Opinion 1

I am perfectly aware, that I will not convert the group of people, who believe that accessories, power cables, sockets, fuses, etc, do not work, or do not believe they do; so I dedicate this test to all those who do hear them. They hear, what is happening in their systems, and that despite “kilometers of low quality cables” and non-audiophile power stations, and try to win the fight to reach their audio-nirvana from the start. We do have little, if at all, influence on the “civilian” power grid, but we can influence the part at our home, where we can use the best materials, apply state of the art solutions, best we can afford. Such situation can happen, but I have the distinct feeling, that most of the time, the only thing a desperate music lover can do, is the purchase and application of a power strip/filter/conditioner (delete the not applicable ones) and/or change the power outlet to… Here we can limit the choice to two-three manufacturers, so there is no need to talk about that, as everybody will either make the choice based on the money owned, or their listening experience. But let us rest the case. Now we made an analysis, based on logical deduction, where is the area, where most probably most of the doings will be done, so we should now concentrate on that area. One we came here, we should introduce the hero of our test, the mains filter MiniSub Axis, from a brand, which makes a debut on our market, but is present for years and gained a lot of esteem outside of our country, Isol-8.

Let me make things clear. Isol-8 is not a pseudo-brand, brought to life by a few gentlemen having just a small office in the ‘city’ and lots of creativity in book keeping, making business from rebranding. Nothing like that. The man behind Isol-8 Technologies is Nic Poulson, who gained his experience (starting when he was seventeen (sic!) at BBC, and then in other companies. In the nineties he worked in Trilogy Audio Systems, but the most important, for this review, part of his work started in 2001, when he founded IsoTek System, and later moved his ideas and solutions to Isol-8, founded in 2003. It would also be very unfair not to mention Simon Dart, who is the Product Designer of the company, who started his career with Nic in BBC, and besides his work at Isol-8 he deals also with complicated telecommunication issues.

I will not tell much about the internal design of the tested device, I will just say, that after opening the chassis, the inside looks of the Axis was very familiar. I had some hypothesis, which I needed to verify. It turned out, that I was not mistaken. The IsoTek EVO3 Aquarius was designed in a very similar way (it would be interesting, who and when made the initial design ;-)), but making a head-to-head comparison it became obvious, that the tested unit has a much “richer” internal life. However visual differences do not have to mean anything, and clear separation of low current and high current parts is used by most manufacturers of such accessories. Of course, the manufacturers mentioned best possible separation, minimizing of internal interference between the gear attached to the Axis and DC-blocking in the materials accompanying the filter.

And now the most important question, the fear that is present when plugging in any device responsible for cleaning and improving the quality of the power into an audio system. Does it slow down the sound or not? The MiniSub Axis … does not. Frankly speaking I do not know, how Nic and Simon did it, but after connecting the Isol-8 MiniSub Axis to my system I commented the change I heard with the F-word, and then I noticed, that this filter comes very close to the power conditioning elite. To calm down the owners of, for example, the Furutech Power Six, of course it can be heard on the longer run, that the space is not setup as suggestively and there is no such unconstrained freedom, but for God’s sake – the price difference between those two contenders is huge! But one thing I am fully sure – this is the first filter I encountered, which delicately, but very subtly, limits the lower octaves, but it does not soften them, keeping masterful coherence and hardness to the very end.
I did not want to make judgments too quickly, so I gave me time to cool down and started to prepare the photos for another review instead of listening to music. But every time I was adjusting the white balance, or removing dust particles appearing from nowhere, I subconsciously thought about the sound coming from background. Finally I finished the “artistic part” of the review and sat down to start the main phase of the listening test.
As I started with the bass, I will continue on that. Usually it is so, that power sources that do not deliver the right amount of energy visibly, and thus painfully, limit the ability to reproduce the low frequencies by filtering them away. From the perspective of time and experience gained, I have to say that such approach is not the worst one, as you cannot break something, that is not there. Sometimes such devices try to keep full spectrum, but without the ability to control it. As a result of that, the bass is running around like a hyperactive Golden Retriever puppy, carelessly destroying the rest of the sound spectrum. In case of the Isol-8 no such bad things happened. Instead we get control, law and order, starting half a level above the Hades (I already warned you, that you can reach lower) and finishing around the top of the rainbow (a real one, and not the ever burning monument in Warsaw…).
In the session verifying the lowest sounds I used three albums, mean like small goblins – “BBNG2” of the Canadian formation BADBADNOT GOOD, “Mujeres De Agua” of Javier Limon and “Khmer” of Nils Petter Molvaer, which, despite representing completely different musical genres, have a common denominator – bass, that moves furniture around and sucks all the Farads from the power supply capacitors. Powerful, big bass that can also be very destructive, like a wrecking ball, when not controlled.
Very interesting was the comparison of the tested filter with its “sibling”, similarly priced and tested by us at the end of last year, IsoTek EVO3 Aquarius, which placed emphasis on culture, smoothness and nobleness. The MiniSub Axis supplies the listeners with almost infrasound, coherent, well controlled bass with its contours drawn with a sharp line. At least, when such sounds are present on the recording played.
On the other hand, the midrange enchanted with juiciness and saturation of colors, and a well composed audio system could present a very suggestive articulation of human voices. Smoothness and sweetness were accompanied by an unrestricted power of emission and following of the individual parties or catching differences between different devices became a very exciting occupation. I am writing those words with full confidence, as the test of the filter happened at the same time when I had also two splendid DACs for testing – the Ayon Sigma and ModWright Elyse. I am mentioning this on purpose, as tubes are most sensitive to anomalies related to power supply, and with the Axis both DACs had an opportunity to present themselves in optimal conditions, which resulted in velvety smoothness combined with unobtrusive resolution, which can only be delivered by the heated vacuum tubes.
I had similar observations during the analysis of the highest frequencies, using the “Brotherhood of Brass” Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars, a disc that sparkles with colors and thousands of shades of the brass instruments. This disc is incredible and phenomenal, but to fully admire its beauty, you have to configure your system in such a way, that the resolution and selectiveness do not cover up musicality, as otherwise beauty might be compromised and the sound become screechy and offensive. With the Axis there was moderation, similar to an Italian chief cook, who can prepare the best pasta “al dente”, so I could fully enjoy the klezmer madness without blood running from my ears and a pondering headache.

