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

Well this thread went exactly like I expected it to. 

@rx8man 

Discovery for $250.00, then the Gamma jumps to $4000.00??

What is so different to warrant that much of an increase??

The Gamma is a Iconoclast/Belden BAV power cord they apply their "technology" on. They tested various power cables and apparently this was the one that was the most receptive to the Veridion technology (secret sauce). With the exception of their top products they don’t make any cables, they just apply their technology to existing cables. Their midline cable start as stock 4K Sablon cables, they treat it and charge 12k for it. The more the material used, the higher the cost, this is why the ultimatum cables are the most massive and the most expensive. 

https://www.iconoclastcable.com/bav/index.htm

From what I understand this $250 Monoprice cable is offered at a discount to get people in the door so to speak in the hopes they realize the improvements and upgrade to a more profitable product. 

@audiom3 

But I wonder if these guys would be willing to treat our existing cables with their secret sauce for, say $245?  

They have tested many cables, and certain ones are more receptive to the secret sauce, and from what I have read the purest and what we believe to be the "best" metals like OCC are the least receptive to soaking up the sauce. 

From their marketing, they seem incredibly confident that we’d all easily hear the improvements of this Quantum sauce.

Yes, they are confident as there is a money back guarantee, but everyone seems worried to actually try the product. Instead they would rather claim to "know" these cables are a scam. Shunyata "zaps" their cables with serious voltage for 4 days, so does Synergistic Research apply a massive voltage to condition them before shipping them to the consumer. My Zavfino Silver Darts? Same thing. Who knows what QSA are doing. 

Where have some of you people been? These are not brand new products, I am certainly not in the market for 22K speaker cables, but many people are, and none of them post in Audiogon, and this thread is the reason why. Here is review of them from over 2 years ago: https://www.stereotimes.com/post/qsa-lanedri-infinity-series-ultimatum-speaker-cables/ he preferred them over his Hemingway Z Cores. Hey, maybe they sound better than Transparent Opus and Nordost Odin’s, what do you have against them? I can tell you there are many audiophiles on WBF whose opinions I trust, and they are not idiots or allow themselves to be scammed. Many of them have deeper pockets and are able to try many products and we learn from their experiences, personally as much as reviewers, who are more biased as there is money to be made. If they try a product and it is good they let people know, they share the word, that is what is happening on this thread. 

I sure as hell am not buying a 12K "plug-in-thingee" but I am not going to dismiss some guy with deeper pockets than I who tried it and claims it improved the sound. Good for him (or her, why do we always assume they are male?). 

But for $250 for a power cable guaranteed to sound better than your $2k _____ with a money back guarantee, what do you have to lose? shipping costs, but at least you now would have a valid post to enlighten us, not useless crap. 

Related: I just put in a 10ga dedicated line in my new room, and before getting the new breaker I removed my Furutech GTX outlet I had been using into the new line and put in a "regular" one and didn’t want to wait, so I plugged my Shunyata and everything else into the regular outlet to listen or a day. I could not believe how bad it sounded! Many of you reading this have come to accept audiophile outlets, and have them, but maybe 5, 10, or 20 years ago you thought the same thing as this thread with its "voodoo quantum treatment cable" : Ridiculous! Snake oil! I agree, I was one of them. It makes no sense. None at all. How could 14 microns of rhodium over copper change the sound so drastically over brass? Dunno, but I hear the difference and am not going back. 

We don’t know what we don’t know. 

Good for you guys @willgolf ​​​​@roper for sticking your necks out, having thick skin and telling us your experiences. Like many cable threads here at Audiogon they are filled with posts from people with the least amount of experience with cables. Or none at all- you know, the experts. 

Sad

@mclinnguy when we’re talking outlets… 
I have 2 dedicated lines. Each circuit is terminated with one Furutech GTX-D NCF and 1 Shunyata. Both excellent and completely different sounding outlets.

Base material, plating, measures taken to isolate the outlet and contact area size all make a difference in sound. 

When something like Veridion treatment enters the conversation as a “secret sauce” applied to a $5 power cord that was not physically altered in any way (including the molded rubber plugs still intact), it causes a certain degree of suspension. 

What does the treatment of a $5 cable entail? Forget the $250 final price tag for a moment. What is done to this cable without physically altering it?
Do they marinate the cable in this “special sauce”? Do they brush it onto the worst possible connectors? What causes such a dramatic alteration to its properties? 

As you know I believe cables make a difference. Swapping connectors on cables can change sound. Different outlets impact the sound of a system, Ethernet cables affect the sound of your streaming setup. I’ve gone thru enough cables to know this. But I also know you can’t polish a turd. 

"But I also know you can’t polish a turd. "

Don't forget it was established way back that you can indeed polish a turd!

Question is, why would anyone want to?

As you know I believe cables make a difference. Swapping connectors on cables can change sound. Different outlets impact the sound of a system, Ethernet cables affect the sound of your streaming setup. I’ve gone thru enough cables to know this. 

@audphile1 I know you know, and you know I know, You know. But remember way back when we didn’t know? And even after we accepted that cables did change the sound, then we got into digital and most could not believe digital cables sounded different, but they do. And now the modem, and the power supply to the modem change the sound? Crackers. 

What does the treatment of a $5 cable entail? Forget the $250 final price tag for a moment. What is done to this cable without physically altering it?
Do they marinate the cable in this “special sauce”? Do they brush it onto the worst possible connectors? What causes such a dramatic alteration to its properties? 

No idea. And yes I am sure whatever they are doing they are investigating profiting in other industries as well as audio cables. Once a patent is released then of course everyone will know. But there is plenty of research going on. Like I mentioned above Shunyata does this:

Shunyata Research’s Kinetic Phase Inversion Process (KPIP™ or KPIPv2™) is a proprietary conditioning treatment applied to the conductors in their audio and power cables. It is a four-day continuous process designed to refine the conductor metals at a molecular level. 

Sounds like BS, right? Well the cables sound pretty damn good, that is all I care about. 

Synergistic Research: What does 1 million volts do when all I need is 120V? No idea. 

Synergistic Research’s "Quantum Tunneling" is a proprietary high-end audio marketing term for a process using massive voltage (around 1 million volts) to treat cables and components, purportedly altering their surfaces and internal structures to create easier electron flow, reducing noise, and improving sound quality for more "realistic" audio, though it’s a highly specialized, non-traditional physics application for consumer electronics, not true quantum tunneling as understood in quantum mechanics. 

What does nitrogen plasma exposure do to copper oxide nanowire? This:

 It has been observed that, upon plasma exposure for up to 7 min, the conductance per unit volume of small-diameter NWs (d = 102, 118, 120 nm), measured in a two-terminal configuration, increases by up to five times (e.g., from 62.17 to 276 nS μm⁻³ for d = 102 nm) compared to that of the pristine NWs. 

https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jap/article/138/2/024302/3352350/Nitrogen-plasma-induced-conductivity-enhancement

What does "Deposition of oxygen-functionalized graphene on copper by conventional and modified electrophoretic deposition with bipolar high-impulses" do to a turd? No idea, but maybe it polishes it. This article is just a few days old. 

http://Deposition of oxygen-functionalized graphene on copper by conventional and modified electrophoretic deposition with bipolar high-impulses

I am just trying to stay open minded, there is plenty of research going on. 

We don’t know what we don’t know.