The Blue Heaven actually makes quite a good showing going down low and better than the Esoteric as well. Since I didn't like the D102 that much in the context of my system and with the problems of the First, I managed to get hold of a pair of The Second. I decided to do a 1 on 1 on a full system configuration i.e. with the pre and power used. Here are some interesting features of the sound that struck me. Granted that there is some loss of the highest top end air, but this alone doesn't explain fully why the cable sounds quieter.
Silences are black and instruments are full bodied and well seperated.
On the other hand, for my cables, when there is silence, I can still hear traces of high frequency energy which seems to allow me to 'look' into the soundstage whereas the blanks spaces with VdH are black. There is definitely a loss of high frequency energy but the question is whether this is offset by gains in midrange fullness. There is therefore a slight loss of treble detail compared to my cables. In many cases, such cables are worse than the VdHs because instead of real detail, theres just 'high-frequency hash'. I would say that the high frequency roll-off did bother me, but than, when my recordings sound thin and brittle on my present cables, it also bothers me too.