This is why in my system I view the LessLoss Firewalls for speakers necessities not optional accessories. At first their work may seem mild but disengaging them after a week or two of constant use is painful. Then it hits us just how much these small barrels actually contribute; or rather, how much is lost upon taking them out. It seems fitting to call them highly advanced inline filters but that's not necessarily accurate. Here Srajan already pointed out that Firewalls condition signal to reveal information previously held hostage by residual noise. Their work is thus opposite to subtractive filtering. Since I fully agree, in my own review I wrote that Firewalls don't add anything to a system that is not already there. These aren't tools to alter core flavours. Instead they strip off harshness, sharpness, leanness and grit. This is why listeners who use a Firewall for the first time may find the outcome somewhat more sensual, polite and mild. In reality it's not. Bass stripped from noise develops extra heft and fullness but also becomes tighter and more powerful so the opposite of what its earlier character would suggest. Instrumental outlines presented on a blacker backdrop may imply less overall radiance and clarity while being audibly more pronounced, weighty and longer in brilliance contradicts this. More articulated and nuanced yet denser vocal lines don't fully describe it either. The entire musical image grows larger and more robust while edginess causing listening fatigue vanishes. Unsurprisingly, the latest Firewall tailored for headphones follows this protocol to a ‘t'. As such it only introduces audible gains.
If I had to narrow down the Firewall effect on Susvara in a few bullet points, we'd have this: more body, less edgy image outlines, less sharpness and gloss, beefier tighter bass, a more pronounced meatier midrange and far superior highs particularly on decay lengths and associated smoothness. Then again, this grossly oversimplifies. Atop all this, today's Firewall greatly boosts the sensation of aural space to feel more breathing, motile and alive. It makes all the tiny dust particles in the air and the very last instrumental reverb significantly easier to see and appreciate. Clarity is yet again the key word. With loads as resolving as Susvara, this aspect gains massive importance. The most interesting thing is that the major quality gains happened alongside additional substance, textures and body instead of those aspect decreasing in trade as is so often the case. Elevated immediacy, energy, bite and snap follow.
To frame the above, let's go over a selection of tracks. On Altin Gün's funky "Kirsehirin Gülleri" and "Yekte" I heard primarily smoother more distinct vocals. The same band's trippy rousing song "Caney" was more clear with extra bite as if all its snappy beats got shorter and more impactful. Apocalyptica's live take on Metallica's "Orion" had something different in store. About halfway through this song becomes soothing and gentle just to regain momentum and energy near the end. With the Firewall, the first part struck me as calmer, prettier and all in all fancier while the energetic outro was noticeably more immediate, muscular and feisty. In other words, the two very distinct parts on that track better expressed their very specific quite opposing gestalts. I found that excellent. Arun Gosh's peaceful song "Nocturne" builds upon a clarinet melody that shows each note and air escaping that blackwood in a very clear way. The Firewall lengthend these sounds to make the entire tune calmer, dreamier and more flowing. I had the same observations with Jon Lord's "Miles Away" epic, which too benefited from increased smoothness, ease, flow, juiciness and less compressed more distinct imaging. Individual bits on this tune registered more pronounced which made them easier to follow and pick out. In effect the entire track registered more romantic and sensual. This repeated on "All Comers" by Mark Knopfler, albeit with noticeable gains in rhythm and swing, as if the main instruments played more on point.
When the time came for my playlist's guilty pleasures, Lorde's "Writer in the Dark" was my first choice where the Firewall revealed significantly better bass grip and less coarse yet fleshier more articulated female vocals. Some sibilants remained but these are impossible to fully banish here no matter what we do. The fact that with the LessLoss I heard less of these pesky intruders kept my ears happy with a clear upward quality bump. Einstürzende Neubauten's "Magyar Energia" shifts attention from vocals to bold spatial cues and occasional intense explosions out of nowhere which envelope the entire soundscape. The Firewall injected more air into the view and dynamically expanded these peaks to make them more potent and instantaneous. Blixa Bargeld's voice struck me as more alive and here while all the high-pitched sounds registered quicker, uplifted, weightier and more shimmery. When I really want to hit the gas, "Danke" by Idles covers that craving. Although this song is far from ideally recorded, I still enjoy it immensely. Sinfully dirty, brutal, intense and energized are words which encapsulate how I see it. There's a fine line between this high-octane well-caffeinated profile and all the claptrap "Danke" embeds. With the Firewall it was less angular, more dense, wild, raw, articulated and blunt. Most importantly, the Lithuanian support made a hugely positive difference on this specific song. To my ears the sensation was comparable to listening to it over a floorstander armed with two small cones then a Zu DWX armed with a 10.3" widebander that needs very little power to pump lots of air very effortlessly. The way how such drivers speak the rock language makes them something entirely different on scale, directness and entertainment. The LessLoss simply knew that Zu dialect.
