Opinion 1
Both the V-1 and Pure Power 6 were already reviewed by us, so you might think, that their return to SoundRebels is a pathetic excuse for an attempt to draw attention back to them. But this only when judged by appearances, a the PP6 (Pure Power 6) was tested more than eight years ago, secondly it was it’s first iteration, so before the NCF technology was introduced, and thirdly … but no, the third argument requires more explanation. For that I will use some culinary metaphors, as probably you did encounter, more than once I presume, a situation, where you were treated to a delicious drink and then were served a meal, that really teased your taste buds. And it was a moment, where somewhere in the back of your head you had a thought, that combining those two elements, so that instead of competing, they would collaborate with each other, they would intensify their assets, moving the intensity of the experience to a completely new, much higher level. And exactly this happened to us, when after the test of the top power cable Furutech Project-V1 we wanted to check this royal combination, because this cable requires not only a power supply, but also an appropriate recipient for the lifegiving energy it transfers. So if you wonder what came from this combination, there is nothing else left for me than to invite you to read on.
So before we move on to the part about the most important aspect, which is the sound, I would like to refresh the information about the PP6, which did not change much in terms of looks since its’ introduction to the market, but there were some construction changes to its internals. With your bare eye you can see, that the plaque with the company logo and product name was changed – the new one has the NCF suffix obviously, while the somewhat raised, rubbery logo has been brought to the current version, which is now flat and printed. Another novelty are the used sockets, currently the input socket is the rhodium plated FI-09 NCF (R) and the six output sockets are also rhodium covered, copper FI-E30 NCF (R), all in the Schuko standard. In terms of all the other elements, like the size (250mm width x 250mm depth x 95mm height) and weight (10kg) remained the same. This should not be surprising, as the carcass cut by CNC from a block of brushed, aviation grade aluminum is still the same as it was. It is worth reminding one, but quite important usage aspect. As you can see for yourselves, the PP6 is equipped with four spikes, placed in the four edges of the unit, which are quite sharp. So I sincerely recommend to use a lot of caution, and prepare special pads or supports, as placing the strip without them anywhere will leave four clear dents on the surface you placed it on.
Moving on to the main topic, I should now write a few sentences about the sound of the tested duo. And here is where the problems start. While it was commonly regarded, that the power to the power strip can be supplied from the wall using just a cable with sufficient diameter, its class and refinement can be much lower, than that, used between the distributor and the electronics. Because the “last mile” is key, and it determines the final effect and puts its signature on it. This is exactly the approach we used to test the V-1 during our last encounter, plugging it in between the wall and the power amplifier, or between my current power strip and the Ayon. Yet for the current test, the configuration changed a bit, as the V-1 finally ended up between the double socket in the wall, the Furutech FT-SWS-D (R) NCF and the PP6, and with some reluctance, coming from the knowledge of the expenses that are awaiting me, I had to confess, that the quality of the cable before the strip is far from negligible and does not allow to treat this aspect lightly. To put it bluntly – the introduction of the Kings Pair (or rather Imperial, as the duo comes from Japan) dramatically influenced the sound of devices attached to it, and only people with impaired hearing would be able to negate them.
The Furutech duo introduced a very potent combination of dynamics and swing with resolution and ever-present calmness. But not the kind of calmness associated with slowing down of the music, revving down and braking emotions, but only with eliminating any signs of nervousness and hyperactivity. Hear we deal with pure composure, which means that the combo had above average dynamics abilities, and I will not even mention that it had absolutely no limits to motoric, as such kind of accusation to the PP6 would be pure malice, and a faux pas that would place not the accessory in bad light, but the reviewer. For example, the album “Both Sides” by Phil Collins, recorded alone in his home studio, and seemingly not having any ear-catching hits, presents the listeners a very moody, full of sparse sounds, intimate world of an artist associated mostly with big hits. And when it seems, that such soothing rhythms cannot surprise us with anything, as somewhere in the background a bass and oneiric keyboards sound, and in the rhythmic section the instrument with most spotlight is the tambourine, we get a pearl like “We Fly So Close”, with the enchantingly helpless guitar part, and the authenticity and honesty of the composition becomes so obvious, that it cannot become more. And this authenticity and honesty is shocking when presented by the Furutech. Remaining with the mentioned piece for a while longer, it is worth noticing, what is happening in the background, the sound of the passing thunderstorm. On less resolving systems, it can be just an undefined thumping noise, but with the tested duo the volume and readability of the presented details is full.
