Shunyata Sigma SC compared to Alpha SC
 

I had posted my impressions of the Alpha back in the summer and by all accounts Alpha is an amazing product. Easily bested Transparent reference with my equipment in my room. Let me also say that i believe cables to a large degree are system and preference dependent so it's critical to audition cables for yourself in your system before spending large sums of money on them. That said, he's my thoughts about the Sigma ....

After being blown away by the Alpha I was ready to buy them but my dealer convinced me to get the Sigmas on order and if I didn't think they were even better he would take them back and get a new set of Alphas coming. So I agreed and ordered the Sigmas. They arrived in perfect condition in a cool case that I'll post some pics of later. I know they are claiming their new cables don't require much break in but still, I wasn't expecting what I heard right out of the box. Immediately I was noticing low level detail that I had never before heard on these recordings in my system. The background was even quieter than before by a stunning margin. That is in my opinion the single biggest improvement in the Sigma over the Alphas. Imaging was just as solid as with the Alphas with a small improvement in soundstage depth. The Alphas are amazing here as well so I'm not detracting from the Sigmas here saying they were only marginally better in this regard. But better they are. I pretty quickly got 100 hours on the Sigmas leaving it playing 24X7 so I can't say when the break in occurred but I can say now with 200 hours on them they haven't changed since I logged 100 hours. Break in complete. What I noticed after break in was greater density in the midrange with a slightly more refined top end. Wasn't bad out of the box but break in did make small but welcome improvements. I'm also noticing a more holographic soundstage after break in ... even better than the Alphas but that was one of the things that I was really impressed with the Alphas and yet the Sigmas got better. Could I live happily with the Alpha's? Had I not heard the Sigmas ... for sure a big fat yes!! After hearing the Sigmas I was happy to pay the difference for the improvements and am now spoiled beyond belief. So be careful ... if you hear the Alphas and they check all the right boxes for you and are the right choice financially for you, buy them and don't look back and for sure don't audition the Sigmas..because to hear the Sigmas is to Want the Sigmas! There is no going back at that point so you have been warned! :yes:

Gadawg, thank you very much for the update. I cannot swing for sigmas (need biwired) but very interested in Alpha speaker cables. How do you overrall describe the Alphas - neutral warm, lean? How are the bass, midrange, highs with them? P,ease share more details
Much appreciated.

I would describe the Alpha's as very musical and natural sounding. After using Audioquest Aspen and Cardas Clear Light before, the first thing I noticed with the Alpha was the shear scale and openness of the presentation. There was detail I just hadn't heard before which helped create a lot of separation between instruments and really opened up the soundstage. The soundstage became much more holographic. The Alphas are incredibly detailed without being bright or analytical. They have good tight bass with great extension but not the volume of bass that the Audioquest Aspen did. To my ears the Alphas are more reflective of live music. I'm not sure it would be fair to call them warm, neutral, or lean. They just sound amazingly real. To me they really get out of the way and let you hear what the rest of the system is doing so I really don't think these cables would be used as 'equalizers' like some cables that could be described as warm or lean.

I also think that some cables will sound better in some systems than others so you should definitely try and audition before you buy. If you have good system synergy then the Alphas should be awesome!

George

Hi gadawg, I got the Alpha speaker cables. I agree with a lot what you said. But what was unexpected that the whole presentation(especially women voice) became more relaxed - like I moved a step close to analog. But now after your compare I am curious about sigma also :) Do they really that much better to justify the price difference?

The Alpha's are great cables and had I never heard the Sigma's I would have likely been happy for a very long time. Once I heard the Sigma's though there was no going back.

Cannot speak to the the speaker cable comparison but for all the digital cables (AES 110-ohm, 50-ohm and 75-ohm) I've tested, the Alpha level beats anything I've tried in 20 years. The SIGMAS are on an entire level above that if that is even possible (and it is).

Thanks for the input guys, Gadawg, do you think bass is much better with sigmas than alphas?

Personally I didn’t find much difference with the bass or really with any particular frequency. The two cables are very similar in that regard. Where the Sigma really stands out is in a much blacker background and low level detail retrieval. So much so that with the Sigmas I’m hearing things in recordings(not always what they intended) that I never knew was there. As a result the layering and separation of instruments is better with the Sigmas by a noticeable margin although the alphas are Good there also ... just not to the level of the Sigma.

Hope that helps!

George

It's because the Sigma is that much quieter. This is pretty much the story with any Shunyata product as you go up the product line. It's amazing how much noise you can take out of what is already a very quiet system.

With help of Shunyata and my Shunyata dealer (they were nice enough to take my alpha towards sigma) I am returning alphas once I get ordered sigmas. Now is a waiting time.