Shunyata interconnect cables experience


Just a general question, does anyone have experience with Shunyata interconnect cables? RCA's. I am not talking power cables, but interconnects. I know their reputation in the power side of things. 
Reason I am asking is I just received their Alpha USB cable for between my Innuos Zen mkIII and Chord Qutest and I am pretty darn impressed with what I am hearing. I am replacing a Cardas High speed USB cable (the one with the double run of cable). The Cardas is a nice cable, but this Shunyata Alpha is just stunning, now I know its about 3x the cost, but I just hear so much deeper into the music. It has such a black background. Its very detailed yet very refined, hard to explain, its just more natural and musical. I have Shunyata Venon power cables, the NR V10 and NR V12 so I was already familiar with their quality and reputation on the power side of things. This was my first experience with any type if component cable.
So it makes me curious if their interconnects provide the same type of results? I am running a pair of Cardas Clear Cygnus between my Qutest and Primaluna. The Cygnus is a nice cable but now I wonder after trying the Shunyata Alpha USB, what am I missing with the interconnects?
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Showing 2 responses by ianb52

I haven't tried them in my system, but have heard good things. Ive heard they might be a little warmer in their balance than Shunyata. Those and Tara Labs are the only others in this price range that I haven't explored.
I had the Sigma V2 XLRs here for a week from The Cable Company lending library, and they were extremely impressive. They didn’t jive with my system in every respect, but when I went trying out alternatives like an even more expensive Transparent Audio Reference Balanced, I realized that you have to spend way more money with other brands to get the low noise, deep soundstage, detail and dynamics of the Sigma V2. The TA didn’t even come close in terms of overall fidelity, but did have some strengths of its own. I’ve actually never heard anything else with so much detail, dynamics and soundstage, nor with such a deep black background. I’ve never heard any interconnect improve the fidelity of my system to that degree.

If I had one complaint it was that the midrange was a bit recessed and the lower treble was intense and biting in my system. The speed was also sometimes a bit much because all the edges were very sharply defined rather than round or soft. When I went back to my previous Wireworld Platinum Eclipse 8, the WW was better tonally balanced and more relaxed, but so much of that resolution and transparency was lost. The Sigma V2 is just on another level. 

I actually found that even the demo cable changed in sound significantly over 5 days. It’s possible that the tone would have settled even more over an additional week or two. If they are anything like the Sigma V2 power cables, of which I have 3, they take a really long time (weeks) to mellow on the top end because of the silver in the cable.

Nonetheless, I am realizing that it is pretty unlikely that I’m going to find anything that can compete with the Sigma V2 for less than 10k, and I’m just not going there. A $5k set of interconnects is already insane, if a level of insanity I will accept for the audio quality. More than that, I just can’t do. There isn’t a whole lot of buzz or marketing about these cables yet, but if they match well with your system, they are a ridiculously good.