P20 cable responsiveness

Of course, you can get discounts, but not much. Wacky hobby!

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OK - full disclosure, having fun w/ Ronā€¦ I have all Shunyata Research power cords. I was having fun with that postā€¦ my SR cablesā€¦ :slight_smile:
(2) SR Sigma NR cables
(6) SR Alpha NR cables
(6) SR Delta NR cables

Yes. It wouldnā€™t make sense to power anything less than a power plant or large amp with a Sigma.
And I traded/sold a bunch of power cables to The Cable Co and TMR which made the Sigma far less painful.
Iā€™m listening with the Sigma and itā€™s better on the P20 by a country mile. But interestingly, switching between the Alpha and Sigma on my amp makes very little, if any difference. Iā€™m guessing it must have to do with the power supply of each.

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@RonP, are you saying you compared the Alpha to the Sigma on the P20 as well?

Yup 10characters

Wait till you try the sigma and alpha usb cables! Good times!!

@RonP, if you could give a bit more on how they compared on the P20 itā€™d be great. Thanks.

Iā€™m as far from a reviewer as one can get, but here goes:
The Alpha was a very strong improvement over what I was using before, which was an AC12.
The Sigma is just more of everything. Acoustic bass has much more weight and also more definition; a pronounced leading edge to the pluck of the string. Horns and vocals are more textured and realistic.
Drums, especially the snare also have more snap as the stick hits the skin.
Overall, the whole presentation of the music just sounds more alive. Not brighter, just alive.
And a couple audiophiles, who were willing to wait while the system powered down and up as I switched the Alpha to Sigma on the P20 agreed that the improvement was impressive. They didnā€™t know which was which but they both picked the Sigma. There must be something more to it than just the heavier gauge.
But as I said before, when I did the same experiment on my power amp, I didnā€™t notice an improvement.

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Now youā€™ve done it. I thought I could get by with my recent wallet wrenching
move to all SR Alphasā€¦keeping the lone AC12 on the P20. I will have to give the
Alpha and Sigma a listen. I thought that a regenerator would make up for the sins
of what comes before it. Oh well. By the way, l found the improvement scale with
cables varies with components ( a point you were making) and for me there were
diminishing returnsā€¦best sc jump on the DAC, then DMP, BHK, and 300ā€™s. Thanks
for sharing your findings.

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Thanks Ron!

@straightwire - Going SR Anaconda CX (1.75m, 6ga, 20A) for P20 was a huge SQ improvement for the same reasons @RonP detail above in this thread. In addition, going to the SR Alpha NR for the components you sight is the exact same SQ sensitivity I found: DSD is no doubt the largest SQ jump, hands down. You need to really get a great PC on that component; however, SR Sigma NR is overkill. Going SR Anaconda CX for the P20 was the 2nd biggest SQ move. The 3rd is the DMP and last is the BHK300s with the least SQ jump. Thanks for sharing and it definitely hurt the wallet; good thing @RonP sent me Christmas money or the creditors would be knocking on my doorā€¦ :slight_smile:

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Cable quality to the P20 was a complete surprise to me. It still feels counter intuitive based on what the thing is doing. But I trust my ears.
And absolutely, the DSD Sr. is the second most responsive component in my system to a high quality cable.
I would go to Cable Coā€™s lending library to try the Sigma to P20 before parting with the money. Only trust your ears, not mine.

I have only one SR cord - a ZiTron Python that I use on the DS. That was the best cord for the DAC. When I was using the RSA Haley conditioner (a great conditioner, IMO) I felt a VH Audio AirSine was the best choice feeding that. I have that feeding the P15 now. I wonder what would happen if I switch the cables so the SR is feeding the P15 and the VH the DS? I didnā€™t think that was the best configuration with the Haley. :thinking:

Couldnā€™t hurt to try. Think of it this way: Your P15 gets your best cable and it benefits from it. And everything plugged into it benefits.

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Ah, but thatā€™s not always clear. Previous to the P15 my AirSine was the ā€œbestā€ main cable to feed my Haley, even if arguably my ZiTron would be assumed to be the better cable.

Audio, thou art a fickle goddess! :laughing:

But yes, I will try!

My sigma NR is already at my ups store for my P20 but I get in too late to get it!

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Congrats, and let us know how you like the Sigma/P20 synergy.

Will do, canā€™t wait!

FBTW, regarding the Sigmas and Alphas, are we talking Analog or Digital?

Ah, never mind. I see the NR technology make the need for Analog vs Digital obsolete.

However, if I want to try a previous gen Sigma (which are still around if you look), would the Analog or Digital be more appropriate for a P20/P15? And would that be better than, say, an Alpha NR?

Theyā€™re not differentiated that way anymore.