Hi guys,
I had the chance to purchase an already broken in Hydra Talos conditioner last week. This last w-e, I spent some time testing various setup combinations of my 2 conditioners in my system (I already had a Torus Power conditioner). The first thing I did is to plug the Talos into the Torus and plug everything else in the Talos. The bottom end was superb with lots of good and well-defined bass. Soundstage was huge but unfortunately, the highs were not that good. Lean, lots of sibilance, less body on the instruments, etc. Only good recordings were good to listen to, the rest being barely listenable.
Then I plugged the Talos in the wall plug directly (skipping the Torus). That fixed the issue with the highs but although the bass was good and well defined, it lacked the punch I'm used to with the Torus. To give you an analogy, it was like if I had gone from a solid state to a tube amp (a bit extreme as an example but I'm sure you understand what I mean). Bottom line less impact than with the previous setup. However, I did notice more fluidity in the music, the "live" aspect you guys are reporting was there. Much better than with my Torus only. Torus is hi-fi music, Talos is like being at the show if I can use that comparison. Since I was not coming from a situation where no conditioner was used, I did not notice much improvement with the Talos regarding a blacker background and more micro details, etc. It was more moving closer to the presentation, as if you had been moving from the 15th row to the first row at a show. Dynamic changes were more "effortless". Classical music involving orchestras greatly benefitted from that.
Still, my brain (and my chest ;-)) were always telling me that something was missing at the bottom end of the spectrum. What I did is to unplug my subwoofer and plugged it back into the Torus. Voilà! Much better.
It's hard to explain but it seems that the Talos does a better job at filtering the noise and removing itself from the music path while the "power" part is still better delivered by the Torus. Might be explained by the fact the torus can provide more instantaneous current than the Hydra. However, I thought that by chaining the 2 conditioners, I could have a dead silent system but it seems this combination is not good. I don't know why. Perhaps, too much of a good thing. I'll continue my exploration and report the results. Stay tuned.
I had the chance to purchase an already broken in Hydra Talos conditioner last week. This last w-e, I spent some time testing various setup combinations of my 2 conditioners in my system (I already had a Torus Power conditioner). The first thing I did is to plug the Talos into the Torus and plug everything else in the Talos. The bottom end was superb with lots of good and well-defined bass. Soundstage was huge but unfortunately, the highs were not that good. Lean, lots of sibilance, less body on the instruments, etc. Only good recordings were good to listen to, the rest being barely listenable.
Then I plugged the Talos in the wall plug directly (skipping the Torus). That fixed the issue with the highs but although the bass was good and well defined, it lacked the punch I'm used to with the Torus. To give you an analogy, it was like if I had gone from a solid state to a tube amp (a bit extreme as an example but I'm sure you understand what I mean). Bottom line less impact than with the previous setup. However, I did notice more fluidity in the music, the "live" aspect you guys are reporting was there. Much better than with my Torus only. Torus is hi-fi music, Talos is like being at the show if I can use that comparison. Since I was not coming from a situation where no conditioner was used, I did not notice much improvement with the Talos regarding a blacker background and more micro details, etc. It was more moving closer to the presentation, as if you had been moving from the 15th row to the first row at a show. Dynamic changes were more "effortless". Classical music involving orchestras greatly benefitted from that.
Still, my brain (and my chest ;-)) were always telling me that something was missing at the bottom end of the spectrum. What I did is to unplug my subwoofer and plugged it back into the Torus. Voilà! Much better.
It's hard to explain but it seems that the Talos does a better job at filtering the noise and removing itself from the music path while the "power" part is still better delivered by the Torus. Might be explained by the fact the torus can provide more instantaneous current than the Hydra. However, I thought that by chaining the 2 conditioners, I could have a dead silent system but it seems this combination is not good. I don't know why. Perhaps, too much of a good thing. I'll continue my exploration and report the results. Stay tuned.