Shunyatas New CX series

Thanks for your review. I'm glad that you are liking these new Shunyata VX cords. I started with the original Taipan and liked it very much on my ss preamp. I sold it eventually to upgrade to the Taipan Alpha version and wasn't very impressed. I then decided to change out electronic components and tried other power cord lines. Because of my lack of enthusiasm for the Alpha version, I hesitated in trying out the Helix when it came out. Now that you've shared your great enthusiasm for the new CX version, I might just give Shunyata another try. I'd appreciate hearing your impressions of these cords after a few hundred hours of further conditioning in your system.

I'm curious how much improvement there is to be had between the CX and the previous line, but with the price breaks on the now discontinued stuff it's hard to pass them up (Musicdirect has them for about $75 more than you can find them used on Agon). I basically recabled my entire system with brand new versions of their discontinued helix cords from Musicdirect.

One lesson I learned is the higher end cables may not always be better depending on equipment (though generally they are). The MHDT tube DAC I own sounds MUCH better with the Taipan Helix than it does with the Python Helix.

Sherod:
One thing I need to correct is what I said about brass: I meant to say they are a LITTLE more golden, not "a LITTLE golden." Misspoke there.
And, MB, I think the jump in performance is obvious, but will be more so the more transparent the other equipment is. Some of my equipment is not the most transparent. At the moment, I'm using an Arcam FMJ22 integrated, hardly the last word in transparency. I think the more the equipment imposes itself on the signal, the less likely one will hear the improvement. I used to have a Versa Dynamics 2.3 turntable, but it was sold to me by a dealer who did not know how to set it up optimally. 2 years later, after I wrote a letter in TAS, the manufacturer and I had a talk and he claimed I "slammed" his turntable. I pointed out that I had said that it could be that mine was broken, because it didn't sound like what HP described. I sent it back, and Lo and Behold! It WAS broken. He fixed it, and returned it and I put in a Benz Micro MC3 cartridge (this was around 1992) and a friend came over and said, "THIS IS THE BENZ?!?!?!?! GOOD GOD, it sounds completely different." I said, "Yeah, not what it sounded like before at all, is it???" If our equipment has a major sonic signature, forget hearing the better component. This is one reason HP liked Nordost so much: although it turned out to be a lean-sounding component, it was wildly transparent and altered the signal almost not at all (except in tonal richness) and HP was able to hear the other equipment more easily through it.
The Taipan Helix and The Python Helix have different -- to me -- sounds. The Python has more colors of the rainbow. If your tube DAC is already saturated, as tubes can be (not a criticism: I have always owned tubes), then the Python may show you something you think is the Python's coloration, but may actually be your tube DAC's coloration, whereas the less saturated Taipan will make it sound more "neutral." It's not my experience that Taipan trumps Python at all, but I could see where system matching makes it seem that way.
I'm pretty confident the CX line has resolved the split between the VX and the Helix lines. The VX was always used on digital, and the sonic signature of most digital was "hard" sounding, but I think the VX softened the sound -- at least that's what I heard in the two generations of VX cabling (Python and then Python Helix). There's no question that triangles and the Balalaika have more "bite" without sounding hard. I'm a big fan of Shunyata -- always have been, but I've tried (as in owned) several of the other major lines top-of-the-line cables: Norddost (all the Valhallas), Transparent (the Reference, NOT the mind-bogglingly expensive Opus), MIT (around 1996, not the current, which I'm sure is dazzling, too. I just can't stomach some of the prices.) I never quite felt Nordost had all the meat on the bones -- like the difference between Kate Moss and Heidi Klum, but it was hella transparent. I prefer more meat (tonal color), the way it is in real life. Shunyta is more akin to the MIT line,which, when you heard trumpets, if you knew what they sounded like in real life, you went "Yes! That's exactly the right sound." I like Transparent's MM2 line a lot. Not exactly chopped liver. I wish everyone the best, but power cord-wise, I'll take Shunyata, as I have since 2003. I haven't heard the speaker cable, although I DID have Andromeda and I have to say, it had POWER to spare. If the new line has the same power, it's going to be a top player.

I've had their speaker cable (Andromeda Bi-wire, albeit with silver spades which ultimately were too bright) and I currently use their Altair RCA ICs. My system is all tube except the IMac computer feeding a Turbo-3 USB converter. You may have a point as far as tubes imparting more of a signature.

Most all my experience has been with the Taipan Helix and Python Helix (including one or two Vx helix cables here and there). I'd say the Python exhibits the same signature on the MHDT tube DAC as other equipment by giving you more of a 3d image and separation/punch. But the tubes do such a good job with midrange presence, particularly with vocals and drums, that using the Python helix on the DAC seems to rob some of that midrange. It's more of a tone control deal with these power cords anyways, but that's one reason why people use them to begin with I guess. My system's pretty revealing, as much now with tube gear as it was with a Benchmark DAC1 and a Musical Fidelity A5 2 channel, where I used the DAC1 as the preamp. Hated that setup though, the DAC1 was too bright...

My post wasn't a condemnation of the Python Helix, as it's my all around favorite and I'm using a 20amp version on a Hydra-2 before the DAC anyways, but for some odd reason the Taipan is better on this DAC. Proves the point though that when mixing/matching cables you occasionally stumble onto something that fits absolutely perfectly (even better when it's a lower priced cable in the model line).