Given the already low-oxygen zone of the standard 1.8m, I felt nearly sheepish to ask for a 3m/UK-terminated loaner. I simply had good cause. My entire front-end stack hangs off Furutech's existing DUCC DPS4.1 cord with Mitsubishi's long-grain copper. To let V1 potentially stand for very not merely marginal victory, surely I ought to use it likewise and not just power one component? Spread the luv 'round. 1.8m just wouldn't reach. I explained that to my company contact Graeme Coley. He forwarded it to engineering. They agreed with my plan. It would simply delay things by a few weeks since now they couldn't ship from inventory. No matter. My review project was on. Project V1. Go. Vroom?

My shipment from Tokyo picked up on a Friday. By the same evening it had reached Hong Kong. It sat on 24-hour hold in Leipzig the following Monday but made Shannon/Ireland early Tuesday to clear customs an hour later. I settled customs fees online and delivery occurred three hours later; very quick considering the current state of affairs. Unfortunately Graeme hadn't sent me a cable but either a power amp or at the very least a butch pre instead. The box size and weight said so. Feeling copasetic, I opened up his double-boxed carton anyway. What emerged was a gorgeously crafted solid bamboo display box. It'd do any family silver proud. Flipping its lid showed a royal-blue velvet drawstring bag. From it emerged a very thick very stiff very heavy power cable. That just put three 'very' in a row. Project V for Very perhaps?

If the orientation of your IEC requires wringing this python's neck to get it in, fat chance – literally. The internal build is very reluctant to being wrung. You must accomplish the necessary twist with the general routing. This stiffness could easily require extra length to bend into place over a cord far thinner and twistier to reach with less bowing. Below is the system as it stood just then: iMac/Audirvana/local files ⇒ Soundaware D300Ref supercap-powered USB bridge ⇒ Sonnet Pasithea DAC ⇐ Denafrips Avatar CD transport ⇒ Kinki Studio THR-1 head amp ⇒ icOn 80Hz 4th-order hi/lo-pass filter ⇒ hi-pass ⇒ Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos ⇒ Audio Physic Codex ⇒ lo-pass ⇒ Wyred4Sound STP-SEII for sub gain control ⇒ Nord Acoustics Ncore mono ⇒ sound|kaos DSUB15.

Here is the cable still coiled with Furutech's Velcro wrappers.

Here is the front-end stack, wall connection in the insert. From the cord's serious bow before it deigned to go horizontal and actually reach for the equipment rack, you'll appreciate its stiffness in flagranti. Again, when you specify your required length, be sure to add some extra to account for this or you may not reach. My three meters just made it. Snake wrangler certification. Earned.

I fired up all gear hanging off V1 then put a playlist on endless repeat. Of course current draw is quite negligible with such gear. Hulking class A power amps differ. You needn't even play them. They draw the same at idle as they do under max power. Our 250W class A/B Kinki monos in this system power off a different spur. They'd need actual signal to properly draw. They'd be destination #2 once V1 had properly cooked. Graeme: "This was burned in at the factory but I'm happy to see you're giving it some extra time." As it turned out, V1's sonic action was perfectly lucid after 24 hours of warm-up.