Public service announcement. With a pair of FirstWatt SIT5 monos awaiting drop-off the following week to Pass Labs' resident Irishman Desmond Harrington, passing them in the hallway caused a sudden flash. During their review, they'd slightly hummed; not at all electrically through the speakers but mechanically as subtle transformer buzz. No sooner thought than done, I hauled one of them atop a Kinki mono and changed over power cord. Presto: zero hum as in, my ear on the amp's cover netted nothing. Despite clean rural living with very few neighbours and no industry other than an enormous power station downriver, some household or wider-area gear caused DC on the AC which caused mild transformer hum which Tai Hang flatly choked out. Though a layman's term, power transformers stress less when not seeing asymmetry on their power spur. Less stress = better sound? However it interacts, DC blocking really works. Not hearing (noise) is believing.

Now back to the hearing biz on music. It's when I practiced revelation by subtraction—noting what happens when the review item removes and we return to our status quo—that I had to call myself an earlier liar. I'd limited Tai Hang's effects to the equivalent of upgrading one's tweeters. That's because now I was playing dense complex tunes. Ditching Tai Hang for my trusty old Furutech, those tunes used fewer pixels to exploit a tired if relatable cliché. It registered as lower data density. From it came generally lower density yet greater congestion. To me the latter always signals lower resolution. In my first sessions I'd focused on simpler fare to get my bearings. That zeroed in on the obviously richer overtone life. These later sessions went down a rather more convoluted path.

Though it pained my wallet to admit, my big system with all four of Tai Hang's sockets busy would not be returning to my Furutech. On its front-end stack, my existing Vibex DC filter proved sonically on par. That, phew, could stay. But the Furutech was destined to elsewhere.

With my upstairs duplicating the downstairs split of sidewall 'front end' and front-wall 'amp stack', Tai Hang behind the small speakers augmented by active sub could only service the active crossover, sub and Kinki stereo amp. Yet the sonic effect was a rerun. Perhaps there was even some special dispensation from the hifi deities at work given the Kinki kongregation of amp/s and DC blocker? As Gordon Gecko's despicable Wall Street broker put it, "Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel." Clearly Kinki amps love Kinki's Tai Hang. They basically went to school together and ate each other's lunch.

Now let's back up just enough to reiterate that on my AC path, earlier balanced isolation transformers were left behind as were most standard active AC filters. Except for the Vibex focusing mostly on DC, my best results come from Furutech's passive NCF-lined outlet multipliers. Now Tai Hang bested those in two systems. Granted, I stop shopping when something plainly works. I've not looked into this category since marrying Furutech. So I don't wish to paint a false picture of Tai Hang's global dominance. I merely share what it did for me and how the scenery it parachuted into evolved over 23 years. On that score, I was a bit shocked by the extra ground Tai Hang covered particularly blatant upon its removal. I'd not expected it to be this effective at increasing resolution by what must be sufficient noise-floor droppage for the ears to notice. Being able to inject that extra ground with a currently ~$1'200 outlay in systems that weren't exactly basic to start with strikes me as being rather cost effective. A hifi blogger recently linked to a video with the byline "I'm selling off all my Chinese DACs". As usual with click bait, that statement found itself modified in the video to cheap Chinese DACs à la smsl and Topping for being virtual clones of each other and offering nothing unique. Tai Hang is distinctly not another clone of an overbuilt AC distributor from China with naught inside but star-ground wiring. In fact, I currently know nada which bundles its focus and functionality. As usual for Kinki Studio, perceived value is high as is build quality and finish. Add the Vinshine aspect of sales and marketing and Tai Hang's uniqueness grows another peak. Remember? Mountains, plural.

