Review: Oyaide R 1 Tweak

Category: Accessories

I purchased an Oyaide R 1 after reading the Positive Feedback review. Heck, it was only $145: cheaper than a new line conditioner, although I recently bought the Audience aR2p-Teflon unit.
what I look for is vivacity in music: jump, rhythm, tonality, dynamic nuance (micro) and emotional communication.

The unit arrived today. As my main system is out for repair (ASL Hurricanes, Convergent preamp (recent -- and used -- purchase, and problems from hour 1), this was it for now.
I pulled out the FIM 880, installed the Oyaide and immediately heard what had been missing: transients and the silences between notes. I wasn't sure what would turn up, but the violin section now sounds like a collection of strings instead of a vague section where one could imagine one was hearing more instruments before, but now KNOWS one is hearing more individual instruments. It's not that you can hear 20 violins per se, but the section itself is larger, more spread out, without being diffuse. Percussion is clearly better, as is brass, woodwinds, too. Focus is somewhat better, but the layering is immediately and quite strongly better. The whole communication in all 4 movements of Scheherazade on the JVC XRCD disc (which I've never liked that much) seemed more like the RCA version, which is clearer and less glassy. It's closer to the live mike feed from the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday afternoons without actually achieving it.
Bass is more dynamic (although the FMJ 22 is not terribly strong in that department) and has more impact (the room actually shakes) and is also furthur back on the stage. And the stage itelf, once seeming to vanish as it approached the ceiling of my room, now has a limitless sense of height. Orchestra Hall now seems enormous, where before, the volume of that space was left to the imagination on my system, so that means its wider, deeper, higher. And when a cut starts, if the players are not immediately playing, you hear the ambience of the room. Low-level resolution, such as chari scrapes, bows moving at the wrong time, are easily apparent, even while reading. In fact, you could read a magazine and even without focusing, you'll hear these. Given that the Hales Rev 3s are a bit dark in the bass, that's rather an accomplishment.
I'd buy a couple of these, then a line conditioner, THEN power cords, as clearly, the outlet comes before any of the other two.
A great achievement, and second only to the Audience line conditioner I got, which is completely dazzling if what you are trying to achieve is a sense of a live mike feed. I'm ordering another one to install in the wall where the Audience unit is seated. As HP said, the Audience Teflon version makes the sense of listening thru electronics more "invisible" as in truer-to-life. So does the Oyaide R1. Highly recommended.

Associated gear
Arcam FMJ22, Arcam CD23, Hales Revelation 3, Alpha Goertz AG-2 speaker cable, Nordost Frey interconnects

Similar products
FIM 880, PS Audio outlets