Pangea AC14 Review

Tough to put into words. Much quieter background. If the background could be a color then it should be black. Comparing the amazing deep blacks of a Pioneer KURO plasma TV to the good but not nearly as deep blacks of a LED TV the Shunyata Venom 3 is . . . well, blacker. This makes for a cleaner sound where the subtleties of instruments and sound stage placement are more realized and apparent. The percussion instruments became much more visual. Steely Dan's AJA never sounded so good. BUY SARA K -- Hell or High Water on SACD. Sara's voice and the acoustic guitar . . . you will have eargasms. I met a Shunyata rep at a recent Los Angeles Orange County Audiophile Society meeting. Shunyata is not your average expensive wire and cable company. Call up Shunyata -- they want consumers to become educated on their product. I was skeptical but now I can see. For $100.00 a throw the Venom 3 is a great way to begin to upgrade an audio system.

Dramapsycho - what did the Venom 3 specifically reveal... e.g.
- increased soundstage
- deeper tighter bass
- more ip range details

what cord did you replace with the Venom 3

What is your source

Thanks

I tried the Pangea AC14 in my system (Primaluna Dialogue II int. and Sonus Faber Cremaon Aduitors) and I returned the Pangea for the reasons that you state. I bought the Shunyata Venom 3 ($100.00) and am VERY pleased.

Just an average cord nothing speciel.

I think you'll find that good power cords do not actually make your system sound brighter, but allows your amp(s) to perform better.

Since the power side of the amp is completely isolated from the signal side

However: providing a good supply will allow peaks to be processed by the amps - resulting in a "different" sound.

With a better supply you should also have noticed a distinct improvement in the bass reproduction? - i.e. tighter, deeper and more dynamic

If you didn't, then I would look into the speaker cables. If they are not of sufficient gauge (like 10 gauge) or the capacitance is too high, this would impact the performance of the amp and result in unnatural sound

Another place to look if the sound is overly bright may be the interconnects, where, if the capacitance in them is too high, the interconnect acts as a filter, enhancing the highs and restricting the bass.

NOTE:
1. some amps take a distinct dislike to high capacitance speaker cables
2. phono cart's definitely do not like high capacitance interconnects

Start with the interconnects and move on to the speaker cables

Looking at the Pangea design they seem to offer extremely good bang for the buck, since they are a very similar design to the cables I have on my system, but I have not tried them.

Hi Robbob

What are the markings on the stock Rega DAC Power cord you used that sounded better than the Pangea AC-14? I'm just curious because I'm wondering latest Volex 17604 power cords are the ones being included with newer gear.

I have both AC-14 and AC-14SE cords and have experimented with reterminating them, though I think they're pretty good in stock form. All my AC-14s now have Furutech connecters (IEC and AC) on them and have moved up a couple of notches. The AC-14SEs, though, are almost as good as the reterminated AC-14s and are less expensive (I already had the Furutechs on some other PCs I had made).

If you read my previous posts, I always supported Pangea cords AC-14 especially the SE version, but I agree with O.P. As I move them to my main system, the Pangeas show their weakness relatively as O.P described.

I agree.