Christmas 2001, and Santa Claus came in the shape of RG lugging boxes of mains kit down my drive for festive fun and games. The idea of these particular Christmas holiday goodies was to see how successively sophisticated mains treatments would fare in the context of my home system. To that end RG brought the following: A Russ Andrews Silencer, a PS Audio Ultimate Outlet with cable, and a Powersnakes Hydra with a selection of their cables.

At this point, a quick recap of my system is probably in order. I currently use a Michell Orbe TT with SME V and Clearaudio Accurate cartridge and Trichord CD transport and DAC as the front end. Phono stage is Tom Evans Groove, whilst the amplification is the Michell Argo with Hera pre-amp, and four Alecto monoblocks. Speakers are the Audiovector 5. Interconnects are from XLO, and I use Nordost SPM speaker cable. All of the above electronics are connected to a self-built mains board using their supplied mains cables. Given that the Trichord Pulsar DAC has a separate mains for the analogue and digital stages, add this little lot up and you require a grand total of 10 mains outlets and associated cables, 2 digital, 7 analogue, and one motor supply Going into this review, I was dearly hoping that I wouldn't find a great affinity for mains cables costing several hundred pounds, as multiplied by ten, that would be simply ruinous.

First job was to ensure that the system was warmed up and running to the best of its ability without the aid of any mains conditioning. As it turned out I had a `situation' with this baselining action, which I will return to later in this article. Anyway, once I sorted out the `situation', I re-affirmed the strengths and weaknesses of the system as I then perceived them. The best way to describe my system is `larger than life', in that it plays very loud, is very dynamic, has excellent timing with serious amounts of bottom end wellie, and it brings out a real sense of performance from both LP and CD. However, it draws the picture with broad brush strokes, losing some detail in the process. One of the details it tends to lose is the sense of acoustic and ambience which, for example, would trouble RG far more than it does me, majoring as I do on studio bound rock music. Another failing is that it sounds slightly mechanical, like all the musicians are keeping their buttocks firmly clenched instead of fully relaxing into their musicianship. Finally there is a layer of grain, which I have managed to reduce greatly through the use of Ringmat's feet and domes, and the cd-str5 feet, but have been unable to eliminate.

This system has been built up over a number of years on a reasonable but not unlimited budget, and compromises have to be made. These compromises are the ones that suit me best, but that's not to say I don't want to improve on the systems failings, and the mains supply is the next obvious target.

So on with the motley. First up was Russ Andrews diminutive Silencer. Built into an oversized plugtop, it is used by simply plugging it into a spare socket on the mains distribution board, or into another socket on the same mains ring, as near as possible to the system. As I had a spare socket, I plugged it straight into the' distribution board. The idea is that the Silencer will soak up any mush infesting the mains at the outlets, including any generated internally by any of your components. The effectiveness of this was described by RG in the now sold out issue 9. So what was happened in the context of my system? The most immediately noticeable change was the removal of some of the grain talked about earlier. This had the effect of sharpening up the leading edges of notes giving a greater sense of attack and decay. More obvious was the effect on female vocals. Playing 'Charlie Big Potato' from Skunk Anasie's Post Orgasmic Chill album showed both improvements clearly. This track has staccato guitar left and right, with Skin dead centre giving it large. The improvement in both the rhythmic intensity and Skin's diction was subtle, but worthwhile. Taken in relation to the price of the unit (UK£40), this sort of improvement can be considered a bargain. Also the unit is a keeper, if you upgrade your systems mains supply further, then it can still perform useful duties keeping down the mains hash elsewhere in the house, particularly in the kitchen, where fridges and freezers are a source of much nastiness. Also bear in mind that TVs can also produce large amounts of mains noise, and if your house regularly hosts simultaneous music and telly sessions, then a Silencer next to the TV can be of great help.

Moving on, the next item for perusal was the PS Audio Ultimate Outlet and associated cable. This device provides out of circuit filtering of the mains, sinking the interference into the circuitry without putting anything in the actual power path. Built into a small metal box with an IEC input and two standard three pin sockets as outlets, this unit can be permanently affixed to the wall if required.

