Has Anyone Found Shunyata Cables Sounding Thin?

Cerrot,

"I know I have not heard your system but if you tell me you put water in your engine instead of gas, I would not need to hear your car to know what you have."

If you Google water-powered engines you will discover some amazing things.

Congratulations. Glad to hear you have everything figured out. By the way, here's a hypothetical situation. Your best audiophile friend invites you over. He's been doing some odd experiments, much to your surprise. He tells you he's running a cable or 2 in series and would like you to have a listen. Your response:

1. You're not interested in hearing this crap. You already know it's a crock of BS.
2. OK, why not, power up and let's give it a go.

Would you choose #1 or #2?

I second what Cerrot is saying. It may sound good, but its not. Its analogous to what the best designers of audio components do: they listen AND they measure. They stay away from things that don't make sense, regardless of how they may sound.

A designer who'd stay away from something "regardless of how they
may
sound" is someone's whose products I'd likely stay away from. Sound
quality becoming secondary to some other criteria when building audio
components is misguided. Measurements certainly have a role but the
major and final determinant is "what does it sound like reproducing
music". If your designer determines the sound is good but the
measurements aren't, then they'll reject what sounds good anyway?? If they
feel the sound is good why worry about measurements? Why do some
audiophiles feel that it's somehow more intellectual to be contrary to what's
so obvious. Psag when choosing equipment for your system how do you
judge its worthiness for your home listening pleasure? Does listening
matter in your decision making? Just curious.
Thanks,
Charles,

Actually, no one has mentioned the most damning problem with Sabai's initial complaint about Shunyata cables. (Unless someone else commented and I didn't see it.)

There is no way to know the native sound of the Shunyata cable when used in series with another brand of cable. They are simply being misused. I would guess Shunyata would not agree that their cables are thin sounding, and not even Sabai could argue this when, in fact, he's using them serial with other cables. It's one thing to say, "X cable sounds thin," but it is an entirely wrong statement to say, "X cable sounds thin," when it has been used in serial, which is in no way representative of normal usage.

I suspect Sabai may not have even tried the Shunyata cable alone; from the lead post it appears he has inserted it into his serial cable system and weighed in on its sound. He simply is not using the cables correctly, according to the intent of the manufacturers, when he uses them serial. Consequently, he is most assuredly off base on describing the sound of any cables he is using in that fashion.

It's tough enough to zero in on the sound of a cable when used in a mix of brands; it is impossible to know the native sound when used in an unnecessary serial configuration.

Mixing cable brands as well as serial use leads to one thing: a sloppier sounding rig in which it becomes impossible to isolate the actual contribution of any cable used in series. It may sound good, but not nearly as good as if proper methods were employed. I have built hundreds of rigs and tried such things, and I don't need to hear anyone else's rig to state that as a principle of system building.

I think Sabai feels his philosophy of audio is superior to persons like me, and thus I don't think he will be open to such criticism. He proposes what he feels are superior methods, but when those methods come under scrutiny, he retreats to the, "... you can't judge because you haven't heard my system," defense.
There is no way to find solid ground with such methods and logic. :)

Regarding listing my system, no one will be able to do anything except speculate about my system if I go to the trouble of listing everything, which I will not do. I will say that I have Raidho C1.1 speakers, an Audio Horizons TP 2.3 preamp fully loaded, a PS Audio PerfectWave transport with PS Audio DS DAC on the way, an isolation transformer, a Monarchy power regenerator, a Shunyata Triton power conditioner, and an Atma-Sphere S-30 power amp.

You have very good components but IMO, the S-30 is too small to drive your speakers properly. Also, are you using Chinese or Russian 6AS7G? From my experience, Chinese version is leaner.

With your speakers and want to stay with Atma-Sphere, I wouldn't use anything smaller than MA-1.