[jeffreybehr]

Received mine yesterday; it'll drive my main poweramps, a pair of McCormack DNA-750s.  It's got a bunch of expensive Teflon-film caps inside including a very large 1.5uF.  That plus a 0.1uF are across line to neutral; there are 0.015uF caps from line to earth and from neutral to earth.  Also across line to neutral are what appears to be a gas-discharge tube and something else that I've yet to determine.  (The latter 2 items are covered with heatshrink.)

One of Audience's custom-double-wound inductors is (I think) in series with the line.  All connections are made with what appear to be automotive-type solderless spade terminals, crimped. All this stuff plus, of course, the duplex outlet and the back half of the Marinco 3-prong plug, rather fill the smallish box.

One negative (of which I was aware) is that the box's size and the plug's postion cause the p-con to use or block both outlets of the duplex it's plugged into, top or bottom, plus the duplex next to it if it's a double-duplex.  If plugged into the center duplex of my triple-duplexes, it plugs ALL SIX outlets.  Audience could alleviate some of this by relocating the plug on the backwall of the box.
 


The single duplex to the right is a member of the now-unused original circuit feeding the front wall.

I'll be breaking in this p-con 24/7, so in a month or so I'll disconnect it and see how the system sounds without it.

[Ern Dog]

Looks nice.  I'd be interested in reading your impression about the unit.

[jeffreybehr]

More pics.






I might replace the outlet even before the p-con finishes break-in, but maybe not.

[dhrab]

>>"Also across line to neutral are what appears to be a gas-discharge tube and something else that I've yet to determine. "<<

That may be Audience's attempt at improving the surge protection circuit vs a MOV

here's a link that may interest you ...

http://yarchive.net/electr/surge_suppressors.html

Also ...>>" there are 0.015uF caps from line to earth and from neutral to earth."<<

Occam has had some comments on the possible negative effects of this type of differential mode trap .. maybe he'll catch this and weigh in

I also remember reading somewhere  that if the ground rod impedance is high enough that the shunted noise would see the source as a lower impedance and flow back in that direction

Just some thoughts   

[Occam]

dhrab,

Bruno Putzeys summarized potential isssues with Y caps quite concisely -
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendors-bazaar/190434-hypex-ncore-58.html#post2937918

Y caps: as have been noted, they capacitively couple the mains to chassis. In AES48 compliant balanced systems this is no problem because they keep signal and ground well separated. In an unbalanced system the leakage current will also flow through the ground wire or shield of your $$$$$ RCA interlink and thus add noise to the audio.
As such, Y caps are difficult to avoid, they serve a purpose after all (to keep rubbish generated inside the box from getting out), but what it means is that it pays to try minimizing them. There are small Y caps in the SMPS600. Since they wholly suffice, there is no reason to compound them with external ones.

There are other concerns with diverting noise to the mains safety ground, but the potential for contamination of signal ground lines is the primary concern. Mains ground noise can also wreak havoc in computer data centers.

My objections are also somewhat reflexive. I come from a medical electronics background, where stringent regulations on potential patient shock hazard are paramount. But this is not applicable in AV environments, as its unlikely that anyone is doing open heart surgery in proximity to their audio system.

The folks at Audience know their stuff, and I certainly respect their decisions based on the trade off analysis they've done for their own specific implementations. YMMV

FWIW,
Paul

[dhrab]

Paul thanks for the quick reply .. especially seeing  as you were busy at the show all weekend displaying

Link spells it all out (Thanks) ... Balanced system no harm .. single ended system possible to contaminate signal ground from shunting of Hot and Neutral to Safety

Hopefully the link I provided will help Jeff identify the “Roswell Alien” type parts in his  Audience : 

[jeffreybehr]

...
There are other concerns with diverting noise to the mains safety ground, but the potential for contamination of signal ground lines is the primary concern. Mains ground noise can also wreak havoc in computer data centers.

My objections are also somewhat reflexive. I come from a medical electronics background, where stringent regulations on potential patient shock hazard are paramount. But this is not applicable in AV environments, as its unlikely that anyone is doing open heart surgery in proximity to their audio system.

The folks at Audience know their stuff, and I certainly respect their decisions based on the trade off analysis they've done for their own specific implementations. YMMV

FWIW,
Paul

Paul, I TYVM for your thoughtful response.

[jeffreybehr]

After discussing with my audioguru the apparently-not-high-quality duplex outlet and Marinco plug used in this quite-expensive p-con and having another Marinco plug on hand to measure, that guru measured and recommended the Wattgate 330i to replace the plug assembly.  It's a drop-in replacement and easily done--anyone who knows which end of a screwdriver to grab could do it.  I've also replaced the Hubbell (?; can't find it right now) outlet with an FIM 888CP.  Don't know if it sounds better, but I feel better about it.   

There are now over 300 hours on the Audience '2p' and the latest PS caps in my McCormack DNA-750 poweramps*, and the system is sounding mighty excellent.  Here's a gush I sent to a few fellowaudiofoolgoodbuddies last week.

"Tonite, after only about 2 days of breaking in the new BlackGate caps in the McCormack DNA-750 poweramps and also the new Audience aR2p-TO powerconditioner feeding the poweramps, I have experienced the very finest sounds ever from my system.  I've written previously that my system's highest degree of transparency was experienced with the quad of (improved) Marantz MA-24 poweramps driving the Vandersteen 5Bs.  That system was quite transparent, but it lacked a natural musicality.  After going thru another pair of poweramps, at Lew Johnson's recommendation I bought the McCormack '750s.  Suddenly I experienced the right amount of musicality, of natural warmth and richness, that's been lacking in my system maybe forever...but also lost a tad of transparency.

I've since improved parts in the '750s, installed the Audience powerconditioner, and replaced my very fine Oppo '83SE discplayer with an Oppo '95.  Well…the transparency is back, my friends, along with a larger, more-real-sounding soundstage, and the warmth, naturalness, musicality, ease, are still here in abundance.

I especially thank Lew Johnson, the Johnson of conrad-johnson design, for the still-fabulous-sounding 6-channel preamp and the great-sounding, highly affordable McCormack poweramps, Jeffrey Glowacki of Sonic Craft for his 100%-reliable help in recommending and providing excellent IC and speakercables and for his hundreds of hours helping me improve my system's components (and for turning into a friend), my several advisors for helping to get me thru the powerconditioning minefield, and all the rest of you for putting up with me."

I'm VERY happy with the sounds coming from my system.   

* See http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=104073.0

[rdsu]

jeffreybehr,

This version also use 14AWG cable?

Thanks

[jeffreybehr]

This version also use 14AWG cable?  Thanks

Yes, and doubled.