Excited? You bet!

[The Duke]

I have a new IsoTek Mini Sub http://www.isoteksystems.com/minisub.asp being loaned to me at home from 6pm this evening.
As my speakers plug into the mains, I reason that for £550, it might well be a cost effective all-round upgrade.
Room for the cd, pre, power, 2x speakers to be plugged in, should, I hope, see audible changes.
Results to follow this time tomorrow!

Tim

ps - I have just noticed that 2x outlets are rated higher than the others (10 as opposed to 6.5 amps).
Should I plug in the Aerius i into the higher rated or the power amp + the pre?

[The Duke]

Now that the beer has subsided (!), I can make a more informed set of observations. And they're surprising.

First up I took the Transparent power cable (£200-ish?) and fed power from the mains to the Iso Tek Vision http://www.isoteksystems.com/minisub.asp and a bog standard power cable into the power amp. (The cd remains constant with a £100 AudioNote cable throughout). This changed everything. What was funny was the female vocals on Eva Cassidy's track "Fields of Gold" which if you know it is a slow, marvellous walk through wheat fields (bear with me as it's not that at all - just sounds like it when you listen to it) at a gentle pace. It had us in fits of laughter, never before had I been assaulted by this track, fast?! you bet and then some. Too bright by half too.Extra-ordinary and quite, quite awful! So, I moved back from whence we'd come from, with the Transparent feeding the power amp (I find this has more effect than into the cd player) and a standard lead into the wall socket feeding the Vision. Now we're talking. It's strange, it's the same music, but different! Ambiguous I know, but I am hearing some things a little differently, hearing somethings more clearly, but the overall presentation is neither up-front nor hard / clinical. It's smooth, rich and more layered and the vocals are well and truly out of their box! But not too much. The overall effect is of more, yet at the same time not more, it's intriguing and something I am going to have to audition a little more thoroughly over the next few days as it's a brand new Vision, and whilst the company says it does not need burring-in, I'll be the judge of that! So, I'll update you next week when I've given it more time and music.

Tim

I too have a minisub and found that it made ever such a slight difference to the sound when i ran my MFa3.2 amp through it. The sound became slightly fuller and more "echo-ey".

The minisub has made no difference to any of my other equipment (including my plasma which I was led to believe would benefit greatly).

Hence the price I paid for the unit (~290 quid) is difficult to justify but then at least it did make some difference and I like the looks of the beast and it keeps my power cables tidy!

Now the money is spent i am happy to keep it.

Jimmy

[marck]

You should try one of the mains filters from Vertex AQ - it made a large difference in my system - much more than I was expecting.
Marc.

[The Duke]

The product was, in fact, the new £550 Vision.
My final thoughts as the loan is at an end.

Difficult to asses to be truthful. I loaned her from Music Matter in Hatch End, Middx.

I find the music is smoothed out which is quite surprising, some detail is more in evidence, and some has the hard edges taken off.
It also powers the 2x speakers in a cost effective upgrade and leaves room a-plenty for further power cable upgrades in the future - in particular from the mains to the unit.
It also extends the vocals and some instruments quite noticeably on some tracks, which I had expected but it has an engaging method of doing it that I am not at all familiar with. Upgrading gear once a year for the last 15 years I have some idea of what I expect yet I am still a little unsure what has actually happened in the system now!
All told, I am getting more, but in a smooth, easy listening way. It could have dug up too much detail which could well have been presented as hard edged and in-yer-face, but it's actually made the whole listening experience better and easier.
If any of this really makes sense!
I am hanging on to her as it's a joy to listen to now.
And that must be a good conclusion - result!

Tim

[Peter Baker]

I too borrowed one of these. The effect is a little strange. On the plus side, it seemed to give more space around instruments, a better sense of definition if you like. It also seemed to inject pace into the sound. On the down side, the individual instruments sounded a bit thinner. I also thought I detected some kind of dynamic compression, but this could have been my imagination as I was worried about this.
I found the effect was most noticeable on my poweramp, and, in fact, found I got most of the same changes by just putting an individual mainline filter lead on this.
I also tried the Nordost Thor version, but ceratinly didn't see the night and day improvement I would have needed to persuade me to pay £1500 for it! Perhaps if I had Nordost cables throughout it would have worked more magic.
I am currently waiting to hear the Isotek Orion, as they suggest thai is better suited to high end equipment. I think it has less filtration, ahich might be the cause of the thinning. And it's cheaper.