I was slightly unhappy with the design of the supplied cabling, as the cable does not exit the plug at right angles as is normal, but perpendicular. This means that the weight of the cable causes the plug to droop out of the socket significantly, putting a strain on the inner works. I opted to use a box to prop the cable up so as to avoid the problem and then plugged my normal distribution board into the outlet.

In use the Ultimate Outlet made a significant change to the sound of my system, both structurally and cosmetically. The most obvious change was in the tonal balance brought about by the unit, becoming considerably brighter. However as this was accompanied by a significant decrease in grain and corresponding increase in coherence, the result was not unpleasant, but certainly different. Playing `Charlie Big Potato' once again, this time the guitars left and right had a real sense of strings being strummed by a plectrum, whilst Skin's singing acquired and extra level of expressiveness. On the downside, the extra brightness brought with it a very slightly unwelcome emphasis on the heavily plucked bass guitar. Moving on to 'Mein Hertz Brennt' from Rammstein's Mutter album, the dynamic jump from the quiet intro to the full on guitar riff was impressively handled. Also it was much easier to pick out the drums and their associated acoustic from the maelstrom of this superb album. On this disc the riffs should be thrown out of the speakers left and right like slabs of concrete, but the slight brightening of the tonal balance robbed them of a little power.

At this point you might be thinking that I wasn't too impressed by the Ultimate Outlet, but that's not the case. The problem for me was that although I appreciated the extra clarity and insight into the musical structure brought about, I have spent a long time tuning my system so that it sounds very powerful when the music demands it, and much of the music I listen to make precisely that demand. To lose a little of that power for improvements elsewhere is a bitter pill for this particular reviewer to swallow, and is one of the reason that we at hi-fi+ review by description rather than absolute judgement. In order to allow the Ultimate Outlet to shine, I decided to play some Fairport Convention, in particular `The Brilliancy Medley & Cherokee Shuffle' from their album Nine. This largely acoustic track displays same fantastic musicianship and interplay as it fairly storms along. On an under-performing system it can either be difficult to hear what each musician is playing or conversely it can seem like they are all tripping over themselves to get the notes out in the time available. Using the Ultimate Outlet in this case clearly showed what it was capable of bringing out in my system. Now the clear reduction in grain allowed me to hear much more clearly what each musician was doing, whilst the increased leading edge clarity gave each note its correct placement within the piece. An excellent result. So to sum up, the Ultimate Outlet brings a lot of benefit to the party, but at a little cost. Whether you want to pay the cost to get the benefits will depend on your personal listening preferences.

So on to the Shunyata Powersnakes gear, which arrived in a huge wooden packing crate plus two large cardboard boxes. Unscrewing the crate and digging into the packaging revealed the Powersnakes Hydra, a beautifully finished black box with absolutely nothing on the front apart from the embossed Powersnakes logo. Round the back are six American mains outlets and one push and twist male socket. The supplied Hydra mains cable comes with a high quality three pin UK plug on one end and the twist and lock female plug for the Hydra on the other.

This is a very substantial cable that looks like it means serious business, but not as substantial as some of the cables that greeted me when I opened up the two cardboard boxes. Supplied for review were a variety of Powersnakes, each terminated with an American mains plug at one end and an IEC connector at the other. Supplied were a number each of the Sidewinder Gold, Mojave, and Python cables.

Picking up a Python is an interesting experience, as the outer casing is filled with a compound called FSE-100, which moves up and down the cable as it is handled, rustling like the outer sheath is half filled with course grain sand. This patent pending compound has apparently been developed from NASA research, and if you think about the importance of the electrical systems in the space shuttle, you can understand why NASA would be interested in a material that would dampen and remove interference without interfering with the conductors. The fact that Shunyata choose to refer to the compound as Stardust in some of the literature is probably unfortunate to the cynical English brain, but no matter, the proof is in the listening. Of the three types of Powersnake supplied, only the Python contains the compound. All Powersnakes, however, are made from high quality conductors terminated with equally high quality connectors.

