Shunyata Omega QR BB vs AudioQuest Dragon HC
I was lucky enough to be able to home-demo both of these state of the art power cords.
I have a Gryphon 300 with the internal DAC module, B&W 803 D2’s, Nordost Valhalla 2 speaker wires, Innuos Zenith Mk 3 and Phoenix Reclocker, AudioQuest Diamond USB cables and AQ Hurricane HC and Source power cords powering my digital source components with an AudioQuest Niagara 1200.
In almost every face of I’ve done before I’ve been able to discern one product that is clearly better than the other.
Both the Shunyata QR BB and AudioQuest Dragon cords are both awesome. Both similarly better than lower cost cords at imaging, transparency and detail, dynamics.
Where they differ is that the Omega is more lush, liquid, and compared to the Dragon, just slightly tonally dark in a pleasant way. It made for a highly luxurious, relaxed, detailed sound.
In contrast the Dragon is drier sounding, neutral, and all tones have a more obvious and forward definition. A bit more energy and life to the music and less laid back. This made the bass stand out more in the dragon, but other tones seemed more “on the surface” as well, in the mid and upper ranges.
Both were great and easy to listen to on my system, and I could go with either cord depending on mood or what material I’m playing.
Howeever I decided to go with the Dragon. The Shunyata is quite loose with my amp, and easily loses connection with the slightest nudge. This is despite using the plastic shim that comes with the cord that is supposed to lock it in place. This physical incompatibility may just be with my amp, but I guess they included that yellow plastic shim for a reason - they must have problems with maintaining connections….
Both companies are top notch with providing demos - both manufactured the cords for me to try with no commitment, as they had no demos on hand.
I wanted to test the Transparent Opus as well, but Transparent was not as generous and simply said they had no demo cables available. Oh well, I’m happy going with the Dragon.
@nyev Thanks for sharing your feedback as playing with cables can be a revelation. I’ve tried AQ Hurricane and Dragon which were good but had a slight analytical character. Since then I’ve moved on to boutique brands such as Hijiri Takumi, Sablon King, and the latest Marigo PC’s. All have their distinct sound but the one thing they have in common is naturalness without losing detail and space. Hope you get a chance to evaluate some of these boutique offerings! -Alex |
At this point, I think either of these cables really have everything I could be looking for (other than the Shunyata being too loose). My Gryphon amplifier is definitely not on the analytical side of things so I don’t know that I’d actually want to go less analytical on my cords! The Hurricane sounds overly fat/rich on my system (by a touch), so the Dragon seems just perfect with its added detail and soundstage. The added detail doesn’t seem bright or analytical. The Shunyata Omega is even smoother than the Dragon, but with my amp, some may even find it too smooth/liquid sounding. But I think they both sound great. All this stuff is obviously so system dependent. |
