[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by mr_gray

Just installed the Sigma XC today. Alot of anticipation. costs near 7% of what my total system costs and is easily the most I have spent on a PC.

It takes a little while to make an impact. Maybe 5 mins? I simultaneously put a V2 alpha on my high amp (above 300 hz - previously Alpha V1) and installed new Venom xlr's between low pre-amp and power amplifier (below 300 hz - previously generic). so observations that follow are coloured by this.

I was in another room when i heard it. The PC's effect is quite visceral. The effect is to make music more dynamic. A drum has impact. Weirdly it de-shrills things too. you turn it up and it's not jarring in any way.

Even a single note has different bits. It isn't one of those resolution things, straining to hear a player's chair squeak type thing. a note is like 3d in the house and you hear multiple bits of it. but its felt. not heard in a way. again it isn't some high resolution cold thing. it's not cerebral in the best possible way.

Involvement is a good word. When I first got into hifi (around 2 years ago) i bought a few HD albums of "classics" that i figured i "should" listen to. stuff like Marvin Gaye's "What's going on". Back then I put it on my new (to me) stereo. it sounded cold, dead and awful.

Today listening to a New Order song (most rock/pop etc sounds immensely flat compared to a chesky audiophile recording etc. so i figure this example still counts), it was the best version of that song I had ever heard. It was interesting and it wasn't just that i could hear new data in it. It is that it was sucking me in. I wasn't pontificating about noise levels. I was just enjoying the song as much as I ever have.

I have it feeding a Shunyata AU8 PD btw.

If you can trial one i would recommend doing so. you won't have to wait long to find out if it will do anything for your system. half a day and you'll know for sure. i did wonder if given less current draw required in 240V Australia it would make much of a difference. for the first 3 minutes after putting it in i thought - "this is no different". but then the hard stop nature of some notes gets your attention. things start quicker and stop quicker and suddenly you are hearing stuff and it is sounding very interesting!

Hi Mr Gray,
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Sigma XC and Alpha V2 power cables. Your experiences are very consistent with mine, these power cables create an experience that takes us away from the conventional audiophile-type descriptions of things like resolution, transparency, etc., etc., to a language that should be more descriptive of what fine musical instruments and musical performances sound like. And, as for involving, there's that in spades, too. When I was first evaluating these cables, I kept find myself getting lost in the music, and lulled away from the "audiophile analysis" frames of mind we've historically used to try to describe what we're experiencing. Which is, lest we forget, is the entire point.