What I can say with 100% confidence, before plugging your power cord into my system the sound was anemic and unnatural. Before your cable tens of thousands spent on audio equipment was seemingly wasted, trapped inside boxes.

After the cable was introduced… it all came alive, instruments sounded like instruments, tones became natural and expressive, and the equipment made a giant leap toward the way I imagined it should sound, like audiophile gear. It was very similar to putting a full exhaust and a tune on a Motorcycle, often referred to as, “popping the cork”, unleashing a massive leap of further potential. Anyway, I have tried other power cords but yours made my system. I’ve been focusing on room treatment lately, which as you know has huge impacts, impacts I believe could not be fully realized without the Whisper+.

Also have to say how much I appreciate the price, this design from a major brand would no doubt be something out of my price range. In an industry full of huge cost incremental steps in components thank you for giving a lot more people the chance to experience something like this.

C.L.

Holy.

Crap.

You're not getting this back.

I just started listening to it. I played a couple songs through my DAC using the existing Shunyata Alpha NR v2, ending with Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man on your playlist. Swapped in your power cable, fired up Copeland.

HUGE soundstage, much greater depth and the bass energy is just wild. It's totally controlled, but much fuller.

I may be ordering some more shortly...

M.S.

Okay, I think I’ve got a handle on what the Whisper is doing. To keep a long story as short as possible, it does what it says it will do: reduces noise. However, it does so to a degree that is deeply impressive.

Have you had the experience of moving from a laptop (PC or Mac, it doesn’t matter) to a very good streamer? And everything is calmer to listen to because the electrical storm in a box has been removed from your system? I went from MacBook to Innuos Zen MK3 and the Whisper is in that ballpark of a change, lending credence to Duncan calling it a component.

…The Whisper did as much for the sound of my system (relaxation, soundstage, vivid colours, separation, definition and dynamics both large and small) as the cable loom, at a much lower cost.

…So if my system got stolen and I had to start again with the insurance money, the very first thing I’d buy is how ever many Whispers I needed for the system.

M.L.

The Whisper Elite really really drops noise floor and doesn’t add just high frequency unbalanced details. The soundstage stage has grown in width , height and depth. Good recordings and lower quality recordings increase in fidelity equally. More micro details do not destroy the PRAT and toe tapping. Songs I know well and others I have heard and added to my library at least every forth song I play, the music is so new and vibrant that i find myself getting goose bumps, and it results in a charged listening session. The goose bumps align with Duncan telling me during development that this Elite is just plain Spooky. Yep that nails it. It is like it released hidden Spirits in which have endured years of being locked away, Have just now come out to happily haunt your room, ears and brain.

D.F.

Back to music. What better to test [three Whisper cables] but invoking 29 minutes of breathless Bitches Brew the title track. I had played that dozens of times but literally never heard Miles Davis and his masterful Jazz Fusion piece before that play. Music coming from everywhere. Focus, imaging, space electric and acoustic. Laid bare to your soul. By the end of the song that Bitches Brew concoction had completely milked me and my desire to hear another song that night dry. I just turned down volume and switched off the system. How do you follow such ecstasy? Can it get better?

D.F.

I’ve now had some time with both power cables on and they’re sounding as good as I had hoped and more. The bass extension continues to grow, fine detail is there and, as I said, the cleaning up of the RF in the system has meant that there’s a lot more articulation between different things going on at the same time, by which I don’t just mean separation in the sense that people usually mean. When people talk separation, they’re often talking about the placement of instruments and voices in the soundstage and being able to locate them in their separate and well-defined locations, “air” around the instruments, that kind of thing. What I’m talking about is the case when two sources of sound occupy the same place in the soundstage and yet can be identified as separate — most often, with two or more voices in the center of the soundstage. Really good recordings allow you to hear their distinctness even when they occupy the same space.

M.M.

I picked 5 of my favorite tunes and went back and forth over and over and by the end of the day, the AQ got boxed up.

I really believe your cable is allowing my system to breathe deeper… I think my noise floor is already pretty low so I assume it’s the mid and top end that I feel is more alive. And even the bass thumps through the REL sound more authoritative.

J.Z.

Now to the sound: Children of Sanchez, intense Jazz 10min long. Heard it yesterday and today it’s like hearing a new song. The interlude is even more spaced out. Now I hear exact placement of instruments and clearly defined borders. This is only after 30 mins of listing, can’t wait what this sound brings to all my favorite music. It’s like you always said, a PC is its own component and brings a change like every other component upgrade. Definitely a bigger one than my last streamer change.

