Pease help with next upgrade

I agree that getting better speaker cables may help but I am confused as to what brand of cables you are using. Nordost and Kimber mixed? Now you want to intorduce another brand (ZEN) to the mix? Every cable is colored in some way and finding the brand that integrates best with your components is important. If you mix and match you will not creat the synergy of the sum being better that it's parts when cabling your system. I recommend you steer clear of adding another brand of speaker wires to the mix, decide on a brand from the ones you have sleected so far and continue in that direction. What connections do you have between each component now? e-mail me for further discussion if you like. I may have some Kimber wire that you may want to try if you like the Kimber sound.

I would tend to agree that your speaker cable should be upgraded first. As for power considerations, if possible, get dedicated circuits installed to power your equipment before you spend more in this area. You may find, as I did, that no further power conditioning was really needed. Then, if you would still like to try some power cord upgrades which will make a noticeable improvement within the Shunyata line, try a used King Cobra (v1) or Cobra pc instead of the BM/Sidewinder. I ended up with FIM pcs which performed even better in my system, but they are very stiff and require some sweat and patience to bend them into shape. Don't forget less expensive tweaks like NOS tubes and isolation devices/plate for the SACD player. Just MHO. Goodluck and have fun.