Cereal greed. Doesn't pining for your daily dose of müsli sound far healthier than suffering serial greed? From serial killers to serial monogamists, there's all manner of diseases. But it's such a one I faced when after days worth of getting used to the 640X in the system, they all came out at once. Nicht gut. Using  "Rouhmak Ya Allah" from Naseej which backs up Lebanese singer Mike Massy with the Khalifé brothers Sary and Ayad on cello and piano, the progression from zero to four 640X to four 640X+ aka C-Marc Entropic was one of growing wood. That's not a lame locker-room quip but a description of how cello and piano transformed from metallic strings to resonant tone-wood bodies. Either instrument certainly combines them. The hammer/bow/finger-on-string action is simply first, the response of the wooden enclosure to which the strings attach next. It's one event in two halves.

Without the LessLoss, emphasis was on the string halves. That meant more steeliness over a certain hollowness that was particularly obvious on more forceful piano attacks and the cello's upper register. Since after the string attacks the direct follow-up into resonant bloom played down, weight and density mellowed. The sound was lighter on mass and higher on white illumination. Adding 640X onto transport, DAC, amp and sub shifted that balance deeper into wood. Upgrading to 640X+ added the same distance yet deeper into the woods. By the time I added the last 640X+ to the Furutech passive power distributor, I gained perhaps another half distance. Taking the lot out again was wirklich nicht gut – really bad by comparison. Hence serial greed. Experiencing how the overall sound acquired lengthier decays for richer tone and removed the edge burrs Ralph Werner was talking about groomed greed. I wanted to get serious and serialize more not less. So, to recap in bullet points…

• more density whose gravitational aspect also felt darker.
• more audible decay action whose overlap with following transients wrapped them in fine reverb gossamer to seem softer. Simultaneously subtle venue cues floated up into awareness.
• more woodiness less steeliness meant that textural crispness turned milder by degrees which mounted by more serializing.
• a cleaner purer treble followed the same trend.

Those were the main areas the 640X worked on like a massage therapist honing in on trouble spots. In Massive Attack mode aka doubled up so one 640X+ followed by one 640X on each junction, it became dead obvious: microdynamic range had expanded. That gave melodic arcs more expression. The instrumentalist's or singer's small inflections and accents registered as deeper so had more wiggly life and less flat-lined dynamic evenness. A side benefit of all this? Rather than claim 'just play back louder and you'll get the same benefits for free', you can play more softly and already enjoy the fullness and greater contrast that always come with raw loudness. Yet as you play louder, those same qualities simply scale up so you're ahead no matter what. And as you play really loud, the onset of treble glare native to your system will delay as well or disappear altogether.

Granted, I do prefer to keep things simple(r). I'd thus favor a passive LessLoss power distributor—say one that built in a 640X for each screw-lock Amphenol outlet which then seated a matching C-Marc Entropic power cord at the customer's length unbroken to the component—than the current theme of extra plugs and wood bodies dangling off components. Meanwhile in the real not ideal world, people shopping this esoteric sector and price range already own fancier power cords and matching AC filters or passive outlet multipliers. Otherwise their systems wouldn't make any sound. How to serve such clients without expecting them to sell off things they already paid for?

Hello plug'n'play add-on. That's precisely what these Firewalls are. Because the C-Marc Entropic pigtail contains its own very effective noise attenuation being simply a short form of the best power cord LessLoss make, the before/after delta rather increased over the standard-tailed 640X. Given that and my preference for less stuff, I'd save up for a single 640X+ over using the same funds by getting a standard 640X now then adding another one later. Think 1 x 1'000mg vitamin C versus 2 x 500mg pills. But the beauty of this scheme is its openness. Everyone decides for themselves where and how to live out their serial greed. Gordon Gecko lives!

