To respond as directly as I can to the question, both of the cables are good. I've never owned the lower-tiered generation of Shunyata, but I've had most of them, from the Black Mamba (first generation) to King Cobra (first generation) and usually have Pythons of each generation up to the Python CX (current) and Black Mamba CX (I also had the Viper - the most recent iteration - before it was replaced by the Black Mamba CX.
For Nordost, I've had Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and Valhalla (still have the Brahma).
The two lines have different "sounds," generally speaking.
Nordost is usually fast, lean, great transients and details abound. Shunyata has (usually) great body, focus, weight, tonal richness (but not TOO rich, at least as far as in comparison to hearing, say, a trumpet in Carnegie and a trumpet on the recording). Shunyata has an EXTREMELY low noise floor - one of their hallmarks - so that instruments are not surrounded by interstitial matter (grain).
I can't say that I agree with the "we all hear different" comment. I COULD agree with either A), we may hear music in different halls than each other (in which case, it depends on how good your listening venue's acoustics are: Carnegie Hall sounds great -- at least, in the balcony, where I listen from; Davies Hall in San Francisco, where I USED to live: stinks. Maybe they've improved it, but a friend and I, when I wanted to test the acoustics, changed seats at intermission. I had bought first tier AND balcony seat tickets, and so we both heard different compositions on the same night in two different sections. His assessment (he had been a concert pianist) was that the "double bass seemed to disappear" from where he was sitting (pre-intermission). I just found it boring. Davies' highs are the opposite of Carnegie's: there's no airiness in the highs in Davies.
SO, if live music is the reference, combined with venue, then yes, we hear differently. Otherwise, the question is: what's the reference? Our components over the years? That's a poor reference, almost like thinking digital photography is equal to film (not really: it still doesn't "do" 46 shades of green in a be speckled forest. It's lucky to get 6 shades of green in one single photograph). Film will do all the shadings (within the (dynamic) light range it captures, of course).
Shunyata can sound jaw-droppingly "real", period. BUT. I'm talking about its better cords. Can't speak for the copperhead. The Vishnu, on the other hand, is a very decent cord, but, like the Shiva, still very lean. (I wouldn't use Shiva again if you GAVE it to me. Waaay too lean, and I had an entire system of both Shivas and Pythons simultaneously. Many cable that are lean are "fast"-sound, because they leave off the "body" of the instrument. Think of a room filled with 100 Kate Moss(es) and then 10 0Cindy Crawfords. You can see further "into" the room with a lot of stick figures OR you can see not QUITE as far, but there's more there "there." Moss: Nordost. Crawford: Shunyata. Both valid approaches. I'll take Shunyata.
Conversely, when I moved East and reassembled a new stereo in 2003, I had Quattro Fils interconnects, Shunyata Andromeda speaker cable and Python and King Cobra (V2s, not V1s). My opera singer friend, who'd heard the system before and wasn't much moved (the amp he'd heard it with, previously, was the Marsh A400. This time it was the Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes) was now dazzled (part of this was the Hurricanes, but everything else had to be doing its part, remember, or he wouldn't have heard what he heard). He kept saying on Bill Evan's Waltz for Debby, "I can SEE the drummer. He's RIGHT THERE, RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR DRYER! RIGHT NEXT TO IT!!!" So, even with ONLY Nordost interconnects and everything else Shunyata, it was still dazzling. It's not really a contradiction, it's just that even with a combined loom, it could still sound "right there, right now." (That was, by the way, the most REAL my system EVER sounded, but you know what? It was the fact that the basement, where the system was, at that time, was 23' wide and 46' long (the length of my mother's ranch house). In other words, wider rooms (with Tube Traps and covering the concrete walls -- which harden sound, so the delicacy disappears -- everywhere) allow better sound reproduction. So, it's not just the components, I'm afraid. It's also the room.
Still, for me? Shunyata
For Nordost, I've had Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and Valhalla (still have the Brahma).
The two lines have different "sounds," generally speaking.
Nordost is usually fast, lean, great transients and details abound. Shunyata has (usually) great body, focus, weight, tonal richness (but not TOO rich, at least as far as in comparison to hearing, say, a trumpet in Carnegie and a trumpet on the recording). Shunyata has an EXTREMELY low noise floor - one of their hallmarks - so that instruments are not surrounded by interstitial matter (grain).
I can't say that I agree with the "we all hear different" comment. I COULD agree with either A), we may hear music in different halls than each other (in which case, it depends on how good your listening venue's acoustics are: Carnegie Hall sounds great -- at least, in the balcony, where I listen from; Davies Hall in San Francisco, where I USED to live: stinks. Maybe they've improved it, but a friend and I, when I wanted to test the acoustics, changed seats at intermission. I had bought first tier AND balcony seat tickets, and so we both heard different compositions on the same night in two different sections. His assessment (he had been a concert pianist) was that the "double bass seemed to disappear" from where he was sitting (pre-intermission). I just found it boring. Davies' highs are the opposite of Carnegie's: there's no airiness in the highs in Davies.
SO, if live music is the reference, combined with venue, then yes, we hear differently. Otherwise, the question is: what's the reference? Our components over the years? That's a poor reference, almost like thinking digital photography is equal to film (not really: it still doesn't "do" 46 shades of green in a be speckled forest. It's lucky to get 6 shades of green in one single photograph). Film will do all the shadings (within the (dynamic) light range it captures, of course).
Shunyata can sound jaw-droppingly "real", period. BUT. I'm talking about its better cords. Can't speak for the copperhead. The Vishnu, on the other hand, is a very decent cord, but, like the Shiva, still very lean. (I wouldn't use Shiva again if you GAVE it to me. Waaay too lean, and I had an entire system of both Shivas and Pythons simultaneously. Many cable that are lean are "fast"-sound, because they leave off the "body" of the instrument. Think of a room filled with 100 Kate Moss(es) and then 10 0Cindy Crawfords. You can see further "into" the room with a lot of stick figures OR you can see not QUITE as far, but there's more there "there." Moss: Nordost. Crawford: Shunyata. Both valid approaches. I'll take Shunyata.
Conversely, when I moved East and reassembled a new stereo in 2003, I had Quattro Fils interconnects, Shunyata Andromeda speaker cable and Python and King Cobra (V2s, not V1s). My opera singer friend, who'd heard the system before and wasn't much moved (the amp he'd heard it with, previously, was the Marsh A400. This time it was the Antique Sound Lab Hurricanes) was now dazzled (part of this was the Hurricanes, but everything else had to be doing its part, remember, or he wouldn't have heard what he heard). He kept saying on Bill Evan's Waltz for Debby, "I can SEE the drummer. He's RIGHT THERE, RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR DRYER! RIGHT NEXT TO IT!!!" So, even with ONLY Nordost interconnects and everything else Shunyata, it was still dazzling. It's not really a contradiction, it's just that even with a combined loom, it could still sound "right there, right now." (That was, by the way, the most REAL my system EVER sounded, but you know what? It was the fact that the basement, where the system was, at that time, was 23' wide and 46' long (the length of my mother's ranch house). In other words, wider rooms (with Tube Traps and covering the concrete walls -- which harden sound, so the delicacy disappears -- everywhere) allow better sound reproduction. So, it's not just the components, I'm afraid. It's also the room.
Still, for me? Shunyata