New JENA Labs Reference Power Conditioner In The House

Dpod4

Dpod4

New member
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
1,321
I have been waiting for months for my new JENA Labs Sequoia power conditioner. I had sold my Audience AR12TSSD which was stupendously good.

I am the first person to have one in my system. I got the second production unit (by a few seconds). The first was sold and on its way to a well heeled audiophile in India but I am in possession of mine so I guess I win on that front since shipping time for me was a local drive.

I haven't hooked it up yet but wanted to post some photos to show how beautiful it is. Custom bamboo exterior lined with cork on the inside. Only the best cryoed parts and wiring. Comes with top of the line Jena 911 20 amp power cord. For details of the unit and build progress here is a link:

The Sequoia

I will report listening impressions once hooked up. Nice thing is it can be stationed vertically which will aid in smaller footprint and easier cabling to top rack components. It can be laid face up behind a rack. It can be laid face backward so all one sees is the beautiful bamboo woodwork.

The units come stock with Spiral Groove Strange Attractor feet threaded in. Mine doesn't have them yet because I don't know which orientation is going to work best for me.

More to report once I hook it up. Will be using a mix of Jena Labs power cords and Model 2s as well as Cardas Clear Beyond Power Cords.

Also, since Jeff Dorgay is local I am offering my unit to him to review for TONE Audio. I explained to Jennifer and Mike they should give exclusive first world review to Tone Audio especially because no audio publication has photography that captures the beauty of a product like TONE Audio. Jeff is also a guy who appreciates beautiful things well engineered (versus marketing hyped products with snake oil) so eager for him to get his hands and camera on this.


ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703443.149694.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703505.521679.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703537.226343.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703578.298544.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703602.568737.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703635.744520.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703675.360228.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703708.314719.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1433703741.269639.jpg
 
Audioseduction said:
Interesting. What do you plan on plugging into it?
Click to expand...

Everything. There are no current limitations. If you visit the Jena labs web page it shows how the outlet separation and filtering are SOTA
 
Darrin, you are on a role. be interesting how this burns in & what the comparisons will be. Would very much like to read Jeff's "article".
 
Hmm...... So it looks maybe like a passive low pass filter through a bunch of stacked capacitors??? Any more info on the science behind what she is doing?

It sure is purdy.
 
I asked Jennifer and Mike to patch in to the thread so they could answer tech questions. I believe retail is $16,000.
 
Hi everyone, Jennifer from JENA LABS here! Thanks for the nice words on our new 'baby'....The Sequoia is based on a complex distributed network of both X and Y mode filtering, often refered to as Transverse mode, and Delta mode, caps. We use very high frequency ferrites over solid copper buss bar for the inductive part of the "Inductor-Capacitor" or " L-C" equation. The is nothing in there to inhibit the transfer of large amounts of power. It is perfectly safe to plug in very large power amps. We also have a multi-stage transient surge supressor network at the AC inlet stage that uses both TransZorb bidirectional mosFET technology, and traditional ultra fast acting spark-gap modules. In the event of a really bad transient hit, the TransZorbs may be consumed in the protection process. We address servicability by having these mounted in a field replaceable plug-in module.

If you go to our website that Darren provided the link to, you will see that that the entire thing is modular, with each duplex being extremely isolated from all the others by its own extensive network. Additionally, all the caps are by Vishay and carry the proper international ratings for use anywhere in the world. The Sequoia can also be used with balanced power sources. Changing from nominal 120 volt to nominal 240 volt is a simple matter of swapping the transient supressor module for the approprite local power standard. The only reqirement is tha the Sequoia may not be used with a GFCI main house breaker feeding it. It requires a conventional domestic mains circuit breaker in the panel. Price is $16,000 with 1/4-20 threaded inserts, and $16,500 with Strange Attractor feet factory fitted... Even the pilot LED has a zener regulated DC supply so that it has a constant intensity regardless of the Sequoia being installed in a 120 or q 240 market.
 
Welcome to the forum Jennifer, thank you so much for joining.
 
Jennifer said:
Hi everyone, Jennifer from JENA LABS here! Thanks for the nice words on our new 'baby'....The Sequoia is based on a complex distributed network of both X and Y mode filtering, often refered to as Transverse mode, and Delta mode, caps. We use very high frequency ferrites over solid copper buss bar for the inductive part of the "Inductor-Capacitor" or " L-C" equation. The is nothing in there to inhibit the transfer of large amounts of power. It is perfectly safe to plug in very large power amps. We also have a multi-stage transient surge supressor network at the AC inlet stage that uses both TransZorb bidirectional mosFET technology, and traditional ultra fast acting spark-gap modules. In the event of a really bad transient hit, the TransZorbs may be consumed in the protection process. We address servicability by having these mounted in a field replaceable plug-in module.

