The Hydra would come with a very nice MK safety plug. If you go this way, just let Grahams make it. If you are desperate for a PowerLine Lite plug, simply remove one of yours and put it on the tail of the Hydra. I would bet quite a lot that you’ll hear no difference whatsoever. The standard mains lead used to be about £25; the Lite costs £100 after the addition of a plug that’s worth about a fiver. Don’t forget to tell Grahams what length tail you want - the heads have to be 2M.
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There is too much confusion over star earthing on power supplies.
Star earthing in audio is about a single (one) ground point on the signal circuits, not the power circuit.
I seems to me that some of the cable & power strip cmpys have used it (adopted it) for marketing blurb.
But with power circuits it equally if not more important with how L & N are connected
In power circuits a so called star connection is correctly called radial, and if connections are made along a length of conductor is called bus bar.
Most believe radial sounds better, but I can quite believe bus bar can be just as good, as Chord now claim.
Best not loose sleep over it.
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Going back decades but I always thought that the Graham’s Hydra sounded noticeably superior to any other connection method. I was always slightly concerned over the safety / legal aspects of it but having just done s little research it appears to have CE approval so I guess that takes care of it.
CE marking does not provide any specific information to the consumer. It is not a quality assurance declaration, it does not show evidence of third-party testing, and it should not be confused with any independent certification mark of the type issued by international or European notified test bodies.
CE marking means that a manufacturer has checked that a product meets safety, health and environmental requirements.
I’d post the weblink but it would infringe forum rules.
It’s easy to find.
From the European Commission website.
"IMPORTANT NOTE:
Not all products must have CE marking. It is compulsory only for most of the products covered by the New Approach Directives. It is forbidden to affix CE marking to other products.
Please note that a CE marking does not indicate that a product have been approved as safe by the EU or by another authority. It does not indicate the origin of a product either."
PS
I am agreeing with some of your original post.
I don’t think that either of the above is an incorrect interpretation. A lot depends on the product, I knew someone who made wooden children’s toys. He gave up making baby rattles when required to provide a significant number for testing to destruction.
As the thread is about an electrical accessory made in the UK, I guess that the appropriate standards and markings would be the BSI Kitemark as well as the CE mark. The GOV.UK website has lots of information and the BSI site has a download about CE marking.
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Please could you let us know how you find the Hydra…
I have used a 3 head for the last 3 years and it sounds good to me. No reason to expect issues with the 5 head version.
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Put it this way, if Chord made it, put it in a shiny box, made preposterous claims for its efficacy and sold it for £1,000, people would be wetting their pants. Sometimes things have to be expensive to be appreciated.
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The important note is just a small part of the web pages about CE. What this note says is of course true, the CE marking does not indicate that it was approved as safe by the EU and it does not indicate origin. The CE marking is a manufacturer’s self-certification. However, from another part of this EU site, “By affixing the CE marking to a product, the manufacturer assumes full responsibility for its compliance with all safety requirements.”
And from Wikipedia: “The manufacturer of a product affixes the CE marking to it but has to take certain obligatory steps before the product can bear CE marking. The manufacturer must carry out a conformity assessment, set up a technical file, and sign a Declaration stipulated by the leading legislation for the product. The documentation has to be made available to authorities on request.”
In the end, the CE marking does not protect you against fraudulent use of the CE marking and possibly not from honest mistakes, but when buying from a trustworthy business, the CE mark does say that at least a serious assessment was conducted and the manufacturer guarantees it to be in compliance.
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Glad you agree exactly my point. 
Good. It was not obvious to see based on the quote
Both your choices revolve around the same bottleneck issue. Hydras are awful and blocks are nearly as bad. Get multiple sockets if you can or go a further stage.
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Exactly one socket one plug or check your fire insurance. 
I have a total of 14 devices that require their own socket, in the space of three metres. This includes Naim, TV, DVD player, Router, Hive Hub, Freeview player, etc, etc…How would that work?
Insurance company doesn’t care if you have a fire they probably won’t pay out.
But it might work ok just now.
Your choice your gamble.
Fire Brigade rule one plug one socket any other arrangement has the ability to overload the supply and cause problems.
What a load of cobblers!
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A Hydra has only one plug so that’s fine then. Even five or six Naim boxes won’t use as much power as a kettle or hair dryer.
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