Venom NR v10 feeds Teac UD-501 DAC
 

Late Monday afternoon, UPS delivered a 1.75-meter C15-terminated Shunyata Venom NR v10 power cord to connect the bedroom-system Teac UD-501 DAC to my Corian-encased Hydra:

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=5036

https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=5038

The Venom NR replaced an upgraded-connector 2-meter Wireworld 7 Electra which had previously supplied Hydra-conditioned AC to the DAC—and which I’d raved about a little over a year ago in another AA thread. I considered any listening comparison of the two as an apples-to-apples affair inasmuch as only $50 separates the list prices of the two power cords as configured for my system.

For the initial test of the new power cord, I fed the DAC the final two hair-raising movements of Hector Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique” conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Sony SBM’d 16/44 rip). With the cold-start, yet-to-settle Venom NR in place, the bedroom system delivered a larger and more space-palpable soundstage, a heftier and better-defined low end, and more discernible dynamic contrast, all of which are additive to what I’d noted a couple of weeks earlier when I connected the Hydra to the wall with its own Venom NR.

Some 35+ playback hours of varying vocal and instrumental program later with the new Venom NR in place, I hear not only greater scale, heft, and dynamic punch imparted to reproduced music than before, but also increased clarity and transparency across the frequency spectrum (triangles, chimes, and their stratospheric relatives are guilty-aural-pleasure delights) and better lateral and front-to-back layering of vocal and/or instrumental choirs. The overall impression with mixed-to-replicate-the-performing-venue recordings—whether of large instrumental ensembles, massed choral, or guitar solos--is what I call “visceral immediacy”, or the sense of sharing the listening space with and breathing the same air as the performers (what I think Stephen [Puma Cat] means, at least in part, by his invocation of “engagement” in another thread) to a much greater degree than with any prior system configuration.

Whatever noise-reduction magic is embedded in the Venom NR renders the background—yeah, I know you’re expecting “blacker” or some reasonable facsimile thereof, but I prefer “Windex transparent”, given the airily uncluttered environment into which voice and instrument project at any level from ppp to fff. It’s dead quiet out there, folks. And that means, among a host of other things, a more discernible perception of microdynamic nuance written into the musical score.

Saint Mrs. is equally impressed. She appreciates the marked perceptual improvement in vocal articulation (whether in massed choir or solo or duet arias [such as sung by Mirella Freni and Christa Ludwig in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”]), the layering, definition, and spatial rightness of accompanying orchestral placement in opera settings (for example, von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic in the aforementioned “Butterfly”), and the individual woody resonances of the acoustic guitars picked and strummed by Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Sharon Isbin in Jobim’s “Luiza”.

Love it. Thanks, Caelin and crew.

Great review, Jim.

And, fully consistent with my experiences of both the Venom NR-V12 connected either to my DAC or phono stage, and the V-10 for the power amplifier.

Some points of note, your comment:

"I hear not only greater scale, heft, and dynamic punch imparted to reproduced music than before, but also increased clarity and transparency across the frequency spectrum (triangles, chimes, and their stratospheric relatives are guilty-aural-pleasure delights) and better lateral and front-to-back layering of vocal and/or instrumental choirs. The overall impression with mixed-to-replicate-the-performing-venue recordings—whether of large instrumental ensembles, massed choral, or guitar solos--is what I call “visceral immediacy”, or the sense of sharing the listening space with and breathing the same air as the performers."

This paragraph, in particular, I find to describe the benefits of both the NR-V12 and V-10, very, very accurately. Particularly when playing complex orchestral music as you and I both do, frequently. When I first installed the NR-V12 to my DAC, it was powered by my Triton, and the improvements were so significant, virtually across the board for any "sonic attribute" you care to discuss that, you may remember my post about being "gobsmacked". Well, that's just what it was.