… After a week filled with listing, I‘m happy to report it still gets better. Firm Bass coming from speakers and my new REL (finally I know that it is dialed in) and amazing soundstage, with the right recording it’s so holographic I start searching for the tube section in my system, as it’s floats in the air. Top end is detailed and very well appointed, neutral while being much more fluid then before. It’s even with lesser recordings more smooth and less harsh than before. With this one upgrade all my parts feel more High end.

…it still gets better. My system sounds so good nowadays, with the right recording I sit and listen and cannot believe it.

F.A.

“Ok - I finally sat down for my first real listening session and all I can say is WOW!!

This new PC is ridiculous - it’s opening up even more layers of music I didn’t realize was missing. And it does it without removing the overall tone I like. It just layers it so you can pick out the imaging even better within the soundstage.

Soundstage isn’t necessarily bigger (I already had it pretty solid), but the outer edges are so much more defined (but not over etched). It’s got that toe tapping musicalness that I need. It’s cleaner and clearer than what I’ve been used to, and it is creating a blacker background which provides even greater sense of depth —- depth is something I already prided my system on and gets a lot of wows from friends/family, but this PC takes it a step further and gives you a real sense of clarity in both the front and back edges as well - true holographic purity.

I don’t know how else to describe it. It is as you described an overachiever and can go up against the big boys that are several X the price.

Well done!”

— M.E.

I've been really enjoying the Whisper cable - it sounds awesome. I did a significant amount of testing using music I know very well with and without the Entreq [grounding box] and the cable seems to make the Entreq unnecessary. I also changed back to my old cable, which was quite a downgrade and in this case, the Entreq did make a difference. When I reinstalled the new cable I could clearly hear the improved sound.

There's a lot more detail in the highs and more air between instruments. The bass is much more focused and accurate but still capable of going very deep, and seem to integrate better with my listening room. I've actually been able to turn off the parametric equalizer in the Roon Nucleus+ as compensation in some frequencies is no longer necessary. Great stuff!

— G.B.

First off I need to say that I’m a power cable skeptic. I never understood why one little piece in the whole chain of cables to the DAC or amp would make a difference. Your podcast about the theory that the power cable is acting as serial device got me thinking that maybe I need to try it out, and boy am I glad I did!

It really transformed my DAC (compared to the standard cable it comes with)! The most obvious change is that the music now sounds a lot more 3 dimensional and has less harshness. I never thought the T+A DAC8DSD was harsh or digital sounding before, but after putting in the new power cord it sounded really sweet, and very “analog”. There are more bass frequencies, and instruments like acoustic guitars or violins have more body and sound fuller. In the higher frequencies it takes away some of the edges without making it sound dull. It also makes the instruments easier to locate. Overall it made my good sounding system sounding “magical” and you just want to listen to more music :-) . Thank you!

— S.H.

“I am trying to get my head around how 1 power cable feeding a power regenerator can make such a difference. The soundstage was more defined; it's hard to describe but there was a focus present out at the outer edges that was missing before. Each instrument had greater clarity within the soundstage. Voices seemed to project from the back to the front with a natural increase in volume as if you can feel the performer projecting their voice. Plucked strings had greater tonality with a more natural decay. I have critically listened to very expensive sound systems in the past and rarely have I heard such a well defined holographic soundstage with such a high degree of musicality.”

— M.H.

“Holy crap! Hope I’m not hallucinating!”

“Bass- Controlled. No longer wooly. Top- No sibilance. EVERYTHING I listened to was better. Soundstage wider and deeper."

“Instrument separation. Overall smoothness. Small hidden things revealed. Overall balance.”

—B.H.

“There are some pretty craaazy things I hear in the soundstage. I’ll give just one example. I’m listening to Janos Starker doing the Bach cello suites and not only do I hear the difference between the cello, whose sound fills the room, but I also hear the contrast to Starker’s breathing, which is localized in the center and yet separate from the cello. That subtle difference between the cello and Starker’s breathing goes miles in maintaining the illusion of space and depth.

I have, of course, many hours and many tracks to go. I started by comparing to the other cable I was using, but quickly left the practice behind because I just want to keep listening to music with the Common Ground cable.

Bravo!”

— M.M.