The $250 power cables and $600 power strip that dethroned my $10k Shunyata Everest


Hello fellow audiophiles. I've been using products from QSA Lanedri who I believe offer the best price to performance ratio on the market today for their power and signal cables. You may have heard of Quantum Science Audio fuses and might even have some installed in your system. QSA Lanedri have perfected this technology/treatment and are now offering it in their power and signal products. The line of products in particular is called Veridion Discovery which is their most affordable line. I currently own 2 Veridion Discovery power strips (daisy chained), 8 power cables, 3 ethernet cables, 1 DC cable. Initially I was sent a power and ethernet cable to try and was so impressed I ordered more including the power strips. I have been comparing their power cables to much more expensive cables from Audioquest and Furutech. I've also been comparing their power strip to my Shunyata Everest power conditioner and found I prefer the Discovery power strip. Infact I'm in the process of trading in my Shunyata Everest and corresponding Sigma X power cable for either a better integrated amplifier or speakers. Once you pair up Discovery power cables with the Discovery power strip things improve dramatically. Not only does audio improve but picture quality and home cinema improves also and will challenge anything at any price. I will say the Discovery line requires a few days of continuous use or "burn in" period before proper evaluation. I compared their Ethernet cables to the likes of Audioquest Diamond and Wireworld Platinum Starlight 8 and again preferred the Discovery line. Through the Discovery products music sounds cleaner and clearer with a heightened sense of realism. This also applies to film and TV. Compared to the Shunyata Everest picture quality is now cleaner with more vibrant colours. Motion and panning shots are improved with less stutter. I will add that I have the power strips on Auva EQ CSA1 isolation footers. All of my equipment is sitting on Auva EQ footers which I found were better than the Isoacoustic Oreo footers I had previously. The Discovery products look very basic and don't scream high end but from my experience they can go toe to toe with the best at very affordable prices! They offer a 30 day money back guarantee for peace of mind. Definitely worth a look. Cheers.

 

Sent from Outlook for Android

roper

This may come across like "marketing fluff," but I'm just a satisfied customer who has been "along for the ride" on the QSA LANEDRI products since its inception. I have no affiliation with QSA LANEDRI apart from friendship and appreciation for what Anas' products have done for my system over the years.

It's worth noting that the "classic" line of QSA products (fuses, power jitters, etc.) differs significantly from the newer QSA LANEDRI line. The LANEDRI products are based on the classic QSA treatment technology, but Anas Lanedri continues to push the envelope on what can be treated and how effective the treatments are.

His latest line, the Discovery Veridion series, is shockingly affordable relative to the impact it has. If he charged 10x as much (which is roughly commensurate with their performance relative to other marketplace offerings), folks who believe that cables matter and that everything makes a difference would likely view them as serious competition to the established actors and would judge them on their merits.

The price is a reflection of Anas' focus: the discovery he and his team have made while evolving the underlying QSA treatment technology. To keep the focus on the impact of the discovery, they selected off-the-shelf products (like Monoprice cables) that are notoriously inexpensive and historically eschewed by audiophiles as delivering inferior results due to inferior engineering and inferior materials.

Anas' team then applies this latest generation of the QSA tech, the so-called "Veridion" treatment, to these inexpensive cables (and other connectors, and even devices) and causes such a profound transformation in them that upon listening they impart qualities to the sound (or the picture) as if they were made of boutique materials like OCC, OF copper, ultra-high purity silver, graphene, precious metal and specially formulated alloys, etc. -- and even beyond that -- as evidenced by the fact that so many who have tried them are trading in their ultra-expensive cords and interconnects for more, inexpensive Discovery Veridion products (myself included).

This is, of course, "heretical nonsense" when judged purely on a materials basis since the process is a trade secret and its impact on a material level may be untestable with current tools.

This brings me to the elephant in the room that all of us, like proverbial blind men, can feel: that Audiophilia has long been the domain of two camps, the objectivists and the subjectivists, and both of them are doggedly convinced that their view is right and the other view is wrong. "This is a tree!" cries one, his hand on the elephant's leg. "This is serpent!" cries the other, his hand on the elephant's trunk. Both are wrong to a sighted observer, but both are doggedly convinced they are right.

Let's consider how these two camps might approach evaluating an everyday object that is the result of many hours of research and craftsmanship, often designed to elicit an emotional response: a book.

