Which gets us at today's subject, Akiko Audio's newest Corelli power conditioner. It's their logical next step based on the general concept of carbon fiber tubes filled with a mix of piezoelectric crystals. The Tuning Stick came first and could be velcro'd to a cable or, with a different end, plug into a wall outlet. The Triple AC Enhancer basically combines three Tuning Sticks in one tube wherein each stick connects to ground. We found this Enhancer highly effective when plugged into a power distribution block. Enter the Corelli and yes, you probably guessed right, it's yet another happy threesome of newly developed AC Enhancers. But that's not all. There's a fourth player in this new game. The cleaning task spreads equally across three large carbon fibre-tubed filters. Contrary to previous Akiko products, the Corelli is first to address the positive, return and ground legs of the AC. Its fourth filter then absorbs all the high-frequency radiation inside the Corelli. To control resonances, some parts of it are cast in black resin. It took Akiko over two years to develop this product. A lot of time was spent researching and identifying new more effective piezoelectic materials. [Shunyata employ similar tech in their AC filters if readers want confirmation on its efficacy - Ed.]


Weighing 6.3kg and measuring 21.5cm x 31.1cm x 10.0cm, this is a purely passive devices without switches or LEDs. There's only a fused Furutech power inlet. We received our loaner Corelli with an Akiko Audio 1.5 meter HQ Powercord terminated with Furutech plugs.


With quite a few noise-reduction accessories in our crib, we started by disconnecting or removing them to create a 'dirty' baseline. Only the Acoustic System Resonators remained in place as did the IsoTek DC filter which protects our high-efficiency AER drivers from mishaps. Named after the Baroque composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli, we introduced the Akiko Audio box into a system ripe with HF processing. Sources at the time were the PCM-->DSD512 resampling Soundgalleries SGM 2015 music server, T+A DAC8, Music First passive preamp, Hypex nCore 1200 Beta monos. Loudspeakers were our Arcadian Audio Pnoe horns with two Zu Submission subs; or the review samples of Volya's Bouquet.  


From earlier lessons with the Triple AC Enhancer, we knew that Akiko's sticks take time to settle in. It was no different with the Corelli, albeit far more intense. When we first fired up all our gear after the Corelli had been plugged in, there was an instant net result not to our liking. It sounded as though someone had taken the proverbial blanket and covered up our speakers. Granted, there was no noise but no upper mids and treble, either. We faced two options: move it to a different mains spurs; or leave it in place and watch a movie. We opted for the latter and indulged an evening glued to the screen while sound was provided by a Devialet D-Premier driving Avantgarde Duo Omega.

The next day we tried the Corelli-fied system again and the difference was day and night. Gone was the blanket. In a visual metaphor, it was as if reading glasses had been cleaned and the text in a book looked once more crisply legible and properly magnified. We kept that setup as is for the duration of our Volya review. When that most colourful speaker we ever saw returned to the custody of its owners, we focused on the Corelli. Mind you, noise is not always volume dependant. If the noise is in the signal, it's become an environmental constant. It may not be audible as noise but it still affects what we hear (and even how we feel). As we've laid out earlier, ultrasonic pollution reaches us through many channels.