Power-line filter detractors often claim that nothing beats a direct wall connection. Perhaps. But, do you have sufficient wall outlets in your hifi's vicinity to plug everything into its own wall socket? I never had and occupied more than ten different homes since I began this job. Even if I did, the issue of DC on the AC wouldn't go away. It doesn't start inside a particular power box. It's on our AC-distribution loom snaking around inside our walls. A direct connection wouldn't touch that. As I see it, there's no substitute for a top-quality DC blocker. As always, feel free to disagree. What we can probably all agree on? Today's component category has all the sex appeal of bin liners. Like those, most power kit stays out of sight and with it, out of mind. When the upgrade itch returns, we don't remember that the music signal we hear is modulated mains power converted to mechanical motion. Hence our betterment funds go to shiny new electronics. And those continue to be compromised by noisy dirty mains power. With many audio pilgrims spending more on an isolator set or power cord than today's box gets, perhaps here's a chance to redress our priorities?

If not, carry on with raw utility power. It's only yourself your hifi must please. As for mine, this Tai Hang will remain behind my quad mono amps. If my tax return is willing, I might even splurge on a second one for the upstairs system. As I wrote earlier, my date with Tai Hang quickly led to that warm "wanna come over to my place" question. At this rate I will most certainly give Kinki's audiophile fuses a crack should those really materialize³. Once lucky, twice blessed? With my new Tai Hang downstairs, it's more like a mass blessing affecting the full bandwidth across four amplifiers, two speakers and a subwoofer. It's rather excellent return on investment.
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³ It turns out that they already have materialized on Mr. Shoon's own website. Or as it says on Kinki's site, "we're thrilled to announce our new collaboration with ShoonTH, a brand renowned for its high-quality audio fuses. Through rigorous testing we found that integrating their fuses into our amplifiers significantly enhances their performance." These fuses in ceramic shells use a composite alloy conductor encased in crushed natural mineral powder all of which is subjected to -196°C submersion for five times. For $81 at time of publication, they're not cheap. An amp like Kinki's stereo version takes three so one each 1A/250V, 4A/250V and 10A/250V.

This small LED is associated with a floor-facing smoky acrylic slot along the fascia's edge which leaves blue glow beneath the box.

To wrap up the two core sonic benefits in the sequence I heard them, high overtone audibility improved to give tone colours more nuance. That was the 'better tweeters' bit. When the going got tough so complicated, I heard more density with less crowding. Multi-layered overlapping events didn't run into each other the same. That made them easier to hear as discrete elements. My standby image for that is culinary. Rather than put a soup through a mixer for a single consistency and blended taste, this kind of soup is like a complex Thai/Vietnamese affair. The veg, mushrooms and shrimp are still crunchy. Sweet, sour, salty and bitter aspects coexist in parallel without mixing down into a compound flavour. It's separation in one bowl, together. Bite into a whole small cooked cherry tomato and all its sweetness explodes in your mouth surrounded by layered broth while a bit of galangal contrasts a citrus bite and lingering note of pine. Other than timbre freshness, that kind of knit-together apartheid is what the Tai Hang did better than my purely passive alternatives. It's what had me sold. But never mind that past tense. It has me sold, right bloody now. And yes, if you need more than four outlets, you'll need two units until/if they decide to follow up with a full-width version of 3-4 duplexes. But perhaps keeping low/high-draw kit on separate lines is actually a better idea in the first place?

I have another question. Whom do you fancy more, he who aims to be all things to all people to stand for nothing except perhaps the lowest common denominator; or she who stands for something most definitive which you might disagree with but can still admire for its conviction and integrity? Having reviewed and using numerous Kinki gear plus their cable looms branded Earth and Fire, I can state with conviction that Tai Hang follows the same aural aesthetic. It primarily acts as an accelerator and illuminator. You might prefer a different sound. Still, there's no arguing. The team behind Kinki Studio and Exact Express are reliably consistent. They know precisely how to create their sound with different component categories. That I find most admirable. Take a stand. Stand for something. Let those chips fall where they may. Turned around, if you like Kinki electronics or Exact cables, you can safely predict that you'll like Tai Hang for all the same reasons. In my book, such a sure thing is a very good thing indeed.

Vinshine Audio replies: Thank you! I've shared your review with Ivan Liu, chief designer of Kinki Studio. He is delighted and touched at the same time. His beliefs in high-fidelity audio have not changed as you could clearly tell from the Tai Hang. Many thanks again. – Alvin Chee