An interesting comparison from @TheAttorney over on Head-Fi.
Full post here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/qsa-lanedri-cables.970327/post-18956045
QSA-L Veridion Discovery PC vs Shunyata Alpha NR V1
The Shunyata [1] currently powers my Zahl HM1 Class A headphone amp, and sounds great. To directly compare Shunyata vs Discovery, I bought a US>UK travel adapter plug from Amazon [2], so I could use the same UK socket from my Audience power conditioner. Visually, it is laughable to compare the skinny Amazon Basics-based $250 Discovery cable to the impressive $1,700 Shunyata "hosepipe" with large carbon fibre-like connectors. Then add a cheap travel adapter to further hinder the Discovery and you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was not a fair fight. And you'd be right - it was not at all a fair fight because it took just seconds for the Discovery to comfortably beat the Shunyata!!! [3]. The Discovery was simply clearer, more dynamic, with a more "you are there" live feel to the performance. Going back to the Shunyata, it felt more like a recording, with nothing obviously wrong, but also nothing obviously right about it. With, say, simple female vocal tracks, the Shunyata gave a nice presentation to the vocals, but the Discovery made the vocals seem more "real", plus it made all the surrounding instruments sound more real, individual and impactful. The differences increased with more complex recordings.
My original intention for the Discovery PC was as a piggy tail for my Infinity Fuse. But no way is it now going to leave its current position driving the HM1. So I'll be ordering another Discovery PC for the piggy tail, and I'll repurpose the Shunyata to my AV system.
Notes and Caveats
[1] To be fair to Shunyata, its V1 Alpha has been superseded by V2 and then X, each reputedly better than the last, although with significant price increases along the way. But V1 is what I had available.
[2] The US>UK travel adapter I chose was branded Lencent and cost around £9, which was more than many alternatives. But I chose it because it had the highest 13A rating and looked very solid. In practice, it was indeed very solid and gave a tight connection. It also comes with a 13A fuse, which was easily improved upon by an AMR fuse from my spares box, which was then further improved by my favourite non-fuse fuse, the Xangsane rhodium-plated solid silver slug. This shows that the quality of the travel adapter matters a lot, and the above results were based on using the Xangsane slug. With stock fuse, and insufficient burn-in, the results were much less impressive.
[3] These Veridion-treated cables have a rollercoaster burn-in period (reputedly not as bad as the original QSA treatment, but still obvious to me). They sound good from cold but then can go off in different directions over the next few days before settling down to a more consistent incremental improvement. They never sounded terrible, but they often sounded "meh" during this period. It seemed to take elapsed weeks for me, but that may be because my equipment draws relatively low current and is not switched on all the time. Once burnt-in, it then takes seconds to notice the differences described above. I hate burn-in and I don't understand it, but I just say it how I hear it.