My review of Puron & Equi=Core 1800
Firstly I am going to review these two pieces as one, because I think they go together like PB & J, or Rum & Coke.
Secondly I want you to understand that I don't think these pieces are as much of an upgrade to a system as say upgrading to a much better speaker, if you don't already have an excellent speaker system. This is an upgrade for people who think they have a state of the art system. They may even think their system can't be improved upon! Well fasten your seatbelts if you are in the latter group.
Just to give a standard to the review I will explain my system so you can judge for yourself if I qualify to make the improvement claims.
My stereo system consists of:
One pair Emerald Physics EP2.8's (carbon fiber drivers version) tri-amped.
One pair HSU VTF-3 MK5 HP self powered subwoofers.
One 4 ch Axiom Audio ADA1500 power amp (2 ch driving the woofers and 2 ch driving the midrange)
One NuPrime STA-9 stereo amp (driving the tweeters)
One Legacy Audio Wavelet used as a Pre-Amp/4 way electronic x-over, DAC, DSP.
My most frequently used source is an Apple Airport Express streaming ALAC digital music to the Wavelet
via a Toslink connection.
Speaker wires are all 12 gauge, high strand count OFC and all interconnects are balanced XLR Better Cables Silver Serpents, except the RCA better cables to the subwoofers.
The addition of the Core Power Equi=Core 1800 can be summed up in a single word. Clarity.
Plugging everything but the subwoofers into the Equi=Core 1800 power conditioner was like removing a blanket from in front of the speakers. My system had never sounded so clean and free of background noise. Better detail, imaging and sound stage. Then I plugged in the Puron to the power outlet the Equi=Core 1800 was plugged into and WOW!! Instruments were even more defined in space. There was more depth to the sound stage and more separation of instruments from each other. Vocals were defined and very localized. The sound was bigger. The sound stage grew from wall to wall and floor to ceiling and imaging was very stable. You can close your eyes and point to an individual instrument or vocalist. For me the biggest improvement was in the high frequency range. Every now and then, on certain music, I would get a distortion from the tweeter. Not sibilance, but more of a chirp sound. I thought I might have been overdriving the tweeter or that the surface of the diaphragm in the compression tweeter was distorting or resonating. Once the Puron was added into the mix, I have not heard that distortion, or any other again. My guess is it might have been caused by DC on the power line that is now being filtered out by the Puron, but I can't prove that. All I know is everything sounds cleaner, cleared and much more lifelike than it even has, and it was pretty good before the addition of these two pieces. Well worth the money, IMO, if your system is this revealing. You may be quite surprised at just how much better your system can sound with a cleaner power source. I had no idea how badly my power source was affecting the sound system until I heard the difference for myself. 10 out of 10!!