Canadian power company Torus Power is starting to win over professionals in the pro audio market with its line of toroidal-based isolation solutions
Excuse the pun, but it could be said that Torus Power’s business has been surging in the custom installation market. Through its market education Torus has seen a growth in the installation of its products in the residential electronics industry through its products’ combination of isolation, surge protection and voltage regulation.
Now having gained momentum in the consumer electronics industry, the Canadian power company is ramping up its education and marketing efforts in the professional A/V market.
Building off a recent installation in which Torus’ products were specified in a joint project between the custom cable and studio installation company Pro Audio LA and the consulting firm Ground One AV, Torus is now in the midst of educating the pro A/V market after winning over the owners of Pro Audio LA.
“It’s important to educate people in the studio market on the importance of a properly designed power foundation,” says Jared Stansill, co-founder of Pro Audio LA. “We work with sensible, tenured engineers who don’t want to spend money on things they don’t need, which we both [Pro Audio LA’s other co-founder Jason Hanan] understand and appreciate. All too often, they just don’t know that advantages of Toroidal Isolation power transformers or the tangible benefits they deliver until we show them. Because we made the investment in our showroom and have witnessed the benefits Torus Power provides firsthand, our team has the practical, personal, hands-on experience to demonstrate to our customers the benefits in real-world applications, which makes all the difference.”
In that original installation in which Pro Audio LA first experienced the benefits of Torus’ technologies, including its toroidal-based isolation capabilities, the initial studio installation included a 16-channel Neve 5088 console, a Burl Mothership chassis, Lynx Aurora digital audio converters, and a “substantial amount of outboard equipment all running on a 20-amp circuit” that was pushed to its limits with all of gear drawing power from a single circuit. To solve the power issues the studio was having Ground One AV’s CEO Arthur Kelm recommended the use of a Torus Power AVR-45. This product provided the studio with the isolation, voltage regulation and surge protection it needed to withstand voltage sags, brownouts and surges.
Later when Stansill and Hanan decided to move their business to a 5,000-square foot facility in Glendale, Calif., the pair learned from that studio installation. Setting up a three fully functional demo studios in their new space that include a mastering room with a Torus Power TOT AVR toroidal-based isolation transformer, a production room, and a mixing room that features a Solid State Logic (SSL) AWS 916 analog console and DAW Control Surface, Focal Professional SM9 Active three-way monitors, and a Torus AVR-20 power transformer that also provides voltage regulation.
Explaining the mixing room’s setup, the company put the SSL console on a dedicated circuit, and it used two additional voltage rails for the rest of the gear.
“We had quite an audible performance improvement running the Focal speakers off the Torus Power unit,” notes Stansill. “I can show people, firsthand the performance improvement while simultaneously explaining the added benefits of power protection and isolation.”
Stansill adds one of the most important factors in using the Torus products is how well the products function as non-evasive problem solvers. Using the product line in a leased space he says enabled them to upgrade the performance of their demo rooms without having to completely redesign the building’s power system.
He adds that while not perfect, the rooms effectively demonstrate to clients that quality systems can be installed no matter what variables are in play.
“We view it as an opportunity to show customers that you can still improve your sound, even if you have a less than ideal space,” says Stansill.
Showing just how much the company was won over by the Torus line of products, Stansill points out that it loans Torus TOT AVR products to clients to try out in their studios.
“It’s a bit more lightweight than others in the AVR Series, and it gives people a taste of the performance difference, whether you are hooking it up to a high-end listening room or to a monitoring system from a studio,” Stansill explains. “Power is a big foundational piece of building high-quality audio systems and the Torus Power rack-mount products offer noticeable sound improvements and a number of other advantages in any environment.”