I had a similar experience when I connected the V-10 the the power amp and played the "Asturias" track from Isaac Albeniz' Suite Espagnola on the Speakers Corner Decca LP re-master. The ability to scale, as you so eloquently state, from ppp to fff during the big and complex orchestral crescendos sooo fast, so effortlessly, so dynamically left me shaking my head. While I knew my Dyns were fast before this experience, I have NEVER heard my big Dyns do that before. I was literally laughing out loud, saying "Who needs Wilsons or Magicos?"

These new Shunyata NR power cords are absolutely amazing, and completely re-set the bar for power cord performance across all meaningful performance and sonic attributes one could care to discuss.

Thanks, Stephen.

I'd barely concluded a two-week project ripping the approximately 250 SACDs in my silver-disc collection to computer-stored DSF files when the Venom NR arrived. During the ripping cycle I'd spent more than a few hours listening to the results to make sure that all was going well (it was, and, with a few minor tweaks, everything came off without a hitch). So I included a few of the rips in my auditioning of the Venom. One of them was Leonard Bernstein's composer-conducted suite of themes from his film score for "On the Waterfront".

The initial 1961 LP release of the suite was produced by Howard Scott. My curmudgeonly take is that had Columbia had Scott produce more of their classical albums, the label's reputation would have fared much better than it has in subsequent evaluations of its "Golden Age" recordings. In short, the recording has sonic chops, and the SACD reissue didn't bury them. Bernstein's score ranges from the brash and clangy to the sublimely "I could've been a con..." tender. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) So there's a lot of runup from ppp to fff and back again several times over packed into very dense and dynamically "heavy" orchestration.

The bedroom system had acquitted itself quite well in outputting that rip's contents with the Venom NR's predecessor in the power-delivery chain. With the Venom in place, however, the presentation blossomed out more than subtly, and the rhythmic complexity Bernstein had micro-shoehorned into the score's passages revealed itself more eyebrow-elevating fully. So I'm not surprised at what you hear with your Dyns.

As an aside, I think that Grant has it right with his power-isolation-acoustic treatment trifecta.

Nice write up Jim, thank you for sharing and glad it was a good path forward. Nice :)

Thanks, Dave. It's an understatement to call the NR a worthwhile upgrade.

Excellent review and an experience I hope to share. I've got a couple of Venom NR-12 cables that should arrive pretty soon!

- Bob

Thanks, Bob. Will be interested in your impressions after they arrive.

Postscript
 

Now that my initial flush of enthusiasm for what the DAC-connected Venom NR v10 brought to the sonic performance of the bedroom system has had three weeks and change to bake in, I thought it might be useful to offer a how-do-you-feel-about-it-now perspective for readers who wonder if the glow has worn off. It sometimes does in audio, after all--you know, when after additional listening exposure a user concludes that "new" actually translates to "different" without achieving "better".

Not to worry in this instance. The magic continues. If anything, it elicits even more "holy [fill in your favorite expletive]" headshaking than it did at first blush. The detail, the transparency, the foundational heft and definition, the dynamic contrasts, the "you are there" delineation of whatever venue the artist[s], recording producer, and engineer elected to portray, the illusion of breathable performing-space "air"--it boggles (or "gobsmacks", if you prefer)...and, with well-recorded material (like the Earl Wild-played Copland and Menotti piano concertos embedded in the rip of a 20-bit SBM'd Vanguard CD auditioned yesterday), makes the listener forget that all of this is conveyed by electronics driving stand-mounted box-enclosed transducers.

This is, of course, the result of system integration, beginning with the Venom NR v10 feeding AC from the Defender'd wall outlet to original Hydra, thence via this thread's subject NR v10 to TEAC DAC--which in turn is signal-fed by a Shunyata Alpha USB cable that eliminated the need for an LPS 1.2-powered ISO REGEN.

It's good to be well-connected.

:goodpost:

Your post mirrors my experiences perfectly. I couldn't have put it better other than to add that "gobsmacked" is the operative term here.

I like the phrase “it’s good to be well connected”.