Shunyata Alpha HC Power Cords compared to the Shunyata Anaconda Zitron Power Cords And The Typhon
The Summary
Since this is a bit of a Shunyata story, let me cut to the chase and say that after 5 days of being broken in on a fan and 1 week in my system, I believe that in my system the Alpha HC power cords are superior to Anaconda Zitron PC’s in every way, BUT, they are definitely different. They sound more refined, although that may be because they seem to have a lower noise floor than the already amazingly quiet Anaconda’s. The sound stage is more defined, almost laser-like. There is more information beyond the edge of the speakers, suggesting better phase coherency.
For $1250 compared to $3000, the Alpha HC is a no brainer, that is unless you want or need the warmer sound of the Anaconda. For me the Anaconda to Alpha HC sonic comparison is much like comparing an Audio Research REF 3 preamp to the REF 5 SE, with the 5 SE substantially more refined and yet a tiny bit analytic, or is just less colored.
My Shunyata Story
I have been using Shunyata Research products in my system for more than a year and have been absolutely amazed by both the magnitude and nature of the impact of power cords and power distribution products from Shunyata. Although still great value for the money, I was not as impressed by their signal products and since switching to a Spectral 260 amplifier have found them totally incompatible and thus switched all of my signal products to Spectral friendly MIT cables and speaker wire. Sadly, this is no cheap endeavor!
I have found that the Shunyata Zitron power cords and distribution products work as a system, with synergistic impact as more products are added to the system. Clearly they make the most impact where there is the greatest current flow, with one magical exception, the Typhon, but more about that later. The Alpha HC continues that tradition of the system approach.
When I first started my exploration of the world of Caelin Gabriel, Shunyata’s wizzard, all of my power cords were Zitron versions of the Anaconda, Python and Cobra, all plugged into a Triton for filtering and distribution with the Triton plugged into the wall with a 20 amp Anaconda. After an amazingly prolonged break-in that wanders all over the place, especially during the second week, when one should not listen to their system at all to avoid risk of throwing something at the speakers because it can sound that bad, things start to happen that I formerly believed “should not” happen due to power cords.
Bottom line, do not go this route unless you are willing to eventually equip your entire system with Shunyata Zitron PC’s because they are that good and it is essentially impossible to go back, kind of like trying to go back to thinking about sex before experiencing it for the first time then trying to return to the pre-sex relatedness after experiencing sex! If you add a Triton power distribution system to the mix you get at least twice the benefit, but also need to buy another cord to power the Triton, which is not cheap.
During the past year I began migrating upwards in the Shunyata reference line, replacing the Cobras (entry reference PC) with Pythons and then again with the top of the line Anaconda’s. Last summer a new player showed up, the Alpha Digital cable for components with digital power supplies. It is essentially a Cobra with a filter tuned to eliminate digital noise from the power supply in addition to the Zitron circuit.
After struggling through a very extended (1 month) and somewhat wild break-in period, these cables connected to digital components reshaped my sense of what “digital” sounds like, by making it sound analog. There is no way to anticipate this without trying it yourself. The only trade off was a slight reduction in bass definition, probably due to the lack of VTX topology used in the Python and Anaconda but not the Cobra or Alpha series.
So prior to my last change, my system was powered by a Triton connected to a dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground via 20 amp Anaconda, which had three Alpha Digital PC’s for my Meitner DAC, Oppo 103 transport, and Mac Mini music server plugged into it, plus my BAT VK32-SE tubed preamp connected to the Triton via an Anaconda, and a pair of Viper Zitron PC’s connecting my Martin Logan Montis’ to the Triton. On another dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground, my Spectral 260 was connected via an Anaconda and my twin JL F113 subwoofers were connected via Python’s.
The sound was exquisite and way beyond most systems I have heard at the twice cost of my system ($100k). In order to generate money for the addition of a Typhon and 5 new Alpha HC PC’s, I sold all of my Shunyata PC’s except the three Alpha Digitals for the digital equipment and the Viper Zitron’s for the ML’s. This meant that the Triton was taken out of the circuit because I sold the Anaconda that powered it.
Bottom line for the three weeks after selling the cords and awaiting my new purchases, I did not listen to music because it sounded like a giant step backwards to electronic components and certainly no longer like music. It was painful, and totally unexciting
When the 5 Alpha HC’s (high current with twice the copper of plain Alpha series and special high current filter) arrived, I daisy-chained them using SR burn-in adapters and connected them to a fan for 5 days, which supposedly would achieve the majority of the burn it. I plugged the Typhon with its own Typhon AHC umbilical into a separate socket for 24 hours before inserting it in parallel with the Spectral in the same dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground.
