First In Line

As you plan your music system, which product is the FIRST IN LINE? Yep, the Mains Conditioner. If you do NOT have a major league mains conditioner at the head of your system, you’re leaving dynamics and definition on the table.

Even if you have $100k worth of great gear… without a great mains conditioner, you’ve already lost the battle for resolution.

Your electrical service is very much like viewing analog TV back in the day. There is an obnoxious amount of snow in your picture, or in our case, audio signal. We can actually measure this noise in the AC line.

Please visit the POWER tab near the bottom of our home page. We show you how our line measures MAX (over 1000 units) in one part of our store and 761 at another part of our store.
I’m sorry to tell you we ALWAYS see equivalent readings in customers’ houses. Our goal is to make this ZERO, meaning there is no AC induced fuzz to dull your music (or picture!).

If you do not REMOVE the noise from the AC line, the fine details of your music will be obfuscated by this noise. The debris in the road masks dynamic range and fine detail.

Where you’ll notice the improvement most- is in midrange precision. Attacks on guitar strings or hammers hitting piano wires will be softer/duller, without a nice mains conditioner like Isotek. A stand up bass fiddle will sound blurry without the conditioner- once you’ve been exposed to sound WITH a fine conditioner. Most importantly, you will achieve a breathy immediacy in the human voice with a great conditioner than you CANNOT without it.

What’s a great example of this? Since “everyone” can stream now, pull up Shirley Horn’s
“Beautiful Love” to appreciate her exquisite voice and phrasing. With emotion and AIR like this,
how can you NOT want to squeeze out the last drop of Shirley’s delivery? This sounds great not just because of what is there. It sounds increasingly better as you get rid of what shouldn’t be there! It is the epitome of an example of where it pays to get snow out of the audio picture.

These are details that ARE audible. The better your system, the more improvement you’ll get from a great conditioner. These fine conditioners also protect you from line voltage spikes and nasties.

The good news is, a great mains conditioner doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Isotek of England makes two very special products at downright inexpensive prices. These are made in Isotek’s factory in Slovakia- not in the far east.

Isotek Aquarius $2000

Aquarius is a GREAT conditioner that costs less than half the price of its serious competition. Aquarius has six outlets. Two of these are full 16 amp circuits for high current devices like power amps. Each of the six outlets has ITS OWN isolation network, so there is no backwash or interaction among components connected to Aquarius. The isolation spec is 60dB.

Aquarius comes with its own great power cable, Premier. We suggest you buy additional Premier cables ($195 ea) to replace the cheapy black ones that came with your gear. Premiers use gold plated pins and a Teflon dielectric.

If you don’t have an Aquarius, we’re not telling you to use Premier cables. There would be no point to get Premiers if you’re still listening through the audio haze coming out of your wall.

Isotek Polaris $500

Polaris is a bargain and is very worthwhile if you can’t swing Aquarius. Polaris is a 30dB isolation system with six outlets. Polaris comes with its own fine power cable called Initium. Initium uses nickel pins and a polyethylene dielectric. Initiums sell for $100 ea.

Polaris has one isolation network for the bar, not six as Aquarius does. Polaris will make an audible improvement and we recommend it for anything except the ultra high powered big dog amps out there!