The Hydra distribution box, which comes supplied with its own buffing cloth to keep the beautifully shiny outer case in pristine order, is packed to the gills with the Stardust compound, making it extremely heavy for its size. The idea is that the Hydra is plugged into the wall socket, and then all your equipment is attached to it using the Powersnakes of your choice. In the form supplied, with American mains plugs, it was not possible to use the Powersnakes without the Hydra, as I had no UK to US plug converters available, and I imagine that even if I had they would not be beneficial to the sound. What this means is that the minimum configuration would be one Hydra and one Powersnake feeding a standard distribution board that uses an IEC connector. Using a single Sidewinder Gold, the cheapest of the supplied cables, this little lot would cost you UK£100 under three grand. Ouch! Reading the supplied literature it became clear that time was going to be an issue, as the Hydra and Powersnakes require about 200 hours running in time before they settle down and give of their best. Running in can be achieved by hooking up a couple of table lamps and leaving them on, although I am sure that things will settle down further with the dynamic demands of a well used system. To this end I decided to plug the Hydra into my home cinema system, and a nice string lamp and leave it running. Now this was the point at which I decided to baseline my system as described above. Listening to The Origin Of Symmetry by Muse I became aware that my system was performing with a hitherto unheard of clarity and 'rightness'. Strange I thought, well audio memory can be a funny thing, so I carried on listening whilst I idly perused the Powersnakes literature. Shunyata state that a Powersnake that is plugged into the mains but left unconnected to any equipment can improve the sound of a system to a surprising degree. Hmmm, a little bell started ringing, so I went back into the other room and disconnected the Hydra totally and tried again. Blimey! Now my system sounded exactly as I expected it to, and as described in the introduction. Considering the Hydra was connected in the other room to the stereo, and on a completely different ring main, I was more than a little shocked. The practical downside in this, for me as a reviewer, was that I had to interrupt the running in process every time I wanted to listen to the other two items. Not a problem for the normal purchaser of course, but it did mean I was forced to listen to the Shunyata set up before it had fully run in, so bear that in mind when reading on.

Problem numbers two and three reared their ugly heads when I came to hook everything up. Firstly the IEC connectors on the Powersnakes are massive, easily the largest I have seen, and whilst the cables can be curved round corners, they are relatively inflexible, and so can't be forced round tight bends. The Michell Alecto Monoblock has its IEC socket on the underside, and is connected using a right angled plug. There was absolutely no way that I could connect the Powersnakes to the Alectos without laying them on their sides, which is hardly sonically ideal. Secondly, the Hydra has only six outlets, and I require ten to fully power my system. This meant I had to find a suitable solution to both these problems. This I did by wiring up a standard 4-gang distribution board with an IEC socket. This could duly have a Powersnake connected, and then I could run all four power amps using their standard leads from the distribution board. I figured that although there was some potential for interference to re-enter the cabling at this point, it would show a real life situation whereby the Shunyata gear was bought a stage at a time.

With rather too many combinations to play with in the time available, and safe in the knowledge that RG would have the gear for further assessment after me, I majored on using the two Pythons and the two Mojave cables, utilising the Sidewinder Golds for comparison. In this context I don't believe the Sidewinders ever truly ran in whilst in my tenure, and the comments below should take that into account, and RGs later experience may prove different to mine.

I elected to use one Python to power all four power amps, and the other to power the pre-amp. The first Mojave powered the Groove phono stage, and the second the analogue stage of the Trichord DAC. The CD transport, having a captive lead was never attached to the Hydra by any means, but was instead fed through the Ultimate Outlet, whilst the digital power for the DAC was connected through a Sidewinder Gold. I also tried the digital power through the Ultimate Outlet and preferred it that way, so in the end the majority of listening was done with this configuration. In hindsight I should have tried the Ultimate Outlet on the end of a Powersnake for the digital stages, but I didn't.

So to the sound. At the risk of starting with a conclusion, every so often there comes a time when you listen to a system and you just know it is `right'. This is a revelatory experience: it's not a case of differences in presentation or cosmetics like tonal balance. It's not that there aren't compromises or that everything is perfect, it's more a sense that everything you heard before was wrong, and now it isn't. I had already had a sense of this with the Hydra connected in the other room, but now the sense of 'rightness' was overwhelming. Now I know this is a bold statement, and I am not saying everything is perfect in Davidland, so I need to break it down as best I can.

