General Asylum: REVIEW: Audience adept Response Power Conditioner/Surge Protector by Sherlock

Model:	adept Response
Category:	Power Conditioner/Surge Protector
Suggested Retail Price:	$999 - $1599
Description:	High Resolution Master Power Center
Manufacturer URL:	Audience
Model Picture:	View

Review by Sherlock ( A ) on October 02, 2006 at 15:04:35
IP Address: 24.17.243.59

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This is a review of the Audience Adept Response power conditioner, with comments on Audience AU24 power cords, speaker cables, and interconnects.
I have spent several years upgrading and dialing-in my system, mostly fine tuning amps and preamps, CDPs, and finally spending many hours tube-rolling good NOS tubes to get the perfect combination. Having achieved to my ears a very nice final set of components and tubes, I began to think about wires and power conditioning. Previously I used The Essence power conditioner and Essence power cords and Music Meter silver interconnects. These were good products, and I heard a major improvement when I first installed them. Much lower noise floor and better detail and freqency extension were immediately evident.
When I told my dealer (John Zimmerman of the Audio Connection in Seattle) that I thought I had things pretty much dialed-in, he suggested I listen to Audience AU24 interconnects and speaker cables. Since the demo was with no obligation to buy (thanks to the Audience no-risk trial policy) I ordered a set of interconnects. The improvement was immediately obvious. The music was much more organic, better detailed with no nasty brightness or glare, and just more natural sounding overall. Smooth!! I bought them immediately. A few months down the road I ordered a demo pair of AU24 speaker cables. Again, the effects were immediately obvious. My previous tri-wire system was changed to single wire AU24s with jumpers. The music showed again more organic detail (with no unpleasant brightness) and the music was much more cohesive than with the tri-wire setup. Audience has a white paper on their website explaining why single speaker cables sound better than bi or tri wires. They do. The music sounds much more â€œtogetherâ€ . Read the white paper--I am a believer. So I bought the Audience cables. I was beginning to understand why Audience gives the free trial. John McDonald (President of Audience) told me that they almost never receive back any of the trial gear. I figured I was done improving things, until I read a review of the new Audience Adept Response power conditioner in the Absolute Sound. Then I read another in Positive Feedback. You can read those reviews...here: http://www.audience-av.com/aR reviews.htm
Everything they say is true. I was skeptical the Adept Response would give enough of an improvement over my Essence conditioner (a pretty good one) to make me pony-up the extra cost to upgrade. Well, after only an hour of listening I called in my order. The Adept Response immediately gave me much improved bass, much more high-end detail, and the really impressive thing is that it brought the music into a wonderfully clear focus, coming out of a dead-quiet black-velvet background. A good analogy is going from an inexpensive pair of binoculars to a pair of Leicas. The detail, clarity and increased light is amazing with the Leica glass. Adding the Adept Response was the equal of going from cheap Chinese tubes to NOS Mullards or Western Electrics. Even though the unit sounds great right out of the box, I noticed improvement for the next several weeks. The music became even smoother. After all of this, I caved and traded in my Essence power cords for a set of Audience AU24 power cords. Again--a noticeable improvement. I now have no desire to change anything in my system. Its done.
If you have already dialed-in your amps and source components, and are looking for one final piece that will yet again leap-frog your system to a new level...try the Adept Response. After all, you can return it if you dont like it. Warning--you'll come back for more.
I have no connection to the company, but I am a fan of all of the Audience products.

Product Weakness: The product is expensive, but worth the cost given it's performance.
Product Strengths: Really adds another level of performance to a system that is already highly tweaked.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Cary 805C Anniversary Edition
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Cary SLP 05 and Cary PH302 phono stage
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Rega P9/Benz Ruby and Cary 306 SACD
Speakers:	Ruark Solstice
Cables/Interconnects:	Audience AU24
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	jazz, classical, funk/soul, psych/prog, blues
Room Comments/Treatments:	see inmate systems for more details including NOS tubes
Time Period/Length of Audition:	several months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Audience Adept Response
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	The product is expensive, but worth the cost given it's performance.
Product Strengths:	Really adds another level of performance to a system that is already highly tweaked.