Another benefit of the Hydra is that you have only one fuse for the mains cables.
That means there is an opportunity to use a very good fuse and the entire system gets the benefit of that one pinch point in your system.
I also use a Furutech plug and wall socket with my Grahams Hydra.
That makes sense.
Cable dressing is an often-ignored issue. Given that it takes time instead of money, that may look surprising, but there are so many variables.
In my case, I think the biggest benefit of switching to WH Morgana cables almost everywhere was that cable-dressing seems now to make so little difference - unlike my original Naim leads, where lazy dressing gave hums or blurring waffle or both.
Otoh, having a signal cable (for example to a phone stage) twisted around a power lead would still be very bad for SQ, no matter which cables and no matter how shielded they are or are not.
In my case, the Hydra body and shanked spare cable live under the rack. That makes keeping signal and power line separate a bit easier - another benefit.
Over the years I’ve tried different versions of ‘hydra’. In all cases I became annoyed with the limitations it put on cable dressing, I could never get it tidy and always ended up poking a leg or two into a coil or hiding place. I once read it described as akin to wrestling an octopus.
Now I have a dist board that’s wired LN&E in radial, and with decent sized wires to each socket. Plus individual equipment items fed with cables that are bespoke fitted to the required length.
Dressing heaven, tidy and as good as it gets SQ.
Do you mean you replaced the original plug on the Hydra with a Furutech one?
I thought a fuse was a fuse but seem to be mistaken. What fuses are recommended?
Yes, I replaced the original plug on the Hydra with a Furutech one - and a matching Furutech wall socket on a dedicated radial.
There’s no need to do this if you’re happy with the original one, but I am very happy with how it worked out for me.
Ditto with fuses - there’s no need to change the fuse it comes with, although I did and I’m very happy with that too.
There are many threads on cable fuses on here, so if you’re interested please look at those.
Obviously, one must never mess with the equipment fuses in Nam boxes.
Is that better or worse, though? Sending all that current through one skinny bit of wire rather than several might be a limitation.
Good point.
Making a hydra fuse a liability and an opportunity in proportion to the number and quality of boxes it feeds in terms of its effect on SQ.
So saying that I will be better off using the Matrix 2 with either the powerline lite I already have or with a full fat Powerline if I can get one used?
Or with one of the Wireworld mains cables which are 3mm?
Don’t panic. Get a Hydra 
I guess there’s a reason it’s popular. I’m waiting for Grahams to get back to me with an invoice to pay
Good product, peace of mind.
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