They’ve been back in production for a while now. More expensive than back in the Eighties, of course. Stereophile re-ran their original review, last year: https://www.stereophile.com/content/vpi-magic-brick
britishaudiostore.com still sells them and they work wonders on all sorts of power supplies, some flat earthers‘views not withstanding. And before anyone starts: I am a private individual enjoying my music.
I still use four of them, and there is someone on usaudiomart trying to sell 8 of them for $500.00. That's grossly overpriced of course considering that they are old and the original price was $35 - $40 each.
I have used them for over 30 years. Yes, they do the job they were designed to do. I use 3 in my system. In my secondary system, I use one to hold a lightweight DAC in place. The power cord and interconnects which are all audiophile approved and stiff was pulling the DAC right off the rack. The Magic Brick took care of it and it looks pretty cool too. When I bought the 4 bricks, I paid $50.00 each. This is one tweak that actually works and I have never been sorry. I polish them with “Pledge” every 2 weeks and they still look brand new.
A fellow audiophile laid a couple on me for a while...and it's a good thing he didn't drop them on my toes. Anyway, I placed them wherever they were supposed to be placed. I might have heard a microscopic improvement in the sound.
Edcyn, you were trying too hard. Teo, there is a sucker born every moment. What I am is violently projected literacy exposing patent ideocracy. You believe what you want and we shall chock it up to mysticism.
The bricks are a sink for transformer born EMI. That‘s what they are made for and that‘s what they do if your system is sufficiently resolving. The only more powerful way I have found to achieve the same goal is Acoustic Revive‘s REM-8 and they actually work well in combination.
I, "chock up" the very noticeable improvement that I (and everyone to which I’ve demonstrated the effect, in the past 40 years) have heard, to a redirection of the magnetic flux that surrounds most power transformers. That’s called, "PHYSICS". In the case of my Cary’s: it may be attributed to the power and output transformers being within one inch of each other (not to mention the input wiring). Given the plethora of variables, that exist within this hobby; I’m not surprised there are experiential differences. Of course: opinions - experience = abject ignorance (however, "projected").
Once the review is done and the craze has settled we all find out what the good products are and the ones that leave or stay tell you which accessories were worth the money or not.
@stereo5, Are you saying you used the VPI brick to hold you lightweight DAC on the shelf. Not ball busting here, but wouldn't any brick hold it in place?
I've seen those and wondered what they actually did.
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