Review: VPI Magic Brick Tweak

Category: Accessories

This is an $80 block of wood with a VPI logo and filled with transformer laminates. Not too impressive, eh? Well, the appearance of it is quite nice, and looks a lot better than my DIY dampeners. Also, it's not easy to enclose laminates in a block of wood without having them rattle. Basically, you pay for looks and quality, not parts. And for many audiophiles, that's enough. How do they sound? compared to nothing extra dampening the chassis, these seem to improve imaging, as well as removing some harshness from the sound. It simply sits on top of your devices and absorbs stray fields, helping the internals operate in a better enviornment. These effects were to various levels with the Amp, DAc, and pre. The amp benefitted the most, with a fair improvement in grain reduction and imaging, though the A100 is no slouch in these areas. I suspect that the mere size of the electrical fields in this device account for the greater effectiveness. The preamp benefitted nearly as much, and in the same way, though again, it was no slouch to begin with. The improvements in imaging were both matched with my own Marble dampeners, though the grain reduction wasn't there. On the DAC, there was a tiny improvement in imaging- the steel chassis, rather than aluminum seems to have prevented any of the absorbtive benefits of the Brick.
For those who can afford it, this is an expesive tweak, but a worthwhile one.

Associated gear
Acurus A100
Acurus RL-11
EAD DSP-1000 DAC
B&W DM 605 s2

Similar products
Marble DIY dampeners