One U-shaped steel sheet forms the item's cover finished in matte black with nicely engraved logo on top. GigaWatt's own decoupling pucks are big, look reliable and undoubtedly are of quality. GigaWatt's PC-3 SE EVO+ doesn't look like a luxury item for which it is far too utilitarian and modest. However, closer inspection indicates a heavy box finely put together with a lot of thought. All parts are nicely matched, hex screws center perfectly in their holes, key components are fabricated exclusively for GigaWatt, the feature set is no-nonsense practical, the innards are executed to perfection. At first glance, Adam's second from the top looks much like the lower PC-2 EVO+ on the inside. It's all about even power distribution, noise suppression and protection yet approaches these goals differently.

Instead of a regular on/off switch with traditional fuse or thermal breaker, a hydraulic/magnetic breaker monitors current and stops overload spikes without sacrificial parts. The starter block next in line sports a phase control, a DC blocker, a pre-filter and a charger for the compensation caps. Protection against over currents and surges is via plasma sparks and UltraMOV varistors. The next stop are three massive rails of silver-plated C11000 cathode copper followed by a double buffering circuit loaded with GigaWatt's proprietary EMI-absorptive capacitors made by Miflex. From there current goes to three separate sections powered in parallel. All are subject to interference-suppressing RLC blocks which incorporate quality polyester capacitors and filters based on Super-MSS (Sendust) cores.

Generous bars right next to the inlets and not a drop of solder anywhere won't go unnoticed either. The internal wiring is Teflon-insulated OFC copper and all key areas connect mechanically via screws and clamps. Lastly, the GigaWatt LC-3 EVO power cord replaced the LC-3 MK3+ leash. However, instead of being the next upgraded version already in the portfolio, this was designed from scratch and to a degree is based on GigaWatt's top LS series. The LC-3 EVO cord sports 8 x 1.5mm² multi-strand veins of seven tightly twisted copper conductors each. This decreases inductance and leaves fairly big capacitance. The plugs are massive, encased in aluminium and their cryo-treated demagnetized contacts are made from rhodium-plated brass. The internal connections aren't soldered but executed with lock screws. The LC-3 EVO cord looks nice, feels pleasantly substantial and—since it's not a solid core type—is flexible despite its generous girth.

GigaWatt's PC-3 SE EVO+ was on duty in my reference setup from November 2018 onward. I took my time and the list of hardware it fed included the Trilogy 995R and 915R, Kinki Studio EX-P7 and EX-M7, Accuphase P-4500 and C-2150, EggShell TanQ, Ayon Scorpio, Thöress dual function preamplifier, Pass Labs XP-12, Trilogy 925 and Bakoon AMP-13R. My LampizatOr Pacific and fidata HFAS-S10U also were on the job. Most importantly, I compared the PC-3 SE EVO+ and PF-2 silently with all of them and finally the time came to finish this tale.