[nature boy]

For the last month or so I have been comparing VH Audio Pulsars & Gregg Straley's cables.  You may have seen posts about Chris VenHaus's (VH Audio) Pulsars, but not heard of Gregg.  Gregg has been developing cables for a few years, having designed recipes for both solid state and tube systems.  An Audio Asylum member recommended his cables, so I thought I would give them a try.  

Here is a link to my system: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=systems;system=47is

Please note that I have a long 3M run between my preamp and amp.  My source equipment and preamp are located near my listening position, while I have my amp situated in between and behind my speakers.  

Gregg Straley "Red Hots"

Extremely well built.  Gregg makes unshielded interconnects and speaker cables with high quality terminations.  Interconnects consist of a twisted pair of stranded copper housed in a red jacket (hence my naming them red hots).  His IC's have RCA terminations (white plastic with concentric red & black rings).  

I don't have a lot of specifics regarding materials used, but Gregg has taking a few years to perfect materials used.  These cables are moderately stiff.

A 1M pair of IC's costs $120.00.  Gregg offers a money back guarantee, but I can't remember the length of time.  

VH Audio Pulsars

A lot more information on the Pulsar IC's is posted on Chris's web-site. These IC's uses a FINE (28 AWG), SINGLE high-purity BARE copper center conductor, surrounded by a solid FEP dielectric. Chris points out this design "results in a highly uniform impedance and more consistent density of the dielectric, critical for high performance digital and component video applications.  Yes, Chris uses the same design for IC's, digital cable, and video cable.

The are terminated with Eichmann Gold Bullet plugs which use a specially manufactured ALUMINUM metal housing, to ensure a fully shielded design. This also means a more durable IC than the standard plastic version of the Bullet plugs.  

A 1M pair of interconnects (as of 5/16/04) are $134.99, but the web-site indicates a 20% price jump shortly.  Chris offers a 60 day money back guarantee.  The IC cables are very flexible with a black sheathing.  The star quad cable is moderately stiff and has a clear sheathing.   Bare wire terminations were used with speakers.

Sound

Both cables significantly bested my previous Audience Conductor cables.  I found the conductors to lack a firm foundation in deep bass, upper treble was not as clean and clear as I preferred.

Both the Pulsars and "Red Hots" proved to be excellent sounding cables in my system.  They both IMHO represent very good values, unless you have some good soldering and DIY skillls.

My initial listening response to the 1M Pulsars between my CDP and preamp were a very low noise background, extremely clean sounding (removed several layers of grunge), and a very dynamic sound.  There appeared to be no over emphasis of any particular frequency range.  

With the 1M "Red Hots" my reaction was a little different.  I had difficulty hearing any particular differences compared with the Audience Conductors, but they sounded smoother and somewhat similiar to the Pulsars.  

Adding additional interconnects and speaker cable proved interesting, resulting in additional improvements.  

With the addition of Pulsar interconnects between my amp and preamp, as well as phono preamp and preamp, everything just continued to get clearer.  I then added 6' runs of VH Audio star quad cable (Chris uses in his Flavor 4 power cord) between my amp and Vandersteen 2CE signatures.  With Pulsars throughout and the VH Audio star quad used as speaker cable it gave my system that "Holy Shit- I can't believe I'm hearing that level of detail and clarity" quality.  After about 100 hours of burn in together, imaging became rock solid, timbre improved, and the soundstage to live (Allison Krauss & Union Station CD, Eagles Hell Freezes Over CD, Little Feat - Live MFSL vinyl) sounded spectacular.  I was very impressed.

With additional Gregg Straley "red hots" interconnects and speaker cables things improved as well.  There was an even more pronounced enhancement in my system resulting from the synergy in having Gregg's cable throughout my system.  I can't emphasize this enough.  To get the full effect, you should have "Red Hots" throughout. These cables sort of grow on you after extended auditioning.  They do not have an immediate distinctive flavor when compared to many other cables.  As such, they imparted very little of there own personality in my system.  What they did however do as a whole when cabled throughout my system is get the mid-range and vocals so damn right.  The tonality was perfect IMHO>

In this way they are very, very special in my opinion.  My system really blossomed with Gregg's cables.  They did not appear to overemphasize the mid-range, bass, or treble but got timbre and tonality absolutely right.  A touch less emphasis in the treble, as compared with the Pulsars but definetly not rolled off. Not that orchestral, rock, or big band music doesn't sound great - but if you listen to a lot intimate jazz ensembles, folk, or vocal music I suggest you give these cables a listen.  

Gregg burns his wires in on cable cooker. There was very little change in sound with the cables over time.  I did notic the soundstage opened up a bit more after 70 hours or so.  The speaker cables are two-sets of twisted pairs (I think this is a star quad configuration - similiar to VH Audio) terminated with 1/2" spade lugs.

