I'd like to address a few points and comments. I'm late to the thread because of travel, so excuse the delayed replies.
If anyone has questions that need timely answers its best to address them to our cservice.com address and they will be promptly answered. I travel quite a bit and Caelin designs and runs the show, so participation here and elsewhere can be spotty.
As far as the umbilical is concerned, we now package an optimized Typhon Umbilical with the units. We do this with the purpose of optimizing performance and controlling variables that could affect the outcome of a trial. There is minimal current flow shared between the Typhon and whatever it connects to, obviously, because it sits in parallel on the line and not in series with the Hydra or components. This places a premium on patience for the first five-six days of use during a trial because the Typhon umbilical is an aggregate 7 gauge cord that will take time to stabilize (performance wise). If you run comparisons with broken in models from other brands, that puts any new umbilical at a disadvantage. Having said that, there's no law that says good performance can't be had using a low-impedance short length run of another power cord. However, the outcome will be very unpredictable from our POV. The Typhon is a very unique product that Caelin spent years developing to obtain a specific result. He's done this by controlling every conceivable design variable, including designing an extremely low-resistance, high quality umbilical that has proven many times over to yield a consistent and positive result.
Regarding protection:
Yes, the Triton has three stages of protection--the MPDA filter set, surge and spike protection and a carling electromagnetic breaker for over-current protection. There is no such thing as "perfect" protection short of unplugging components during a storm, but with fewer than 10 total Hydra returns for service world-wide in 14 years, we come pretty close. Soon, we will be announcing a life-time Limited Warranty on all Hydra and Power Cord products. That should speak to the products failure rate. Even with that, the best home/system protection is Whole-House Surge protection installed at the panel.
Current limiting:
Someone made a comment in this thread, or perhaps another, about "current limiting" with Hydras. Typically, that term applies to averaged current, whether a product is rated at a full 15A, 20A etc. There are zero artificial limits to averaged _or_ peak-current delivery built into any Hydra model --with the exception of the new Hydra DPC 6 (for digital front ends), but even then, it has a 20A rating. More importantly, here are no chokes, coils, transformers or other peak-current limiting parts or materials used in any of the other Hydras and that is by design. The only reason Hydras are limited to 20A is the 20A Carling breaker on the back of all the units-- excepting the 2 outlet Cyclops which has none. All multi-outlet power distributors greater than 2 outlets are required by code to have a fuse or breaker of some kind. Caelin chose the best (and most expensive) in terms of minimized resistance and maximum contact area for current.
Caelin developed the DTCD analyzer to allow him to measure the peak current efficiency of every part and material that goes into the Hydras. All Hydra parts within the path of current have been designed with the absolute minimum measurable resistance to peak current. Hydras will support as much current as the breaker at the panel is rated for, up to the 20A breaker limit. Hydras will, and have supported amplifiers of all types and designs, no matter how high-current they are. Thousands of customers, many of whom use a normal house line rated to 15 or 20A, use Hydras for their entire system with exceptional results.
All that said, two truths remain a constant: ANY and all added connections in front of electronics will add some form of measurable contact resistance and two; if you have more than one dedicated line for the system-- meaning each with its own breaker; plugging the amps into their own dedicated line will ALWAYS be preferable to summing an entire systems worth of current through a single line/breaker, Hydra or not. It's common sense; who wouldn't want up to 40A-60A of total current available to a system of dynamic-draw components, split over two-three lines, versus a single line of 15 to 20A? The short answer is there are no current limiting devices built into the Hydra models, but that's too simple an answer from our design POV. Caelin's design priority has always favored maximum current, minimum current paths and custom-designed parts aimed at eliminating resistance to DTCD.
Performance:
We don't make any wild claims of perfect performance in every system or that every trial will be like every other. Given the host of variables within individual systems; including how people listen, how they evaluate and what their system goals are-- music, recording, AV, combined HT etc. its impossible for these products, or any product, to be all things to all people. That is why we work so hard through dealers to provide evaluation access to products. Of the hundreds to thousands of performance reports, both on line and off-- professional, review and consumer, I like our track record compared to anything in our category. The rest comes down to the individual's experience and preference, which many have shared here and elsewhere.
If there are individual follow ups or system questions, feel free to contact me or our factory directly.
Best regards,
Grant
Shunyata Research
