I think simple is better for cabling - and Auditorium 23 speaker cabling doesn't get much simpler. And they retail for <1k for a 2M pair.
alternative for transparent reference MM2
- Thread starter edorr
- Start date
Amado, I already bit the bullet and ordered Shunyata Zitron Anaconda all around. If it does not beat the Transparents Reference I'll sell the whole Shunyata batch and stay on the lookout for a used TA Reference.
I have the Shunyata Cobra Zi-Tron cables, which are excellent. I owned Transparent Ultra MM2s from 2008-2010, and eventually sold them, although they are excellent. Their only flaw was the slightest closing in at the top, which is something Transparent's owner, Karen Sumner, feels is more natural. She once said to me (obliquely, of Nordost) some people seem to prefer 'bright' cables. What's interesting is that the Transparent probably doesn't have the fastest transient response, but is very rich in the midbass, giving the 'sound' a very palpable presence in imaging solidity.
I also listened to Shunyata's Python Zi-Tron a while back, and I'd say that they're richer-sounding and more akin to the Transparent. At this juncture, I'd go with Shunyata's line for pricing and quality, as I am quite sure that Harley's pronunciation of the Anaconda cables as "competitive with any other cable in the world, regardless of price" is likely a truthful statement (he did, after all, have the MIT Oracle whatever-the-latest-iteration-is cable). I personally admire Shunyata for introducing a line that was 1/3 the price of their previous cable, given the greed of (many,not all) cable manufacturers at the top of the pyramid. It seems that, the more famous their cable becomes, the more expensive their next line. I can hardly see a reason for Nordost's Odin line to cost 15k, or Opus to cost 30k or ANYone's cable to cost the price they do, even with R&D. I've certainly heard from enough people in the business that top (cable - and I suppose you could add speaker) - manufacturers seem to lead an opulent lifestyle. And that's fine, but even if I COULD afford Magico's top of the line, I wouldn't buy it. I just can't see the sort of pricing that has arisen over the last 13 years as being realistically priced. It's only my feeling, but at the very least, a lot of these lines (speaker) could cost significantly less than they do. And I'll be the first to say I could be wrong, but at the very least, I'm highly, highly skeptical.
However, sonically, MM2 is an excellent cable, nearly completely grainless, especially compared to the MM1 line. I still think Shunyata's first generation Andromeda (the final version, not the earlier 3 version of the Andromeda, one of which was a smaller gauge [I've had 2 of the 4 versions of Andromeda] was a superb cable, even if it was somewhat colored in the upper midrange (early versions of their first 3 lines were a bit soft in the upper midrange/lower treble). It had phenomenally low noise, and imaging was non-pareil (and I had the Nordost at the same time. Shunyata definitely had more body to the image, focus every bit as good as Nordost, and, when hooked up to amps that could show it, a sense of realism that, while not the same as Nordost's, was extremely real sounding. A non-audiophile opera singer friend of mine, when I forced him to listen to the system, sat there for about - literally - a minute and I put on A Waltz for Debby (Bill Evans trio) and I could see him cocking his head like a dog that hears a sound nobody else hears and then blurting out, "I can see the drummer. He's RIGHT THERE, RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR DRYER!" (I had the system in my basement at the time.) And you could. It was as 3D and focused as a Zeiss lens: crystalline focus. And the sound was fluid, the way it is in Carnegie Hall, and extremely lifelike and the realism was stunning. The only problem I had was in the bass, and that was due to the discontinuity of my speakers, not the speaker cable.
So, Shunyata certainly knows how to do the "imaging" trick, so to speak, and in that respect, better than Transparent. But musically speaking, meaning a french trumpet sounds like a French trumpet, they are also excellent. I have no doubt that Crystal, Nordost et al might be somewhat better in some aspects, but Shunyata is a major league cable company as well (I still have Nordost interconnects, although now I'm breaking in the MG Audio Planus CU2 [which, the designer pointed out in numerous emails back and forth over the past 3 days] takes weeks (continuous time, so use a burn-in CD and not just a cable cooker, which, he claims, won't break it in all the way, something about it being a 'resistive load'). I just put it at the source, so the only thing that needs to be turned on is the CD player. I do have to say that the review in Positive feedback about it being a "B" to break in, is right on the money. I've had to stop listening every 3 hours: it's pretty bright (something the Positive Feedback writer called it a "shrill-ride"), but that calms down a bit after about 24 hours (still bright, but it won't burn your ears off). And, it is astoundingly "quiet," so that, when the orchestra stops playing after a crescendo, even at this early stage, I can hear the players sitting there quietly (I've got 48 hours on it, and the dealer put 48 hours on it), but I'm told by the designer that it takes a looooong time to break in (I'd guess around 300 hours [the dealer who sells it seems not to believe that ANY cable could take that long, so I can only assume he's never broken in a pair completely, because I don't know how anyone could miss the change in sound, even over the first 72 hours: it's that bright!]). And I didn't even get the silver version ($1100), just the copper. I think Priaptor, on this forum, also lauds it compared to the High Fidelity CT-1.
