I had the Hydra 6 a year ago with the cheaper powercord. I can't remember the model but it was the $250.00 one with 20 ampers.
I plugged in one component at a time starting with my Marantz sacd player, then my pre-amp, then my power amp.
This is what I noticed:
a.) with the cd player into the hydra, I find it a bit closed in, shut in as we say. The sound was not veiled but somewhat lost is liveliness. I did not like it plugged to the hydra, preferred straight to outlet with the Audience Powercord.
b.) the pre-amp on the hydra was better. It somewhat made the sound refined. More focused.
c.) On my power amp-- it was just struggling, sounded muffled, congested and shut it. No way.
In the end, i seem to prefer my components plugged into a strip bar (powerbar) with no lights, fuses, power on switch, etc than using the hydra.
I ended up selling the hydra.
Perhaps your mileage may vary!
good luck.
I plugged in one component at a time starting with my Marantz sacd player, then my pre-amp, then my power amp.
This is what I noticed:
a.) with the cd player into the hydra, I find it a bit closed in, shut in as we say. The sound was not veiled but somewhat lost is liveliness. I did not like it plugged to the hydra, preferred straight to outlet with the Audience Powercord.
b.) the pre-amp on the hydra was better. It somewhat made the sound refined. More focused.
c.) On my power amp-- it was just struggling, sounded muffled, congested and shut it. No way.
In the end, i seem to prefer my components plugged into a strip bar (powerbar) with no lights, fuses, power on switch, etc than using the hydra.
I ended up selling the hydra.
Perhaps your mileage may vary!
good luck.
