I received my Equi=Core 1200 four weeks ago and wanted to offer my experience with it thus far. I was suffering with very noisy AC power in a new house I moved into several months ago. My components would hum and buzz when I turned them on and additional noise could be heard through the speakers even with my preamp muted. It seemed the noisy power was compromising the performance of my system as well. Playing music on my system just wasn’t as enjoyable as it was in my previous house.
Immediately after unboxing the 1200, I plugged all my components into it including the turntable, phono stage, preamp and power amplifier. When I powered up the system, there was no humming or buzzing coming from the components at all. There was complete silence from the speakers as well, except for a small amount of tube rush. I was impressed.
I put on a record I had just listened to prior to installing the 1200. It is a very good recording, but there are only a couple of songs on the record that I enjoyed and typically I never listened to the others. Within the first few seconds of the first song I realized there was a major improvement in the sound of my system. I listened to both sides of the record twice.
The first thing that hit me (almost literally) was how tight, punchy, fast and articulate the bass became. It wasn’t any deeper (more on that in a bit), but it had a concussive, “punch you in the chest” kind of a feel. It was very easy to differentiate every note of the bass line in each song because the notes seem to start and stop faster leaving more distinct quiet space between each one.
Images are more solid and three dimensional with better defined edges. I can more clearly hear the air around each instrument and voice vibrating with the energy produced by the sound. The space between images is much, much quieter making each image stand out more. Instruments and voices project more forcefully from the speakers without being any louder. It’s as if there is more air being moved.
The soundstage is wider, much deeper and some instruments appear to be taller. The front to back layering is better defined and the stage even projects farther in front of the plane of the speakers. With the more precise imaging on the larger, more three-dimensional stage, the speakers disappear from the presentation. With my eyes closed, I am hard pressed to guess where they are located. I joked with my wife that even after opening my eyes at the end of a record, it still took me 10 minutes to find my speakers again.
Dynamic contrasts are greater at both the micro and macro end of the spectrum. Softly played notes are more distinct and easily heard above the quieter background. Loud climaxes are even more explosive, yet are more defined and controlled. On a particularly dynamic section of one of my records, the individual instruments blended together in one, loud cacophony of sound. Now, this section is even more explosive, but I can hear each of the instruments clearly as separate sounds.
No doubt due to the quieter background and more precise imaging, previously hidden details emerged for the first time, even sounds I never heard before in my previous house. For example, on one song, I can now hear a cymbal just outside the left speaker (I opened my eyes to look) being lightly tapped that I’ve never heard before. On top of that, it is easy to hear that the cymbal is being struck very near its center. That got my attention. On another song, I always thought the female singer was singing the word “raw”, but now I can hear her very quietly enunciate the “g” at the end of the word “wrong”. What I once perceived as just a group of backing vocals on one song are now clearly presented, individual voices.
High frequencies are more defined and controlled, but not necessarily more extended (see below). Cymbals, bells, triangles all have more shimmer and the decay of their sound lingers longer in the quieter background. Small cues such as where a cymbal is being struck are now more evident. On one song, what I previously thought was a cymbal is now clearly a tambourine.
One might get the impression with all this additional detail that the sound might have become more cold and sterile, but the exact opposite is true. There is an added warmth, a richness of tone and a smoothness that gives the music a more relaxed and realistic feel. I have one record of a female vocalist that while I like the music very much, there was an unlistenable amount of sibilance on the record and I never played it. Well, I can’t say the sibilance is entirely gone now, but it is reduced enough that I can listen to it and enjoy it.
As the 1200 has broken in over the past 4 weeks, the improvements I have noted have gotten only slightly better. I am surprised how great the unit sounded right out of the box compared to other components and cables I have had to break in. The one area that has seen more than slight improvement over the course of four weeks is frequency extension in the bass and highs. The bass has gotten deeper but still retained the tight, defined, concussive impact. When deep bass is on a record, this aspect of the sound is really fun to experience. The high frequencies have also become more extended. Cymbals and bells have more shimmer and air, rising above even a loud orchestra.
While these technical improvements are most welcomed, to focus solely on them is to lose sight of the bigger picture. As I mentioned earlier, I typically only listened to a few songs on that first album I played. There are several other songs that I always felt were somewhat disjointed in a beatnik poetry kind of way and thought the only way I would ever appreciate or connect with them would be to grow a soul patch and wear a beret and square rim sunglasses (no offense to any beatniks who may be reading this). However, with the 1200 powering my system, I not only listened to these songs twice that first day, but I found them to be fascinating. I finally made the musical connection and got in touch with my inner beatnik. As I have spent more time listening over the past four weeks, I have found this to be true of many more records. I am listening to and enjoying more of the music I own. I find my head bobbing, my toes tapping and even my thighs getting slapped more often than not.
Perhaps it is because I was dealing with the worst power I have ever encountered in the last 7 houses I have lived in, but the Equi=Core 1200 has had a significant impact on my enjoyment of music. Maybe it wouldn't have the same impact in a house with cleaner power to begin with.That I cannot say. What I can say is that it cleaned up my power and then some.
I’ve always felt one big difference between live music and reproduced music is live music doesn’t sound forced or strained; it just flows. With the Equi=Core 1200 in my system, I feel my system is a step closer to that sound. To say I am thrilled is an understatement.
My system consists of the following:
VPI Classic 3 Turntable
Kiseki Purple Heart NS Cartridge
Zesto Andros 1.2 Phono Stage
Zesto Leto Preamplifier
Zesto Bia 120 Amplifier
Golden Ear Triton One Speakers
Symposium Precision Rack with Ultra Shelves