Of course you should not be fooled, that a “commercial” and certainly mainstream album will allow us to completely assess the abilities of the Furutech. Taking nothing away from Collins, it is not the same level of refinement like the 2L reference edition of “Magnificat” by Nodarosdomens Jenektor and Trondheim Solistene, where the amount of audiophile tastes and the so called plankton reaches a critical level. This is important, as on that album practically each and every sound gets born and appears from absolute darkness, and any kind of dirtiness and interference coming from the power line obscure the polyphonic sound. And here we get an almost angelic, crystal clear sound, allowing us full insight into the recording, where selecting and pointing to an individual vocalist is as easy, as if we would not use our ears to do it, but our sight, looking at a picture made by a Hasselblad X2D 100C, nor equipped with a 102MPix sensor Fujifilm GFX 100S. And the ease of selection does not come from a HDR-like over-contrast, but only from the native resolution and lack of “soap” coming from the imperfections of the optics or matrix; remaining in the photographical metaphoric. Also the picture is completely sharp from the edge to the other edge, and the medium frame esthetics makes it look and feel cinematic.
I ask you to forgive me, that I did not put to many concrete items in what I wrote, but it is extremely difficult to describe something, that is an achievement of a level of realism close to that, what we can experience only during a live musical event, and is far from what we are used to with classic Hi-Fi and distorted by High-End. Because we should not deceive ourselves, most “audiophile” systems are distorting the reproduced material, making it a kind of caricature, directing the attention of the listeners to the second or third rank events, and not to that, what really happens on stage. The Furutech duo, on the other hand, does not interfere with the source material, it does not interpret it, but only does not limit the dynamics dormant in the system, while taking care of removing any dirt that would like to enter our system with the lifegiving power. That, and only that, especially taking into account, that we deal here with a strip without any active filtration and a seemingly ordinary cable. But the devil is in the details, as usual, and in this case the minimalism and the uncompromised construction of both items make the Furutech Project-V1 and the Pure Power 6 NCF become a class on its own, and I would wish to have them form the basis of the power supply for my system. And I wish you exactly the same thing.
Marcin Olszewski
System used in this test:
Source:
– transport: CEC TL 0 3.0
– streamer: Melco N1A/2EX + switch Silent Angel Bonn N8
– DAC: dCS Vivaldi DAC 2.0
– Master clock: Mutec REF 10 SE-120
– reclocker: Mutec MC-3+USB
– Shunyata Research Omega Clock
– Shunyata Sigma V2 NR
– Preamplifier: Gryphon Audio Pandora
– Power amplifier: Gryphon Audio Apex Stereo
– Loudspeakers: Gauder Akustik Berlina RC-11 Black Edition
– Speaker Cables: Synergistic Research Galileo SX SC
IC RCA: Hijiri Million „Kiwami”, Vermouth Audio Reference
IC XLR: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond, Hijiri Milion „Kiwami”, Siltech Classic Legend 880i
Digital IC: Hijiri HDG-X Milion
Power cables: Hijiri Takumi Maestro, Furutech Project-V1, Furutech NanoFlux NCF, Furutech DPS-4.1 + FI-E50 NCF(R)/ FI-50(R), Hijiri Nagomi, Vermouth Audio Reference Power Cord, Acrolink 8N-PC8100 Performante
– Table: SOLID TECH HYBRID