And yes, müsli is good for you too. But this audiophile vitamin C just might be better…

Postscript: Within 24 hours of publication, reader Ernesto wanted to know how, on a €2'500 budget, would I allocate 640X/X+ for my system. I'd get two 640X+ for the first connection on the power distributor. In a system where I suspect one or more components to be flatulent by injecting switching power supply noise back into their power cord/s, I'd get four 640X to experiment with one or two on the offending gear. Now the LessLoss module treats not only the incoming power to it but also jams whatever noise generated by it wants to infect the other components over the power loom. Whatever 640X are left I'd again put on the 1st connection.

Then Sanjeev from Pune wanted to know how I'd rate 640X/X+ versus the Firewall for Loudspeakers I previously awarded. Here a pair of '+' on the first connection strikes me as similarly potent as a Firewall on each speaker. So it's fair to say that the Firewall 640X C-Marc Entropic is equally effective to grandfather into the earlier award as another expression/application of the same noise-attenuating technology. Will LessLoss interconnects be next to get it?

Manufacturer's reply: Speaking now for everybody who put their sweat and tears into the creation of these new products, I want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your review. The further we explore the depths of audio performance, the more we learn about seemingly unrelated aspects and how these play out into the real-time audio event. Playing on your analogies with vitamins, müsli and the overall health of audio-system 'libido', I want to once again point people to our recent video which aims to strip away layers of misconceptions that still plague the audiophile landscape today. A conceptual thought virus, however minuscule, has the potential to lead so many performance-seeking audiophiles onto stray and costly paths to spend and re-spend hard-earned cash in ineffective ways. Clarity and hierarchy of thought are needed here. Power is the very foundation of any audio system not simply because it runs the show but because it is the entire show. It's not mere stage lighting and props where otherwise unrelated actors appear to perform. It's the very energy that the virtual performers in your home eat. Feed them mass-produced governmentally-normed industrial food and they will only perform so well. Give them an infusion of Firewall 640x vitamins and watch their health evolve before your very eyes (ears).

Regarding your comments on product form factor and dosage, the review highlights plainly (and I concede) an obvious dichotomy between the maintenance of domestic tidiness and a seemingly non-existent threshold for performance overdose by the chaining of these vitamin boxes. Since no side effects were discovered, one is tempted to interpret the Firewall 640x as some form of perfect drug. But as with all drugs and food, only judicious use releases their full merit without side effects. I'm happy to know that 10 units didn't result in audio indigestion so obviously an audible threshold of unacceptable coloration was not reached. But the concept of 'serial snake' I agree needn't reach Anaconda levels rivaling the weight of the gear being fed. Thus our aim at system integration to maximum levels for the maximum number of users succeeds only partly. There is no one-size-fits-all standalone power distribution system so until we come up with something resembling that, the modular approach will have to do to remain compatible everywhere and for everyone and at accessible prices.

We do make power distributors with on-board Firewall technology. But even with the most extreme custom projects with tens of Firewalls onboard, the temptation to just try to feed it with an additional outboard Firewall module still results in the inevitable 'wish I never tried it, no going back now.' This is drugs. Not everyone gets over withdrawal regardless of how gut-heavy the system has become. Really when you think of it, the ideal power 'block' would be a device where it wouldn't matter what type of power cord provides the juice. The fed juice could be filthy, corrupted, bitter and randomly fermented yet the output would gleam like a newborn baby's well-slept skin, spreading the purest love and wonder throughout the entire system. I admit that we aren't currently there yet. Regardless of what our lab has achieved to date, in every case the additional effect of the feeding power cord is still undeniably appreciated and adds to the black-box drug cocktail welcome hallucinogenic effects nobody can be expected to ignore. However, our R&D team is now at least beginning to triangulate through never-ending struggles a nebulous horizon on which such a Holy Grail power source could be conceived. If not the Holy Grail itself, at least one in which one could easily be tricked into believing that the input power cord is no longer worth investing in. At that point the wooden tools could be retracted knowing that their work here is done.

Until then, take your vitamins and enjoy the superb sounds! Just remember the fine text: LessLoss Drugs will never be held accountable for loss of sleep!

Louis Motek from LessLoss Audio