VH Audio V-Quad™ Cu 24 Review

(Source: https://www.vhaudio.com/)

Hello,  thank you for finding my brand new Blogger page.  While I regularly post to my Japanese (my native Language) blogger site, I decided to add an English Blog page, hoping to reach wider audience.  The blog will mainly focus on my hobbies:  Audio/HiFi, Music an Cameras/Photography.  

My first post will be on about a pair of cables made with  V-Quad Cu24  bulk cables from VH Audio Inc. (https://www.vhaudio.com/) that I have been using for the past year and a half.

Introduction

I have been an avid fan of DIY wires/cables from Chris VenHaus' VH Audio.  (Read more about on my home page  here: https://www.higas.net/audio-hifi/audio-reviews/vh-audio-diy-cables/   About a couple of years ago, Chris introduced two new bulk cables, V-Twist™ Cu24 and V-Quad™ Cu 24.  I was intrigued by the latter since at the time I was looking for a good cable to use between my turntable and step-up transformer.  I knew that the star quad geometry is  effective in rejecting noises (RFI/EMI) because it concentrates the electric field towards the center of the conductor bundle.  I had yet to find  a pair of 'fully shielded' cables that I like the sound of.   I used VH Audio's Pulsar Cu inter connect cables in the past only to be replaced with DIY cable using the VH Audio's Spectrum Cu (a predecessor of the  V-Twist™ Cu24) for the sound that I much preferred.  So, I decided to try.  The cables were made with Eichmann Silver Bullet plugs.

I first used the V-Quad™ Cu 24 between my DAC and the pre-amp , then later place it between my turntable and the MC-Step-up transformer.

Sonic Impressions 

Comparing with DIY Fine Silver IC (Chris VenHaus recipe, VH Audio OCC silver/cotton 28 AWG wires and WBT 0152 AG plugs, between DAC and pre-amp) : Here, I must say that I preferred the DIY Fine Silver better.  Both have similar sonic signatures that I like (which I believe is VH Audio’s) but the DIY Fine Silver IC brings out more details, openness/air, wider soundstage, with more natural reproduction of vocals and acoustic instrument while remaining neutral and very musical at the same time with no harshness/brightness at all. At lease a certain part of the difference may be attributed to the difference of the RCA plugs.  For more information, please refer to my website here:  https://www.higas.net/audio-hifi/audio-reviews/vh-fine-silver-ic/

Comparing with VPI JMW Phono cables (between turntable and MC step-up transformer): For me V-Quad™ brought clearly noticeable improvements.  Some words that come to my mind are:  open (bit more “air”) , clear but not harsh nor bright, natural sounding but on a warmer side of sonic spectrum, a bit more detail (though not by a huge margin), notable improvements in the lower-mid to lower freq. range (fuller and detailed).  Noise rejection sounded as good but VPI may be slightly better due its shield construction.

Until I changed to the V-Quad™ cables, there was something about my analogue playback that was bothering me which I was not able to quite put a figure on.  Something that was not quite but almost felt slightly bright/harsh or may be peaky in high-mids to high freq, range but was not clearly discernible as what it may be.   Now they are gone.  So I am very happy here.

I think V-Quad™ are very musical at the same time are detailed enough to satisfy both of my music lover side as well as my audiophile side but more for the enjoyment of music.

Until I changed to the V-Quad™ cables, there were something about the playback through my analogue set-up that was bothering me which I was not able to quite put a figure on. Something that was not quite but almost felt slightly bright/harsh or may be peaky in high-mids to high freq, range but was not clearly discernible as what I may be.   Now they are gone.  So I am very happy.

More to come… 

I have subsequently upgraded the MC Step-Up to Premium MC Phono Step-Up Kit from K&K audio and RCA plugs to WBT - 0102Cu plugs.  Stay tuned!

Note:  VH Audio V-Quad and VH Audio V-Twist are registered trade mark of the VH Audio, Inc.