Review: Acuosutic Zen/Shunyata Tsunami/Taipan Power cord


Category: Cables

I auditioned the AZ Tsunami MKII and Shunyata Taipan AC power cords on my Pass X-250 power amp at the recommendation of a dealer. I listened to Pat Barber Cafe Blue songs Nardis, Wood is a pleasant thing and Ode to Billy Joel and Mark Knopfler saling to philadelphia using the same song as the title. Frankly I do not know if I could tell the difference between the two cords. I own the Audience power AC cord and I preferred the AZ Tsunami on the Pass X-250 because it seemed to relax the sound of the amp where as the Audience made the amp sound a little stressed. The AZ provided a nice tonal and natural balanced sound with very good details. My wife and I were hard pressed to hear the difference between the AZ and the Shunyata cords. I felt that the Shunyata had a very slightly more upfront sound versus a slightly laid back sound which possibly could make a system either sound more open (bright?) and detailed, and the TZ very slightly more relaxed with a slightly darker background. Again, my wife said you could not hear the difference and I trust her ears to tell a difference even if she does not know what she is looking for (to hear). Both cables offer a great value for the money and although I have not comapred them to the higher priced power cords, they are a good starting point in aftermarket cords versus stock cords.

The sound of both of the cords was open, detailed, dynamic, balanced, natural with no edginess, or bloom.

Personally I want to try the higher priced cords to see if I can imporve upon what these two cords have to offer.

Associated gear
Sony SCD-777ES, Pass X-1, Pass X-250, B&W matrix 803, AZ Sil. Ref. ICs, JPS Digital AC, JPS power AC, DIY speaker cables 6awg multi strand mono runds.
bigkidz