Once again, thanks for a superb product. I've been gear, tube, and cable swapping my ass off for years in an attempt to obtain the improvements that the Hydra is offering up in spades.

John S

I received my Hydra last Thursday, what a beautiful piece of work! Pictures do not do it justice! The packaging is fantastic, gives the impression of something of importance or value. My co-workers were most impressed -- before I opened the crate! ...The website looks great; being a graphic artist myself, I especially like the sense of movement, which is appropriate given the product advertised.

My Hydra is resting on a 15x13x6" block of polished blk granite. I'm using the stock footers for now. I've got (3) 100 watt lamps plugged into it, along with a M.P.S. power supply, VAC triode amp and transport.

Perhaps the strongest statement on the Hydra is that I've never enjoyed critical listening as much -- rather than witnessing sonic footprints, I found myself drifting off with the music. Just wanted to share my initial impressions with you.

Warm Regards,

Mike

I am not a reviewer, so I am not in the habit of adding tweaks, then removing them to see the difference as a reviewer might do. However, if I hadn't perceived any positive difference, I would have gone into that troubleshooting mode and reversed the process. The positive difference was evident immediately, and I did not look back.

Anyway, I am very satisfied with the overall results. First I noticed guitar strings sounded wonderfully detailed, as well as drum detail, smoother brass (trombones &, trumpet on Harry Sweets Edison's, Me and My Pals), and vocals (both choir and individual vocals) on Nana Mouskouri/Best of album sounded so pure. The SACD of Jacintha/Here's to Ben sounds better than it ever has, her voice sounds SO clean now. Keep in mind at this stage of tweaking I was already very happy with my system sound before the Hydra, and was not trying to fix anything, just see if there was more detail lurking on the CDs waiting to be discovered. There was, and I feel the Hydra is what made the difference. Some of these same types of changes described above were apparent when I first installed the Black Mamba on the SCD-1, but improved even further with the Hydra taking care of all components (except the sub woofer at the moment).

A Related Observation:

My wife and I felt our system sounded detailed and great late at night (before Hydra) but we could not totally repeat the quality of the nighttime listening experience during the daytime hours. Now, the system sounds equally good any time of day! When we recently added a second story to our garage, I could see from up on the new 23' high roof that within 3/4 mile or so, two different towers loaded with small dish antennas were pointed in my general direction. Could it be the night/day sound difference (before Hydra) was due to the normal cessation or reduction of received RFI at night from these antennas, and now, it simply is dissipated by the Hydra during the day? Food for thought.

Hydra Performance Summary:

I am very pleased with the Hydra's functionality, including apparent RFI/EMI line cleansing and the practical central power cord connection points provided. Now the plugs behind the Hydra are hidden from view, before, they all were more obvious sticking out of my wall. I have the Hydra on a stand-alone two shelf bookcase a bit lower than waist high, and at the moment I am using the stick-on black feet provided. I don't think I will spend any more money for tweaks on the Hydra.

First, current limiting or surge protection depends on how you look at it. Over the weekend I plugged in my Sharp vacuum cleaner into one outlet of the Hydra. No problem. In fact, it seemed the vacuum machine ran -- well, smoother. Then, on a whim I unplugged from the Hydra and plugged the thing into the P300. Only a split second and the P300 went dead. I panicked for a few seconds blaming my own stupidity. Then a bulb flashed in my head and I discovered a fuse holder next to the AC inlet. A trip to local Radio Shack store let me get a 4-pack of proper fuses, and I was back to the business. Whew!

Anyway, I can understand the reason PowerSnakes chose not to utilize MOVs in favor of better sound. I would make the same choice, given my reaction to Diana Krall's "All or Nothing at All" the very first track of the Love Scenes CD. Here's another one, "I could hear Mario Lana [Live in London CD] take his breath very subtly before the climax in track #12. No way I could hear that with the P300. Track #15: He sings effortlessly."

Second, Bill Cowen and Marc said it all in their SoundStage! review. I don't have much left to say except for this line from my notes, "Hydra makes already excellent recordings even better while P300 improves potentially good recordings (ones with some minor shortcomings) meaning it masks some minus sides of otherwise good recordings."

Nuff said.

Best regards,

Paul

By the way, Iast night I watched a movie with my DVD player plugged into the properly broken-in Hydra. The picture was soooooo much better. Much more film like, 3-dimensional and vibrant in color.

Thank you again,

Adam Israel

Simply put, the Hydra is one of my two most ingenious music reproduction components (the other is the Aesthetix Io phono stage). Why do I say this? Because I believe there are many good audio products out there in retail-land. And it is not that difficult to throw a lot of money at a component or speaker and come up with something really good (or occasionally really bad). The Hydra though transcends the ordinary (as does the Io) and does so at a "reasonable" price.

With my components plugged into the Hydra, music is dynamic, timbrally accurate, fully fleshed and almost organic in quality. Sound is three dimensional. One can almost grab it in the air. The mid-range (particularly vocals) is more present, believable and engaging. The highs are extended and not harsh at all. The soundstage and imaging are realistic and accurate. The Hydra does not create any kind of excessive sweetness and does not glamorize sound. Quiet? Definitely! Best of all, music is so incredibly emotionally engaging -- I would say addictive. There is an ease and rightness to all kinds of music. That is not to say it makes everything sonic fun. All ranges of emotion are possible... realistic emotions, depending on the emotional content inherent in the music. Yes and the build quality and the physical beauty of the Hydra are superb. I also own the PS600 and 300 which I think are good products in many ways. But compared to the Hydra, their sound is "washed out", a bit "grayish" and two-dimensional and lacking in dynamics and tonal accuracy. I don't use these products in my system any longer except to power my turntable power supply.

I do not claim to understand how the Hydra works. If anyone knows, please share this information. Simply, every once in a while a really stunning audio product becomes available. I would like fellow audiophiles to know about this discovery. Finally, don't take my word for these things... try one yourself... as I said before... if you dare.

“Bud"