Takin’ a ride on the Majic Buss
Dave Elledge’s new power tweak, the Majic Buss, piaudiogroup-dot-com is out, but if you aren’t one of Dave’s eight or ten closest friends, you probably haven’t have heard of the “Majic Buss” yet. Dave delivered mine to me on Saturday about 1:00pm in a parking lot of the church where volunteers his time. I had it plugged in to my system and started listening to music about 10 minutes later.
The next hour was one of delight and wonder as I discovered new textures to bass lines that were very familiar to me, new detail and clarity in music that was reference quality already, and of course the frightening level of dynamics that we all want out of our systems. The first hour was spent throwing one CD after another into the Denon DVD-3910 drawer and playing cut after cut with my ears telling me that this was much better in every way.
My immediate reaction was that my modest digital front end was now elevated to reference level of performance. The Majic Buss was plugged into the B output and only the amplifier (Krell KPB300cx) was plugged into the A output. The pre-amp was still plugged into the Cryo Parts plug strip via a Purist Audio Dominus Rev. B power cord. Each track that I played sounded much better on the system and revealed more depth, detail, dynamics, and soundstage than I could have thought possible. In a word, it was “majic”.
The “Majic Buss” is a rectangular box with a Marinco IEC inlet on one end and a four outlet (double duplex) surface mount NEMA receptacle on the other. When inserted in between the wall outlet and an amplifier (or any component for that matter) it performs power factor correction and EMI/RFI filtering of the power going into your system. It is not current limiting and has no active circuits. It simply cleans the AC power to allow the playback system to reach its potential and let the music be heard minus the RF garbage that is packaged for free with our AC power.
It is very easy to install and un-install for A/B testing.
When an early prototype of the “Buss” made the rounds of Dave’s friends it got to my house it was greeted with skepticism and the attitude that “I don’t really have time for this”, but when Dave asked me to listen to it and let him know what I thought of it, I told him I would. After an evening listening to the prototype, I knew that I had to have one and a day later I did not want to let it out of my possession. The prototype unit of the “buss” has been literally all over Albuquerque with similar raves from everyone that has been lucky enough to hear it. The next 3 weeks were hard to endure waiting for the first production versions to be completed.
Shortly after I got my production unit, I had the opportunity to show the Majic Buss to Steve Poulten, a professional sound services/rental shop owner. I had not told him what I was bringing or anything about it other than it was a “black box” that he needed to hear. When I called Dave to see if he could be at the demo and he said, “I’m there” which meant that he would make time to be at this demo. The next day the Steve was nice enough to indulge me and set up some Mackie powered speakers and a small mixing console. I was not prepared for what he pulled out as a source component… an iPod Touch.
When he dialed up a Coldplay cut, only one channel was working. After several attempts to get power to the left speaker with several different power cords, we managed to get the demo system working and Dave, Steve and I stood there listening to the setup. The sound was flat and congealed and all located between the speakers. I thought that there was no way the Majic Buss is going to improve this.
After listening for about 2 minutes to the “stock” setup, we pulled the plugs out of the “quad” outlet box and plugged them into the Majic Buss. Immediately upon restarting the Coldplay cut there was more width, depth, life, detail, and smoothness to the sound. We listened for a couple minutes and switched back to the stock setup. The expression on his face said it all… he knew that there was no way he was going to ever be able to do shows without several of these (to power multiple circuits). We then hooked back up to the Majic Buss setup but with a different song. This time it was Andrea Bocelli on the iPod. We heard a vocal that was much more palpable, lifelike, and focused as I asked, “do you want to go back to the stock setup?”
Steve said, “no, but this won’t work for me… can I get it in a three space rack mount?” Dave thought for a second and said, “How many circuits do you need?” Dave promised to get a loaner for him to try and we left. I asked Dave later if Steve had tried out the demo unit, and said, “Yeah, he bought one.”
While there are no magic parts in the Majic Buss, the “buss” works its magic on your AC power. Once the noise and power factor problems are removed, the music playback system can reveal its own sound qualities. It works on amplifiers, pre-amps, phono- stages, CD/DVD players and digital/analog converters. In my system I started with the “buss” only providing magic to the amplifier and it made a noticeable improvement. When I added the DVD player I got better sound once again.
