Call Shunyata…. They are a small company and you will be able to speak with someone on the inside who isn’t going to sell you. Also, you can find their products at a substantially discounted price, but dealers aren’t going to broadcast this. All of my cable choices are listed on my virtual system. Regarding @brandonhifi claiming that speaker cables make a bigger difference, you can’t discount this opinion since it comes from an experienced source, but this was not the case with my system on my electrical grid. Perhaps, I didn’t spend enough on my speaker cables, or I should have gone with a different cable, but for me power and Ethernet cable to my streamer made the biggest difference.
Question about Shunyata Power Conditioners
Hi, I recently purchased a couple of cables from Shunyata. First one is the Venom-X speaker cable, and the other is the Venom-X power cable. These are my first Shunyata products, and I am very impressed with them.
I’ve always been a fan of Kimber Kable, Most of my IC are Kimber Select & Hero lines, and I was using a pair of Kimber 12TC speaker cables, before replacing them with the Shunyata. I was actually comparing the Shunyata Venom-X to a pair of Kimber Bifocal XL, which is $1000 more expensive, and I like the Shunyata better especially in the bass department. The Shunyata really adds a nice slam and punchiness to the bass, I returned the Bifocal and kept the Shunyata.
Anyway I’m now thinking about adding a power conditioner from Shunyata. I’m considering either the Hydra Delta D6 or their reference line Denali 6000/s V2.
Has anyone had experience with either or both of these 2 conditioners, and be able to provide some feedbacks on their performance. The Denali is almost twice as expensive as the Hydra Delta, so I want to make sure I’m spending my hard earned dollars wisely.
Also FYI, I have not had heard much improvement of sound when it comes to power cables or conditioners. I currently own a Furman Elite 15i, and mostly Pangea power cables. The Pangea are very affordable comparing to many other brands of power cables. That’s one of the reasons why I purchased them. Mostly for my peace of mind. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard much improvement over stock cables. The Forman Elite is also reasonably priced with a lot of outlets.
I always think that I must have very decent power source in my home already, and therefore I don’t hear much improvement. I’m not a skeptic when it comes to power cables and conditioners, I just simply don’t have many positive experiences with them.
One more thing I want to mention is that I do my own noise test by cranking up my volume control on my preamp to max, with my digital source turned on but not playing anything (of course). I put my ear right again my speakers and hardly hear any hum or noise at all. So I concluded that I don't have any noise issue in my system. This is hardly a scientific experiment and please tell me if this is a stupid test. 😀
Anyway, any comments and shared experiences will be appreciated. Thanks for reading!
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Hi @brandonhifi, I agree with your suggestions. I've gone through some upgrades on my IC last year, and I'm fairly happy with where I am at now with IC. I also just upgraded my speaker cable to Shunyata Venom-X as mentioned in my post. Actually the Venom-X was an accidental find because I had started auditioning the Kimber Bifocal XL, and saw an open box discount of the Venom-X at Music Direct. So I just decided to give it a try. To be honest, I was surprised by the SQ of the Venom-X SC. I know Shunyata was very well regarded in the audiophile communities for their power line products, but I hardly read anything about their speaker cables. Anyway, the purchase of the Shunyata SC has led me to consider upgrading my power cables and conditioners. Hi @vonhelmholtz, actually I did start an email exchange with Richard at Shunyata. He's a great guy to deal with. But I started this thread because I want to seek some real world experience from members in this forum, especially those who had experience with both the Hydra Delta and Denali conditioners. |
It's hard to give a meaningful response to your initial question without knowing the details of your system IMO. The better your system, the more likely you'll be able to discern the benefits of better power conditioning and cabling. When audiophile cables and power conditioning first became a "thing" in the audio world, my system wasn't all that resolving and I was rather disappointed with my first purchases of cables and power conditioning. As the years have gone by and my system has improved the benefits of power conditioning and better cables has become obvious and easily discerned. By the way, one of the main misconceptions about power conditioning is the only thing that matters is if you have deficient or distorted power coming into your home. Audio equipment, electronic devices, and appliances in our homes generate all manner of electrical noise that can affect audio reproduction aside from whatever is riding in on the electrical feed to our home. What works best in one person's system isn't a universal "best" solution. My PS Audio regenerator sounds great with some of my equipment and my Shunyata conditioner sounds much better than the PS Audio with my Luxman preamp and power amp. Sometimes an amp sounds best plugged into a conditioner and sometimes it sounds best directly into the wall. |
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