But please believe me, that listening to the British filter, all this what I just wrote, has secondary or even tertiary meaning. Also splitting the hair in two and artificial demounting of everything happened only for this test, as with the Axis a process of homogeneity happened; the sound spectrum became coherent like a monolith. A monolith without the ballast of electro-junk, which deform and obliterate its primal form, encoded in the source material.

Here comes usually a more or less accurate punch line, summary of the test and an attempt of condensing previous observations. This time it will be different – it will be a supposition, wishful thinking if you want. If this is how the MiniSub Axis works, a product almost opening the company catalog, I fear to think, what havoc could be wreaked by the higher, audiophile grade Isol-8 products.

Marcin Olszewski

Distributor: Moje Audio
Prices:
– ISOL-8 MiniSub Axis – 5 950 PLN (silver), 6 200 PLN (black)
– IsoLink 2 (1,5 m) – 999 PLN

Technical details:
Number of available outlets: 6 (4 low/med current. 2 high current)
Type of outlets available: 13A British chassis sockets; European Schuko sockets; 15A US sockets
Standard Mains Inlet: 10A IEC fused at 10 Amps (cable not supplied)
Dimensions: 444 x 85 x 305mm (W x H x D) excluding connectors
Product Weight: 6.7Kg
Construction: Steel chassis with black finish. Silver Aluminium front panel (Black optional)

System used in this test:
– CD/DAC: Ayon 1sc; Gato Audio CDD-1
– DAC: Ayon Audio Sigma; ModWright Elyse
– Digital source selector: Audio Authority 1177
– Network Music Player: Olive O2M; laptop Dell Inspiron 1764 + JRiver Media Center
– Turntable: Transrotor Fat Bob S + ZYX R100
– Phonostage: Octave Phono Module
– Integrated Amplifier: Electrocompaniet ECI 5; Gato Audio AMP-150
– Loudspeakers: Gauder Akustik Arcona 80 + spike extenders; Gauder Akustik Cassiano
– IC RCA: Antipodes Audio Katipo; Siltech Classic Anniversary 770i
– IC XLR: LessLoss Anchorwave; Organic Audio; Amare Musica
– Digital IC: Fadel art DigiLitz; Harmonic Technology Cyberlink Copper; Apogee Wyde Eye; Monster Cable Interlink LightSpeed 200
– USB Cable: Wireworld Starlight; Goldenote Firenze Silver
– Speaker Cables: Organic Audio; Signal Projects Hydra
– Power Cables: Furutech FP-3TS762 / FI-28R / FI-E38R; Organic Audio Power; Acoustic Zen Gargantua II
– Power distribution board: GigaWatt PF-2 + Furutech FP-3TS762 / FI-28R / FI-E38R
– Wall Outlet: Furutech FT-SWS(R)
– Table: Rogoz Audio 4SM3
– Antivibration platform: Franc Audio Accessories Wood Block Slim
– Ethernet Cables: Neyton CAT7+
– Accessories: Sevenrods Dust-caps; Furutech CF-080 Damping Ring; HighEndNovum PMR Premium; Albat Revolution Loudspeaker Chips

