some money on interconnects. You will see a marked improvement.

I used to use a Chord Cobra 2 and when I compared it to the Chameleon Silver Plus I was a bit alarmed as to how much life was being sucked out by the Cobra. My buddy that had just bought a system agreed too. Subtle differences but when you listen a lot they become less subtle! The next step up from the Chameleon was the Nordost Baldur, but at the RRP it's not worth it for me!

Yes cables may be a rip off, yes they probably don't differ all that much and yes they probably cost next to nothing to make, but as long as you gain from your spend then there's nothing to worry about.

 

[stephennic]

Hi,

Did you compare the chamelon with Nordost blue heaven?

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[Anonymous]

I certainly did. I found that the Blue Heaven was too bright and harsh on my system. In other words it probably just let too much through (this was when I had MA RS1s and a Kandy CDP). It also reigned in some of the bass too whereas the Chameleon sounded a little bigger and warmer in the lower notes. Generally I didn't like the Blue Heaven at all, nor did my friend who tried it on a very different system. To us it sounded incomplete, as though the sound wasn't balanced. I've heard that the Red Dawn sorts this tonal balance out a bit but then it's a load more cash. Chameleon every time for me. I can see that the Blue Heaven probably works well in certain systems, perhaps with overtly warm sounding kit. Maybe even with some valve amps.

 

[stephennic]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback, I have a valve pre and I think the top end (treble) of my speakers are a little rolled off - so it seems to work quite well thus far - but they are still fairly new and im still burning them in. A little raw and brash sometimes. Did you find the chamelon a major upgrade to the chord cobra 3 or Kimber pbj or hero?

Cheers,

Steve