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REVIEW: VH Audio Pulsar Interconnect Cable

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Model: Pulsar Interconnect
Category: Cable
Suggested Retail Price: $134.99
Description: Fine wire shielded interconnect for digital, analog and video
Manufacturer URL: VH Audio
Manufacturer URL: VH Audio

Review by Bosk ( A ) on June 20, 2005 at 01:49:21
IP Address: 203.51.180.45
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for the Pulsar Interconnect


Where should I start?
Firstly with myself - a novice audiophile still learning how to recognise the various traits of a recording, and my system - a budget rig which nonetheless outputs a rather detailed audio 'picture' to my ears.

Discounting the Blue Dragon powercords on both my amp & CD-player, the Pulsars are the first truly 'audiophile' cables I've purchased, certainly the first Interconnects with techflex and all the rest of it.
Speaking of interconnects, I'll be comparing them with a pair of "Harmony Gold" ICs which I bought for the princely sum of $AU40 from a local electronics chain: Dick Smith, the Radioshack of Australia.
These are shielded and come complete with locking RCAs, but as for performance sound only marginally better than the standard $5 RCA-RCA cables most of us have had the 'pleasure' of using.

Firstly I must state that Chris VH is as pleasant to deal with as everyone else has noted. Secondly, the packaging of the Pulsars - an extremely oversized box filled with foam chips and the cables resting snugly in a ziplock bag - was second to none and ensured they would be impervious to harm.

All that out of the way it's time to get down to business.
I'm reviewing a 1M pair of Cryo'd Pulsar Interconnects with the standard Eichmann connectors, the retail price of said cables being US$169.99.

Due to several fiendishly ape-like workmen invading our home this morning to deliver some furniture I was forced to postpone my audition, but had the good sense to connect the cables up while I had the chance and run my Essential Bob Dyalan CD on repeat for a few hours in the hope of starting the ubiquitous Break-In process.
To cut to the chase, the Pulsars had enjoyed roughly three and a half hours of break-in prior to auditioning.

And now to the veritable 'money-shot' of the reivew, my actual impressions:

The initial audition involved much leaning forward in my seat, playing with volume levels, tilting my head at various angles and experimenting with assorted eyelid positions ranging from 'full-closed' to something resembling Martin Weir's portrayal of the shylock in Get Shorty.

Upon clicking the Play button for the first time I was shocked, amazed, and breathlessly ASTOUNDED at my complete lack of being overwhelmed by these cables. (Can't have an audio review without gratuitious over-the-top statements like these can we?)

I found that whilst the improvements they presented were ever-present, they leaned more towards the intangible and ethereal aspects of the music, rather than the more solid and wholesome ones.. and yet the 'voice' of these sleek black cords seemed to pervade the entire musical spectrum with an additional sheen of silkiness that had not previously been heard - or perhaps more appropriately, felt.

As several minutes and various hastily-swapped CD's passed by, it began to dawn on me that my system's pre-Pulsar era (may it R.I.P) could be characterised by a flat and sluggish mood, as if the equipment was silently reluctant to become as involed in the music as I was.
This feeling was replaced by a vibrant, joyful playfulness that seemed to echo into the deepest recesses of every note played and sung. Ballads of mournfulness from Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate had suddenly become riddled with a wry humor that gathered beneath the surface and threatened to explode in a shower of siliness at any moment.
Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water shone with the glee of two young lads laughing to death while pretending to be serious. All the emotions that great music will convey to the listener were there to behold, and yet the sound was in no way artificially enhanced like some old black & white sacreligiously converted to full-colour.

Voices seemed to hurry out of nowhere to greet me where before they had shuffled from out of their chairs and muttered intelligble welcomes. Accoustic guitars would be plucked with the utmost delicacy, as if the performers realised this was a moment on which their careers hung. As for the drums, they now seemed to step back from the rest of the performers and into the hazy realm of the subconscious, where their deep impacts would be unconsciously felt rather than seen by the mind.

Sound becomes an intangilbly difficult beast to portray in the crude arena of paper and ink - or pixels and light in the present case - and so it burdens me that I am not fully able to do these most excellent cables justice in my descriptions. While their effects upon first hearing may perhaps be described as suttle, their impact upon the performance as a whole is far reaching and weighty.
The sense of depth, clarity, and overwhelming excitement they infuse with one's system is essentialy not a thing that can or should be coupled with a dollar figure, and yet if it was absolutely essential to do so I would venture a guess that 169.99 would be too slim an amount to match to such a hefty improvement.

The Pulsars have made a home in my system.


Product Weakness: Cost, compared to generic (ie. Radioshack) type cables.
Product Strengths: Transparency, Speed, Liveliness and Musicality, Imaging, sturdy construction and subdued but pleasing looks.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Cambridge Audio 640A
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): None
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Cambridge Audio 640C
Speakers: Paradigm Esprits
Cables/Interconnects: Moon Audio Blue Dragon Powercords
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Various Classic Rock & Blues
Time Period/Length of Audition: 4 Hours
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): DIY cable lifters
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: VH Audio Pulsar Interconnect Cable - Bosk 01:49:21 06/20/05 ( 1)