There're quite a few excellent cables out there: it's only a matter of how much of the frequency spectrum, the tonal quality and the musical values each one gets right. And then, of course, there are the audiophile values, like soundstaging, imaging and the like, as well.
I also listened to Shunyata's Python Zi-Tron a while back, and I'd say that they're richer-sounding and more akin to the Transparent. At this juncture, I'd go with Shunyata's line for pricing and quality, as I am quite sure that Harley's pronunciation of the Anaconda cables as "competitive with any other cable in the world, regardless of price" is likely a truthful statement (he did, after all, have the MIT Oracle whatever-the-latest-iteration-is cable). I personally admire Shunyata for introducing a line that was 1/3 the price of their previous cable, given the greed of (many,not all) cable manufacturers at the top of the pyramid. It seems that, the more famous their cable becomes, the more expensive their next line. I can hardly see a reason for Nordost's Odin line to cost 15k, or Opus to cost 30k or ANYone's cable to cost the price they do, even with R&D. I've certainly heard from enough people in the business that top (cable - and I suppose you could add speaker) - manufacturers seem to lead an opulent lifestyle. And that's fine, but even if I COULD afford Magico's top of the line, I wouldn't buy it. I just can't see the sort of pricing that has arisen over the last 13 years as being realistically priced. It's only my feeling, but at the very least, a lot of these lines (speaker) could cost significantly less than they do. And I'll be the first to say I could be wrong, but at the very least, I'm highly, highly skeptical.
However, sonically, MM2 is an excellent cable, nearly completely grainless, especially compared to the MM1 line. I still think Shunyata's first generation Andromeda (the final version, not the earlier 3 version of the Andromeda, one of which was a smaller gauge [I've had 2 of the 4 versions of Andromeda] was a superb cable, even if it was somewhat colored in the upper midrange (early versions of their first 3 lines were a bit soft in the upper midrange/lower treble). It had phenomenally low noise, and imaging was non-pareil (and I had the Nordost at the same time. Shunyata definitely had more body to the image, focus every bit as good as Nordost, and, when hooked up to amps that could show it, a sense of realism that, while not the same as Nordost's, was extremely real sounding. A non-audiophile opera singer friend of mine, when I forced him to listen to the system, sat there for about - literally - a minute and I put on A Waltz for Debby (Bill Evans trio) and I could see him cocking his head like a dog that hears a sound nobody else hears and then blurting out, "I can see the drummer. He's RIGHT THERE, RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR DRYER!" (I had the system in my basement at the time.) And you could. It was as 3D and focused as a Zeiss lens: crystalline focus. And the sound was fluid, the way it is in Carnegie Hall, and extremely lifelike and the realism was stunning. The only problem I had was in the bass, and that was due to the discontinuity of my speakers, not the speaker cable.
So, Shunyata certainly knows how to do the "imaging" trick, so to speak, and in that respect, better than Transparent. But musically speaking, meaning a french trumpet sounds like a French trumpet, they are also excellent. I have no doubt that Crystal, Nordost et al might be somewhat better in some aspects, but Shunyata is a major league cable company as well (I still have Nordost interconnects, although now I'm breaking in the MG Audio Planus CU2 [which, the designer pointed out in numerous emails back and forth over the past 3 days] takes weeks (continuous time, so use a burn-in CD and not just a cable cooker, which, he claims, won't break it in all the way, something about it being a 'resistive load'). I just put it at the source, so the only thing that needs to be turned on is the CD player. I do have to say that the review in Positive feedback about it being a "B" to break in, is right on the money. I've had to stop listening every 3 hours: it's pretty bright (something the Positive Feedback writer called it a "shrill-ride"), but that calms down a bit after about 24 hours (still bright, but it won't burn your ears off). And, it is astoundingly "quiet," so that, when the orchestra stops playing after a crescendo, even at this early stage, I can hear the players sitting there quietly (I've got 48 hours on it, and the dealer put 48 hours on it), but I'm told by the designer that it takes a looooong time to break in (I'd guess around 300 hours [the dealer who sells it seems not to believe that ANY cable could take that long, so I can only assume he's never broken in a pair completely, because I don't know how anyone could miss the change in sound, even over the first 72 hours: it's that bright!]). And I didn't even get the silver version ($1100), just the copper. I think Priaptor, on this forum, also lauds it compared to the High Fidelity CT-1.
There're quite a few excellent cables out there: it's only a matter of how much of the frequency spectrum, the tonal quality and the musical values each one gets right. And then, of course, there are the audiophile values, like soundstaging, imaging and the like, as well.
Last edited:
P.S. Edorr...
I can't imagine, having listened to the Python cables, that you'll be anything less than delirious about the Anaconda, but please do post something here after the break-in period.
I can't imagine, having listened to the Python cables, that you'll be anything less than delirious about the Anaconda, but please do post something here after the break-in period.
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