Antonkk:
The Python is richer sounding than the Viper, without the Viper ever sounding "lean" in the way say, a Nordost Brahma, might. I haven't switched them in applications, but I can say that I am in no way feeling that the Vipers are cords that have me feeling I should have gotten Pythons instead. Still, having said that, I might prefer a Python on a CD player or preamp. 'Course, if one is rich enough, one might just go to Anaconda CX. Or King Cobra.
My experience is that the newer cords, during sudden explosions which follow with a death drop into sudden silence, let you hear into the room very easily. They sound...continuous in the same way that Hurricane amplifiers do. I had a King Cobra V2, which I compared to the Python CX. The KC's upper midrange and trebles are softer, to my ears, than the newer cables, which sound neither too sharp, nor too recessed. One could buy Vipers and be happy. Someone suggested I try Synergistic Research and so....I did. I have to say, comparing a $2400 cord against a $700 cord made me nervous: what was I going to do if I like the $2400 cord better?? I'm not going to say there was a huge difference, sonically. I'm not going to say the Viper was better. What I AM going to say is that I could not, with my system, hear much difference between the two at all. And MAN, was I glad about that! I also had the odd experience of putting the Synergistic between the wall and a PS Audio Ultimate Outlet last night, with the Viper plugged into the UO (you know, the put-the-best-cord-into-the-wall theorem). The three did not like each other, I can tell you THAT!! The sound got glassy, and opaque. So, I then plugged the Viper back directly into the wall, and I could hear into the silences again, glassiness gone, just liquid silence. Today, I plugged the Viper from the amp into the UO, and the other Viper from the UO into the wall. Quite a difference. A good one. In fact, there was less grain in the soundfield. Not a comment on Synergistic at all: it sounds great. It's just that, for 3 1/2 times the cost of the Viper, I was hoping for an Epiphany, I didn't get it. Now I'm wondering what the Guardian does for the sound!
And I got more Dark Elevators from when I first bought them a year ago. Interestingly enough, when I first put four of them into the system (I was cheap, I only go the 4-pack), I couldn't hear much difference with the ceramic elevators under one speaker cable and the Darkies under the other. After putting the other 4 Darkies under the other speaker, I heard a noticeable difference: the soundfiel was "darker" in the sense of a bas relief. Instruments were easily more 3-D as they separated themselves from each other and the air around them, and also, seemingly, even less grain (which goes along with lower noise, not in the freeze-dried vaccum sense, but in the living-silences sense). These things are quite a bargain, I now think (I didn't before think that: I couldn't hear the difference with only 4 of them under the cables. My advice: if you get them, get the 12-pack) and I'm pleased to say they're worth the money. They don't LOOK like they'd do much, but they do.
I think I must now hear the King Cobra, if only for comparison's sake. I loved the V2s (never had the V1s). They had SLAAMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm delighted that I don't have to spend a fortune to get excellent results. That's the bottom line.
The CX line in and of itself is a grand slam for Shunyata. To keep the costs the same as the old line and improve as much as they did (especially in the upper midrange and treble) bespeaks an extremely fair upgrade for almost no increase in cost. Now, THAT'S value.