While this thread is about the Alpha HC versus the Anaconda and not the Typhon, let me just say that even with all of the cruddy temporary PC’s in place and no Triton, just putting the Typhon in parallel in the same circuit as the Spectral 260 was incredible in 10 minutes. I got back at least 33% of what I lost with the elimination of all of the PC’s and the Triton. By the time 4 days had passed and no insertions of the new Alpha HC cords, and no Triton, I now had about 50% back of what I had lost compared to the pre-change scenario.
Now for more detail about the Alpha HC’s. After the 5 day fan break-in, they definitely were not fully broken in because after an additional week in the system, they sound completely different than one day after insertion when much of the annealing had occurred. I put them in sequentially, Spectral, BAT preamp, Triton (and then plugged the entire front end into the Triton. I put Harmonic Technology AC-10’s on the JL 113’s and then listened for the next day to try to assess the Alpha HC’s, although the Triton was resettling after being off for a month. The sound improved considerably but was still lagging behind what it replaced.
I then put the Alpha HC’s into the JL F 113’s, probably the best test of the cord since they plug directly into the wall in the same dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground that the Spectral is plugged into with the Typhon now out of the circuit. First of all, removing the Typhon from the parallel position to the Spectral can only be described by a loud S… or F…, it made that much difference—go figure. Before plugging the Typhon into the Triton on the front end, I listened to the system again, now with the JL’s under the influence of the Alpha HC and Typhon sitting on the side
Let me cut to the chase once again on the Alpha HC’s. This is the power cord for the JL F 113’s. It is that much better than the Python’s. After 5 days on the fan and a week in the system, the cords are still breaking in in the lowest bass and with regard to articulation of the attack of the bass. However, we are already deep into the best bass region I have ever had, and still more break in to go.
The Typhon
This is the device Caelin calls the single best product that Shunyata makes. He refers to its impact as “magical. All I can say is that based on having owned the majority of Shunyata’s Zitron offerings, a Triton, a Typhon, a Viper PS-8, a Defender, etc., I can absolutely agree on the best product side and without a doubt agree on the magical side.
However, I would like to add another word “puzzling”. I say puzzling because while it is hard to initially appreciate just how much difference Shunyata PC’s and Triton make to the overall sound and experience, it is somewhat understandable because the current must flow through them. However, with the Typhon, it runs in parallel and yet it has about 50% as much impact as the PC’s and Triton combined.
What is even more puzzling is that the nature of the change is very dependent on where the Typhon is inserted, front-end or back-end. While the magnitude of the change does not seem to change much, its qualitative component does drastically. The difference is so dramatic that sadly the only reasonable answer from a sound standpoint is to have a Typhon in both the front-end and back-end (please send my lunatic fringe card pdf to my email!). This is the only scenario where I prefer the idea of a stereo amp compared to mono blocks so I do not have to buy a Typhon for each amp. However, one could probably just install a 40 amp circuit, and plug in one Typhon and both mono blocks.
The best way I can describe the difference in the Typhon’s contribution at the front and rear is as follows. With the Typhon plugged into the Triton, every benefit the Triton contributes, increases, substantially. The ability to better envision the sound stage, almost as if one is able to walk around the musicians, is profound. With it on the back end, the sound stage is bigger, deeper, but not quite as defined, albeit only slightly less because the Triton does have three NIC’s, essentially the only component of the Typhon. Granted, the Triton has three 12,000 cubic mm NIC’s on each of the hot, neutral and grounds conductors, while the Typhon has only two NIC’s on the hot and neutral, each with 30,800 cubic mm’s of pixie dust. So the unavoidable conclusion is more pixie dust is better, but even a moderate amount is good.
Here’s why one needs a Typhon on the back end—it makes your amp(s) and Sub’s sound better. For almost the same difference, I could have bought a 300 RS instead of my 260 amp, assuming that it will be released before I die and probably gotten at least the same kind of sound improvement, if not more, based on what I hear from Marty’s 400’s compared to my 260. The problem is that I would have to also sell my JL F113’s and buy JL Gothams because that is the type of magnitude of change that occurs on the back end through both the amp and the woofs. So using audio logic, it is a bargain to buy a second Typhon!!!