– Accessories: Harmonix TU 505EX MK II, Stillpoints ULTRA SS, Stillpoints ULTRA MINI, antivibration platform by SOLID TECH, Harmonix AC Enacom Improved for 100-240V, Harmonix Room Tuning Mini Disk RFA-80i
– Power distribution board: POWER BASE HIGH END
– Acoustic treatments by Artnovion
Analog stage:
Drive: Clearaudio Concept
Cartridge: Essence MC
Step-up: Thrax Trajan
Phonostage: Sensor 2 mk II
Opinion 2
The title of this review already suggest, that this time, we will be dealing with Extreme High End. However in my opinion, this case is quite specific. And what do I mean with that? Well, lately this section of the audio market became a playground for dozens of ghost companies, which no one knows, positioned only by price and often based on the achievements of the today’s heroes. Being frank I must confess, that products of those companies are sometimes better, sometimes worse, but this only confirms the notion, that you need to be very vigilant when acting on this quality and price level, to not get shammed while thinking you got the best of the best. And do I have any recommendations? Of course I do. For example, looking at the tested items, to make sure, you use only quality devices. And I am not talking about pricing here, although the tested set, coming from the top shelf, is very demanding to the wallet, but about the result of many years of work done by the brand. So what brand am I talking now about? You all know it well, it is Furutech, distributed in Poland by the Katowice based RCM, which asked us to review their flagship power supply products, the power strip Pure Power 6 NCF and the power cord Project V-1.
Usually we now describe the general looks and construction of the tested products, if at all possible and making sense. Again, this is what we usually do. But most of you probably already noticed, that the tested products had their own individual test quite recently. And if so, then probably also you think, similar to myself, that recalling detailed technical data would only be repetitive. So if you missed those individual tests, or want to refresh your memory with those technicalities, I would like to point you to those tests of the Furutech Project V-1 cable and the Pure Power 6 strip (version from before the NCF). Today, I will just remind you, that in case of the power distributor we are dealing with a nicely shaped and equipped with passive filtration cuboid, made from solid aluminum, and the V-1 cable is the most complicated in the company history and made from braided, copper conductors. Now this is said, with real joy, I would like to invite you to get acquainted with some observations about the sound of the tested duo (in my case even a kind of a trio) from Furutech, combined with the very demanding reference system.
As you can see on the pictures, I already own one V-1 power cable. Unfortunately after the latest test I did not have the heart to return in to the distributor, and it remained as power supplier for the CD transport CEC TL 0 3.0. As you can imagine, this move raised the bar of the sound of my system, so I was very interested, what will happen, when I apply the tested duo, another top power cable and the top power strip. How both components worked on their own – I already knew as I did buy the power cord – so my anxiousness had two reasons. Besides the one typical for a reviewer – to experience what those will bring to the system, a much more dangerous second one – at least for my budget – will the system configured for the test make me love it? The fear of the second reason was so big, that I delayed the process on purpose. But time was not infinite, and moved at a high speed, so I finally had to take on the challenge. And what was the effect?
