Has anyone heard the Shunyata Cables?

My experience with Shunyata power cords is that they have a very substantial impact on sound, usually adding tremendous refinement and then depending on the choice, either melloning out the sound or adding dynamics.

After experimenting with the power cords and developing my own opinions, I asked the folks at Shunyata about them. They seemed to have a very accurate impression of the sound quality of each power cord; it was consistent with my own personal experience. If anything, they understated the effects.

The same is true for their (now discontinued) Hydra power conditioner.

SO, this is a long winded way of suggesting that you call their customer service and ask their opinion of the sonic effects of the speaker cables and interconnects. My personal experience of them is that they will be pretty straight with you and the information will be useful.

Cardas Golden Cross sounds like an excellent choice for the system you have designed. You are setting a high hurdle, but Shunyata does great work. Should be a real contest.

Art

I compared the Audience, Shunyata and AZ Holograms in my system (X-1 & X-250, Sony 777ES. I preferred the AZ speaker cables for their more natural sound and details. I felt the Shunyata was a little bit forward with a slight emphasis in the high end. Having B&W Matrix 803s in my system, I preferred the slighlty warmer sound of the AZ. I also found the Shunyata Tiapan power cord to do the same in my system and at the dealers with the system below. I heard the Shunyata ICs with the X-1 & X-250 (also with the Edge 10 amp) with Piega P-5 Ltd speakers with Metronome CDP and it sounded good but I still preferred a little more warmth in my system.

I tried the XLR Aries a few months ago ( Cable Co. rental). They don't sound anything like Golden Cross. The bass and mids are very natural but they seem to have a rising high end. Very clear, with lots of harmonic detail and a wide and deep soundstage. In the end, I didn't buy them because the rising high end caused listening fatigue for me. I bet they'd work great with tubes. You could try them out with a Cable company rental.

You didn't say why you want to switch. If you want a little more detail but keep the Cardas basic sound, try Neutral Reference.

Hi Nighthawk,
The reason I'm switching is that after upgrading my source, I've come to the decision that I may want to listen to more of my components and less of the cabling. It is my hope the Shunyata will give me a more"honest" less colored sound than the Cardas Golden Cross. The Cardas are very good but I'm looking for a more detailed less "bloomy" sound. I shall try the Shunyata and hope for the best.Thanks for your responses.

I have the Aries interconnect, and I have to say, I don't find it to have a "rising high end" and I own Revelation 3s (Hale), which would certainly demonstrate that effect.
For the heck (and to get a longer length), I just bought another length of Nordost Quattro Fils today so that the system will be completely wired with Nordost (which DEFINITELY does not have a 'rising high end.' After I put it in the system, I'll be able to tell if the prominence I have in my system in the upper midrange is due to the setup (temporarily in my basement with hard walls, which are somewhat covered but still...).
I had the Shunyata Phoenix speaker cable, by the way, for two weeks, but returned it. The reason: I had two weeks to evaluate it and I couldn't break it in in that time period (the basement got a little flooded for a day or so) fully. In fact, Grant at Shunyata, during a conversation with me, suggested I hadn't really broken them in (I heard a slightly glassy sound) because I'd been playing them at 40-50 db for most of the time. That, he informed me, translated to about 70 hours of break-in time, at which point the cables would be dull, with little in the way of low-level detail. Given that I'd taken the power cord to a former music producer's home and tested my Arcam FMJ 23 against his run-of-the-mill dvd player, and hear what the CD player (and, by extension the power cord [Python] was really capable of, I don't doubt that Shunyata's speaker cables are excellent.
As for wanting more "warmth," I don't think that should be the "job" of the component. In fact, having both Nordost AND Shunyata, and having compared the two interconnects, I would say the Nordost (Quattro Fils only!) are lacking warmth. The Aries interconnect never seemed "cool" or lacking in body - EVER. Shunyata designs strike me as being VERY aware of "body" and "warmth" in a cable. The Phoenix was NOT lacking warmth, but I didn't expect romance; I just didn't want a "cool" sound. In that respect, the Shunyata delivered just fine. I'm going to listen again after I get my Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes (in July) and borrow the cables for a couple of weeks to see how they "deliver" the music then. I could only listen with my Antique Sound Labs 1003, a 30-watt Class A design, and, with an 87db pair of Hales, I was concerned about the volume I could get. But, the basement walls are very hard, and they certainly contribute to the upper midrange glare I get sometimes. I know that, because I've gone to Home Depot and bought wool rugs, put them on the wall, and the glare decreases. I wonder if others who complain have a properly damped room. Many of us are pretty blind to how much a room can color the sound, so we buy better components without realizing we need to damp the ceiling, walls and floors before we can fairly evaluate a product.
I think the Shunyata cables are just fine, unless you want the crystal clear transparency of the Nordosts, which, from my experience, "lighten" the lower midrange and upper bass just a little (just a thought).