STEALTH Varidig V16

The Varidig V16-T has a STEALTH tuning collar**, the Varidig V16 (without the "T") doesn't have that collar.

The Varidig V16-T Select is special: It’s all about tolerances.

Even the best parts, the best wire and the best insulation – everything has tolerances, numerous parameters vary to some degree, being lower or greater than the optimum value. Such variations exist in unterminated cables, the connectors used for termination, and in completely assembled cables.

Our tolerances are established for ALL cables we make to work well.

But SOME cables of a batch of ready cables measure better than others. The simple and straight forward method would be to separate them from the batch and set aside, and mark "Select".

To increase the number of the best measured cables in each batch, we developed a procedure.

For the Select version, we first hand pick the best parts: connectors and wire.

Using selected parts, we prepare a bunch of cables – CANDIDATES for the Select version, and measure them – prior to attaching connectors.

The best measured cables – usually 2 to 5 out of ten made – are hand picked for the Select version.

Then we attach connectors and measure the assembled cables, to make sure the Select continue measuring best after having been assembled.

Our measuring equipment is custom-made, and procedure and the parameters we measure – are proprietary, and we prefer not to reveal them. All I can say is that, among other parameters, we measure the characteristic impedance of the cables, their electrical damping (harmonics spectrum, at high frequencies), as well as a number of lost packets transmitted in both directions), and common-mode rejection (assessing quality of symmetry and shielding).

Varidig V16 Select are shown below:

Vardig V16 standard S/PDIF are shown below:

Vardig V16 standard AES/EBU are shown below:

Varidig (abbr. from VARIable DIGital) is our exclusive (patent pending) technology. Varidig is different from any other digital cable on the market because its porous Teflon® dielectric is thicker in the middle of the cable than it is at the ends. The picture below shows geometry of the inside wire assembly of the AES/EBU Varidig, which explains the concept and the technology: please note as the wires become smaller in diameter as they approach the end (the termination point); the twisting pitch also varies along the cable - which is a great help in reducing cable' internal resonances.

This specialized dielectric geometry eliminates impedance mismatch at the critical points (where the connectors are attached to the cable, i.e. between the inherently low-impedance RCA connectors, or still far from 110 Ohms XLRs, and the cable itself) which allows to achieve the correct characteristic impedance of the ENTIRE cable, including the connectors (75 Ohms for the S/PDIF version, and 110 Ohms for the AES/EBU) and thus greatly reduce signal reflections in the cable. This Varidig technology works equally well with S/PDIF and AES/EBU configurations. Please see our Technical Notes for more details on the Varidig design.

TERMINATIONS

The Varidig V16 cables are available in S/PDIF (coax, 75 Ohms ) RCA-to-RCA, RCA to BNC, and BNC to BNC configurations, and balanced AES/EBU (110 Ohms, XLR-to-XLR) configurations; BNC to BNC Varidig can also be made in 50 Ohms configuration - on a special request. Since the Varidig cables are made by hand - i.e. NOT by a machine, we can make them in about ANY realistic characteristic impedance - say, from 20 Ohms to well over 200 Ohms, but a need for such cables comes very seldom.

SOUND

Because of the advantages of its design, the Varidig allows more digital information from the source to reach the destination undistorted, and it's audible: subjectively, reduced or eliminated reflections in a digital cable is perceived as more silent background, cleaner overall sound and better "focus" and "attack". In general, the more advanced and sophisticated equipment is used, the better result can be achieved using the Varidig cable.

STEALTH tuning collars

Based on numerous listening sessions with various equipment, a STEALTH “T” cable with a tuning collar in the optimum position, the overall result (sound) is better than with the cable without the collar, BUT – with the collar in incorrect position the sound is not as good as with a cable without the collar.

The best sounding tuning collar position is different for every two pieces of equipment which that cable connect, thus it is impossible to point at the same spot (location) of the collar, giving the same sound as without the collar.

