Shunyata ztron power vs cx cables...

Thank you Oddeophile for your detailed description and welcome to the discussion. Your experience is aligned with what Vhiner has been sharing with us. It's good to know the cables will improve over time. I'm in a phase where they are not sounding excellent (I have ~110H on them). Highs/medium are thin and the presentation is flat (no 3D). As you said I need to be patient :-).

Anyone of you using a power conditioner in addition to your AC cables? For my part, I'm using a Torus AVR15.

Audioquest4life,

I have not heard the ZTron AC cables, but from what I have read here and there the ZTron adds a very fast transient "jump factor" to the sound and at least one person felt they exceeded the CX series.

For me, it does not matter. I love the combination CX King Cobra/Anaconda AC cables throughout my system coupled with the ZTron Anaconda signal/speaker cables and Python ZTron XLR digital cable.

I have noted, also, on Audiogon that nobody seems to be selling their CX AC cables so that tells me something.

Frankly, I adore my CX AC cables and plan on having them stay with me for a very long time.

Best,

Odd

Wig,

Yeah, that is the tough part of dealing with these cables with tubes. Of course, you could procure a Cable Cooker but that is not very inexpensive, either.

I lust after the Audio Research Reference 5 SE, but alas, will not enter my system until a long time. The Shunyata's set me back a lot for a long time.

Best,
Odd

Audioquest4life,

The main sources are Music Direct and the Cable Company. I use Galen Carol Audio. Galen's a straight shooter. I'm sure others have their favorites.

I think like all components of the audio chain they are system dependent and more importantly listener preferences.

I've compared the Cobra ztron with the Python cx and the Anaconda cx with the Python ztron. I preferred the cx combination. In my system the Cobra was indeed faster, livelier, but lost body and bass. Soundstage narrowed and presentation became forward. The difference of the cobra with Python cx is very evident from the start. Comparing Python ztron to the Anaconda cx I found the ztron to sound bigger, more bass and body but slower. Bass is not as tight as Anaconda but soundstage wider and deeper. Overall slightly darker sounding. I heard more details with the Anaconda.

I say system dependent because I use cx all the way from source to amps so that may have contributed to the presentation I heard. If I compared the all cx system with an all ztron system perhaps my findings will be different.

Which ones are better? Who knows. Only you can decide what kind of presentation you like.