Powerline voicing. Back in the day, a brand of popular AC products distinguished between noise killers and accelerators. In my early experience of Chris Hoff's BPT isolation transformers for balanced power, those were noise killers. They applied to the sound a form of global damping. That telegraphed as an absence of noise rather than presence of musical vitality. I eventually moved to accelerators like Walker Audio's passive Velocitor. I preferred their increase of energy which manifested as presence. Today I call that quality gush factor. With speakers I hear it most from filter-less widebanders. Like the plain difference of bass textures between sealed boxes and open-baffle dipoles, these two approaches to AC delivery/filtering have their own distinct signature. By returning now to our resident Audio Physic Codex 4-ways with their lower bandwidth of 25Hz compliments of hidden 10" woofers inside their glass-clad enclosures, I'd apply the Ansuz power concept to a system which over many years had evolved around Vibex conditioning. Replacing the 02 as key ambassadors for Michael Børresen's sonic ideals with speakers which reflect my own, certain attributes of the presentation would have to shift once I returned to Clifford Orman's Spanish power solution.

And so it was. The easiest way to describe the difference is the tired-but-true transistor/tube gestalt pointed at timing and tension. Those attributes are two sides of one coin. So we invoke four sets of polarities: staccato | legato; leading edge | trailing edge; charge | flow; edge of seat | reclined. All point at the same. The Ansuz loom put the system on the front foot, the first half of each polarity. The Vibex conditioners with Allnic power cords shifted it on the back foot or second half of each complementary opposite.

In my book, where exactly we set this balance of our system is an elemental yet entirely subjective consideration. People who prefer front-row seats invariably listen louder. That's a direct result of sitting closer to stage. Likewise for related qualities like transient incisiveness from predominantly direct not yet reflected sound. Other listeners prefer front-row balcony for a less separated more blended sound of softer contours and richer tone. Others again wish to be somewhere in the middle. None is right, none wrong. During a live gig, it's a matter of preference, ticket pricing and/or seat assignment. At home, it's all the same things.

Since my Ansuz power-cord loom terminated in EU not the US plugs of our resident AC cables, I couldn't break down the comparison into cables versus power boxes. It had to be complete swaps. As such I couldn't determine how much the D2 Mainz8 distributor contributed versus the D2 Mainz cords and where a partial approach should focus and start. My assignment thus ends on a complete Ansuz power delivery note. Like Børresen's 02 speakers, my loaner loom emphasized transient precision, image separation, soundstage scale, layer specificity, bass power, dynamics and, as musical tension, energetic charge. As a package deal, it's a seat close to the stage and its performers. As a visit to your account manager, it'll be a terribly frightful trip unless your bank balance runs six figures or your credit line is gold plated. But as a foundation—of current delivery, maximized grounding and happier power supplies that deal with attenuated HF spikes on the AC—it should be the proverbial bedrock for your hifi. As a function of power utility tech, nothing there changes. A solid foundation today will be a solid foundation tomorrow and years from now. Your investment won't falter. What does change is the severity of electro smog from household appliances, mobile devices, streaming media and ever-heavier WiFi coverage. That's getting worse as the years go by. It makes investing into cleaner AC a primary concern and necessity, not an eventual final polish. As the hifi bible might say, blessed are those who can afford to build as deep a foundation as the one we considered today. Or as CNN had it just then, "the price of the Park Hyatt's new Manhattan Sky Suite is in line with its sky-grazing perch. A week's stay will run deep-pocketed guests a cool $350'000. The suite is $50'000 a night with a seven-night minimum. The three-bedroom suite stretches across 4'200 square feet on the 59th floor of the One57 luxury residential tower." Living large always comes at a price…