Power Strip

I must be an outlier here but I’ve been using Shunyata products for years. Never anything but excellent. I’m guessing in the UK Shunyata products are much more expensive then the domestic products. I wish one of the big dogs here would try out some of their power products and give a report.

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Pete, RE the PowerLines - I wonder what kind of answer you’re looking for? They arrive tomorrow, correct? What if Dave says “well, my opinion is light yellow” , how would that help you? You’ll only be pre-setting your expectations. I think you should just hook them up and form your own opinion? In your system, in your room etc.

An open door but PowerLines take quite a while to burn in / settle down.

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I mentioned much further up this thread that I had a Shunyata Everest and various Shunyata power cables on order - Sigma to Everest, Alpha to Naim PSUs and Venom to Innuos.

I’ve now had them in my system for a few weeks and the improvement is quite remarkable. It is expensive stuff but well worth it IMO.

@IvdZ definitely try to do a home demo if you can.

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@delta glad to hear it ! I use the Shunyata Denali D6000v.2 with a mix of Shunyata PC’s , Alpha’s and Delta’s . Shunyata Research has been at the forefront of Power products for 25 years they really know what they are doing!

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RvL,

Thanks. I guessed they might take a while to burn in - my Chord Epic certainly did. I’m just hoping I haven’t made an awful mistake that’s cost me nearly £2K. As I said the main reason for buying them rather than Chord was simply the fact that they are much more flexible. I couldn’t face trying to dress 3 more Chord Epics in my system.

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Perfectly understandable thinking. My point was, asking someones opinion, deriving from a completely different system, different room and different taste & ears has little value to ease your nerves imo.

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Yes I know you’re absolutely right. I’ll just have to wait and see and hope for the best. Also not to make any judgements until at least 2 or 3 weeks down the line. Here’s hoping!

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Hi Pete,

Sorry I couldn’t reply sooner - Easter events took over!

I think you’ll be absolutely fine with the Powerlines; they’ll be running from the S6 so will be given every opportunity to shine. Also, their USP is mechanical with their unique connector arangement rather than the cable itself, which is dead simple off the reel stuff, so you’ll not be waiting an age for them to burn in.

As far as improving on th eEpic to the S6, well yes, you could go to a SignatureX and you should see an improvement, but you could also wait for a used Sarum to turn up, which they do from time to time , and have that adapted to suit. Then the Powerlines would have something really fabulous to work with.

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Hi Dave,

No worries, thanks for your reply. You’ve put my mind at ease about the Powerlines. I know `I just couldn’t accommodate any more of the ultra-stiff Chord stuff. I think I’ll do as you suggest and wait for a used Sarum and then get it fitted with the 16A IEC when (if!) I get around to upgrading the Epic. Thanks again.

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OK, I have a soft spot for Chord cables and could not resist a small mains blocks fest - just had to be done:

Very solid and lovely, chunky blocks - the M6 quite visibly longer than the S6 and also slightly longer than my resident SOtM MT-1000 as well. The S6 and M6 otherwise appear the same other than the extension to accommodate the MainsARAYs bits for the M6.

Here are my thoughts after a very, very enjoyable session with comparisons head to head in different order:

M6 vs S6 - much silkier, richer, fuller, better pianos, very good bass extension, which is slightly deeper but I think the word that springs to mind with the M6 is “strong”, otherwise both S6 and M6 with very tight bass. The M6 achieves a definitely quieter background with also more space and longer decays. The S6 feels slightly edgy vs the M6 (and when I say this, it doesn’t really feel fair to the S6 as it’s really very good too but in comparative terms this is the direction relative to the M6). The M6 is quite something overall, I liked it a lot.

Now the SOtM - as quiet a background as the M6, but somehow retaining a more “vivid” sound picture (e.g. piano is as good or probably even better here), similar in HF extension and perception of space to the M6. Bass with the SOtM feels slightly deeper but in comparison not as tight (feels more relaxed and not as strong/punchier as the M6). Overall the M6 is probably slightly crispier without sounding harsh at all, both are brilliant.

