System assembled; only a final decision about speakers remains

^^^ Good move!

I can tell you, btw, that Professor Kingsfield (as played by John Houseman in "The Paper Chase") was a softie compared to some real-life law professors :-)

Best,

-- Al

I wouldn't plug a power conditioner into a power strip.

Steve, that is not what he will be doing.  This particular conditioner/surge suppressor mounts directly on the wall outlet.  It in turn provides only two outlets.  He will plug a power strip into one of those two outlets to provide up to ten outlets he can use for the components in the system.  The power strip will contain nothing other than wires and outlets.

Regards,
-- Al

Q1) My strong instinct would be to not use anything other than a pure power strip/outlet multiplier in series with a quality conditioner/surge suppressor.  (The Shunyata Venom Defender in my setup is not in series; it is in parallel with the outlets on the power strip).

Q2) Various published reviews of the aR2p go back at least seven years.  But since the surge protection it provides is described as non-sacrificial my guess is that you probably wouldn't go wrong buying an older used unit.  But of course if a very nearby lightning strike ever occurred when it was in use it might be a different story.

Best regards,
-- Al 

Do you think that you lose any benefits by attaching a $71 dollar power strip to a high quality filtering unit like the Audience?

Hi David,

Well, what I can say is the following:

1) As you realize, that power strip is purely an outlet multiplier, containing nothing more than wiring and outlets.

2) It appears to be well made.

3) For many years prior to acquiring it and the other pieces I mentioned I was using this BrickWall eight outlet surge suppressor/conditioner, which provided comparable functionality in a single unit, at a much lower price than the combined prices of the three pieces I described.  I was pleased with the results it provided during those years.  I made a number of other changes to the system at around the same time as I made the change from the BrickWall to the Audience/Wiremold/Venom Defender combination, so while I noticed substantial improvements I can't say to what degree, if any, the improvements resulted from the change in power conditioning/distribution.  But I certainly was not disappointed with the results.

Now, might a much more expensive audiophile-oriented power strip have provided even better results?  Perhaps, but my technical instincts combined with the results I have been getting cause me to be uninterested in pursuing that possibility.

Best regards,
-- Al
  

Yes, David, the main reason for selecting that approach was simply that alternatives I found to be appealing were much more expensive. Also, since my living room is my listening room it would have been problematical to fit some physically large alternatives into the available space in the setup, in a manner that would be aesthetically acceptable.

Best regards,
-- Al

FWIW, in my particular case I believe that the quality of my incoming AC is relatively good, as there is no commerce or industry within more than two miles of my house and nearly all of the town is zoned two-acre residential. So I’ve chosen to adopt a "less is more" approach to power conditioning (no regenerators for me!), but without compromising the protection of my system.

What I’ve done is as follows:

-- Installed an Audience aR2p Surge Suppressor/Conditioner ($695).
-- Installed a Wiremold UL210BC Power Strip ($71) to expand the two outlets of the Audience to 10.
-- Plugged a Shunyata Venom Defender ($225) into one of the outlets of the power strip, to attenuate noise that may be generated by digital components and the power amp and fed back into their power cords, from whence it could potentially couple into other components.
-- Installed a single 20 amp dedicated line, which powers the entire system via the Audience.
-- FWIW a "SyCon" whole house surge protector was installed by an electrician at the service panel, when I had him replace the entire panel a few years ago.

As I said I’m in an area that presumably has relatively clean power, so this approach may or may not be a good one in other circumstances. But it works well for me.

Best regards,
-- Al