This is a review and detailed measurements of the AudioQuest Victoria Audio interconnect with "dielectric-bias system" (DBS). It is kindly loaned to me by a member and costs US $299.
The configuration I received is unusual in the way it has RCA connector at one end and some kind of 5-pin at the other end:
The "DBS" module is a simple battery holder for six (6) 12 volt little cells (type 8LR932). They are in series so produce 72 volts DC. A little LED lets you see if the batteries are still good or not. There is no on off switch so to turn the thing off, I had to unscrew the bottom and take out the batteries.
There is some kind of rubberized paint on the battery holder which has already started to degrade and become sticky. Yuck!
You have heard of anti-copy mechanism in movie content? Well, this device has an "anti-review" and "anti-measurement" feature in that the company claims even after you take out the battery its benefits remain for days until the said "electrostatic charge" and molecular alignment dissipates. This was certainly their argument to Stereophile which tested it and in an unusual twist, declared the DBS to not do much of anything (from what I recall).
The batteries only "energize" the insulation in the cable with an insulated wire that goes through it with the other terminal hooked up to the shield of something.
As to what benefit the DBS provides, this is what is advertised on their page:
We are told about phase shift but no measurements are provided. Phase shift is trivial to measure. We shall remedy this in our tests here.
How energizing an insulator traps RF works is based on principles above any known physics so don't know how to test that without alien technology. But we will test to see if noise is reduced in audio spectrum which is what we hear.
DBS Cable Test and Measurement
For this testing, I focused on my Audio Precision APx555 for analysis. It generates a signal and analyzes itself. Let's start with using the generic cable I use for all of my testing of audio equipment:
APx555 has an internal loopback with even a shorter path. Switching that on made no difference showing that our generic cable is as transparent as it gets.
Now let's test the AudioQuest Victoria cable with DBS off (batteries taken out):
As we see, there is no difference at all. Noise level is the same. Distortion is measured down to whopping -160 dB or 27 bit PCM sample. Everything is as good as the generic cable.
Switching DBS on with insertion of batteries naturally does nothing:
Using a single tone at least, the Victoria DBS cable is not able to provide any improvements because our generic cable was already more than good enough despite the extreme precision of our measurements.
Let's now test the claims regarding phase shift. For this testing, I looped back one channel on APx555 using the same generic cable as above. And the other, using DBS with or without batteries. Here is the outcome:
The curve is not flat because there is a tiny phase differential between the two channels of the AP. Fortunately that is a constant in all scenarios and we see that there is absolutely no difference whether we use the generic cable, or Victoria with DBS on or off.
In other words, there was no problem to fix. Even zooming in as much as I did, +- 1 degree, there is no phase error due to the cable much less it being non-linear in nature.
To test for tonality differences, I ran a frequency response test with the generic cable and once again, Victoria with DBS on or off:
Perfection! With either cable.
Discussion and Conclusions
Once again we have a tweak vendor imagining there is a problem in audio and proceeding to fix it without first verifying the problem was there to begin with! To a lay person I am sure the concept of cable insulation causing non-linearity makes sense as much as a photon torpedo does in Star Trek TV series. That is science fiction though. The real life has to deal with things that can be proven to exist first before rushing to create an expensive solution for it. Of course there is no evidence that the fix works either.
There is clearly no technical problem that the Victoria cable with and without DBS solves. So how about listener testimonials that using such cables improves sound? Explanation is simple: you put in this cable and then intently try to listen for difference. Your brain switches form lay back enjoyment of music to analysis and now it notices detail in your system which heretofore had ignored. Viola! You now hear more air, more detail, instruments that you had not hear before. The bias is set in now and switching back to your old cable sounds dull, uninteresting, etc.
To above I will just say this: how come you were proud of your system prior to using this cable? If it lacked such detail, air, etc. how was it ever good? Had you spend all that money on your electronics, speakers, etc. only to have dull sound waiting for this cable to rescue it? See where I am going?
