In February 1964, a review in
Audio pronounced the McIntosh MR67 FM tuner “superb”. A year later, the
Audio reviewer declared the newer MR71 “superber”. Loathe as I am to plagiarize, that succinct comparative assessment pretty well summarizes my listening impressions after replacing the C15-terminated Shunyata Venom NR v10 with the Delta NR as the power cord linking the bedroom system’s Hydra 8 v2 power distributor to a TEAC UD-501 USB DAC.
My August review of that Hydra-to-DAC configuration praised the Venom for imparting greater transparency, heft, dynamic contrast, soundstage layering, and speaker-disappearing palpable presence to music reproduction in my nearfield setup. I was tempted at that point—in view of the Omega NR, please keep in mind that I’m a fixed-income retiree on a tight budget--to hearken back to “The Spy Who Loved Me” and cut my out-of-tune vocal cords loose on “Nobody Does It Better”.
After subjecting the Delta NR to the same diet of large orchestral, massed choral, solo vocal, chamber, operatic duet, jazz combo, and solo instrumental program and logging 100+ hours of settling time, I have to alter the song title, replacing “Nobody” with “Delta”. As excellent as the Venom is, connecting with the Delta extracts even more foundational body, transparency, and inner-space delineation from a given recording. Given that both cords are 10-gauge and the wiring geometry appears similar, I suspect that the conductivity of the CopperCONN connectors has something to do with the improvements in definition, transient speed, and vocal and instrumental nuance I hear in everything from aria to orchestral tutti.
So the Delta NR’s a keeper. And the Venom NR hasn’t gone very far. It’s now parked in the living-room system, linking that setup’s Venom NR v10-connected original-version Hydra to a conrad-johnson Premier 17LS line stage (they make a beautiful sonic couple).
(One more change is coming, though, and it’ll shake up the batting order a bit: I’ve just ordered a Hydra Delta D6 power distributor with SSF-38 feet for the bedroom system. Which means musical-chair Hydra upgrades for both the living-room and home-office systems.)