First of all the noise floor, both generally from the electronics, and specifically from the stylus on vinyl, dropped significantly, allowing the decay of individual notes to be heard far longer than previously. Secondly, the grain that I talked about before was banished. Not reduced but removed - totally. Finally the dynamic range became seemingly unbounded.

So much so that I began to wonder how I had lived with such compression before.

Put these three together and you suddenly find that the music that pours forth from the speakers is a living flowing organic stream. Everything pops into place, the placement, the acoustic, the timing, the interaction of the musicians, all comes out as a multi-faceted whole, which is exactly as it should be.

Playing 'Mein Herz Brennt' again, the unbridled power and depth of the riffing guitars as they chugged along was astonishing. Not only was the difference between quiet and loud hugely increased, but the depth and force was just like hearing a huge Marshall stack being fired up in anger, but without the need for the 120dB that would be produced if it was sitting in your living room (heaven forbid). The drums powered out of the speakers in a way I have only previously heard from really high efficiency loudspeaker systems, yet in all this nothing was harsh or unpleasant, nor too soft and mushy: Just the opposite. For example I could hear cymbal strikes and strokes in a manner only previously hinted at. Moving back to the Muse album showed just what would happen when this noisy, melodrama is given the space to really breathe. On a previous visit from RG, we had both noted that the album sounded like it was holding back, almost like it had been put through the dreaded optimod compression system loved by commercial radio. Not so! In reality my system, powerful though it is, was compressing the peaks. With the Hydra and the Powersnakes the dynamics just kept on coming. What is important to understand, and why I am so impressed with this, is that the system could achieve all this whilst leaving the quieter detail clearly audible, and this I think is the essence of the `rightness' that I felt throughout my listening sessions. Singers sounded like real singers, acoustic guitars were plucked in front of my nose, drums resonated, and keyboards shimmered. At a stroke all of the criticisms I had about my system were removed. Moving downward to the Sidewinder Golds from the Python and Mojave cables lost me that clear musical quality. However we are talking about cables that are a quarter of the price of the Pythons, and so you cannot expect the same, result. Also bear in mind what I said above; that the cables were not fully run in the time available to me. My experience with the Sidewinders is that they were much brighter and more `hi-fi' than the more expensive cables, and also more compressed. However, every cable I have tried since has also sounded more compressed than the bigger Powersnakes, so they are in some very good company. Having said that, they are very good cables, and do allow one to gain the benefits of the Hydra distribution box at a starter price. This is one thing I like about this gear, it is possible to start with the Hydra and one Sidewinder Gold feeding a distribution block, and then as funds allow individual components can be directly connected to the Hydra using additional, more expensive, Powersnakes.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that with the Shunyata gear my system is now perfect. What I am saying is that all the building blocks to musical enjoyment are present and in the correct order; that the system now sounds more musical than it ever has. This is not entirely down to the Hydra and Powersnakes of course. The judicious use of the Ringmat feet and domes, and the cd-str5 feet as detailed in previous issues took me a long way down this road, as has all the general system matching done previously. However what RG was saying in previous articles about the mains being the foundation upon which everything else is laid is entirely true. l may have got the walls, doors and windows in the right relation, but until I laid a solid foundation, they still wobbled about in the wind. Of course, even this foundation has been compromised in the way that I was forced to use the Powersnakes, and I can't help wondering what would happen if I had a complete set of Pythons (and of necessity two Hydras). As that would cost over 15 grand I guess I am unlikely to find out. The set of Hydra, two Pythons, two Mojaves, and the Ultimate Outlet as I ended up using costs a little over UK£6,000. The fact that I am currently trying to work out how to finance the purchase of these items should tell you clearly how much I felt they brought to the enjoyment of my system.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

UK Distribution and Pricing
PS Audio:
Ultimate Outlet: UK£340
Lab power lead: UK£420

UK Distributor: Ultimate Sonics
Tel. (44)(0)207 4351222
E-mail: sales "at" ultimate-sonics.com

Shunyata:
Hydra: UK£2595
Sidewinder Gold: UK£329
Mojave: UK£599
Python: UK£998

UK Distributor: Audio Atmosphere
Tel. (44)(0)1785 711232
E-mail: stuart "at" audioatmosphere.com

Manufacturers:
PS Audio
Net: www.psaudio.com

Shunyata
Net: www.shunyata.com

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