Please accept how your physiology works. Understand that your brain is creative, highly adaptive and can do things differently in different conditions. Have a loved one switch cables on you and then see if you hear those extra improvements. If you don't, combined with the above measurements, please follow the only logical conclusion that these cables and their tweaks do nothing for your system.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the AudioQuest Victoria cable with DBS. If you are itching to spend $300, give that money to a charity or a loved one with a real need for money.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Who else begging for your money online publishes two reviews back to back as I just did? Come on... Donate some money my way using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The configuration I received is unusual in the way it has RCA connector at one end and some kind of 5-pin at the other end:
The "DBS" module is a simple battery holder for six (6) 12 volt little cells (type 8LR932). They are in series so produce 72 volts DC. A little LED lets you see if the batteries are still good or not. There is no on off switch so to turn the thing off, I had to unscrew the bottom and take out the batteries.
There is some kind of rubberized paint on the battery holder which has already started to degrade and become sticky. Yuck!
You have heard of anti-copy mechanism in movie content? Well, this device has an "anti-review" and "anti-measurement" feature in that the company claims even after you take out the battery its benefits remain for days until the said "electrostatic charge" and molecular alignment dissipates. This was certainly their argument to Stereophile which tested it and in an unusual twist, declared the DBS to not do much of anything (from what I recall).
The batteries only "energize" the insulation in the cable with an insulated wire that goes through it with the other terminal hooked up to the shield of something.
As to what benefit the DBS provides, this is what is advertised on their page:
We are told about phase shift but no measurements are provided. Phase shift is trivial to measure. We shall remedy this in our tests here.
How energizing an insulator traps RF works is based on principles above any known physics so don't know how to test that without alien technology. But we will test to see if noise is reduced in audio spectrum which is what we hear.
DBS Cable Test and Measurement
For this testing, I focused on my Audio Precision APx555 for analysis. It generates a signal and analyzes itself. Let's start with using the generic cable I use for all of my testing of audio equipment:
APx555 has an internal loopback with even a shorter path. Switching that on made no difference showing that our generic cable is as transparent as it gets.
Now let's test the AudioQuest Victoria cable with DBS off (batteries taken out):
As we see, there is no difference at all. Noise level is the same. Distortion is measured down to whopping -160 dB or 27 bit PCM sample. Everything is as good as the generic cable.
Switching DBS on with insertion of batteries naturally does nothing:
Using a single tone at least, the Victoria DBS cable is not able to provide any improvements because our generic cable was already more than good enough despite the extreme precision of our measurements.
Let's now test the claims regarding phase shift. For this testing, I looped back one channel on APx555 using the same generic cable as above. And the other, using DBS with or without batteries. Here is the outcome:
The curve is not flat because there is a tiny phase differential between the two channels of the AP. Fortunately that is a constant in all scenarios and we see that there is absolutely no difference whether we use the generic cable, or Victoria with DBS on or off.
In other words, there was no problem to fix. Even zooming in as much as I did, +- 1 degree, there is no phase error due to the cable much less it being non-linear in nature.
To test for tonality differences, I ran a frequency response test with the generic cable and once again, Victoria with DBS on or off:
Perfection! With either cable.
Discussion and Conclusions
Once again we have a tweak vendor imagining there is a problem in audio and proceeding to fix it without first verifying the problem was there to begin with! To a lay person I am sure the concept of cable insulation causing non-linearity makes sense as much as a photon torpedo does in Star Trek TV series. That is science fiction though. The real life has to deal with things that can be proven to exist first before rushing to create an expensive solution for it. Of course there is no evidence that the fix works either.
There is clearly no technical problem that the Victoria cable with and without DBS solves. So how about listener testimonials that using such cables improves sound? Explanation is simple: you put in this cable and then intently try to listen for difference. Your brain switches form lay back enjoyment of music to analysis and now it notices detail in your system which heretofore had ignored. Viola! You now hear more air, more detail, instruments that you had not hear before. The bias is set in now and switching back to your old cable sounds dull, uninteresting, etc.
To above I will just say this: how come you were proud of your system prior to using this cable? If it lacked such detail, air, etc. how was it ever good? Had you spend all that money on your electronics, speakers, etc. only to have dull sound waiting for this cable to rescue it? See where I am going?
Please accept how your physiology works. Understand that your brain is creative, highly adaptive and can do things differently in different conditions. Have a loved one switch cables on you and then see if you hear those extra improvements. If you don't, combined with the above measurements, please follow the only logical conclusion that these cables and their tweaks do nothing for your system.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the AudioQuest Victoria cable with DBS. If you are itching to spend $300, give that money to a charity or a loved one with a real need for money.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Who else begging for your money online publishes two reviews back to back as I just did? Come on... Donate some money my way using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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