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A Tale Of Two. . . Anacondas Helix

Tomorrow at lunchtime, if The Muses, The Force, and several other imponderables are still with us, Babybear and I will get together once again to discuss, audition and compare, well you guessed it, power chords of course. More specifically, we will examine the relative merits and impact of the Shunyata Anaconda Helix VX versus its close twin -- the Shunyata Anaconda helix Alpha -- on Babybear's own Teac Esoteric X-01 Limited. I do confess that I am going into the session with a personal hypothesis, or perhaps simply a hunch. In other words, I suspect that at least on the X-01, the noise absorbing pellets in the VX may be unnecessarily dampening some transient response, micro dynamics such as the amplitude of string vibrato, and some low level detail such as is found in the noise of Rosen on bowed strings.
My suspicions were recently heightened by Marc Mickelson's fine article on Python Helix, posted at:
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/shunyata_python_helix_followup.htm
In his review Mr. Mickelson suggest that "in [his] system VX is right only for digital transports, like the Esoteric P-03, and the Alpha for [single box] CD players."
In our tesst the VX chord will be equipped with a 15 Amp IEC connector, while the Alpha has a 20 Amp IEC connector, which will be converted to 15 Amp format through a Voodoo converter. Stay tuned!
guidocorona
babybear's avatar
babybear
106 posts
 
HI Soundoc,

The system we used for the power cord comparison is mine, so I will answer your question. I have compared the Helix Alpha on the Ref 3 in my system to the RidgeStreet Audio Poiema 3 Signature and I prefer the RSA power cord. Again, while the Shunyata Helix Alpha works very well on the Ref 3, I have found that in my system, the sound is a little more authoritative with a little more of the "you are there" sound with the RSA cord. And, this is the sound that I prefer. Arnie
guidocorona OP
4,298 posts
 
Soundoc, I do use the Anaconda Helix Alpha on my Ref 3.
cmo
471 posts
 
Guido and Arnie,

Drop me line if you guy's are up for some more PC listening. I would be intersted in hearing this Argento I have compared to the Anaconda's.

Chris
vin_wei
8 posts
 
Chris:

I have compared the Anaconda Helix Alpha with my Argento SMR power cord in my system for 3 days. The size of SMR is enormous and I can not use it on any other equipment on the rack, so I used the SMR on the Furutech power distributor. Hence the comparsion is based on the overall sound of my system.

To me, the Anaconda soundstage is slightly bigger with deeper bass, and the color of the sound is brighter than SMR, it is like looking out of the window on a sunny day. The SMR is also excellent cable with elegant sound and smooth music transition.

I think both cables are excellent performer, it is up to the listener's taste to decide the preference.
guidocorona OP
4,298 posts
 
Much appreciated Vin_wei. Have you had both the Argento and the Anaconda in the same position on your system, that is on the power distributor?
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