The Summary
Since this is a bit of a Shunyata story, let me cut to the chase and say that after 5 days of being broken in on a fan and 1 week in my system, I believe that in my system the Alpha HC power cords are superior to Anaconda Zitron PC’s in every way, BUT, they are definitely different. They sound more refined, although that may be because they seem to have a lower noise floor than the already amazingly quiet Anaconda’s. The sound stage is more defined, almost laser-like. There is more information beyond the edge of the speakers, suggesting better phase coherency.
For $1250 compared to $3000, the Alpha HC is a no brainer, that is unless you want or need the warmer sound of the Anaconda. For me the Anaconda to Alpha HC sonic comparison is much like comparing an Audio Research REF 3 preamp to the REF 5 SE, with the 5 SE substantially more refined and yet a tiny bit analytic, or is just less colored.
My Shunyata Story
I have been using Shunyata Research products in my system for more than a year and have been absolutely amazed by both the magnitude and nature of the impact of power cords and power distribution products from Shunyata. Although still great value for the money, I was not as impressed by their signal products and since switching to a Spectral 260 amplifier have found them totally incompatible and thus switched all of my signal products to Spectral friendly MIT cables and speaker wire. Sadly, this is no cheap endeavor!
I have found that the Shunyata Zitron power cords and distribution products work as a system, with synergistic impact as more products are added to the system. Clearly they make the most impact where there is the greatest current flow, with one magical exception, the Typhon, but more about that later. The Alpha HC continues that tradition of the system approach.
When I first started my exploration of the world of Caelin Gabriel, Shunyata’s wizzard, all of my power cords were Zitron versions of the Anaconda, Python and Cobra, all plugged into a Triton for filtering and distribution with the Triton plugged into the wall with a 20 amp Anaconda. After an amazingly prolonged break-in that wanders all over the place, especially during the second week, when one should not listen to their system at all to avoid risk of throwing something at the speakers because it can sound that bad, things start to happen that I formerly believed “should not” happen due to power cords.
Bottom line, do not go this route unless you are willing to eventually equip your entire system with Shunyata Zitron PC’s because they are that good and it is essentially impossible to go back, kind of like trying to go back to thinking about sex before experiencing it for the first time then trying to return to the pre-sex relatedness after experiencing sex! If you add a Triton power distribution system to the mix you get at least twice the benefit, but also need to buy another cord to power the Triton, which is not cheap.
During the past year I began migrating upwards in the Shunyata reference line, replacing the Cobras (entry reference PC) with Pythons and then again with the top of the line Anaconda’s. Last summer a new player showed up, the Alpha Digital cable for components with digital power supplies. It is essentially a Cobra with a filter tuned to eliminate digital noise from the power supply in addition to the Zitron circuit.
After struggling through a very extended (1 month) and somewhat wild break-in period, these cables connected to digital components reshaped my sense of what “digital” sounds like, by making it sound analog. There is no way to anticipate this without trying it yourself. The only trade off was a slight reduction in bass definition, probably due to the lack of VTX topology used in the Python and Anaconda but not the Cobra or Alpha series.
So prior to my last change, my system was powered by a Triton connected to a dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground via 20 amp Anaconda, which had three Alpha Digital PC’s for my Meitner DAC, Oppo 103 transport, and Mac Mini music server plugged into it, plus my BAT VK32-SE tubed preamp connected to the Triton via an Anaconda, and a pair of Viper Zitron PC’s connecting my Martin Logan Montis’ to the Triton. On another dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground, my Spectral 260 was connected via an Anaconda and my twin JL F113 subwoofers were connected via Python’s.
The sound was exquisite and way beyond most systems I have heard at the twice cost of my system ($100k). In order to generate money for the addition of a Typhon and 5 new Alpha HC PC’s, I sold all of my Shunyata PC’s except the three Alpha Digitals for the digital equipment and the Viper Zitron’s for the ML’s. This meant that the Triton was taken out of the circuit because I sold the Anaconda that powered it.
Bottom line for the three weeks after selling the cords and awaiting my new purchases, I did not listen to music because it sounded like a giant step backwards to electronic components and certainly no longer like music. It was painful, and totally unexciting
When the 5 Alpha HC’s (high current with twice the copper of plain Alpha series and special high current filter) arrived, I daisy-chained them using SR burn-in adapters and connected them to a fan for 5 days, which supposedly would achieve the majority of the burn it. I plugged the Typhon with its own Typhon AHC umbilical into a separate socket for 24 hours before inserting it in parallel with the Spectral in the same dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground.
