I tend to run three footers per component to make swaps and levelling easier. Six Darkz T2S sent to me in late 2020 were enough for two electronics or a pair of speakers. Not so the quad of Z2S reviewed today. That's why my sound|kaos Vox 3afw monitor speakers had to be off duty. What's more, Bakoon's AMP-13R and fidata's HFAS1-S10U used in my former review had since been dethroned by the Enleum AMP-23R and Innuos Statement. Both sport their own decouplers. Still, the machines which should park atop the wobbly Z2S cylinders now were obvious. My DAC and preamp are most susceptible to tweaks so easy picks. Yet triangulations on where Ansuz' latest anti-resonance footers contribute most weren't my primary goal. If I was a paying punter of painfully pricey pucks, I'd like to know whether stepping up from the already most effective T2S results in gains obvious enough to justify the spare change. So I asked for a set of Darkz Z2S and T2S. Morten happily obliged. Here it's worth noting that to perform at their highest, I applied all Darkz directly to my component bellies, not their original footers. I only stacked them for my photo shoot for better visibility.

Let me recap the impact T2S had on my setup back when. A set of three landed under the Bakoon's two longest heat dissipators plus transformer cowl. Of all my components, this integrated was by far the easiest to lift and move around. Although atop three LessLoss Bindbreakers it didn't sound all that different at first, a single swap to T2S instead revealed changes so clear that tracking them required no effort. That alone was telling. On the Darkz the Bakoon had produced various synth bass lines beefier, quicker, tighter, more extended, cohesive, composed and tactile. Vocals lost edginess, excess heat and grain. The titanium discs had made calm male voices still more comforting, substantial, smooth and finely outlined. Images separated more distinctively and rendered fleshier to be less pale or agitated. The Danish pucks then expanded dynamic contrast and secured extra punch and snap. The compound increase on heft, impact and articulation without any downsides marked T2S as an obviously efficient performance upgrade.

The Bakoon atop three titanium footers also projected moister and darker images. That was a familiar by-product of mechanical silencing. Here my guideline is simple. The more efficacious a component's trimming of self noise, the fuller and more pronounced each instrumental and vocal line gets while the backdrop grows ever more black. Here Bakoon's integrated plus Ansuz had expressed brilliant vocal presences. Meaty frames were as distinct as all the subtle lip and throat sounds registered by microphones. Such delicate detail noticeably upped articulation and resolution. To my ears the key attraction was still elsewhere however. That's because T2S added extra gravitas, coherence, vividness and speed. Removing the footers again rendered the entire sonic landscape more flat, texturally basic, less clear on vocal intricacies, less adroit and majestic in general. Per se this was nothing new. I'd already had my fair share of USB decrapifiers, AC conditioners and power cords all designed to reduce incoming noise. Still, that such tiny purely passive decouplers could pull similar stunts as effectively had caught me off guard.

T2S under my fidata HFAS1-S10U server/streamer had caused familiar if still stronger gains. Digital components forward signal to downstream devices. The sooner or more upstream that signal is treated, the more potent the overall benefits as they amplify from component to component. Hence the fidata benefited from the titanium footers even more than the amp. At that point T2S's action under my LampizatOr DAC's massive Stacore legs without critical bases was predictable: bigger snappier more articulate bass, ambience with less grain, a wider color palette, greater clarity and an overall sportier smoother voicing. These were big changes easily heard. Although Stacore's complete cylinders performed almost on par for subjective speed and spatial cleanliness, the Ansuz had the upper hand on finer textures, higher contrast ratio plus bass that dug deeper, felt tighter and hit harder.