My experience matches Vhiner and I agree with his comments.
I found it useful to understand the Shunyata system by subtraction. Even if you cannot afford them all at once, ask your dealer to let you borrow enough power cables to cover all the major components in your system - amps, preamp, digital and the motor drive to your turntable if you have one. Install them together.
Don't try to listen to individual components or a single power cord. Instead, take time over a week or two with music you know well to acclimate your ears to the net effect of the change. Maybe take a few notes on your general impressions and what you hear differently from familiar tracks. After you have a handle on your 'new' system, replace one cord with the stock cord that came with that component. Listen again. Remove another, listen some more. How does what you hear compare with your notes? What is different or missing?
While manufacturers test their power cords with a variety of componentry, few offer cords targeted at specific brands or models. In the world of electricity and signal delivery it can be difficult to assess the 'philosophy' and design goals of a manufacturer from a single instance. Sure, one PC can make an audible difference, but knowledgeable designers rarely take a bottom up approach by developing from the perspective of what a single cord will do. The overall net effect of how a manufacturer addresses, for example, capacitance and inductance, or spurious noise rejection back onto your in-house 'grid' is better understood, imo, by hearing their products as they meant them to be used together. This helps get a sense of the synergy of your existing stereo with a particular power delivery system and its designer's intent.
Even if you only can afford to start with a power conditioner or a couple cords, you'll know the goal you're aiming for rather than going through an ad hoc discovery one wire at a time. (Going that way, who knows where your system will end up.) A strength I find in Shunyata's approach is the the evenhanded way their products work together and the resulting consistency of sonic effect across a wide variety of component combinations. This makes for low risk when investing small then moving up the line.
I found it useful to understand the Shunyata system by subtraction. Even if you cannot afford them all at once, ask your dealer to let you borrow enough power cables to cover all the major components in your system - amps, preamp, digital and the motor drive to your turntable if you have one. Install them together.
Don't try to listen to individual components or a single power cord. Instead, take time over a week or two with music you know well to acclimate your ears to the net effect of the change. Maybe take a few notes on your general impressions and what you hear differently from familiar tracks. After you have a handle on your 'new' system, replace one cord with the stock cord that came with that component. Listen again. Remove another, listen some more. How does what you hear compare with your notes? What is different or missing?
While manufacturers test their power cords with a variety of componentry, few offer cords targeted at specific brands or models. In the world of electricity and signal delivery it can be difficult to assess the 'philosophy' and design goals of a manufacturer from a single instance. Sure, one PC can make an audible difference, but knowledgeable designers rarely take a bottom up approach by developing from the perspective of what a single cord will do. The overall net effect of how a manufacturer addresses, for example, capacitance and inductance, or spurious noise rejection back onto your in-house 'grid' is better understood, imo, by hearing their products as they meant them to be used together. This helps get a sense of the synergy of your existing stereo with a particular power delivery system and its designer's intent.
Even if you only can afford to start with a power conditioner or a couple cords, you'll know the goal you're aiming for rather than going through an ad hoc discovery one wire at a time. (Going that way, who knows where your system will end up.) A strength I find in Shunyata's approach is the the evenhanded way their products work together and the resulting consistency of sonic effect across a wide variety of component combinations. This makes for low risk when investing small then moving up the line.