"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?
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.
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@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.
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. 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. 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. |
I always enjoyed your posts. Your post’s here got me thinking about a broader trend in the U.S. high-end audio market vs European/Japanese markets. My perspective: it seems that many American manufacturers, particularly in tweaks, cables, and power products lean heavily on proprietary “processes” or branded treatments (quantum conditioning, molecular alignment, conductor activation, etc.) as a core part of their identity. The language often emphasizes the listening experience and end result rather than clearly articulated electrical or mechanical fundamentals. What I find interesting is the contrast with many European and Japanese manufacturers, who tend to foreground more traditional engineering explanations: topology, grounding, power supply design, materials science, impedance control, and mechanical execution. Even when designs are exotic or artisanal, the rationale is usually expressed in fairly orthodox engineering terms. To be clear, this isn’t an argument that U.S. products don’t work or don’t sound good, many clearly do! Nor is it a claim that everything important in audio can be captured by standard measurements. I do wonder, however, whether market expectations play a role. The U.S. audiophile space seems more tolerant of narrative-driven explanations, while European and Japanese cultures appear more comfortable letting conservative engineering and long-term consistency do the talking. IMO, solid engineering in the U.S. often gets obscured by marketing because storytelling tends to sell more effectively than equations. Many European and Japanese firms still lead with engineering fundamentals and allow the sound to be the natural outcome, even if that means slower, steadier growth. By contrast, American boutique brands often lead with the listening experience, framing their engineering in more symbolic or proprietary language as a way to stand out in a much louder and more competitive marketplace 😊 |
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