Shunyata New USB Cables
 

Ivan-

Have you been able to audition these yet? Also, wondering how they would compare to the WireWorld Platinum.

Personal prediction...Sigma USB will be "the" destination USB cable on the planet....

John... these have not begun shipping yet.

I wonder if any AA’ers have been Beta testers???

I was one of the early beta testers of both the Alpha and Sigma USB cables, in fact I can confirm that these have been in development for 1.5 years!

The very first Alpha USB that I tested in October 2017 was astonishing in that it completely displaced everything I had here and by quite a margin. It was scary good. This was followed a few months later by a Sigma prototype which was better than the Alpha and which stayed in my system until later this year.

In October after my visit to the Poulsbo factory I came home to the UK with a pre production Alpha USB unit. Basically identical to the finished product except that it didn't have the new black connector with Shunyata logo (see Ivan's image above).

So a few observations:

- The "new" Alpha USB sounded at least as good as my Sigma prototype if not a bit better, which surprised me given my recollection of the jump from Alpha to Sigma in 2017 testing.

- Touring a number of UK dealers with the Alpha USB we demoed it against a number of leading brands here (sorry but would rather not get into specifics, since my dealers sell other brands). It beat EVERYTHING and often by a very big margin.

- I also tested the Alpha USB with a buddy against a very "exotic" cable that costs in excess of $11,000 and the Alpha was better. Night and day better.

- I now have both Alpha and Sigma production units. Putting in the new Sigma I was floored by the improvement over the Alpha. OK to be specific, the Alpha is so good you just can't imagine hearing a better cable. So it's quite a surprise when you can hear greater bass heft and improved clarity and coherence across the frequency spectrum.

- The Alpha and Sigma USB cables do need some settling time, despite the promises of KPIP, with some dips in performance after a couple of days. The cable doesn't sound harsh or anything it just doesn't scale quite the same heights. But unless you are doing rapid A/Bs between the two cables you probably won't really notice (my Alpha USB is now fully run in with a few weeks on it, the Sigma has 30 hours or so).

- At $1k or £1k here (I have to add VAT and duty!) the Alpha USB is an audiophile bargain. We are talking a very decent change in SQ.

Cheers,

Guillaume

With that said... I've got to get myself some of these. :banana:

#lurkingdontwanttohearanymoregoodthingsaboutthesec ables

I’ll have my new Shunyata Sigma USB cable very soon.