Thoughts on Shunyata and Transparent?

@nyev Which pc did you decide on for your Diablo 300?

@swede58 , ​​@jafant , I ended up going with the Audioquest Dragon for the Diablo 300. The Shunyata Omega was really good. But I found it was loose in the socket of my amp, even when using the hokey plastic shim that comes with the cord (Shunyata must have designed the cord to fit tight sockets).

Here are my findings:

Shunyata Omega:

-Lush, dense, buttery smooth, yet all the details were there. Enveloping. Oddly it made me think of entering a beautifully dense, warm, humid jungle with lots of foliage and birds. Weird, I know…

-3 dimensional depth. Which takes you by surprise considering how dense the sound is.

-I would describe this cord as having “character” - a very good, organic and fluid one

Audioquest Dragon

-Faster and more open. But not dry or analytical either. Not lean sounding at all - I was worried it would be for some reason.

-Great tonal balance (neutral), open,

-Just as good with 3 dimensional depth

-Certainly a hint more bass excitement than the Omega; it’s a bit more propulsive.

Overall I think the Dragon MAY be a bit more universally appropriate, in my system, for all varieties of music. Both were great though. I don’t listen to jazz, but I could see the Omega potentially being the winner for jazz. But not for rock. Again, in my system. Both are great cables and I’m thankful I had the opportunity to try both.

I also bought a second Dragon to power my Torus RM20 isolation transformer.

The only problem with the Dragon is that I want to replace my two Hurricane Source cables with Dragon’s! But, I have other things to upgrade first. One day it will happen.

One other note: The Dragon was noticeably better than my prior Hurricane cord that powered my Diablo previously. There was far more finesse, more defined bass, and the biggest change by far was the sudden emergence of soundstage depth which I didn’t really have when using the Hurricane. I also found the Hurricane’s bass to be a tad unnaturally rich with more “glow” to it than it should have. But, this could definitely be considered a good thing to some. It wasn’t a bad effect. The Dragon’s plentiful bass is far better defined.

Again, this is in my system with the Diablo 300, so others’ results will vary! Also, I expect that others may feel that what I consider to be large improvements will not be considered as being large by some. I find small changes in sound become magnified over time as you get accustomed to the sonic signature of your system.

I should note that the Dragon didn’t win at first, as it was a new cord they sent as a demo. The Omega was also brand new, but I had received it first and had burnt it in. Despite my dealer’s claims that Audioquest fully burns in their cords before shipping, this was clearly not the case. Took a few days of 24x7 run time before the Dragon started to approach the Omega, and then it kept getting better.

I’d say that the Omega is very uniquely interesting in how lush and smooth it is, and memorable.  The Dragon is just a great performer, without so much of a unique character.

Oh, and I did test the Sigma NR as well, but it didn’t go very well. Something didn’t sound right, even after I ran it in for many days.. I chalked it up to the fact that Shunyata only had a demo with a 20A connector handy, so they sent a 20A to 15A adapter so I could connect it to my amp. I suspect this sort of ruined the test as I’ve heard a lot of great things about the Sigma NR.

nyev

Thank You for the update.  Good to read that you found a sonic match with your gear.

Happy Listening!

Many Thanks for your input @nyev 

Great help in my search for a realy good PC for my Diablo 300 but even my old Synergistic Research A/C Master Coupler is a clear improvement over the stock cord. A fuller, more authoritative bass is it’s strongest suite.