Just received my new to me (used) Audience aR6-TS power conditioner, and it’s completely transformed my system from top to bottom!
Quite possibly the biggest bang for my buck upgrade I’ve ever made.
The first thing I heard was an increase in low-level detail and imaging depth, width, and height. I also noticed that the bass was more sure-footed, impactful, and tighter. More listening revealed an increase in air surrounding instruments, which were also more well defined within the soundstage and coming out of a blacker background. Micro and macro Dynamics were now more explosive and exciting.
Overall everything sounds cleaner and purer. The timbre of the music sounds more harmonically correct. Pace rhythm and timing have all improved by a considerable amount, which has me tapping my foot more, and jumping out of my listening chair and grabbing the air guitar.
Damn, this is just what the doctor ordered, a healthy infusion of musical Bliss!
I honestly wasn’t expecting this much improvement, and it continues to improve now that the unit has warmed up and the capacitors are fully charged. I had no idea just how good all my PS Audio gear was. I’m floored.
They are different creatures. I have a aR2p conditioner for an office headphone system. P12 and P5 regenerators in the main audio/headphone amped system.
Haven’t heard any of the PS Audio regenerators. The one I would need to plug everything in is outside of my budget. I got lucky and found a great deal on the Audience, and it handles all of my electronics. Couldn’t be happier.
The manufacturers of these devices will claim its more than parts, but architecture and design of their respective devices that make them excel. The aR2P is a nice small conditioner. Plugs directly into the wall.
Audience AV has a very good reputation for quality. It’s a trusted brand IMO.
I was reading up on the aR2p…as soon as a I see things like “cryogenic treatment” I start to get worried that the snake oil has come out. I just wish they would focus on the parts of it that actually make it really cool.
Someone please correct me if I have some/all of this wrong:
The components of the aR2p that make it sound so good are its inductor(s) and its capacitor(s). An inductor is a coil of wire around a core(usually made out of a material called ferrite), which your inlet power cord(from the wall) is connected to. When there is electric flow through the wire it creates magnetic flux. This magnetic flux is always proportional to the electric flow through the wire. So if there are sudden(very quick) changes in the electric flow(also known as noise) then the magnetic flux, still being produced by the inductor, will retard that quick change. So the change in current can still occur but not quickly because the electric flow and the electric flux are happening at the same time - they are dependent on each other and will affect each other. Therefore you can filter the output “noise” from the aR2p to your components(amp/dac…etc). This noise filtering makes the sound more clear/accurate imo. After the in-coming power has been filtered by the inductor(s) the aR2P then has one or more huge capacitors which stores energy(like a battery) - which your components(amp/dac…etc) only pull what they need from. The stored energy from the capacitor(s) helps with transients - loud booms/crashes in music which are very dynamic and require large bursts of current in a short period of time. These are probably the main reasons why the aR2p sounds so good…at least when comparing it to other conditioners/surge protectors.
I have a ‘furman elite-15 pfi’ conditioner which has an inductor and huge compactor in it as well…and it also sounds great.
Further, I didn’t say anything bad about the product. I actually brought up a bunch of good things about it. I was just making fun of their use of “cryogenic treatment”.
There are arguments that can be made regarding crystalline metallic structures after the material is heated and then cooled at a very specific rate. This cryogenic treatment process is real but mostly capitalized on to make specific material properties like - hardness. In hifi the process is most arguable maybe with cables…but is disputed because cables sending a signal/power is usually a surface phenomenon known as ‘skin effect’ and not one affecting the core much.
Here is a good video showing the cryogenic treatment process for drill bits, it has nothing to do with hifi but I still think it’s pretty cool:
I actually just purchased a p12 and ill be auditioning it against my furman elite-15 pfi. Should be interesting to hear the differences…there is a possibility that my system is not good enough to hear the difference…but we will see.
I haven’t personally compared a PS Audio regenerator to the Audience, but I did come across this shootout of power conditioners on another forum. Just to be clear, these are not my comments, I’m just reposting this because some here were curious and interested in a comparison.
“I use the Audience Adept Response aR6-TS power conditioner and I love it! We had a shootout at a friend’s house that was reviewing the Nordost QRT Power products, and I brought my Audience and another distributor brought several others including the Bybee Power Purifier, Silver Circle Pure Power One 5.0se, PSAudio P5 Power Plant and Sunny Cable Power Conditioner. We spent the better part of two full days auditioning and comparing the conditioners. It was amazing how different each unit sounded. The Audience had by far the best bass dynamics and pace. The others sounded bogged down in comparison. Overall dynamics were also beyond reproach. The Silver Circle sounded at first very organic and easy to listen to, but the next day for some reason, it sounded forward. Can’t explain that one, but it continued to sound forward and a bit bright from there forward. The top two in all three of our opinions was the Nordost and Audience. The Nordost was very inviting and smooth sounding, but in my opinion, lost some overall dynamics and bass resolution.
Keep in mind that the Audience needs big-time break-in! It wasn’t until I had the unit on for two straight months that it started to show what it can do.
Caveat: I am a dealer for Audience products and would be happy to let you borrow my unit to try if you end up buying from me.”
