19-Aug-2016, 18:00
(This post was last modified: 19-Aug-2016, 18:02 by Rufus McDufus.)
OK, so yesterday I went over to Guillaume's to give these Shunyata things a listen. I haven't heard his system much lately and am not that familiar with the Od'A so I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to figure what was Shunyata and what was Od'A. Well it does sound insanely good. Guillaume even let me cue up some of my 'old shit' (my words not his!) and I've never heard Beach Boys 'Surf's Up' so good. I probably blubbed a little.
Anyhow I raided the stock of booty and came back with Sigma & Venom Digital power cords and some Venom speaker cables. The Sigma comes in a sturdy black briefcase with the 'Shunyata Research' logo on the side looking very much like it could be used in a prop in a film about deadly man-made pathogens. I felt a bit like a secret agent taking it away.
The design & build quality of all the Shunyata stuff is superb and really professional compared with much of the high-end stuff available these days. The speaker cables for instance have interchangeable plugs or several different sizes of spades, which makes a lot of sense.
I think Guillaume might've told me to try the Venom first, so being a bloke I naturally ignored that and went straight for the Sigma on my D200. It is a similar thickness cable to my Sablon power cord, i.e. verging on the ridiculous, but it's actually quite light and flexible. I think the internal shielding might be a coil so it does go round corners quite well, though as the UK plug sticks straight out of the wall I had to route the cable out the front of the rack, back under the shelf the Devialet is on and into the back. There's no chance of fitting the Dev's rear plate with this cable, which is just as well as I don't anyway.
The cable is brand new and Shunyata recommend 5-7 days (?) of running as the conductors are supposedly pretty thick.
Enough of that already - shut up and tell us what it bloody sounds like!
Initially I couldn't hear much difference. It took about two or three songs and I realised I was hearing more bass, but far more defined and coherent. Within half an hour-ish I started hearing more higher-frequency detail - snares where I've never heard them before, guitar lines I didn't know were there. Across the spectrum it's just giving more, but it's not harsh detail, it's really smooth and musical. I'm afraid to say it absolutely blows my Entreq 3V out of the water, and that's the best I've heard in it's price range (otherwise I wouldn't have bought it!), though admittedly that range is nearly half the price of the Sigma. It's easily the best power cord I have ever tried in my system, and probably the best I've heard on Guillaume's. I realise my descriptions sound so clichéd but in this case it's true. It sounds totally 'right'.
I put the Venom on my Melco this afternoon. Not so obvious but there seems to be more of the same that the Sigma is giving. I'm going to leave it running for a bit and maybe swap out the Sigma on the Devialet and try comparing with the Venom. Power cords in my opinion don't make a massive difference on the Melco but it's definitely sounding a bit better already.
So as usual it's the expensive cable that I couldn't afford that I'm blown away with. I was thinking to myself if this is the improvement the D200->D220Pro update would give me, I would not be displeased - it is that good. Before now I've always been a little bit underwhelmed with the sound quality increase power cords give on my system. It would be interesting to hear Alpha on the Devialet to compare with the Sigma. If it even approaches the Sigma in character and sound quality that could be the real sweet spot in the range.
Anyhow I raided the stock of booty and came back with Sigma & Venom Digital power cords and some Venom speaker cables. The Sigma comes in a sturdy black briefcase with the 'Shunyata Research' logo on the side looking very much like it could be used in a prop in a film about deadly man-made pathogens. I felt a bit like a secret agent taking it away.
The design & build quality of all the Shunyata stuff is superb and really professional compared with much of the high-end stuff available these days. The speaker cables for instance have interchangeable plugs or several different sizes of spades, which makes a lot of sense.
I think Guillaume might've told me to try the Venom first, so being a bloke I naturally ignored that and went straight for the Sigma on my D200. It is a similar thickness cable to my Sablon power cord, i.e. verging on the ridiculous, but it's actually quite light and flexible. I think the internal shielding might be a coil so it does go round corners quite well, though as the UK plug sticks straight out of the wall I had to route the cable out the front of the rack, back under the shelf the Devialet is on and into the back. There's no chance of fitting the Dev's rear plate with this cable, which is just as well as I don't anyway.
The cable is brand new and Shunyata recommend 5-7 days (?) of running as the conductors are supposedly pretty thick.
Enough of that already - shut up and tell us what it bloody sounds like!
Initially I couldn't hear much difference. It took about two or three songs and I realised I was hearing more bass, but far more defined and coherent. Within half an hour-ish I started hearing more higher-frequency detail - snares where I've never heard them before, guitar lines I didn't know were there. Across the spectrum it's just giving more, but it's not harsh detail, it's really smooth and musical. I'm afraid to say it absolutely blows my Entreq 3V out of the water, and that's the best I've heard in it's price range (otherwise I wouldn't have bought it!), though admittedly that range is nearly half the price of the Sigma. It's easily the best power cord I have ever tried in my system, and probably the best I've heard on Guillaume's. I realise my descriptions sound so clichéd but in this case it's true. It sounds totally 'right'.
I put the Venom on my Melco this afternoon. Not so obvious but there seems to be more of the same that the Sigma is giving. I'm going to leave it running for a bit and maybe swap out the Sigma on the Devialet and try comparing with the Venom. Power cords in my opinion don't make a massive difference on the Melco but it's definitely sounding a bit better already.
So as usual it's the expensive cable that I couldn't afford that I'm blown away with. I was thinking to myself if this is the improvement the D200->D220Pro update would give me, I would not be displeased - it is that good. Before now I've always been a little bit underwhelmed with the sound quality increase power cords give on my system. It would be interesting to hear Alpha on the Devialet to compare with the Sigma. If it even approaches the Sigma in character and sound quality that could be the real sweet spot in the range.
