Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Upgrade paths - power supply, Shunyata cables

I wonder how much 8kSE owners would pay for external clock inputs.

A 10MHz clock input? In 861, 818 and 8kSEV2?

That would take Meridian up the performance chain quite significantly..

IIRC, the SE loudspeaker DAC modulator is already operating at that kind of frequency.

Thank you VK for being in the time domain.

Surely a clock derived from a 10MHz clock signal could potentially have as many/more phase noise issues as less expensive dual 44.1KHz/48kHz clocks where the clocks are exact multiples of these frequencies? Would it be better to stick to multiples of these frequencies?

I’m somewhat of a Shunyata convert. My 818v3 uses a Sigma Digital power cord and 8kSE use AlphaVR(for now). I also have a Shunyata UK6 but now with these cables find it sounds better both coming direct from the wall and it is no longer being used.


Previously I had tried numerous Ethernet cables from a 2nd switch into the 818 with no real noticeable differences(most expensive was an Audioquest Vodka).

Last week I had on demo, Singular Shunyata Alpha and Sigma Ethernet cables to try and also a pair of Vertere Ethernet(which at the time I’d not heard of).....I had to look them up.....they are not cheap.

This was the first time that a cable has made any kind of difference to how the 818 sounds, especially the Sigma and Vertere(Alpha made no noticeable difference)

The difference was not positive though. I found that the sound was darker in character, as if some sort of filter was being applied. This was very apparent on vocals and I felt some of the key vocal frequencies were being limited in some way. This was the case for Sigma and Vertere from 2nd switch into 818.

I had a similar experience using the Vertere in place of my Speakerlink cables using them as Home Run configuration. Vocals again were not as clear and somehow filtered.

As a trial I then used the Alpha Ethernet on one speaker and sigma on the other.....so some inherent imbalance but still heard the same type of filtered sound on vocals and the same darker sound.

Finally, I tried the Sigma from switch into 818 and the Vertere from 818 into 8kSE.

Initially I thought this brought some extra nuances and more noticeable decays but when I swapped back to my cheap Cat5e from switch and Meridian Speakerlink cables, I was able to hear the same level of decay and the only difference was the return of the full range of frequencies.


As a point of reference, i am able to hear a difference between Roon core decoding vs 818 decoding.

I also hear a very noticeable difference between Qoboz and Tidal. I find Qobuz has more sibilance on more vocals than Tidal/MQA.

I had a (non-audiophile) friend visit and asked him to take a listen. I didn’t tell him what I was changing but asked him to listen with full set-up of demo cables vs my existing cables and he described exactly the differences I was hearing.
I also undertook the same exercise reverting back to my previous power cables and then reverting back to full Shunyata.......he said ‘there was an obvious difference....keep the power cables but don’t buy the other things you were changing’

From my power cord experience with Shunyata, I was expecting to hear a noticeable difference in a positive way, with their Ethernet cables but this was not the case. So from a bias point of view, I was prepared to pay quite a bit to upgrade what I thought was the weakest link in my system.

I haven’t ruled changes out in this area as I’ve now heard a cable ‘can’ make a difference to the 818..which I hadn’t before now. Also there are a few that have heard differences with changing cables used as speakerlink.I’m just intrigued to se if I can find something that’s better than my freebie Cat5E.

It was an interesting and cheap experience but for now I’ll return to just enjoying listening to some amazing sounding music......with my Freebie Cat5e cable😁

Thanks for your very honest appraisal. With regard to ethernet cables, I do not know the configuration of those you have tried and compared. Have you tried a cable with "floating" construction? This is where the screen and shield are not connected at both ends. This type of cable is available for a modest price from designacable. And there are, of course, other cables using exotic materials and special anti-RFI treatments, but at a price.

How do these expensive Ethernet cables compare to using an optical module to break the noise chain.

Cheers
Greg

Hi ASA,

Thanks for pointing me to that site ... quite informative just by looking at the options available ... and raises a few questions.

I’ll respond further in a non-Shunyata post ... so as not to derail the thread.

Thanks again 😁

I really resonate with your approach and findings. I ran a thread 15+ years ago that found much the same (search ncpl and cables). Despite the expected improvement in performance with more expensive cables I just didn’t agree….so I didn’t buy.

A few years later I did some very extended demo of the Shunyata power blocks and did buy.

I think I am fairly reliable on these things but am aware of bias.

My motto: try stuff by all means but don’t be fooled.