Great value if you can find a used one in good condition; build quality; appearance; flexibilty; actually improves the sound of your source components.

paying original MSRP.

Price paid was in CAN $$$. This is my second Black Mamba V2. Have one on my Denon 3930CI and it sounds wonderful. When the chance to get a second one came up, I jumped at it. Got the second one and have it hooked up to my Anthem AVM 30. The results......sweet!!!!!!!! After a week of settling in the soundstage has gotten bigger. More details are coming through all of my speakers. I'm watching and listening to dvd's I'm familiar with and I'm hearing new things with each movie. This cable is bringing out every last ounce of sound. This is a FANTASTIC power cable.

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Audioquest NRG-2, NRG-3 and NRG-5. The Shunyata smokes them all for source components.

none

all

hmmmm RUBBISH!!

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none

bottom end is awesome ... real depth and presence here. deadly quiet backgrounds. well extended highs. lush mids. excellent resolution and 3-d imaging. musicality.

perhaps a touch lean in the crossover between midrange and highs, but silver powercord further down in the chain may have contributed to that (Revelation Audio Labs Precept on my amp).

I recently purchased a used shunyata black mamba v2 to use it on a Modwright Sony NS999ES with sig. truth upgrades. I must say that I am very pleased with the results. This cord adds great bass extension and I only wish that my Martin Logan Aeon i's could go well below 30 Hz (instead of only down to about 40 Hz) to reproduce what this cord offers. I have also tried it on the whest audio DAP in a 2 channel system with splendid results there as well. This powercord is very system dependent. In high resolution systems, it may sound lean in the transition between mids and highs, especially when coupled with a silver powercord further down the chain, but in entry to midlevel systems this powercord can be a great addition. I currently use it on an Audio Refinement Pre-2 DSP with very satisfiyng results, in fact I will only consider replacing it with higher shunyata powersnakes and would highly recommend its usage in conjunction with a hydra. Used, this powercord offers great value in its price class.

Similar Products Used:

cardas golden and golden reference, audioquest nrg 2/3/5, revelation audio precept and precept II, shunyata taipan and anaconda vx. (the black mamba is definitely better than the cardas/audioquest/RAL precept II that it's gone up against on sources and pre's)

Bass, silence,silece,silence, Heart and soul of the music.

May not be a perfect fit for tube enthusiasts.

The Black Mamba is the type of power cord every CD player could benefit from. The best way to describe it is smooooooth. Seems to hold the soul of the music together. Do yourself a favor give it a listen. May not mesh well with tubes. Check out the Shunyata pacesetter line-up for tubes.

Great vocals & adds weight and impact to the sound. Widens soundstage.

HARD to burn in. I rigged up a fan and ran it all night every night for a week. Hates to be moved much. Takes about 15 minutes to really settle in after moved just from one IEC plug to the next.

I have been playing w/ power cord upgrades for the last year. Have some very good cables including the BMI Whale, BMI Eel, Omega Micro, Gutwire, and others. I am thus a firm beliver that thePC is a crucial to mate to YOUR system as the IC and speaker cables. It all has to synergize and what may be an AWESOME PC on 1 piece of gear in your rig could really suck somewhere else. Even worse, getting the power cords to mesh TOGETHER is possibly tougher than getting ICs and digital cables to weld into a greater whole. That being said, I believe most Audiophiles would benefit from trying to find a synergistic location in their rig for this Black Mamba. It adds a certain magic to the vocals and impact to the music that I find magical IMS. One caveat though is for most placing the BM on an amp could be a mistake? But everyone has their own goals and desired effect. I found the BM to work very well on the DAC or transport. It takes a bit of that edge off digital and still lets the clarity come through IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT COMBO OF PCs TO SURROUND IT. This can be a lot of work, moving PCs here and there and doing extensive A/B testing. However, I find it part of the hobby that is fascinating; how taking the same 4 power cords and by placing them in different locations totally changes the sound of your system. For me and in my system I think the BM is a crucial piece of gear. I at first thought it choked off the highs a bit compared to the Shunyata Cobra on the DAC. However, I came to find that in the GREATER % of my collection the BM was the better choice here. It really surrounds you w/ sound and ambience! In this current set up I use the Shunyata Cobra on the Theta transport. Then I place the BM on the EVS M2 DAC. Next comes the BMI Whale on the Melos Maestro pre-amp. Finally, either the David Elrod EPS Ribbon PC on the AES Superamp. This combo ROCKS! I am using silver ribbon true biwire speaker cables into very revealing Silverline Sonatina speakers. This system is very revealing and I feel w/o the Black Mamba it would be a little too forward sounding at times. I consider the Elrod PC to be th most transparent cable I have ever heard. It just reveals things from the mid range up that nothing else has. The CObra is along thesame vein, it really pulls out the detail. The Whale and Black Mamba do a great balancing act here to add depth and weight to the transparancy.

