Nordost Vishnu or Shunyata Copperhead Power Cord

A Vishnu loom improved bass in my system by adding weight, refinement and speed. I've never tried Shunyata though.

Vishnu's strengths really come out when used with other Nordost power cords (they call this a loom). Shunyata also recommends using all the same brand for best results. So I think you might be better off sticking with the same brand that you use elsewhere - assuming of course that you have been sticking with just one brand.

What improved bass more than anything in my system was swapping the Nordost Vishnu used at the wall with a single Nordost Brahma.  The first power cord really sets the tone for what will follow.  But, I imagine this might not be as effective when not using cords from the same manufacturer.

Mixing and matching may give you a short term gain.  But where do you go from there?  Another benefit of using cords from the same manufacturer is you gain a predictable upgrade path.  I have a half dozen friends who started with Nordost Magus and moved on from there.  There has been tremendous consistency in our findings as we've upgraded.  

When I added the Brahma to my Vishnu loom as described above, my results *exactly* matched the results a friend got when he did this same thing.  And I know exactly what to expect when I add a Valhalla power cord at some future point.  (That's my next move actually.   I will use a singe Valhalla at the wall.  This will then be followed by a Brahma used between my QX4 and QB8.  Then Vishnu cords will run from the QB8 to all my components.)

Lastly, I should mention that prior to using Nordost power cords, I used a mix of Lessloss, ESP, and PS Audio cords.  Those cords retailed for between $600 and $750 each.  A complete loom of the $180 Magus humiliated the mix of much more expensive cords.  Magus was a huge upgrade and confirmed for me that the loom theory is correct.

Ken

I expect my cables and power cords to do just one thing: get the heck out of the way so I can hear the gear that I paid for. I think that's why I'm not too keen on mixing and matching power cords. I think the goal should be find the power cord that best gets out of the way - and use that cord throughout your system.

I'm not totally following Roy's loom theory right now because I'm using a loom of MIT signal cables with a loom of Nordost power cords. My Spectral gear requires that I use MIT speaker cables, but I'm free to use any brand of interconnect. I settled on MIT because I thought their cables did a better job of getting out of the way than the Nordost interconnects I tried. I suspect the Nordost signal cables were put at a disadvantage because they were paired with MIT speaker cables. I ended up with a hybrid that played to neither cable's strengths.

I ended up going with Nordost power cords as by sheer luck Roy/Nordost sent me and a few local friends a bunch of Nordost power cords to support a weekend event we had at my house involving some members of the Phonogram mailing list. We were sent enough power cords to complete two looms: one of Magus and one of Vishnu. We tried these in two different system and the results were consistent. This won me over to Roy's loom theory.

I believe that synergy comes when a system performs at a level that's greater than the sum of the parts. I certainly get this when using a full loom of MIT signal cables - not surprising since my gear was designed with this cable in mind. And I'd imagine I'd have even greater synergy if I also used MIT power cords. But given how well the Nordost cords have worked out, I'm not that interested in trying them.

I'm not sure it's correct to use the term synergy to describe the net effect of mixing and matching to achieve a certain voicing or a certain sound. In this case you are counteracting one cable with another so neither performs greater than it can on its own. But I totally understand where you are coming from. The only thing that I know about the Shun Mook products, is that those who have tried them find that they really like them. I should try some of their stuff one day.

Thanks for sharing your insight as well Oscar. Have a happy holiday!

Ken

Just getting back to this now as the holiday kept me otherwise occupied. Thanks for the compliments about my system guys.

In terms of the Vishnu being thin, I think it depends on which direction one is heading. If using cords at or below the Vishnu's retail price, I suspect one won't consider the Vishnu thin at all. The increase in low end weight was one of the improvements that most impressed me about the Vishnu. That quality improves dramatically as you move up to the Brahma, of course. I'd expect this would be true for just about any manufacturer's power cord when moving up to one that costs around twice as much.

Interesting comments about the Shunyata cords Gbmcleod. If I wasn't already so heavily invested in Nordost & Quantum products, Shunyata cords would be at the top of my list.

Gbmcleod mentioned the Magnepan 1.7/3.7. A friend upgraded from the 3.6 to the 3.7 not too long ago. The 3.7 was a huge upgrade from the 3.6. The 3.6 couldn't disappear - all too often the drivers would call attention to themselves. The 3.7 disappears completely. I'd say that the 3.7's greatest strength is treble and midrange purity. The treble in particular is excellent. Ultimately though, I could not live with the 3.7s due to how it performs in the lower frequencies - unless maybe I added a pair of subs. The 3.7 certainly lets you know low bass is present in recordings, but it does not deliver the weight I'd expect to hear in real life as very little air is moved. This may be partly due to my friend's electronics or cabling, or the fact that he tends to listen at moderate volume levels. I'm a drummer and get easily distracted when drums aren't properly reproduced. Bass drums just don't sound right to me from the 3.7s. I hear the frequencies that suggest a certain size bass drum, but the heft I'd expect to hear from that drum just doesn't follow. The beater hitting the head doesn't carry the weight I'd expect either, particularly at lower volume levels. I'm guessing a pair of subs would remedy this. Or maybe a full loom of Brahma. :-)

I don't doubt Lars for a minute. The Brahma demonstrated to me how the power cord used at the wall sets the tone for the rest of the loom.

I won't be downsizing, but this finding did cause me to adjust my plans for upgrading. Normally I would have just continued replacing Vishnus with Brahmas. Instead I will leave my Vishnu loom in place and only upgrade the cord at the wall. So next I hope to replace the Brahma at the wall with a Valhalla. And following that at some future time I hope to be replace the Valhalla with an Odin.

I'm guessing that the ability to make these kinds of advances by only swapping the power cord at the wall point to another benefit of using the same brand of power cord throughout.

Ken

Resurrecting this thread to report on upgrading my loom. I'm now using Brahma throughout. In my earlier posts, Brahmas were used from the wall to my QX4 and from QX4 to QB8. Vishnu cords were used between the QB8 and all my components.

Last weekend Brahmas took the place of all the Vishnus. This delivered significant gains with improvements in all areas. Bass now has more weight while being faster, more dynamic, and more extended. Tonal density has increased across the board, and there have been improvements in low level detail, clarity, color, ease, naturalness, dynamics, focus, speed, high frequency extension, dimensionality, and soundstage width & depth.

Most importantly - what I hear sounds much more like live music, particularly when the volume is cranked. I couldn't be more pleased.