hifi-advice.com - going direct - skipping the extensionblock

SKIPPING THE EXTENSIONBLOCK

Taking the direct route

If you're talking about signal transfer, often the less transitions, the better. Following that thought it is likely that skipping the power extensionblock altogether will be the better solution.

I have indeed tried connecting powercables, bypassing an extensionblock, connecting the main cable straight behind the walloutlet, bypassing all connectors. I then went further and made a cable straight to the fuse box. This would seem like the perfect solution but in fact it is only partially so. What you get is maximum dynamics, slam and detail at the expense of air, fluidity and overall flow of the music. The sound becomes more grey and more dry. But what it does in effect is to tilt the swing. Think of it as the tilt knob on old Quad equipment: one knob for both treble and bass. Turning it clockwise opened up the highs while toning down the bass and vice versa. In matters audio in general it is often a similar case, improving one aspect of sound while degrading another. Technically speaking, the sound gets better by skipping the extensionblock. But emotionally it is less appealing. I guess that you need a bit of contamination and/or colouring going from contact to contact, passing different metals and such.

Going direct with powercables, just like going direct to a power amp and bypassing the preamp with a Wadia CD player, makes for a big difference indeed. But you may also lose something along the way. Don't assume that less is always more!

hifi-advice.com - info and reviews - Christiaan Punter - June 2010