From memory comparing the SOtM vs MW G3 and Titan Eros specifically, I imagine the G3, Eros and S6 to be not far with the S6 slightly more expressive, may be?

Should mention that the only difference between the Chord blocks and the SOtM in these comparisons was the cable to the wall as the Chord requires a different 16amp IEC connector so it could be argued that the SOtM wall mains cable I used was better. You can see the two IEC inlets here - the Chord 16amp and the Furutech one on the SOtM

And a final disclaimer - all differences are of the subtle type but felt clear in my own environment. All 3 blocks are awesome. I probably did not say enough good things about the S6 but it sounds really good, open and spacious. The M6 is very special indeed, quite a monster, but in the end, to my ears and room etc, I was left with continued preference for my SOtM which made me feel most connected to the music and kept it more “present” in the room…. or who knows, it could be that I am most used to its sound signature and I just like it, so you can ignore absolutely everything I’ve said above!

Enjoy - I think one wouldn’t go wrong with any of these.

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Well there are a few here including me that feel they lost connection to the music to some extent so IMO it does something that not everyone enjoys. What that is specifically or technically I don’t know. It just doesn’t swing in my opinion (S6).

How long did you use both models?

Over the past year or so since I joined the forum I’ve benefited from some very good threads. Specifically for me those centred around streaming which was completely new to me back then. Another positive example is the technical advise and information coming from Richard Dane which has undoubtable value.

Of course some posts are very odd ( I’m being polite) like the guy who wrote that the S1 wasn’t as good as 552 because his system lost it’s mojo with it in it or when someone wrote that the bass might overwhelm compared to 552 in anything less than a large room :see_no_evil:. Those posts are so far removed from my experience with the S1 I wonder if they were at best conjecture. I’m sure that some people critique equipment that they haven’t even heard.

I believe that mains and cable related opinions fall into the very extensive subjective category. I know that a lot of people buy second hand and look to forums to advise and direct. But finding a consensus in this area is like finding an oasis in no man’s land :joy:. An honest dealer who will loan equipment before purchase is worth a lot IME.

For what it’s worth MY EARS tell me that the M6 “swings” great and is clearly the best block that I’ve used ( all four of them :grinning:).

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Yes there is and was with the old forums, a wealth of very useful information available. The trouble is to find things through the vast number of posts, not to mention endless duplication from the same questions being raised over and over. One reason that i suggested would be worth collecting in the form of a wiki. I have not reviewed extensively what Linn have done, but to me it looks like a professional job to go someway to document their products. I would even go one step further than that and try to openly cover other aspects of setup so that dealers are not completely relied on to address this important aspect.

Regarding the content of posts and their merits etc. I suppose this is up to the reader to decide if it’s useful or not and to follow this up with demos in the context of their system/music etc. Forum members have different levels of experience/priorities with the Naim and music reproduction ‘environment’ and this usually reflects in the posts that one sees. It’s really up to the reader to filter out what he/she considers useful or not. Even after 40 years (not necessarily continuous) of exposure to Naim products, one cannot hope to achieve perfection but at least iron out some of the fundamentals so that we finally get down to the point of really enjoying the music

several (5-6) hours session (demo units), will do more listening over the next days too

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I’ve found it to be important/beneficial to keep a power strip in continuous use for a couple of days at least (the longer the better) before switching. Besides the strip itself, a power down & up and messing around with the cables takes a toll on SQ for quite some time in my system. Relatively ‘quick’ A-B comparisons tend to give inaccurate outcomes in my experience. YMMV of course.

With dealer demo units it’s not always possible to take enough time though. :smirk:

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Agree, can be a factor. I also deliberately did the listening comparisons in the evening (and my mains is relatively ok). I have indeed left the M6 on (with everything on) at present so it stays in the chain for longer.

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I really want to try M6 model and compare it with my Atlas EOS Modular block, however my focus now is on NAP 300 which should arrive in any moment :sweat_smile:

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I’ve had the Atlas 4.0 EOS unfiltered version block before and it’s very good - still you should be in for a treat trying the M6 (just a guess!:))
… but you don’t want distraction right now, indeed

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Naim cables flexible, who’d have thought!