I have had the ADD Powr Wizard in my system for a couple of weeks and I'm impressed


The audio writer's conundrum: How do you find the right words to describe sound? It's not easy. It's like trying to describe a color. You will get a sense of it but in order to really get it you have to hear it. We have all read many audio writer's attempts to do so with varying degrees of success. What does the writer wish to convey about how a particular component sounds? And more problematically, how does that get put into words?   Here is the bottom line for me- how strong is the emotional impact of the sound when I listen to the equipment? That is it. And of course that can not be separated from the companion question- How strong is the emotional impact of the music? One reason that this hobby is so amazing is that these questions are two sides of the same coin and complement each other beautifully. Collecting fine (and well recorded) music is a great hobby in and of itself. Couple it, however, with the equally enjoyable hobby of component swapping and tweeking and you have a match made in heaven. It's like what happened when John met Paul.
All of which brings me to this review of the ADD Powr Wizard. What I keep returning to over and over again with this thing plugged into a nearby outlet is how intense my emotional connection to the sound and the music is. To use a well worn audio writer cliche, It's like I'm listening to my collection for the first time and hearing things I never heard before. But it is so much more than that. It's not just that I am hearing more of what is on the record it is that I am hearing more of what the artists on the record are intending to create with their music. The ADD Wizard allows me to do this more completely than any other addition to my system over the last 10 years. It lets me fully relax into the music. With all my other tweeks, at least the good ones, the ones that work, I was able to get a better sense of space and detail each time I added one. The benefit of the Wizard is on a different plane than that. Yes it adds to the sense of space and detail in the sound, but it also creates a stronger impression about the music itself. It's a feeling of being one with the music. Hard to describe but very powerful!
You will have to read the literature to get a sense of what ADD Powr is doing with its algorithms and how they are being applied to the household electric circuit in order to filter out the audio nasties so that the music can come shining through in all its glory . That part of the review is way above my pay grade.  I would love to be able to understand that. But hey that's what makes tweeks so much fun. The fact that you may not understand the electronic or physics of it doesn't mean that you are not hearing amazing things from it. And in the case of the ADD Powr Wizard what I am hearing just makes me smile.
bradmorris1

Here is a you tube video from RMAF 2019.

 

On-the-fly spontaneous  A/B Sorcer demo. IMO the difference is audible.

 

Ozzy, did you hook up the Symphony I/O with USB or Ethernet? And were they basic ethernet cables or USB? I gather that you would need 2 cables to complete the circuit? I am leaning toward trying it, but don't want to try it and invest in cables as well at the same time just to "demo" it. Thanks, 

wisper,

I used usb. I got a good deal on a couple of WireWorld Platinum 8 usb cables. One cable comes from my hard drive to the I/O unit and the other to my Lumin X1.

It is also sitting on top of the Lumin in which the proximity of the unit is supposed to be important because it does have a radiated field.

I also have a couple of ethernet cables for my streaming connected to it.

ozzy

I find the plastic top looks great. It does need two 3/8" to 1/2 inch holes over the hot spots on the center board.

It seems to me, if the Wizard or Sorcer works better with the top off, it would work even better mounted on the wall, top facing the equipment, bottom parallel to the wall.

Lastly, is there any consensus on power cord type ? I am hoping to use a relatively small gauge cord, with the new QSA treated wall plug and IEC plug.