Similar Products Used:

BMI Whale, BMI Eel, Gutwire G-Clef, Mikro Omega w/ Active Shield, Elrod''s EPS-2 & EPS-3, Shunyata Cobra-both origianl & v1 models, Virtual Dynamics Audition, Shunyata sidewinder, HT Pro AC-11, JPS Po

Too Musical, too expensive in Hong Kong

I bought this Black Manba in October from Hong Kong dealer. I wondered the price is 30% higher than the USA price. Anyway, I put it into my Pass Lab X350. It is a good power cord, very details, but with some coloration. I don't think it is worth. Furthermore, the dealer promised that I can return to him if it is not satisfied, but the dealer broke his promise and refused to refund to me, poor service provided by Hong Kong dealer.

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Aural Symphonics, JPS Power AC

Smoothness, grainfree

Dark sounding, slightly lack of dynamic

Definitely an improvement over stock cord but not worth the price, IMHO. Used it on my source Sony SCD777ES for about 2 months and later on I replaced it with Ensemble Mega Flux for $100 less than the cost of the BM, I paid $750 for BM. What most impressed me were the midrange and the bass extension on this cable. Other than that, its highs are somewhat lay back if not veiled. The Ensemble as I found does it well across the audio signal spectrum with clearer and more dimensional imaging.

Similar Products Used:

Ensemble MegaFlux, ESP, Sidewinder, JPS

Smoothness, grainfree

Dark sounding, slightly lack of dynamic

Definitely an improvement over stock cord but not worth the price, IMHO. Used it on my source Sony SCD777ES for about 2 months and later on I replaced it with Ensemble Mega Flux for $100 less than the cost of the BM, I paid $750 for BM. What most impressed me were the midrange and the bass extension on this cable. Other than that, its highs are somewhat lay back if not veiled. The Ensemble as I found does it well across the audio signal spectrum with clearer and more dimensional imaging.

Similar Products Used:

Ensemble MegaFlux, ESP, Sidewinder, JPS

Flexible, well built, excellent aesthetics.

Expensive! Took 5 days of burn-in to really show their magic.

I was pretty skeptical about how much of a difference a power cord could make, but after reading a few reviews from sites I trust I wanted to at least try them. When I first plugged them in, I was a bit disappointed. They seemed to banish the "noise" and give a blacker background, but I was determined to follow the break-in instructions and after a few days of use swapped the Black Mamba V2 that had been on the amp, with the one on the pre. That really made a difference!! Not only was a lot of detail back without noise, my whole system seemed to have more balance and life to it! After a couple of more days, the sound was breathtaking. If I didn't hear the dramatic result for myself I wouldn't have believed it. All I can say to those who have posted poor reviews....did you really follow the instructions that came with it? I can only guess that if I had left it on the pre-amp, it would have never been enough to truly break it in and reveal what true performance gain would ever move someone to say the things they have said about a truly benign subject - Power cords!!!

Easy to hear differences between stock power cables and these snakes.

price, but worth it with the right high-end gear

See my review under the sidewinder post....the chords allowed my digital front end to really play dynamics from low to high...the decreased noise floor allowed more subtile musical details to come through. Try before you buy...I also auditioned Electraglide, Harmonic Technology, Blue Circle and Shunyata Power Snakes own Mamba which has been replaced by the Sidewinder.

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MIT black boxes and chords