Opinion 2

It should be obvious for all people dealing with audio, even those, who treat this game very scientifically, that power must be supplied to all our sound reproducing devices. Unfortunately with this statement come problems with all kinds of power improvers: cables, filters, conditioners. You might think, that there should be no problem, and all power issues are handled by filters installed in the audio devices, but for many audiophiles, this is not so easy. I do not know, if this is good or bad, but personally, I am closer to those people, who claim power supplied to our gear should be as clean as possible, and after a few years of ignoring the problem, I tried out some of the accessories in my system and confirmed their influence (as I perceive it) – sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Anyway, the case is controversial, so I will not try to convince you, the readers, to my observations; I will just encourage you to make your own decisions, if you want to spend some time to listen to eventual changes, or if you think, that this is a waste of power, that your computer will consume while you are reading this text. But if you decide, that you are giving me the benefit of your doubt, then I will take you on a short resume after a meeting with the Isol-8 brand, well known in Great Britain, but just debuting in Poland. The distribution was just started by Moje Audio, who provided for testing the mains filter Isol-8 MiniSub Axis and the power cord IsoLink 2, which is a separate position in the company catalog.  

The MiniSub Axis is not a spoof. It has the size of a budget integrated amplifier, what implies solid approach to mains cleaning. The chassis is quite simple, but very sturdy, made from steel and aluminum and houses electrical circuitry designed to meet different requirements depending on the current draw of the attached devices. The back panel is equipped with two high-current sockets, four low-current sockets, a grounding terminal and an IEC power socket. The front panel is very clean, with only a centrally placed LED. As you can notice from this brief description, the British proposition should match the taste of most of potential buyers, in terms of design. However more important is the question, if this toned down visual appearance is accompanied with good sonic capabilities? Does it filter-out all the power ‘debris’ while being sonically transparent? Please read on, the text will not be very long, but I think worth a few minutes of your precious time.

I will start the process of assessing the influence of the British product a bit differently than usual, as I want to recall some earlier encounters with similar devices used in my system. And I mean not only filters or conditioner, but also plain power strips, without any filtering elements inside. Always, well maybe almost always, such components introduce unwanted, or desired changes in our audio gear, while they should be transparent by design. It does not matter that much, if the changes are minimal, then we just can accept those, but when they kill all life in the music reaching our ears, then it is bad. Unfortunately I heard a few such cases. On the other hand, things that are bad for me, like limiting the shine of the treble, thinning the midrange or shortening bass, may be very much desired by other listeners, so I should not be evaluating if the influences are for good or for bad, but just describing what I hear, so that everybody can see for himself what is happening. This means, that a review should become the reason for putting a device on your listening shortlist, or deleting it, depending on your needs. So now after this introduction I should be listing the limitations posed by the MiniSub Axis – especially because it is one of the cheapest products in the company catalog – but I am a bit puzzled, in a positive way, because I have none to quote. In contrary, it is hard for me not to be positively surprised. Despite this, I still will try to describe the reaction of my system to this British mains cleaner, as this is the main goal of my writing.

