There's Nothing Else Like It
Quiescent's extraordinary combination of electronic and structural design, materials, electronic noise reduction and acoustic noise reduction puts it in a league of one.
About The Peak Shunt Mains Module
So the first thing to discuss here, is the word Shunt. You see, you just add a short mains lead, then plug one of these into a spare socket. That's it. Nothing in-line. Shunt means that something is in parallel and the Peak shunt filter circuitry is in parallel with the other items in your setup, and it functions, in essence, by shorting out high frequency noise. That noise, that would otherwise be present on the live (and neutral) and therefore would be seen across the inputs of your main electronics, gets bypassed down to ground when the Peak module is plugged in.
There's more going on here of course, there are all the other elements of Quiescent's technology applied too, such as the anti-acoustic resonance casework that ensures the whole device is totally non-resonant.
And as a product they're very important for two reasons. One, they allow a bit of toe-dipping into the Quiescent pool without any major changes to your system setup, and two, regardless of the level you go to in a high-end mains configuration, there are often further benefits to be gained by using one or two Peak shunt modules in adjacent unused sockets around the system. To us, they help to create a 'quiet bubble' around the system's mains wiring, and sort of double-up on the fundamental reduction of noise getting into your electronics.
Tech Insight
The term shunt filter is used for a particular type of circuit. First, shunting is like grounding, if you had a 5V power line and a ground line, if you then shorted the live to the ground with a piece of wire, that would shunt the current to ground. This is not much use though with a piece of straight wire, as you would likely cause an overload or blow a fuse. But use a resistor instead and you would now be shunting some of the current to ground, whilst some current would still be there to go on to the next circuit.
But rather than using a resistor between live and ground, what if you were to use a low value capacitor? Well, that capacitor won't conduct at DC, or low frequencies (50/60Hz mains), but it's resistance (impedance) drops at higher frequencies. So it has no discernible effect on a 5V DC line or a 50Hz mains line in terms of the line carrying power, but high frequency noise on the line will see a low impedance path to ground.
Specifications
Absorption Technology
EMI/RFI, multi-phase, wide-bandwidth electrical labyrinth.
Mechanical, proprietary casework design with 3D passive acoustic absorption materials.
Features
Power in, IEC C15 10A.
Internal wiring, six 1.25mm 99.9% solid silver conductors (2 each per Earth, neutral and live).
Case, ultra-low resonant black anodised high-grade solid block aluminium casework.
Dimensions, LxWxH (mm)240x150x75.
Weight (Kg), 4.5.
Matching & Setup
The Quiescent Shunt Mains Module is possibly one of the most useful products in the whole Quiescent Portfolio. They are very effectively installed into a system by just plugging into spare sockets. No need to change any distribution blocks or cabling to sample the effectiveness of the Quiescent approach (indeed, we would recommend testing some of the Component Couplers at the same time too).
They work brilliantly with all types of systems, bringing general improvements to smoothness, transparency and tonality. However, they can sometimes bring startling improvements in systems that are plagued by noisy mains or perhaps contain a lot of digital components. The noise level reduction can be so marked that further improvements can then be gained by fine speaker adjustments, plus other component upgrades then become more effective too.