Shunyata power cables

[HiWire]

I was looking at the Shunyata Research Venom 14 power cables (for my CD player) when I came across these videos.

Looks like you can really dive down the rabbit hole on this stuff – my system is already connected to a PS Audio Duet.

Thoughts?

 

Edited June 30, 2020 by HiWire

[Craig Sawyers]

I'm a bit skeptical about the Entech meters, and what they are actually measuring. I have heard it said that they look in the band 300kHz to 700kHz, so the am medium wave radio band. Whether that is representative of problems in audio is debatable. After all audio gear cheerfully picks up 800+ MHz from mobile phones,

Monster Cable had a variant of the Entech meter that they provided to their cable and conditioner outlets so that a sales person could demonstrate how good the product was. Same as Shunyata do now.

I'm trying to buy one just out of curiousity. If I snag one for not much, I'll do some tests (oh and probably take the back off to find out what is in there...).

[HiWire]

I thought there was something odd about the testing method. Still, there aren't a lot of other objective measurements with this stuff.

The backstory is that my CD player's tray (Arcam FMJ CD36) stopped working a few years ago and the repair shop lost the original power cable when they gave it back to me, so they gave me a generic substitute (which is probably about the same). That's when I started thinking about getting an upgrade cable... not for a huge audiophile improvement, but just to have a "nice" cable. The Shunyata Venom 14 caught my attention because it was one of the least expensive power cables. It couldn't possibly make my equipment sound worse...

I keep thinking that the money spent on audiophile power upgrades could buy a lot of music.

Edited June 30, 2020 by HiWire

[Pars]

$135 for an IEC power cord is a lot of snake oil. I've built a few Bob Crump Asylum power cables, and honestly can't tell any difference between them and generic hd 14ga IEC cables. For a CD player, very little current so even 16ga would be just fine.

[HiWire]

That's what I thought, too. In this case, Arcam was probably right... stick with a normal power cable and it will sound just fine.

My plan was to try it with the CD player and if there wasn't a noticeable difference, try it on the preamp (Arcam FMJ C31).

Edited June 30, 2020 by HiWire

[morphsci]

I used to make my own power cables also, but the reason had nothing to do with the sound. It was to have them exactly the length I needed. Now I have a whole box of different length power cords that does come in handy.

[HiWire]

What's funny is that I used to have a box of these power cords at the office (and I still have a few) – I used to harvest them from all the retired PCs and other equipment. I'm sure they'd all sound exactly the same... but:

Edited June 30, 2020 by HiWire

[skullguise]

I believe more in Power Conditioning than Power Cords.  Almost any good shielded design works fine after a conditioner in my house.

That said, another Crump design (TG Audio SLVR) seems to make a positive difference to my ears no matter where it's used.....

I didn't want to believe, but just when I thought I was out they dragged me right friggin' in 😂

[dsavitsk]

7 hours ago, HiWire said:

Thoughts?

Buy audio components with competently designed power supplies. A $3 inductor does way more than any of these cables or conditioners.

[n_maher]

7 minutes ago, dsavitsk said:

Buy audio components with competently designed power supplies. A $3 inductor does way more than any of these cables or conditioners.

This. All of this. 

I used to build my own power cables too, but mostly just for fun and I don't think I ever spent more than $20 or $30 in parts which still felt silly.

[swt61]

Like many people here, I use the hospital grade cords...

They work great.

[Craig Sawyers]

The Entech meter has of course been improved upon by the Chinese https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NY21XG2?pf_rd_r=1BCER1ZTYCX3V67DZW7G&pf_rd_p=e632fea2-678f-4848-9a97-bcecda59cb4e . There is an image of the circuit board; trivial it is not.

At least the Chinese one shows a value in millivolts of noise, and does not have a random knob. So there is at least a pretense of it being an objective measurement rather than Entech's random number.

Looking further it covers 10kHz to 10MHz, much wider than Entech's, and is multi-standard - so you can plug it into both 120V 60Hz and 240V 50Hz.

[Craig Sawyers]

OK - I sprung for a Chinese one from an eBay seller for sixty quid and free shipping. We'll see. It'll take a couple of weeks to get here. Chinese can often be quite good with what they say it is worth on the customs form, so it sneaks past customs.

[Craig Sawyers]

The Chinese gizmo finally arrived after I extracted it from UK customs. Interesting so far. Measuring in my office, which has the computer, UPS and monitor I get 350mV

In the kitchen with none of the LED lights on, 100mV and with all the LED ceiling lights on, 145mV. So the switched mode supplies inject a decent amount of extra garbage into the mains.

Plugged in to a Russ Andrews Signature Powerblock, 40mV. So the good news is that the power block - which among other things contains a bank of mains X rated capacitors between live and neutral - seems to be doing what it says on the tin.

More playing around is going to happen....