If you have equipped your Hi-Fi or High End installation with a good power distribution system, you are guaranteed the most power and strength in your set, but you can then improve many things by ridding the supplied power of all impurities and distortions. Nowadays the power grid is severely polluted by monitoring devices, but one of the biggest culprits of pollution is the large amount of wireless signals floating through the air. It is absolutely full of WiFi transmitters, 3G, 4G, 5G and much more. And since cables act as an antenna, these polluting signals enter your audio equipment. It is essential for the best operation of your equipment that these signals are removed from the power supply before it enters the device. Prevention is better than cure, but sometimes we will have to cure.
We distinguish between:
Powercords, the power cables
Powerstrips, the power distribution boxes
Power Conditioners, power distribution units that effectively deliver the best power quality to your set.
Many ask us: what difference does a power cable really make? (Freely translated into practical terms) From the power station it goes through 100km of wire to a distribution station, then via kilometers of cable to a transformer house near you, then via hundreds of meters of underground cable to your meter box, and from your meter box to your Hi-Fi or High End installation, hopefully via good cables. And then the power cable, the last 2 meters from the outlet, will still make a difference? Nonsense. But alas, alas for the power critics: You hear it, and quite well too! Moreover, with the wrong power cables you can make or break a Hi-Fi or High End installation. Make it flourish, or make it sound dull and boring. Technically it is important that the connectors are excellent, the copper wires thick enough and of very good quality, but also that the wires are shielded with foil to prevent the enormous amount of wireless radiation from entering the cable, and thus your equipment.
Which cable is the best solution for your set? That's difficult to say. We know cables that we install in a Hi-Fi or High End Audio set, and that add a bit to the midrange. Others seem to make the image faster. Others still take some of the harshness out of the sound. Others bring extra life to a Hi-Fi or High End set. The best cables do all of that at the same time, as it should be. So depending on the Hi-Fi or High End set and the overall balance, we can shift the balance with power cables. Some cables go further. The best cables we know are the Gigawatt LS-2 EVO Powercords. We have not heard them more neutral, more dynamic and cleaner. At €3.350,00 for 1.5 meters they are not cheap, but worth every cent.
Gigawatt LS-2 MK3 Evo
This subject is not very exciting, but it is important. A cheap power distribution box, or power strip, does not bring much good. Plastic casing, thin power conduction paths on the inside, and mediocre clamps. Don't bother. A good powerstrip distributes the power without restrictions, and removes annoying power grid pollution without restrictions. An excellent Powerstrip comes from Gigawatt in the form of the Gigawatt PF-1 Evo. This affordable Powerstrip already has a simple power conditioning module built in, provides your set with protection against lightning strikes, is made entirely of metal, contains large copper power paths and comes standard with an already excellent entry-level Gigawatt Powercord. The Gigawatt PF-1 MK2 Powerstrip is not expensive, and the results are already amazing. It is a very advantageous improvement for your Hi-Fi set. Of course there is also the larger brother, in the form of the Gigawatt PF-2 Evo. This contains larger copper paths and a more advanced form of power conditioning and is overall equipped with better components.
Gigawatt PF-1 and PF-2 Powerstrips
Power conditioners are not power grid filters. Power grid filters are devices that only filter power grid pollution from the power supply. These power grid filters have real supporters and opponents. Sometimes it does indeed get better. The sound becomes cleaner, more fluid, sometimes more from the silence, but very often there is also the impression of a delay in the music. As if something or someone is hitting the brakes. The music then sounds somewhat sluggish. This is clearly audible in the decrease in dynamics. We have not been able to listen to all power grid filters, but the ones we have listened to all had problems with this to varying degrees. Sometimes the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and you can tame a somewhat sharp or harsh set and make it cleaner by using a power grid filter.
A Gigawatt Power Conditioner, however, does things very differently. It is a very advanced device that tackles the power supply, removes pollution, buffers energy and distributes the power in separate groups. The Power Conditioners from Gigawatt are the most advanced on the market. You will be amazed at the positive influence on the sound of your High End installation. More information can be found on the special Gigawatt page
Gigawatt PC-4 Evo
Ohm-Audio bv 2019-10
