Audience AdeptResponse aR12

Twelve individually filtered outlets let one adeptResponse power your entire system: source, DAC, preamp, and amplifiers, each isolated from the others by two stages of filtering. The aR12 is the unit Audience launched its conditioner line with in 2005, and in its T4 form it earned Positive Feedback's praise for advancing both resolution and musicality.

One conditioner for the whole system, with every outlet kept to itself.

The Design

The adeptResponse starts from a simple idea, which Audience states plainly: a power conditioner's main goal should be to improve your system's sound. It's a passive, low-impedance design, built so the sudden current demands of an amplifier pass straight through. Every outlet is filtered individually, with double filtering between any two outlets, so a source, a DAC, and an amplifier can share one conditioner and keep their separate worlds. The units are hand-wired point to point, with a low-resistance magnetic circuit breaker serving as the power switch, and the entire circuit is cryogenically treated in Audience's own lab. Audience warrants every power conditioner for ten years.

The model name tells you what you're buying: the number is the outlet count, T stands for Teflon capacitors, and the last digit is the generation.

Choosing a Version

Each step up the ladder adds technology. The standard aR12 uses Audience's Auricap XO+ polypropylene film capacitors, oxygen-free copper internal wiring, and hospital-grade outlets. The aR12-T3 replaces the film capacitors with premium Aura-TR Teflon capacitors. The aR12-T4 builds on those Teflon capacitors with Audience's Hidden Treasure duplex outlets, Au24 SX internal wiring, and an Extreme High Voltage Process (EHVP) treatment applied to every component, including wire, buss bars, filter capacitors, breaker, and outlets.

How It Sounds

Marshall Nack of Positive Feedback found the aR12-T4 one of the few products that advances both resolution and musicality, and called it honest, with very low coloration. John Acton heard the same low noise floor from the aR6-T4, with music free of grunge and grit. Audience adds that power amplifiers on an adeptResponse sound as if they were more powerful, with increased dynamics.

Where It Fits

Choose the aR12 for large systems with several amplifiers and source components, or any system where you want every component on a conditioned, isolated outlet. For a smaller system, the six-outlet aR6 is essentially half an aR12 with the same architecture. An Audience powerChord is included, and upgrades to Studio ONE, Au24 SX, frontRow, or frontRow Reserve are available.

Choose the 20 amp version for large power amplifiers, since big amps draw a heavy surge at turn-on: SoundStage! saw a 15 amp aR6-T trip its breaker on a large amplifier's startup. Audience builds 15 and 20 amp units in silver or black.

Give it time to settle. Audience says adeptResponse conditioners reach full performance after about 500 hours of use, and Positive Feedback's reviewer was advised to run his aR12-T4 for two weeks with components drawing current.

Press Recognition

• Positive Feedback, Issue 122 (August 2022), Marshall Nack, reviewing the aR12-T4. Nack called it one of the few products that advances both resolution and musicality, and found it honest, with very low coloration. Read the review at Positive Feedback
• The Absolute Sound’s roundup of the best power conditioners lists the aR2p, aR12, aR12-T3, and aR6-T4, and says the aR12-T4 is a substantial improvement over its predecessors and a world-class device. Read the roundup at The Absolute Sound

Deciding between the aR12 and aR6, or between standard, T3, and T4? Give us a call. We'll help you match the version to your system.

Specifications

• Type: Passive power conditioner, 12 outlets
• Filtering: Every outlet individually filtered; double filtering between outlets
• Design: Low-impedance, hand-wired, with a low-resistance magnetic circuit breaker switch
• Treatment: Entire circuit cryogenically treated
• Versions: aR12 (Auricap XO+ capacitors), aR12-T3 (Aura-TR Teflon capacitors), aR12-T4 (Teflon capacitors, Hidden Treasure outlets, Au24 SX wiring, EHVP treatment)
• Current: 15 amp or 20 amp
• Voltage: 120V; 220V by request
• Finish: Silver or black anodized aluminum
• Included: Audience powerChord (upgrades available)
• Warranty: 10 years
• Country of origin: USA (handmade in San Marcos, California)