Please allow me to pass on the words that came to my mind when I started, as those are not suitable for publication, and just mention, that the result was thundering. I thought, that my audio system is already devoid from any constraints with regard to reproducing of the energy of the musical events. Yet the testing process brutally showed me, that things are OK, but you can easily do better. And I assure you, we are not talking about moving sideways, but about evident progress. And it was progress, because during the test my system did not evolve in terms of sound, but just released, previously unachievable, layers or brilliantly applied body, and through that palpability as well as very intriguing pulse. What was very important, this happened not only in the midrange, but also in the full extent of the perfectly controlled bass. It underlined good timing and swing of the presentation of each subrange; with the Japanese duo plugged-in everything sounded more freely. Things got so phenomenal, that I started to perceive the previous configuration as being somewhat limited. Of course, when I did not know, how much you can squeeze out of it, I was in seventh heaven, but after tasting another dimension of experiencing the energy hidden in the music – perceived as a kind of increase of essentiality of playing without any side effects in the likes of slowing down or softening – I was not so happy anymore. The music lived in a different dimension. And I assure you – each kind of music, without exceptions. This because the system did not have restraints in getting sufficient power anymore, due to which it offered top notch resolution and dynamics, without any loss to the sound esthetics it had, what translated into much truer presentation of music, full of surprising artefacts, which were previously hidden somewhere in the fog. Those were not jumping in front of the line, but were just announced for what they were, but now fully fledged, and thus very important. And if so, then you should not be surprised, that nostalgic music, like contemplative jazz had a great appearance, but also romantic women voices and energetic rock did, even the not so well recorded one, and finally soulless electronic also profited. The first (jazz) exploded with a wealth of the so expected small details. The second (vocals) intensified the intimacy of the singing of the divas, and fed me with even more palpable spice of their mimic. The third (rock) showed its true, rebellious roughness. And the fourth (electronics), which sounded great before the tested units were applied, after the introduced change started to exceed all barriers of the system to generate truly seismic murmurs interwoven with brilliant wheezes. The effect was, that whatever I put in the drive, it sounded completely differently. But this time not in the sense of searching for another signature of the owned system, but in terms of unleashing the maximum of the assets, which were hidden before. This may not sound as much, because that is offered by all manufacturers of power supply accessories. However compared to the tested Japanese engineering, those remain in the area of wishful thinking, and this was clearly shown during this test.
So are the described power components from Furutech, the Project V-1 and Pure Power 6 NCF a proposition suitable for everybody? I can clearly say yes. Without such brilliant approach to the construction of the virtual stage, there is no talking about extreme High End. Unfortunately you are not always able to test it for yourself, but once you do, your life as a high quality music reproduction lover will never be the same. So where is the catch? Well, life on earth is brutal, and all kind of hype can be toned down by the price of the tested gear. However if your status allows for some kind of purchasing nonchalance, then I see no other option, than to have those Japanese products visit you, if only for a try-out. But I do warn you, if you are telling the truth about freely moving through the offerings of top High End, then you will have an issue when you borrow those. Like I almost did – but I am in the midst of rebuilding my analog system, so for now this had no chance. But I must tell you, not often in life, I did experience something so positive.
Jacek Pazio
System used in this test:
Source:
– transport: CEC TL 0 3.0
– streamer: Melco N1A/2EX + switch Silent Angel Bonn N8
– DAC: dCS Vivaldi DAC 2.0
– Master clock: Mutec REF 10 SE-120
– reclocker: Mutec MC-3+USB
– Shunyata Research Omega Clock
– Shunyata Sigma V2 NR
– Preamplifier: Gryphon Audio Pandora
– Power amplifier: Gryphon Audio Apex Stereo
– Loudspeakers: Gauder Akustik Berlina RC-11 Black Edition
– Speaker Cables: Synergistic Research Galileo SX SC
IC RCA: Hijiri Million „Kiwami”, Vermouth Audio Reference
IC XLR: Tellurium Q Silver Diamond, Hijiri Milion „Kiwami”, Siltech Classic Legend 880i
Digital IC: Hijiri HDG-X Milion
Power cables: Hijiri Takumi Maestro, Furutech Project-V1, Furutech NanoFlux NCF, Furutech DPS-4.1 + FI-E50 NCF(R)/ FI-50(R), Hijiri Nagomi, Vermouth Audio Reference Power Cord, Acrolink 8N-PC8100 Performante
– Table: SOLID TECH HYBRID
– Accessories: Harmonix TU 505EX MK II, Stillpoints ULTRA SS, Stillpoints ULTRA MINI, antivibration platform by SOLID TECH, Harmonix AC Enacom Improved for 100-240V, Harmonix Room Tuning Mini Disk RFA-80i
– Power distribution board: POWER BASE HIGH END
– Acoustic treatments by Artnovion
Analog stage:
Drive: Clearaudio Concept
Cartridge: Essence MC
Step-up: Thrax Trajan
Phonostage: Sensor 2 mk II
Polish distributor: RCM
Manufacturer: Furutech
Prices:
Furutech Project-V1: 46 500 PLN / 1,8m
Furutech Pure Power 6 NCF: 47 850 PLN