Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Cleaning the bits

Andrew, Audio Therapy will be more than obliging in providing whatever Shunyata cables you want for a personal home evaluation - for the cost of return shipping (which is refunded if you actually buy anything).

Let us all know how you get on with your testing.

I am sure they will, but that’s not what I am asking for, and that’s not what Audio Science Review are asking for.

The request is for a properly conducted double blind listening test and some null testing. ASR have conducted null testing on two power cables and I’ve posted the results here.

If we can get Audio Therapy to fund an independent double blind listening test then that will tell us rather more than one person making subjective remarks.

Chicken.

Seriously? This is a forum for adult audio lovers and you want to resort to that?

Indeed but we are digressing, this was only about special switches not other cables whom I think are actually not rubbish so maybe go back to the networking rabbit hole some people are trying to sell us.

For me, the effective way to test things are in my own system. There are many reasons why this proves to be highly effective:

I am intimately familiar with every aspect of the room where I am free from any distractions such as unfamiliar equipment, seating position and comfort, lighting, temperature, strange sales guys, logistics etc.

Because of those things mentioned above, I can focus on even the smallest detail over any change in sound quality a newly added tweak can have on my system.

The most profound experience with a tweak was when we were focused on a pre amp comparison, a industry rep placed an HRS damping plate on top of a Brinkman tube phono stage. Everyone in the room was startled at the difference it made. Even my wife looked up from her reading and asked what happened. My point is an in home trial is the best way to test new things as you are free from all the other distractions.

Kind off funny or not how determen people try to prove they are right and the other is wrong....
Perhaps it has something to do with ego

As for me some things seem to make sense,

People who work in Ict know that the digital packages do not change and it is and stays bittperfect digital. But they are seldom electronics experts in the analog small signal domain...
There is some Analog (AC) noise (switching noise psu, processors, emc etc) traveling along with those packages which normally is no problem for the Ict world.
But that noise can ad disturbance further upstream when converting those packages to audio (DAC, clock).
If we use that computer for music don't we tend to use better sounding asynchronous USB audio which makes the more precise and cleaner fed DAC clock the "master" clock to reduce jitter?


Good shielded powercables seem reasonable to me. In two ways it keeps magnetic fields inside and away from small signal cables, it keeps emc outside of the cable and sometimes has the same thickness as the wires on the other side off the socket. Good emc shielding is also standard procedure in sensitive industrial installations and hospitals to prevent malfunction due to emc interference.

But is it measurable?
Audible? It also depends on the situation I guess.

Thinking that the knowledge we have now is all there is is perhaps a little arrogant and limiting?
That also goes for Amir from ASR as he needs to see proof in his measurements and they don't make it visible than the difference doesn't exists. Believing we know all there is to know. He gives most things the listening test after his all important measurements which ads likely the same kind off psychological effect that they accuse the audiophile off.
He concluded by the measurements that the G68 wasn't a good receiver which for me states that he is a little deaf or the audible qualities aren't that important

Bruce I’m sure that testing things in your own home is a very good way to test things for all the reasons you suggest. And I have.
The other point, however, is that if I am going to spend up to say £9000 on power cables, I want to know what they are actually doing. Take the Cardas Audio Clear Beyond Power XL. £4,230. Each. One of the claims about this cable is this:

“The Cardas Audio Clear Beyond Power XL in combination with the V12 Amplifier yielded one of those unforgettable, you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me moments an audiophile never forgets! The XL was easily 25% more detailed, produced a blacker background, was smoother than my already smooth reference, and captured timbral realism beyond my ability to describe in English“

25% more detailed? Well, that’s definitely going to be measurable. And audible.

But a null test shows no difference with the stock power cord which costs nothing.

If a manufacturer wants me to part with several months salary for something that they don’t wish to subject to objective measurement in the form of a double blind listening test with a good sample of ears, but still want to claim it makes things 25% more detailed ….blacker background….smoother sound…etc etc….then I’m afraid they don’t earn my trust. But somebody who actually pays for it specifically to rigorously test it does.

I trust my own ears. But for £9,000 for a metre or two of cable, I also like to have an objective assessment of what’s going on.

Those descriptions crack me up but make me sad at the same time. They make the nonbeliever even more skeptic and the audiophile a laughing stock. The captured timbral realism is beyond his ability to describe in English? I agree as he did a terrible job describing the rest...
How do we measure "detailness", by what grandeur of measure? 4 audible string plucks in 1 song is 100 and 5 1/8 in the same song is at least 25% more?
As for blacker background, smoothness and the price. Perhaps they were playing smooth criminal by MJ in the dark?

Has anyone on here (dealers) been in the fortunate position to compare/test the filtering prowess on the Network Acoustics' eno2 with the single element CMode filtering of the Shunyata Alpha-X and/or the dual element CMode filter on the Shunyata Sigma-X Ethernet Cables?

When I purchased my first pair of DSP5200SE from Bruce in December 2017, he gently suggested that I audition Shunyata power for them despite what Bob Stuart had said. I had always been content with stock for my 5000s, 33s and, later, Smileys but was so impressed with Special Edition that I took a flyer and learned something. That was my downfall.

Because I moved the Smileys to a new acoustically-challenged listening area instead of selling them, I started playing around with different ways to coax more out of the older technology, including power, network, vibration and DSP to augment physical room treatment. Many, many relatively inexpensive experiments followed, and continue today.

I did try eno2, which stays in the system (now featuring DSP9s) as the last cable into a Pi4 Diretta Target. Beats the pants off my 218.

Your host Raspberry Pi runs a distro that supports Diretta for transport. That surely can't make Roon core redundant, along with all that DSP, library management, and Roon updates. I asked an AI and it suggested:

Roon Core > Diretta Host (Linux) > Diretta Target (Pi) > DSP speakers

So the best of both worlds: Roon core for convenience features, Diretta for clean transport. Does this sound about right? I couldn't find David Snyder's article on this, just the endpoint videos. It certainly is interesting.

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