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

@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. 

@mclinnguy your examples describe processes performed on conductors in most cases prior to final assembly. The $5 monoprice cable’s already built. I keep my mind open. Reading thru QSA website was entertaining. That’s as far as I’m willing to explore them. 

@audphile1 I hear ya. I have been thinking about it but have found other things to do with the disposable income lately. And it is not like the cables I have sound bad, but maybe in a few months I’ll give them a shot. I agree though, even if for some strange reason I prefer them to my Shunyata, Zavfino, Hurricane etc. they do still look like Monoprice turds. 

Something else I just noticed regarding One of biggest "snake oil" reputations in audio-land, even more than Synergistic Research, is Bybee with their Quantum purifiers. Never tried them, but some have and claim they work. And others have opened one of them up and all it was is a single 10 cent resistor. 

And yet here in this DAC review thread that @mitch2 started, which has over 100,000 views one of the favoured products engineer’s is now putting them in his latest product: 

"As for our new Mystique Z Quantum, they will be formally announced and available in January 2026. The MSRP will be $12,999 and if you already have a Mystique Z the upgrade will cost you the same $2,000 difference. 

The Z Q replaces the medical grade AC input filter with three Bybee AC Purifiers: one for line, one for load, and one for ground. 

And the Z Q adds two Bybee Gold Slipstream Purifiers between the single-ended output stage and the RCA jacks. That also puts them between the single-ended output stage and the single-ended to balanced IC chip that creates our balanced outputs. 

My impression of the Quantum upgrade is a bit more transparency, depth, texture, and resolution, combined with a more effortless quality and transient intensity. "

"Toward the end of my time with the Mystique Z NC, Benjamin (who clearly never sits still) informed me of another (reportedly substantial) upgrade to the Mystique Z line – the next top model, the “Quantum” or Mystique Z Q. The Quantum version will start as a typical Mystique Z with the highest-level nano crystal chokes and will incorporate Bybee Quantum Purifiers placed in strategic locations. Benjamin informed me that he has been listening to a beta version and that this Z Q is his highest performing DAC yet. Then, as a pleasant surprise, Benjamin sent me his beta version to listen to as I was finishing with the Mystique Z NC. I will post more on my time with the Z Q later."

If someone started a new thread titled "Bybee Quantum Purifiers-wow!" and explained how he put them in his DAC and how much more liquid the presentation is the whole community would be chewing him to bits, this has probably already happened, I didn’t search, but in this thread nobody is calling out with derogatory snake oil claims. Clearly @fuzzbutt17 sees some benefit to these "snake oil" products or he wouldn’t use them.