Finding the best position of the collar is a lengthy process and requires some time and patience. Usually two people are needed (one is listening, and the other is moving the collar). It is even better to have several people, and listen together.

So, usually, an evening, or even entire day can be dedicated to finding the best collar position – for a particular audio system.

But the result is worth the effort!

In general, finding the best position of the sliding tuning collar on a STEALTH audio cable is similar in effect to finding the best position (location) of a pair of speakers in a room: an audio system sounds MUCH better if the position of the speakers in optimized, and the same audio system doesn’t sound good with wrong (incorrect) position of a pair of speakers in a room.

On the Varidig-T cable, start with the collar positioned some 8 inches from the SOURCE end, and slide in ½ inch increments and listen at every position. Usually, it takes about one hour to find the best position. - ST

PRICING

Varidig Digital Interconnects	0.6 m	1 m	1.5 m	2 m	Each add meter
Varidig V16-T Select S/PDIF user tunable patent-pending impedance matching design, STEALTH Carbon/Teflon/silver RCA or BNC	$1,600	$1,800	$2,050	$2,300	*$500*
Varidig V16-T Select AES/EBU user tunable patent-pending impedance matching design, STEALTH Carbon/Teflon/silver XLR	n/a	$2,400	$2,690	$2,980	*$580*
Varidig V16-T S/PDIF user tunable patent-pending impedance matching design, standard RCA or BNC	$1,150	$1,250	$1,425	$1,600	*$350*
Varidig V16-T AES/EBU user tunable patent-pending impedance matching design, standard XLR	n/a	$1,400	$1,640	$1,880	*$480*
Varidig V16 S/PDIF - standard (NOT tunable) patent-pending impedance matching design, standard RCA or BNC	$650	$850	$1,025	$1,200	*$350*
Varidig V16 AES/EBU - standard (NOT tunable) patent-pending impedance matching design, standard XLR	n/a	$1,000	$1,000	$1,200	*$480*

REVISION HISTORY*

The year 2000 through 2004 RCA Varidig cables were made with gray outer jacket and were terminated with German-made WBT 0147 RCA connectors, which are the smallest and lowest in mass RCAs form the WBT line.

The RCA connectors used for current production Varidig are Cardas GSMO (as shown on the photo): we found them to work (slightly) better in the digital domain than the WBT because the dielectric used in these Cardas connectors is Teflon® (which has lower dielectric constant than the dielectric used in the WBT 0147 connectors);

In 2006, in order to improve the Varidig cable even further, we developed our own locking connector for this cable, to offer as an option. This connector features hollow solid silver hollow center pin (crimp termination technique), machined Teflon® dielectric, and a hybrid (brass/carbon fiber) locking collar.

The standard XLR connectors used with the AES/EBU (balanced) Varidig are sourced from Neutrik. Since August, 2006, we offer our own, upgraded XLR connectors as an option: machined Teflon® dielectric and solid silver hollow pins.

*We continuously improve our cables and connectors, and add improved and extra features to our products – as we design and test these improvements. The general sonic character of the improved cable remains the same, it just becomes progressively better and better.

Eventually, with a number of improvements added, the cumulative effect of these improvements becomes significant – i.e. a cable works clearly, considerably better. At this point, we introduce a new revision to a cable model, which summarizes all improvements since the initial release of a particular model (or after the previous revision), making these improvements and features standard for the latest revision.

It’s worth noting that we keep our research and experimentation separate from production, i.e. All cable and connector changes are thoroughly tested before going into production. We never make changes just for the sake of making changes: All improvements that we introduce make perfect and clear sense from the engineering point of view, and are always tested sonically We make absolutely certain that these changes are an actual improvement (i.e. NOT a degradation in any area); we pride ourselves that – since 1999 up to date - no mistakes, errors, or wrong moves have been made or noted. Before adding any improvement, and especially releasing a new revision to any of our products, we always make absolutely certain that the latest revision is better than the previous in each and every respect – being it sonics, appearance, reliability or user convenience.

VARIDIG V16, V16-T and V16-T Select

digital interconnect