My cat just tore apart a US$300 power cord!

Philip Wong | Mar 31, 2008

Head-Fi forum member Akathisia never expected his post of this incident to spark off a controversy. While most insiders are aware of these divine cables' inflated pricing, it's still a revelation when one gets dismembered. In this case, it was his feline pet that committed the damage. Considering that the cables were supposed to be a US$300 Virtual Dynamics Power 3 cord, it was a shock to discover that this amounted to nothing more than US$15 worth of common bulk wires, garden hose, electric tape, etc., after the cat had ripped it apart. Not exactly the kind of space-age material one would associate with colorful marketing fluff such as "LiniPur" conductors.

It's certainly a wakeup call for boutique cable fanatics, although Virtual Dynamics is on clearly the defensive as can be seen in the furious war of words brewing in the forum. If you're a hands-on chap and would like to try out D.I.Y. for a lot less than what Akathisia paid for, it's time to shop for Belden professional audio cables. This would probably cost you less than US$50, besides imparting a priceless sense of accomplishment. If post-production and sound studios can use it, well it's certainly good enough for the rest of us.