Choices, Choices
It was a close call.  Given my preferences in listening, I would have selected Gregg Straley's cables, but their unshielded design proved be be a downfall in my system.  The 3M interconnect between my preamp and amp resulted in a hum in both speakers, when the preamp was off.  I'm not sure if it was a ground loop hum or my amp just did not like the long IC run.  Everything worked fine with a shorter 1M interconnect between the amp and preamp.

In the end, I just did not want to reconfigure the location of my equipment to accomodate the Straley cables.  A tough choice, but I felt comfortable living with both sets of cables in my system.  


Final Notes

I want congratulate Chris VenHaus and Gregg Straley for offering such wonderful value cable products and complement them both for their customer support and communications.  I highly recommend both of them to anyone considering system changes to try their cables.  They are both men of their word, which means a lot to me purchasing products via the internet.

VH Audio Contact Information:

Web Site:               http://vhaudio.com/
E-Mail Address:       venhaus1@yahoo.com

Gregg Straley Contact Information:

Web Site:               none available
E-Mail Address:       greggstraley@yahoo.com

Notes:  

Please note that Gregg Straley's cable do not really have a name.  I just called them "red hots" because the wire cover is red.  If you e-mail Gregg about his "red hot" cables for information, he may not know what the hell you are talking about.

Gregg will out of town and unable to respond to e-mail inquiries until May 24th.

NB

edit:spelling corrections

[nature boy]

Here is a little follow-up.

First, I used the solid state version of Gregg Straley's interconnects.  Greg recommended these given my amplifier is solid state, although I have a tube preamp.

Second, I have compared a number of <$400 interconnects and speaker cables from Audioquest, Kimber, MIT, Alpha Core, etc.  not completely exhaustive but a lot none the less.  The VH Audio and Gregg Straley copper-based interconnects are top values in this price range.

Third, I tried some high purity silver cables in my system from Home Grown Audio, Alpha Core and Grover Hoffman.  While very revealing, they did get vocals and bass right in my system.  My observations are that pure copper IC's and cables work best with a solid state amp.  Some prefer silver IC's and speaker cables with a tube based amplifier.  I have not done enough comparison to offer any opinions.

Regards,

NB

[DARTH AUDIO]

Nature Boy, Very nice review. I'm going to give Greg's cables a try later this month. Thanks for the insight on what to expect.

G

[zybar]

NB,

Where do the Argent Audio Jaden ic's fit into this?

George

[nature boy]

George,

A very good question.  I have not had the Argent standard IC's out of my system for about 3-4 months.  These silver IC's sounded very good in my system between my CDP and preamp as well as between my phono preamp and preamp.  I could not afford to put Ric Cummins cables throghout my system, so I opted to test some less expensive cables.

I would say the Pulsars and Gregg Straley's were a little more dynamic and displayed a tighter bass.  From a tonality and timbre perspective, I prefer Gregg's cables over the Pulsars and Argent Standards.

The Argent standards were probably overall more neutral and maybe a tad more extended in the treble.  I found silver cables in my system were often a little bright, lean, and sibilant in my system.  The Argents were definitely the exception.

If I had to choose, maybe a slight edge to the Argent standards.  I have not heard the Argent Signature or Ric's top line IC's, but guess these might be on a slightly higher level.

Main thing I discovered was the importance of having the same cable throughout my system.  Definitely a synergistic effect with both the VH Audio and Gregg Straley's cables, especially with the latter.  Hope this answers your question.

NB

[zybar]

NB,

Thanks for the reply.

I have never heard the Jaden ic or speaker cable.  I have owned the Jaden Signatures and the Pursang.  From talking to Ric, the Jaden Signatures are big step up from the Jaden and Pursang is a big, big step up from the Sigs (I have my own personal experience on the Sig -> Pursang).

I agree 100% on having the same ic's throughout the system.  The only place I have been able to successfully mix and match is on speaker cable.  I currently use a combination of Pursang for mid/treble and Sonoran Plateau for the woofers.  This means I am using silver for mid/treble and copper for woofers.

George

[Danberg]

I'll also agree about not mixing two different manufacturer IC cables.  Several years ago I spent the better part of 6 months auditioning at least 15 - 20 pairs IC of cables from "the Cable Company."  In all instances when I used two different manufacturers' cables the sound was abysmal.

I did not find that the case in using two different price levels by the same manufacturer.  In fact, using the more expensive cable from the source to my line stage and a less expensive version to my power amp yielded very close results to when using the more expensive cable in both areas.  A good way to conserve on being money spent.

In every case the above was true, rgardless of the manufacturer or the price level.

[kbuzz3]

The last june post is interesting.  My system is housed in piece of furniture so i dont have the luxury, room, or paitence to swap cable. But I will note that cvh has posted that he has no problem mixing brands

[kbuzz3]

Im looking for new cables can anyone add anything further to a comparison of these 2 designs. I already run vh audio pc and a digital ic but the straleys are very very intriguing.

More specifically, any thoughts on which one will be less edgy/sibilence on the top or are both truly balanced designs

thanks

all