Upgrade to Shunyata Cable Loom, or?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Parabellum

Lots of great tips and advices, thanks to everyone. I believe the only way to know for sure to find out if I will like it is to at least start with the Alpha AES/EBU. From my own experience with 5 different cables (USB and AES/EBU) between the BDP-2 & the BDA-3, this is where I can get the best bang for the buck, if I can put it this way.

From the Audio Beat review of the Sigma :

Before I dove into a full-system installation, I decided to try the Sigma AES/EBU cable just to hear how it would stack up to my reference Anaconda cable, no slouch at taming ones and zeros. Fellow TAB writer Mark Blackmore happened to be in the neighborhood, so we put Rickie Lee Jones’s Pop Pop CD [Geffen GEFD-24426] in my PS Audio PerfectWave transport and played a few tracks before the Sigma’s installation. Then we returned to those tracks after the new cable was in place. Blackmore shook his head and said, "You can hear the difference in three bars." The difference was a smoother, less grainy presentation of the high frequencies, meatier, weightier bass, and a more layered soundstage. All in all, the sound was far less "digital." Not bad for one cable. As accomplished as the Shunyata Anaconda AES/EBU cable had been, the Sigma lapped it-- twice.

After Blackmore left, I continued to listen and noticed more depth and space in Blossom Dearie’s delightful Soubrette: Sings Broadway Hits [Verve MG VS-62133]. The Sigma AES/EBU delivered a far more relaxed, natural and realistic representation of instruments in the Russel Garcia Orchestra. I could hear the internal resonances within a bassoon as it accented a line, more bell tone from a trumpet. When I returned to the Anaconda, it was clear that it was not conveying as truthful a version of those sounds, which resulted in a presentation that was less present and convincing.

The Sigma AES/EBU is the first digital cable I’ve heard that significantly narrows the gap between analog and digital.

Knowing this is the Sigma, one can extrapolate to the Alpha as it is said to be 85% of the performance of the Sigma (that's for the USB though). I am not totally decided yet but I think I will buy the Alpha AES/EBU to see if I like it. If yes, then I will go full Alpha loom. Stay tuned..

Sounds like a good plan.