Part Deux of part deux. Rectifying my source feed to Vibex made for an instant return to personal 'voilà'. I was back on my sound. Now I pulled out the passive Furutech from the active analog lo/hi pass, speaker amp and sub amp and plugged those into the Lithuanian Oak. That syndicated the upstairs showing by again injecting more color saturation and density. Here the sound also seemed to slow down, fill out and darken a bit without fully overwriting the restoration of source behavior. I thought it split the difference less than half. Source was more dominant. That new combo remained inside my target; different than usual but just as attractive. So hidden behind this happy Ikea palm would be my preferred LessLoss station in this bigger system though not count as copasetic as upstairs where innately more damped speakers and a fresher crisper DC-coupled amp responded to Louis' signature with still louder welcome. If our household budget had those discretionary audiofool funds, upstairs is where Louis' box would stay. Oakay!
In my mind there's no question. Despite being a passive device, this new LessLoss Power Distributor is a very active sonic influencer. It shaves off edge and grit like successively finer sandpaper. That installs smoothness and prettiness. It also tames down shine and brilliance with a new textural softness that's a bit darker. Ratcheted musical tension relaxes for greater calmness. That's simply what this by now very evolved technology does. It works as predictably as cream 'n' sugar. How exactly you take your coffee is purely personal. How do the movie baddies always put it just before they pull the trigger? "It's nothing personal, just business." Now you know this outlet multiplier's business. It multiplies its business. Your response is yours alone. Whole java empires are built on this fact. What pulls your trigger? Personally I felt vindicated. My prediction of potency and dosage proved spot on. This really is powerful stuff. If your system's balance hovers somewhere in the inner circle of your own bull's eye already, crossed lines within reach, micro dosing is key. You don't want to douse your sound into an OD. If you've made more recent as yet less locked-in changes as I did upstairs when solid-wood Swiss monitors moved out and Dutch aluminators in, a bigger dose could just be what the doc ordered to get you back into that inner circle of your very own rightness – Signed, Rx.
Postscript. The other day, our local supermarket promoted color-shifting remote-controlled Phillips light bulbs. I thought they were a great example for what good reviews might accomplish. It's not about a given writer raving about or rejecting a particular hue. Why should you care what color light a stranger likes? What matters is learning what to expect when you turn a light on. Will it be green, yellow, white or blue? If green, will it be lime, chartreuse, mint, pistachio, sage or olive? If a writer hosts multiple systems, ideally a review shines the same light on different rooms to report on contextual impact. Once described, that effect solidifies in your mind, giving you a good notion on how appropriate or not it'll be to your own system building and tuning. That makes for a good review. The good is being useful. If a rave only tells you that its writer adored a thing unconditionally like a slobbering pooch adores its master, it's actually a very bad review. It has little to no utility or relevance.
Relativity. It's everywhere. With my preferred tuning, the onset of splashiness and grain on hot recordings is sooner. Louis' tuning avoids it altogether. Occasionally crossing the line is a price I'm happy to pay to harvest greater incisiveness and frisson. Thankfully we're all different. Otherwise life would be one giant echo chamber of mirrors…
Addendum. No sooner had the above published that Dawid Grzyb's review of AGD's new Alto & Tempo published. With a syndication order on the books, here are two paragraphs from it that speak very directly to my own review. "These were inherently very revealing lively products. That's why any predominance of roundness, mass, density and laid-back mysteriousness was off today's main menu. As it turned out, these traits were easy to add. By swapping the Pacific DAC's Living Voice-branded 300B to KR T100, the general gestalt steered nicely in that direction. Swapping in an AMR DP-777SE pushed this envelope a notch further. iFi Audio's Pro iDSD with Tube+ mode did so even more. None were as sporty, direct or quick as the LampizatOr. It didn't matter. AGD's set proved enjoyably adaptive by gracefully supporting their individual profiles and welcomed all extra sensuality, heft and color they injected. AGD's quicksilvery personality shone through regardless and I thought that perfect. Shoppers into high RPM acceleration, immediacy, slam, control and transparency don't want the opposite after all. Personally, the AGD combo with the Pacific DAC's LV 300B was my favorite. This DAC and Boenicke's W11 SE+ are hi-res snappy types just as today's set so theory predicted issues from mutually reinforcing profiles.
"But I saw no mystery why it instead performed brilliantly. Twin LessLoss Firewall modules, multiple C-Marc power cords and Boenicke Audio's highly potent distributor box [based on scaled-up C-Marc tech from LessLoss – Ed.] always inject extra mass and smoothness. Within a truly revealing signal path like today's, these accessories do an awful lot and are mandatory in my book. Subtract them and performance instantly dives into something icier, shinier, lighter, shallower, coarser to be in dire need of swapping at least one main component to rebalance again. Put the accessories back and enjoy all the shove, pinpoint outlines, snap, color, closeness and vigor which the AGD platform natively packs; minus any listed downsides."
LessLoss reply: Thanks for the insightful review, Srajan. My favorite line was "Whole java empires are built on this fact." When one person takes the time to relish in the select bitterness of a specific espresso, following its every nuance up to and throughout every nerve fiber connecting tongue, glands, smiles and imagination, another may gag, spit and cough and question the other's sanity. And so the beauty of personal interpretation is revealed. As M.C. Hammer said, "U can't touch this."
Indeed, we here at LessLoss work on creamy, smooth, luscious but also make sure to keep bite, tartness and tang in the picture. We don't underbake but we also don't overburn. The LessLoss recipe is just one more establishment's take on great taste. My personal bet is that the more you like naturally mic'd recordings, the more you will align with LessLoss's understanding of great sound; and if you enjoy historical recordings in which you seek to glean more and more of what history is actually embedded there, all the more. – Louis Motek
