Shunyata Research

[brit]

I have, over the past month or so, been able to arrange the demo of several pairs of Shunyata cables - the Alpha EF, Delta NR and Delta EF. I must, first of all, own up to being a bit of a cable sceptic, especially where Power cables are concerned, and have always worked on the principle that, as long as they are of sufficient gauge, and of reasonable quality to do the job, then they should be OK. I currently power my 1000pros with a pair of Russ Andrews, Kimber wired, Reference cables, which have seen good service over a number of years, with the various Audio systems I have previously owned - let's say that they are well and truly broken in .  

Well, over to the Shunyatas. I started with a pair of Delta EFs, which I had for the best part of a week, and have to admit that the change in SQ was far from subtle. The first thing that I noted was how much more relaxing the music was to listen to. Some differences are very hard to describe, especially when you have been used to a particular sound over a long period of time, and I had always thought that my system, with the 1000pro, fed over Ethernet, by ROCK installed on a NUC6i5SYH, into my Wilson-Benesch ACT speakers, had sounded fine (to my ears anyway, and that is what counts) but the change, with the Delta EF, was very pronounced. My listening session started without the intention of trying to analyse differences too closely - it was in the evening so I was happy to just relax and listen to music without the aggro of listening to snatches of music, and then switching cables, that was for the next day. What I did notice, however, during that initial session was that I was hearing differences (always being aware of expectation bias), there was more "texture" to instruments - more "blat" to brass, more "zizz" to strings, more "twang" to guitars - this sounds awful as I write it, but I can not think of a better way to describe what I was hearing. I do have a set of favourite tracks I use for demos, so I have a fair idea of what I am listening for, and in all cases there was a distinct improvement in what I was hearing. I am also aware of the danger of listening to new kit at a different gain level, but over the years I have a fairly reasonable idea at what level I use to listen to particular pieces of music, so tried to keep to that whilst using the Deltas. Apart from the improvement in texture, as mentioned above, I had an awareness of better, more controlled, bass, and a more 3D presentation to instruments - imaging, spatial depth and width opened up more - in short, they appeared to give a much larger presentation of music. That much hackneyed phrase, more analogue, comes to mind (it may be that these cables deal with that last residue of digital artefact, or are just "quieter"). Anyway my relaxing evening did produce some very positive, useful, pointers to how these cables performed in my system. 

The next day I again listened to the Deltas and re-confirmed what I had heard, using the same test tracks, and then swopped back to my existing cables, and sure enough they sounded a little "flatter" - not so relaxing, not such a large presentation, not the same degree of texture to instruments, a little "grainier" (if there is such a word!). Don't get me wrong, they still sounded good, but not as good . A good result for the Delta EF which, of course, could have been designed with Devialet in mind, i.e. you can still use the cable covers which, in my case is a plus. Finally the cables had to go back and I have got to say that I missed them .

Anyway, a couple of weeks later (we had an intervening holiday) I was able to listen to the Delta NR (the noise reduction version of the Delta) and the new Alpha EF. Starting with the Delta NR, I immediately recalled the sound of the Delta EF. I was, personally, not able to say whether it was better than the EF or not - to my aged ears any differences were too subtle to call. Others, with more acute hearing, may be able to tell, but not me - so the Delta NR was "shelved" in preference to the Delta EF. Next up was the Alpha EF. This, I have got to say, was a step up from the Delta EF (and NR). Differences, in my system, were not as night & day as between the Delta EF and my existing Kimber Reference PC cables, but they were there - that very relaxed presentation, 3D sound staging, realistic presentation of Instrument textures, an excellent, but unfortunately, for me, expensive cable .

So where does this leave me in respect to Shunyata Power Cables? Well it was a terrific opportunity to try a range of top quality products - and yes the Shunyata cables are a quality product, well made, from first class materials, with substantial, heavy duty plugs and sockets (of course they should be at the high price that they command!). I would very much have liked the Alpha EF, but at the price, were too much for me, at the moment - the problem with having the Devialet monos, you need two power cables! If I had a 250pro, and only required one PC, I would have gone for it, but for two ....! The difference between the Delta EF and NR was, to my ears, too close to call - both provided a definite hike in SQ over my existing Power Cords, but for me the Delta EF won out, both in terms of cost, and the fact that I could still use the Devialet cable covers. Upshot is that I now have a pair of Shunyata Delta EF cables on order . I hope that I wont regret not going for a pair of Alpha EF cables, but I know that SWMBO is more than happy with my lower (but still substantial) cost choice .

I must also add that I had the opportunity to try the Shunyata UK 6 Power Block, but given that I already had enough "variables", with the differing cables - only change on thing at a time - I decided to leave that demo for another day, once I have the new Delta EF cables bedded in and I become used to their sound signature. 

David