Mating power cords with APL 3910

Samuel,
Thank you for clarifying the issue about the analog outlets in Hydra 8, and for providing the information about the Hydra 2. Both explanations are relevant to my decision making.

As you can see from my posts above, the Hydras are my front runners for power line conditioning. Which Hydra, and how many, hopefully, will be determined after some additional clarifications.

Besides the additional filtering on the analog outlets in Hydra 8, are there other differences in the filtering process in the four Hydras? The specifications on Shunyata's website product page list a 4, 7, 10, and 16 element Venom Noise Filters in Hydra 2, 4, 6, and 8, respectively. Do the differences in the number of elements determine differences in the quality of filtration, the type of filtration, or both? These are relevant questions for making an intelligent choice. Specifically, which Hydra would be most appropriate for just the CD player alone? Or, more realistically, what are the sonic trade-offs for a CD player with each of the four Hydras?

As for the amps, I have two mono Jadis JA80 tube amps driving the Wilson Audio Watt/Puppies and one Krell amp driving the Wilson Audio WHOW subwoofer. Since I have 3 dedicated 20 amp AC lines, it will be possible for me to isolate the high current components from the low-current ones, and possibly isolate the right channel from the left one. In view of your information about Hydra 2, it appears that using Hydra 2s on my three amps would be optimal.

I would like to be as close to optimal as possible, but I'm also motivated to be as economic as possible. The bottom line question is: Based on the experience of people within your company, and the feedback from your dealers and clients, what is the sonic cost if I just plug all four components into a Hydra 8 instead of using some combination of the Hydras?

Thank you in advance for your consideration of my questions.
John

Tvad,
Samuel's information about the Hydra 2 are relevant to Perry's observations. Also, his explanation about the additional filtration in the analog outlets in Hydra 8, reinforces the positive comments I read and heard about the Hydra 8. I'm hoping his answers to my questions about the differences in the Venom Filters will be as clear and as helpful.
John

Not to belabor things here, but just to complete my thoughts for those reading this thread, I found that using a 20-amp Shunyata Anaconda Alpha from the wall (plain old 15 amp non-dedicated line) to the Hydra 8, and another Anaconda Alpha from the Hydra to the amp (Edge NL12) works really well. The bass (especially the problematic upper bass) is much more open & transparent, with no ear-pounding pressure, even with my rear-ported speakers too close to the wall. Grain was removed from the rest of the spectrum, too, but detail & 3D-ness remains. There is just that sense of all-is-well that lets you breathe & listen. I tried other cords in this loop (TG SLVR, Kimber PK10 Palladium), with & w/o the Hydra, & found the above setup to be the best by far.

Thanks for the response Grant. Having said what you did though, you never provided any type of rebuttal pertaining to the facts that the outlets are all wired in daisy-chain fashion with the resultant potential for heavy current draw to modulate the AC voltage & current available to other devices or that there isn't the potential for crosstalk / cross-contamination from outlet to outlet.

Parallel filters are just that i.e. parallel to the existing path. That doesn't mean that these filters absolutely will absorb all of the incoming or outgoing noise, just that there is a parallel path to the filter for the noise to take outside of heading into the next component or back into the main AC feed.

Having said that, I would be curious as to what level of "isolation" is provided from one outlet to the other outlet within the duplex and how much isolation there is from one duplex to the next. Obviously, this would be somewhat frequency dependent, but if Shunyata has conducted the exhaustive type of R&D that you claim that they have in designing this series of products, all of this data should be readily available. For that matter, the amount of voltage / current that can be pulled from one outlet without creating sag in any other outlet within a Hydra should also be a matter of recorded data that i and many others would be interested in. I say that because others have questioned the use of a Hydra for both their amplifier(s) and line level components simultaneously.

As far as having an agenda, i'm not involved in the audio industry in any way, shape or form. I'm simply sharing my own technical observations and analysis based on the descriptive information as provided by your website and other sources that supposedly received their information directly from Shunyata. Feel free to confirm or deny any of it at your leisure, but please be at least somewhat specific in your response. Saying that something doesn't happen or isn't possible when logic dictates that such things do occur and / or are possible isn't much of a reply from a company that makes high profile, high cost products of a technical nature. Sean
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