When I tried adding the Pass Labs Aleph Ono phono stage I didn’t like the results. This was with a $5.00 dower cord powering the Majic Buss. As soon as I replaced the power cord with a Purist Audio Dominus (fluid) Rev. B power cord, the change that the Majic Buss made went from too-much detail to just perfect. The Majic Buss allows you to use an expensive power cord and power multiple components. What a concept… if you are spending $1500 on a power cord, then you can reap its benefits over 4 components. Frugal audiophiles should love this!
After several more weeks of listening, it became clear that a second “buss” was going to be needed for running the amplifier with the first one handling the preamp, phono stage, CD player, and a new Sonos ZP-90 Zone Player which found its way into my system. A call to Dave put the second buss on order and another clandestine meeting (this time at his house) a week or so later and I had the second buss in hand.
FAT, DUMB, & HAPPY
While my system was sounding really good, I still wanted to upgrade some interconnects (to Purist Audio Venustas) and have Jim Aud upgrade my power cords with Ferox and Oyaide connectors, but that was true before the Majic Buss arrived. So, with two Majic Busses in the system, what could ever cause me to desire more?
While over at Dave’s for a listening session with some friends, Dave decided to put two Majic Busses together end-to-end and played a cut from Jeff Lorber’s Flipside disk that I brought. The results were jaw dropping. Everything was better; the bass was deeper, tighter, and better defined. The dynamics were frightening. Top end was just another level more defined and detailed. And this was playing on Dave’s 18-watt-per-channel Cary single ended triode amps. When Dave said that he could actually put two busses in one box, we knew he was going to do it. The “double buss” was born.
A couple weeks later I got the call… “Did I want to try out the “double buss”? I really didn’t, because I didn’t want to spend any more money. I was happy with the way my system was sounding and this was not something that I couldn’t accomplish by plugging one “Majik Buss” into the other if I wanted to. So I agreed to “listen” to the “double buss”, but I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to buy one.
Dave only let me borrow it for a couple of days, because he had other folks that wanted to try it. On the first evening I listened for about an hour. It was better, but nothing like the change I heard on Dave’s system. The second night I heard more improvement. I was listening to a brand new prototype and hadn’t been broken in. I was the first to use it. The next morning I plugged it in to my second (bedroom) system for a quick listen before I had to return it. In two seconds I could hear more soundstage, better detail, better bass, and that was over the regular buss, which I pulled out of the big system and used in the bedroom for the two nights, that the “double buss” was in my possession.
The “Über Buss” is Christened
I called Dave and told him that I had a name for the “double buss”. He said, “oh yeah, what’s that”. I said “Über buss”, and he laughed and then promptly forgot about it.
When I returned the “double buss” to him he wanted to know what I though of it. Of course it was better, but he wanted to know what I heard in my system. I said, “I’m going to have to have one”. He told me that it would be a few more weeks until he would have the production version ready.
Two days later Dave was working on his website and emailed me and asked, “What was that name you had for the double buss?” I went online and found a definition for the word “über” at the Urban-Dictionary-dot-com and sent it to him. We traded emails in German (which I don’t speak) and I told him that I wanted 10% royalties for naming the Über Buss. (BTW, I’m still waiting for my first royalty check Dave :-)
A couple of weeks went by and sure enough Dave came through with the first production Über Buss. It was taller and heavier than the Majik buss. When I got it home and hooked it up, it did not immediately sound superior to the Majic Buss it replaced. I couldn’t really hear much difference the first evening.
A couple days later Dave wanted to come over and hear the Über Buss in my system so I invited him over after dinner. I had the Über next to the Majik but both were behind the speaker and you could not see them from the listening position.
We started out the session with Jeff Lorber’s Flipside, which Dave had liked when I took it over to his house. I played the title cut and then he wanted me to change it to the “other one” to see if he could hear a difference. When I hooked up the Majik Buss and re-started the cut, it took two seconds for him to say, “Change it back!” The two days of break-in had been gradual enough for me not hear a huge change until I went back to the Majik Buss. We heard it immediately. The Über Buss is clearly better and worth the difference in price.
In conclusion, knowing Dave has improved my system to a level that I would not have thought possible. You should get to know him and see if one of his little black box can improve your system.
(Full disclosure... I have no affiliation or with Dave or his company PI Audio Group. I bought one other piece of equipment from him 3 years ago, a Cary CAD-2A3-SI integrated amp which I love to listen to but lately has become another "spare amp in the closet". We get together for lunch occasionally when he is not too busy.)