Objectivists revel in hard science. They judge books not by covers or even authors -- instead focusing on the physics and chemistry of the book itself: what paper was used (is it low-acid, archival quality)? What binding technique was employed? Is the cover hard or soft? is it bound in leather or paper or cloth? How robust is the spine? Does it creak or crack when it opens? What is the Mean Time To Failure on the binding? How many words does the book have? How many chapters? Are there typographical or offset printing errors? These are the hallmarks of a quality made book, grounded in testable science, and nothing else matters to them nor should it matter to you. Semiotics is not a matter of physics or chemistry, so the "words" are eschewed. They have no bearing on the objective facts.

Subjectivists focus on the intangibles: Who is the author? What else have they written? Where was this edition printed? Who designed the layout and the lettering? Is the cover beautiful? Does the book feel good in my hands? Does it speak of quality and pride in craftsmanship? Does it look good on the shelf? Are the font and the typesetting comfortable? Is the presentation beautiful to my eyes? Does it read well? Are the words on the page the result of an author who is talented in their craft? And perhaps most importantly: What emotions do these words evoke in other readers? What feelings do these words evoke in me? That, above all else, is what matters to a subjectivist, and little else matters to them.

In short, we can judge a book by its materials, or we can judge a book by its meaning. (Some can even judge it by both; these may be the only folks in the room who can see the Elephant. Some days, like today, I like to feel I'm one of them, but often I'm leaning towards objectivism (as an engineer by trade) or subjectivism (as someone who likes to enjoy things on their merit, not their materials)).

I choose to believe that what Anas and his team have Discovered has great semiotic meaning: that we may have found, scratching at a quantum level, a way to get mundane materials to behave more like superlative ones. How does it work? Who knows. Does it work? Subjectively, absolutely. My ears are convinced.

The fact that people can and will choose to laugh at me (and others) for spending $250 (aka the price of a fancy date night with my wife) on a product that continually gives me pleasure and elevates our family's home entertainment day in and day out... rather than spending the price of a full family vacation for four ($2500+) on a product that is made of "objectively better materials" and powered by "measurable science"* but delivers an inferior result... well, that's priceless.

(It's not lost on me for a minute that there is a segment of the hardest of the hard-core objectivists who will say the $5 Monoprice cable measures in every way that matters the same (or better) than the $250 treated cable or the $2500 boutique cable, that it's all 'snake oil' sold by charlatans and 'they' are just looking out for me. I appreciate their concerns, but I frankly don't share them. I've heard and seen otherwise, and I can choose to waste my money as a wish, just as they can choose to save their money and be content. Win-win).  

@audphile1,

You’re right, I have not tried the Furutech DPS-4.1 Power Cord with FI-50 NCF Plugs, but what I was trying to do is share something positive with the OP.  My power cord of choice right now is the Cullen Cable Gold Series where I bought three of them used for $50 bucks a pop. One I have with my Clayton Audio S-100 (SE) power amplifier, one I plan on using with my Vinshine Audio x Kinki Studio Taihang Power Enhancer that FedEx says it should be here to tomorrow, Friday for my early Christmas present to myself.

To go along with my other 聖HIJIRI Nagomi Power Cords on my LTA Microzotl MZ3 Preamp and my Laiv Harmony DAC.

And at the time I was writing my earlier post, your post was the farthest thing from my mind, at the time. 

as far as reselling $5 cable for $250, nothing else is really going on here. I’m pretty confident that their $6,500 cable is this piece of turd for $5 with fancier looking connectors dressed up in a nice jacket. 

@tyray

Hi and thanks for the welcome. I knew by starting this discussion with that title I'd be in for a lot of criticism. Willgolf chiming in has certainly helped things, thanks for that. 

Yeah it's more like a man cave right now with the home cinema vibe lol. The room also has it's own dedicated 20 amp power line. It's all about progression which will take time. I'll always be open to advice. 

Thanks to the others who've also chimed in so far and provided more insight into the Discovery line. 

@roper,

dedicated 20 amp power line? That’s a heck of a of an hi fidelity audiophile upgrade, IMHO of course.

It's got it's own power cable running from the fuse box. I used Power Strada 309 with thick heavy duty conductors. Don't want the other appliances in the house interfering lol.