Due to my lack of prejudice, despite the low catalog placement of the tested filter, I started with all my devices into it, including my power amplifier, which does not tolerate any obstacles between the wall and itself. I usually hear artifacts suggesting deficiencies in powering it with current passed through some things, but still plugging the poweramp directly into the wall after such experiment becomes a clear knock-out. So I was prepared for everything when I pressed Play on my player. Music started, and interestingly, it was very unconstrained. One piece, another and another, and I still have to really strain myself listening to individual sounds to be able to discern any nuances, which are different than usual. Yes, yes, the changes I heard, based on my previous experiences, were only nuances, and the Axis tried to satisfy my picky power amplifier, and surprisingly managed that very well. But I want to cool down people, who are getting up now to run to the shops to buy the MiniSub now – please wait for the rest of the text, as there are some limitations I heard. As the filter is designed to work with systems of much lesser refinement, the initial result was very positive, and I was looking forward to the following tests with electronics less nervously reacting to being connected to power conditioning devices, my CD and tube preamplifier. Finally a few words about the reaction of my KAP-777 power amplifier to the Isol-8 compared to the “direct to wall” connection. In fact the influence of the combination was very delicate, it was mainly located in the resolution of the sound spectrum extremes and general breath of the sound, what translated into slight washing out of the music and losing some realism of the virtual sound stage, what I perceived as lack of airiness. However when looking at those issues from the perspective of my power amplifier versus anything else than a Harmonix power cord, I can only praise the British filter for the positive result. And this was in fact the last thing I could grumble about during the test, as the rest of the listening only confirmed the skills of the engineers, who try to ease the life of audiophiles living in apartment houses.
You might have guessed from the last few words, that unplugging the power amplifier from the filter allowed the sound to reach a higher level, as despite touching each and every aspect of the sound spectrum, the influence was in no way a degradation of music. And I want to remind you, that in my system, the power filter was a minion trying to defend itself, while in systems more adequate to its price tag, it could achieve wonders. But let us return to topic. The most important, and I repeat, most important aspect is the lack of any constraints imposed on the powered system. This is the problem of many constructions, and the British handled it splendidly. And that is not all, as with the freedom of the virtual sounds we get a slightly hardened bass, giving us the impression of more power. The more mischievous amongst us might say, that this is a departure from transparency, but the disc I took randomly, Cassandra Wilson “New Moon Daughter” profited from this a lot, as this compilation disc has a lot of low registers, which sometimes flow softly over the floor, and with the Axis this rumble is brought together into a clean and hard sound. Staying with the same disc, but looking higher on the frequency band, we can also see a slight upping of the midrange, what gives us a better insight into the recording, while still staying at the same, good level of saturation. And I think, that there will not be many people, who would complain about this, when listening to their systems supported by the tested device. Of course if they hear anything at all, because I am writing about things that are surprisingly delicate, even for my ears. The last nuance I caught during the listening tests was a minimal averaging of the treble, but, like I mentioned before, without any limitation to the freshness of the sound coming from the speakers. For me, the incursion in this frequency range resulted only in an influence of the airiness of the music, which translates in the ability of creating a virtual sound stage with the reality of a 3D cinema. But taking into account the whole abilities of the Isol-8 product, all those nuances are so little significant in my system, that somebody going along a different path may just think I am nitpicking. Nearing the end of the test I will just mention, that listening to many discs with different musical genres only confirmed the conclusions described by me above, how the sound of my Reimyo system was modified. And despite high expectations my electronics had regarding the filter, the Isol-8 Reimyo cooperation went splendidly well. After this test of solid British engineering, I will not try to scare anybody, but if you, by any chance, will plug in the MiniSub Axis from Isol-8 in your system, it may show you, that not everything is right regarding power supply when it is not in place. You do not believe me? Then I encourage you to try it, but you will be doing that on your own risk.

This was a strange meeting, as putting a mains filter opening the catalog of the company against the Japanese noble system I maybe did not expect a complete failure, but for sure not such surprisingly good result. So I will remind you what drew my biggest attention and caused my biggest applause: the lack of constraints to freedom of playing, what is usually a problem with many constructions. All other things are to be verified by potential clients, as I have quite clean power, as I live in a house and have a separate power line from the fuse box dedicated to audio equipment, while there are music lovers, who have hundreds of neighbors on the same cable, and maybe aluminum wiring in the walls, so they might only see benefits from using this device and reading my text will just say I do not know anything and am nitpicking. And looking from their standpoint, I have to say with clear conscience, that they may be completely right.

Jacek Pazio

The system used in the test, a complete set of Combak Corporation.

 Electronics Reimyo:
– Separate DAC + CD player: CDT – 777 + DAP – 999 EX
– Tube preamp: CAT – 777 MK II
– Solid state power amp: KAP – 777
Speakers: Bravo Consequence +
Power cables: Harmonix X-DC-350M2R Improved Version
Speaker Cables: Harmonix HS 101-EXQ (mid-high section); Harmonix HS-101 SLC (Section woofer)
IC RCA Harmonix HS 101-GP
Digital IC: Harmonix HS 102
Table: Rogoz Audio; Solid Base VI
Accessories: Antivibration stand for the power amp by Harmonix TU-505EX MK2, Harmonix Enacom improved for AC 100-240V; Harmonix Tuning Room Mini Disk RFA-80i, anti-vibration platform Audio Philar Double

Analog stage:
– Turntable:
drive: Dr. Feickert Analogue „Twin”
arm: SME V
cartridge: Dynavector XX-2 MK II
– Phonostage: RCM SENSOR PRELUDE IC