Vertex Aq

Leonard Smalls

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Aug 14, 2005
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Shropshire Borders,
I was chatting to a dealer in a city near Bristol today who extolled the virtues of Vertex Aq cabling with the little black boxes n'all - in fact he seemed keener on this than the speakers I was asking about (Audio Physic Avanti, though I don't think they're for me - not enough like a long-throw bass bin!).

Anyway, anyone heard the Vertex stuff, and is it as night and day as he says, or is it much of a muchness with other cables?

BTW, not interested in whether cbales in general work or not, just the vibration cancelling stuff!

 
M

Mr Coherent

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Jeremy is a nice guy
smile.png


You could PM Henry he has used the Vertex cables, Jonny Cheadle is one of the guys behind I believe.

 

Boxer

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You do mean Jeremy Baldwin, don't you? My experience, & that of an ex-colleague in Bristol, is that he's kosher & doesn't deal in anything he doesn't think works, & works well at that.

Howver, I have no personal experience of Vertex stuff: Paul Messenger likes it; make of that what you will:Not Sure:.

Boxer

 
G

Guest

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Snapper heard this stuff and liked what it did (at least the isoplat thingy did) we went to Glasgow show, and guy was demmoing this, he had the stuff connected to hyperions, we wanted a demo, we got chatting, he asked what my system was, I told him, he then blanked us, just cut off in mid flow, very strange, and a strange way to do business!!!

 

mosfet

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Jul 20, 2005
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Richard
BTW, not interested in whether cbales in general work or not, just the vibration cancelling stuff!
Did you ask the dealer what's inside those little black boxes? From the Vertex website:

The modules contain a carefully constructed mechanical sink that absorbs a large proportion of mechanical energy in the audio bandwidth and up through into ultrasound frequencies. The sink comprises a combination of solid material and epoxy resins in a carefully implemented design to offer an excellent balance of absorption over a wide frequency range.

Blobs of Araldite possibly?

My guitar cable is microphonic, shake it and noise can be heard (because it's connected to a high gain pre-amp). Never tried with my loudspeaker cables.

 

Polarbear

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I use Kinabalu and I wouldn't say it was night and day but I could hear a difference, particularly with the 552.

Regards

PB

 

redwick

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Oct 12, 2005
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I'm using the Jaya mains conditioners, Roraima and Roraima+ mains cables for CD player and amp, super Kinabalu for both CD player and amp, and mini-Moncayo speaker links. I also have a Silver Solfonn balanced interconnect .

I've borrowed bits and pieces from Jeremy from time to time and liked what it did.

The key is vibration cancellation; the cables themselves in the kit that I have are nothing special although they have since brought out the 'Silver' range which is supposed to be another step-up in both quality and price.

For me, it has the biggest impact where vibrational energy is greatest and that's at the speaker end of things. My speakers are bi-wirable and fitting the mini Moncayo speaker links made a huge difference over the stock bridging straps and DIY cable links that I'd been using. It was like listening to different speakers so I'd suggest that the links should be the first port of call for anyone wanting to dip their toe in the water, providing they have bi-wirable speaker terminals. Jeremy demonstrated the Moncayo speaker cable against my old Chord Odyssey and again the differences were not subtle although they shouldn't be if you consider the difference in price. That will probably be my next upgrade.

The super Kinabalu under the CD player also works very well where it just seemed to reduce smear and hash, and made the presentation more open, so that would be number 2 in the list.

The mains cables and the filters in my experience also work well and have the same characteristics but perhaps less so than the Kinabalu and the Moncayo. I used to have a Linn LK140 and switching in 3 Jayas transformed the performance of the power amp, so I've never really gone back to anything else and continued to use it in my current setup.

It's perhaps less successful where energy levels are not so high and I've found that the interconnects and digital cable have less of an impact on sound quality compared to the links, speaker cables and Kinabalu platforms.

In my experience, music seems to be more 'alive' with the Vertex in place. Imaging is far better and there is an increase in quantity and quality of lower frequencies, and a sweeter top end. In systems that already have plenty of bass content it could actually overdo things so auditioning is the key.



Jeremy seems to sell quite a lot of this stuff and he's always been willing to let me try it out. In the context of high-end systems I'd say it's worth trying.

 

Leonard Smalls

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I asked him (can't remember if it was Jeremy or not!) what was in the boxes, and he said something along the lines of "vibration damping material"...

I'm not convinced it will make much difference to my speaker cable, simply because it's flat wire underneath a very heavy carpet - surely that would damp just as effectively (if it was necessary in the first place...)

Still, it seems a lot of money to be spending - £1200ish for speaker wire, and probably not much use to me as I'd have to re-lay the carpet to connect it up - can't have wires just trailing across the middle of the floor!

 

Polarbear

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Redwick,

may I ask what your current system is?

Regards

PB

 

redwick

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Polarbear wrote:

Redwick,may I ask what your current system is?

Regards

PB
Current system is:

Lindemann D680 CD/SACD

McIntosh MA2275

Dali Helicon 400

MIT Shotgun S1 speaker cable

 

George 47

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redwick wrote:

Polarbear wrote:
Redwick,may I ask what your current system is?

Regards

PB
Current system is:

Lindemann D680 CD/SACD

McIntosh MA2275

Dali Helicon 400

MIT Shotgun S1 speaker cable
Redwick,

I am hoping to get a Mc2275 in a few weeks. What do you think of it?

I had read that they were less sensitive to speaker cables because of the transformers, is this true or not??

 

redwick

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It's a great amp!

Upgraded a couple of months back from a 6900 (which is also superb). The 2275 has a bigger more detailed sound despite it being on paper, less powerful. It has that beautifully liquid midrange you get with valves coupled with superb gutsy bass control which perhaps isn't the normal province of valve amps.

It's also screwed together better than the 6900 and it'll take you a good hour just to extracate it from its box!

I don't know if it's less sensitive to speaker cable type as I've never tried any other cable, but what I would say is that isn't sensitive to speaker load. It should drive anything that you'd care to connect to it, the autoformers making the difference here I think.

It'll need a bit of running in and mine is still improving but I can say that I haven't heard a better integrated amp than the 2275.

 

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