While this thread is about the Alpha HC versus the Anaconda and not the Typhon, let me just say that even with all of the cruddy temporary PC’s in place and no Triton, just putting the Typhon in parallel in the same circuit as the Spectral 260 was incredible in 10 minutes. I got back at least 33% of what I lost with the elimination of all of the PC’s and the Triton. By the time 4 days had passed and no insertions of the new Alpha HC cords, and no Triton, I now had about 50% back of what I had lost compared to the pre-change scenario.
Now for more detail about the Alpha HC’s. After the 5 day fan break-in, they definitely were not fully broken in because after an additional week in the system, they sound completely different than one day after insertion when much of the annealing had occurred. I put them in sequentially, Spectral, BAT preamp, Triton (and then plugged the entire front end into the Triton. I put Harmonic Technology AC-10’s on the JL 113’s and then listened for the next day to try to assess the Alpha HC’s, although the Triton was resettling after being off for a month. The sound improved considerably but was still lagging behind what it replaced.
I then put the Alpha HC’s into the JL F 113’s, probably the best test of the cord since they plug directly into the wall in the same dedicated circuit with a Shunyata SR-Z1 duplex and dedicated ground that the Spectral is plugged into with the Typhon now out of the circuit. First of all, removing the Typhon from the parallel position to the Spectral can only be described by a loud S… or F…, it made that much difference—go figure. Before plugging the Typhon into the Triton on the front end, I listened to the system again, now with the JL’s under the influence of the Alpha HC and Typhon sitting on the side
Let me cut to the chase once again on the Alpha HC’s. This is the power cord for the JL F 113’s. It is that much better than the Python’s. After 5 days on the fan and a week in the system, the cords are still breaking in in the lowest bass and with regard to articulation of the attack of the bass. However, we are already deep into the best bass region I have ever had, and still more break in to go.
The Typhon
This is the device Caelin calls the single best product that Shunyata makes. He refers to its impact as “magical. All I can say is that based on having owned the majority of Shunyata’s Zitron offerings, a Triton, a Typhon, a Viper PS-8, a Defender, etc., I can absolutely agree on the best product side and without a doubt agree on the magical side.
However, I would like to add another word “puzzling”. I say puzzling because while it is hard to initially appreciate just how much difference Shunyata PC’s and Triton make to the overall sound and experience, it is somewhat understandable because the current must flow through them. However, with the Typhon, it runs in parallel and yet it has about 50% as much impact as the PC’s and Triton combined.
What is even more puzzling is that the nature of the change is very dependent on where the Typhon is inserted, front-end or back-end. While the magnitude of the change does not seem to change much, its qualitative component does drastically. The difference is so dramatic that sadly the only reasonable answer from a sound standpoint is to have a Typhon in both the front-end and back-end (please send my lunatic fringe card pdf to my email!). This is the only scenario where I prefer the idea of a stereo amp compared to mono blocks so I do not have to buy a Typhon for each amp. However, one could probably just install a 40 amp circuit, and plug in one Typhon and both mono blocks.
The best way I can describe the difference in the Typhon’s contribution at the front and rear is as follows. With the Typhon plugged into the Triton, every benefit the Triton contributes, increases, substantially. The ability to better envision the sound stage, almost as if one is able to walk around the musicians, is profound. With it on the back end, the sound stage is bigger, deeper, but not quite as defined, albeit only slightly less because the Triton does have three NIC’s, essentially the only component of the Typhon. Granted, the Triton has three 12,000 cubic mm NIC’s on each of the hot, neutral and grounds conductors, while the Typhon has only two NIC’s on the hot and neutral, each with 30,800 cubic mm’s of pixie dust. So the unavoidable conclusion is more pixie dust is better, but even a moderate amount is good.
Here’s why one needs a Typhon on the back end—it makes your amp(s) and Sub’s sound better. For almost the same difference, I could have bought a 300 RS instead of my 260 amp, assuming that it will be released before I die and probably gotten at least the same kind of sound improvement, if not more, based on what I hear from Marty’s 400’s compared to my 260. The problem is that I would have to also sell my JL F113’s and buy JL Gothams because that is the type of magnitude of change that occurs on the back end through both the amp and the woofs. So using audio logic, it is a bargain to buy a second Typhon!!!
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