The Absolute Sound
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<p>My history with AC power-distribution and line-conditioning products is a fairly spotty one. Sonically, they give and they take away, and I generally put them aside after a few weeks. Nowadays I just grab a power cord and head for the nearest available outlet, avoiding power-surge-protection strips for critical components. I’ve come to view such “convenience” strips as a hangover from the days of tower computers, forty-meg hard drives, and 14" monochrome displays, when the fear of a brownout sent shivers down the spine. My listening room isn’t blessed with a dedicated circuit, either. I’ve considered remedying this but just haven’t gotten around to hiring an electrical contractor. The truth is that I’m a little skeptical of monkeying with power and conditioning products. My room is quiet with a seemingly low noise floor. Basically what I’m admitting is that my listening space is probably a lot like yours. Sensible but nothing fancy.</p>
<p>Shunyata must’ve seen me coming. It has designed a system that takes the existing AC power entering a listening room to the next step without engaging the services of an electrical contractor. There are three basic components to its entry-level Venom Series of power products, starting with a Venom PS8 power strip. Nicely constructed of heavy, brushed steel, the PS8 is 20-amp rated to cover even the most demanding high-current components, provides eight Hubbell outlets that are cryogenically treated using Shunyata’s Alpha process, and a tough Carling Hydraulic Electro-magnetic breaker. It sits on thick rubber feet, but steel spiked-footers with floor protectors are also offered as a $195 option.</p>
<p>The second component is the Venom Defender—a tidy little plug-and-play power conditioner. Chassis-free, it’s a plug-in module that incorporates the MPDA (multi-phase-differential-array), thirty-element parallel filters found in Shunyata’s flagship Hydra models. Ruggedly built, Defender is equipped with 20,000 amps of surge protection and its own LED fault-detector. It can be plugged directly into the PS8 or, ideally, into the same wall outlet.</p>
<p>The final link in Shunyata’s power chain are the Venom HC power cords. Big brothers to the original Venom cords (still a steal), they use heavier 10-gauge conductors, and employ hand-soldered contacts that are crimped to improve the metal-to-metal contact integrity.</p>
<p>All Shunyata components are cryogenically treated. Each can be purchased individually, but these three have been designed and priced to perform in trio. With <em>three</em> Venom HC cords, the complete Venom system Shunyata set me up with retails for under $1800.</p>
<p>Shunyata’s Grant Samuelson filled me in on Venom system particulars. He reiterated that “all home electronics are extremely peak-current-sensitive. Their power supplies draw current dynamically off the peak and trough of the sinewave. Any break or open contact in the electrical chain represents a <em>loss</em> that can affect system performance.”</p>
<p>Shunyata, he says, “views current delivery as a high-frequency event, not a low-frequency event because systems draw current at a high-frequency and they output high-frequency noise. It all starts and ends with junction integrity, material quality, material manipulation—all aimed to lower the insertion-loss of the device. The overriding design goal of this system is to minimize peak-current loss at every junction.</p>
<p>“The Defender builds upon the foundation the PS8 establishes. Its filters are computer-modeled to capture and filter the high-frequency noise that exists on any line and prevent it from re-circulating within the system. All of this is accomplished without any added connections and with no loss of peak current integrity—which is our baseline for performance.”</p>
[Source: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/shunyata-venom-ps8-power-distributor-venom-defender-and-venom-hc-power-cords/]
<p>Shunyata must’ve seen me coming. It has designed a system that takes the existing AC power entering a listening room to the next step without engaging the services of an electrical contractor. There are three basic components to its entry-level Venom Series of power products, starting with a Venom PS8 power strip. Nicely constructed of heavy, brushed steel, the PS8 is 20-amp rated to cover even the most demanding high-current components, provides eight Hubbell outlets that are cryogenically treated using Shunyata’s Alpha process, and a tough Carling Hydraulic Electro-magnetic breaker. It sits on thick rubber feet, but steel spiked-footers with floor protectors are also offered as a $195 option.</p>
<p>The second component is the Venom Defender—a tidy little plug-and-play power conditioner. Chassis-free, it’s a plug-in module that incorporates the MPDA (multi-phase-differential-array), thirty-element parallel filters found in Shunyata’s flagship Hydra models. Ruggedly built, Defender is equipped with 20,000 amps of surge protection and its own LED fault-detector. It can be plugged directly into the PS8 or, ideally, into the same wall outlet.</p>
<p>The final link in Shunyata’s power chain are the Venom HC power cords. Big brothers to the original Venom cords (still a steal), they use heavier 10-gauge conductors, and employ hand-soldered contacts that are crimped to improve the metal-to-metal contact integrity.</p>
<p>All Shunyata components are cryogenically treated. Each can be purchased individually, but these three have been designed and priced to perform in trio. With <em>three</em> Venom HC cords, the complete Venom system Shunyata set me up with retails for under $1800.</p>
<p>Shunyata’s Grant Samuelson filled me in on Venom system particulars. He reiterated that “all home electronics are extremely peak-current-sensitive. Their power supplies draw current dynamically off the peak and trough of the sinewave. Any break or open contact in the electrical chain represents a <em>loss</em> that can affect system performance.”</p>
<p>Shunyata, he says, “views current delivery as a high-frequency event, not a low-frequency event because systems draw current at a high-frequency and they output high-frequency noise. It all starts and ends with junction integrity, material quality, material manipulation—all aimed to lower the insertion-loss of the device. The overriding design goal of this system is to minimize peak-current loss at every junction.</p>
<p>“The Defender builds upon the foundation the PS8 establishes. Its filters are computer-modeled to capture and filter the high-frequency noise that exists on any line and prevent it from re-circulating within the system. All of this is accomplished without any added connections and with no loss of peak current integrity—which is our baseline for performance.”</p>
[Source: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/shunyata-venom-ps8-power-distributor-venom-defender-and-venom-hc-power-cords/]