Audioquest Angel vs Synergisitic Research Atmosphere Alive

@guakus I would clean up my power cord loom first. And you can go as high as Atmosphere, but you’ll get better performance by replacing multiple power cords at once with Foundation instead of over spending on a single higher end power cord. Also keep in mind, all Synergistic Research products except fuses have a lifetime upgrade path with 70% of retail going towards new SR products at twice the old cables value. And you don’t have to trade cables for cables, you could’ve purchased cables from Synergistic in 1993 and get 70% of their old retail value towards anything in our current catalog. If it were my system, I’d first close the loom with Foundation, and then look at power conditioning and ground filtering next. MiG SX footers are also an option as one of the single most transformative products we make.

@ted_denney

I am a little confused. :( Replacing my main power cables with Foundation seems like a step backward, no offense intended.

From the wall I am using Audioquest’s NRG Edison socket. Then I am coming out of the wall with Shunyata’s Reference Delta v2 XC high current cord. That’s a $900 cord to start the power train with. It uses both Copper and Silver and uses Teflon as a dielectric. This cable powers the Shunyata Venom V16 power conditioner, a $2000 investment. The cable I am looking to replace is the Kimber Palladian, a $1500 cable. It uses a special filter that dampens the Standing Wave Ratio of the cable. I liken this tech to your Atmosphere SX Level 2 Excite, except yours has active shielding and Kimber does not. Also, the metallurgy in your cable would surpass the Kimber.

This is why I am looking at the single high end cable, the system that precedes where I want to connect your cable is also high end and expensive. :) With that said, would it be better to replace the Kimber, which requires the C7 connector, or should I replace the Shunyata Delta which would require a C19 high current connector? Maybe that’s a better choice since the power chain would start with Synergistic?

I am a little confused. :( Replacing my main power cables with Foundation seems like a step backward, no offense intended.

No offense taken. You have cable stew. Talk to your dealer about auditioning a full loom of Foundation power cords to replace your stew. Get back to me after a week, you’ll likely be very surprised. But if you don’t want to hear the loom in your system which is one of the most powerful things you can do to improve your stereo, replace the Kimber.

Just an update.

I received the SR Atmosphere Lv 1 Alive custom Phono cable. It has exceeded my expectations and it hasn't even remotely finished breaking in.

The addition of the Teflon Dielectric with copper mix has brought back the deep, rich mid-range and mid-bass tones while at the same time keeping the detailed, airy treble. I cannot wait to see just how far it expands as it breaks in. 

It was well worth the upgrade. :)

Wow, quite the post. I am considering swapping my Shunyata  Venom-HC cables to Synergistic  as well. I currently own a Atmosphere X level 1 and Atmosphere SX level 1 PCs (as well as interconnect and speaker wires).  Based on what I read in the post I should replace all the other PC's with Foundation PCs, right?

I plan to use the ATM SXLV1 PC at the amp, and the ATM XLv1 PC as the feed to the power conditioner (or should I consider a FD high current here), then FD at the DAC, Preamp, and phono stage?

What are your thoughts ?