If you go to our website that Darren provided the link to, you will see that that the entire thing is modular, with each duplex being extremely isolated from all the others by its own extensive network. Additionally, all the caps are by Vishay and carry the proper international ratings for use anywhere in the world. The Sequoia can also be used with balanced power sources. Changing from nominal 120 volt to nominal 240 volt is a simple matter of swapping the transient supressor module for the approprite local power standard. The only reqirement is tha the Sequoia may not be used with a GFCI main house breaker feeding it. It requires a conventional domestic mains circuit breaker in the panel. Price is $16,000 with 1/4-20 threaded inserts, and $16,500 with Strange Attractor feet factory fitted... Even the pilot LED has a zener regulated DC supply so that it has a constant intensity regardless of the Sequoia being installed in a 120 or q 240 market.
Click to expand...

Hello Jennifer, Very cool to have you here!

I see that high current delivery is available but does the L-C architecture limit instantaneous current?
 
Hi Jennifer - welcome! My friend Bart Andeer in Tampa speaks very highly of your work!
 
FlexibleAudio said:
Hello Jennifer, Very cool to have you here!

I see that high current delivery is available but does the L-C architecture limit instantaneous current?
Click to expand...

No...the L value is very low in terms of actual inductance...It is there to aid in the supression of radio freqency noise. The power bandwidth of current delivery due to large capacitance following rectifiers, the peak charging currents at the haversine of the waveform, is at a lower frequency. We intentionally account for the needs of this case, as there is a large quantity of equipment out there with that current draw characteristic...Too much L value in the AC power source will cause a lot of sonic problems with that kind of load. We do know the problem and how not to cause it.:D Good question! Thanks for asking it
Jennifer
 
Mike said:
Hi Jennifer - welcome! My friend Bart Andeer in Tampa speaks very highly of your work!
Click to expand...
How is Bart doing? We have not heard from him for severel months. He has one of our highly modified Marantz SACD players, SA7 or SA11, can't remember which, and a bunch of our cable. Jennifer
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jennifer, maybe we can post some photos and descriptions of the mods you are doing to my SA7S1 sacd player and MA9S2 monos and SC7S2 preamp. The difference the mod made to the ma9s1 monos was pretty significant - more spacious and refined, filled the room up with more volume. I have had a couple people ask me if you modify other brands. Maybe if some of my mods are described here that would be of interest to others. And we love photos. :-)
 
Was able to quickly listen to the Sequoia. Aptly named. Big sound. Three immediate and undeniable impressions, one quite surprising and unanticipated. And a fourth final perhaps cumulative effect.

The first suite of effects was similar to other Jena Labs effect --> instruments and voices and ambient room around instruments and voices got bigger/more spacious. More volume filled (like filling a balloon with air or water.) Soundstage got taller.

Second effect was most interesting --> compared to other power conditioner it was as if a "milky sluggish haze" disappeared. Transients became clearer and sharper. More definition, especially on bass. Detail is more obvious especially in upper registers.

The third suite of effects was most surprising and unanticipated --> there was a more coherent sense of order and placement, as if without the sequoia stuff was moving about and not secure in the music plane. With the sequoia the music (instruments/voices/decay/etc) was more anchored in space and more importantly therefore more coherent in context to one another.

The final effect (maybe an outcome of other effects working together?) is the pace and rhythm was much better...speed and toe tapping and starts and stops and longer decays...the timing and pace was much much much much better ....less a speeding up of the pace and more of a removal of sluggishness if that makes sense.

The only other thing I noticed that wasn't pleasing was a bit of sharpness in the upper mids and treble ... More bite. But this may be just more of the recording coming through and the fact the unit has less than an hour burn-in on it.

More impressions later.
 
Last edited:
Jennifer said:
How is Bart doing? We have not heard from him for severel months. He has one of our highly modified Marantz SACD players, SA7 or SA11, can't remember which, and a bunch of our cable. Jennifer
Click to expand...

He's doing great! He's working a lot, but when he's home, he's doing a lot of listening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top