Tag Archives: audio polarizator

Opinion 1

Half jokingly half seriously I could subtitle this review as “Apocalypse now”, as we did feel in our guts, that bringing this contraption to our readers might just bring an apocalypse on us. Because what is it? A polarizer, and at that, not for audio grade cables? Yes, because according to the company materials, the Esprit Audio Nova, which we got courtesy of the Konin based Audio-Mix, is a “room polarizing system”. Voo-doo? For all people who are happy using a Bluetooth speaker or earbuds supplied with your smartphone, probably yes, but as our field of interest reaches far beyond the quality of those mentioned devices, then before you start bashing us, please hold off your emotions and just let go of your curiosity while reading the following paragraphs of this text.

As you can see for yourself, the devil is not as scary as they paint him. The device is just an elegant mini room screen, 33.5x12x33.5cm, and with its looks underlined with a carbon exterior. In the set we will find also a modest wall-wart type power supply. Checking Asian discussion forums and talking to the people from Esprit who caused the whole ado – the founder Richard Cesari and sales director Vivien Falize, who visited this year’s Audio Video Show, this PSU should suffice for initial testing, however you should invest into a line power supply for the long run. But let us concentrate on the main thing and not search for issues, where there are none. And so in the base of the device we can find a LED at one end and a power socket on the other. No knobs, buttons, regulators or any other kind of manipulators. We just connect it to power and that is it. Just to be sure I have put my ear against it and can now confirm, that in the box “internal sounds” (of the Nova of course) I can put “none”. In general, if not for the mentioned LED, it would be hard to find out, when the French accessory is working and when not.

And when talking about the function of the device, please believe me, if only trusting my word here, but we do not deal here with an emanation of the mentioned audio voodoo, but here we deal with physics, very empirical and measurable, and not purely theoretical, based only on calculations. As proof – please refer to the charts that show changes captured by microphones with and without the Nova switched on. The idea behind the device is, that the built-in dielectric is polarized with a DC current, what makes the Nova absorb very high frequencies, attracting microwaves from cell phones, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc. The Nova also dampens the impulse response of the room, due to which it minimizes the phase shifts of the sounds reaching the listener.

But how does this device work, if at all? Let me answer the question about how first, as following the logic, if we can discern it’s influence, then we have the issue of working at all also answered. And here we do have such an influence, and to notice it you do not have to have especially keen senses and/or a doctorate in quantum physics. From my perspective the presence of the Nova would be easiest to compare to an air filter from one of the very popular manufacturers equipping his devices with Plasmacluster technology. Of course, the polarization itself will encompass transversal waves, and it turns out that Wi-Fi and GSM waves are exactly of that kind. But the idea is not to eliminate them from the air, but, and here I will use a very dumbed down analogy of “particles”, to use a kind of an umbrella protecting from high frequency distortion, what becomes a “glue” for them. And here we came to the point where we can see the Nova for an electric equivalent, or better said add-on, to the … PMR Premium “bowl” we tested about a decade ago. In addition, similar to the PMR, we can move the Nova around the room and experiment with its optimal placement, which is not as obvious as you might think. We can put it somewhere amongst our system, place it behind the components, somewhere to the side or even behind the listening position. In case of my listening room, when I placed it between the components on the top shelf of my Solid Tech Radius Duo 3 rack, it did already do its job, but due to the flat surface it diminished the action of the acoustic panels Vicoustic Flat Panel VMT, which I use to cover the video monitor. This is the reason that I moved it to the right side of the sofa I sit on, to finally land behind the sofa, between it and the thick curtains I use to cover the balcony window. Is it silly? Seemingly it could be, but it was exactly the placing, where the influence of the Nova turned out to be most intensive and positive for me and my system, so I assumed this is reason enough to leave it just there.
But how would I define this influence? In short as a combination of better clarity and definition of the sound with its contents, better consistency and more intensive dynamics, especially when listening at low volumes. For example, with the quite not so obvious stoner-blues disc “Lightning at the Door” by All Them Witches the roughness and dirt, native to that recording, did not go anywhere, there was no clinical cleanness or polished smoothness, but quite the opposite. The roughness got intensified, but not on its own, but as an element of an intricate puzzle, where each, even most rough riff, or the shining and yet sandy cymbals, build up the dark and psychedelic climate. To get this effect previously, I had to put the volume quite high up, what brought up offensiveness resulting from a not so refined recording quality. With the Nova behind my back I could not only reduce the number of decibels, but I could hear everything better and I could hear more – I got better insight into the recording structure, which has gotten cleaner and more resolved, once cleaned from parasitic artifacts. And I did not dig into discerning, if my system got better, or if the removal of the veil caused by the high frequency distortion happened in me – by reduction of the level of background noise. What mattered was, that turning the Nova on or off resulted in a very thin, almost transparent but not always very clean, veil being removed or put back in front of the speakers.
It was similar with the live “Pulse” by Pink Floyd, where you could notice and improvement of swing and freedom of the sound, with better control over the lowest frequencies, while on the dark and damp (please remember that the recording was done in catacombs) reference “Tomba Sonora” by Stemmeklang and Kristin Bolstad, the reverberation aura reached such level of realism, and precision of focusing the virtual sources such a level of intimidating palpability, that with each phrase the leftover hairs on my neck rose, and that despite the very cozy listening conditions I had.

Concluding, the Esprit Audio Nova does not diametrically redefine the sound of the system working in the room “protected” by it, but allows it to spread its wings, eliminating the distortion from its back. It is an element of final tuning, similar to anti-vibration and other accessories used in your and our system, like for example the Furutech NCF Clear Line, we tested recently. But you should not disregard their influence if you treat High-End seriously. So if you are happy with the sound of your system, and still wonder, if it can be improved, increasing the intensity of your experience, in a completely non-invasive, and reversible, way, then I encourage you to experiment with the tested French polarizing device.

Marcin Olszewski

System used in this test:
– CD/DAC: Ayon CD-35 (Preamp + Signature) + Finite Elemente Cerabase compact
– Network player: Lumin U2 Mini + Omicron Magic Dream Classic + I-O Data Soundgenic HDL-RA4TB
– Digital source selector: Audio Authority 1177
– Power amplifier: Bryston 4B³ + Graphite Audio IC-35 Isolation Cones
– Integrated amplifier: Vitus Audio RI-101 MkII
– Loudspeakers: Dynaudio Contour 30 + Brass Spike Receptacle Acoustic Revive SPU-8 + Base Audio Quartz platforms
– IC RCA: Furutech FA-13S
– IC XLR: Organic Audio; Vermöuth Audio Reference; Acrolink 7N-A2070 Leggenda
– Digital IC: Fadel art DigiLitz; Harmonic Technology Cyberlink Copper; Apogee Wyde Eye; Monster Cable Interlink LightSpeed 200
– USB cables: Wireworld Starlight; Fidata HFU2; Vermöuth Audio Reference
– Speaker cables: Signal Projects Hydra; Vermöuth Audio Reference Loudspeaker Cable + SHUBI Custom Acoustic Stands MMS-1
– Power cables: Furutech FP-3TS762 / FI-28R / FI-E38R; Organic Audio Power + Furutech CF-080 Damping Ring; Acoustic Zen Gargantua II; Furutech Nanoflux Power NCF
– Power distribution board: Furutech e-TP60ER + Furutech FP-3TS762 / Fi-50 NCF(R) /FI-50M NCF(R)
– Wall power socket: Furutech FT-SWS(R)
– Anti-vibration platform: Franc Audio Accessories Wood Block Slim Platform
– Switch: Silent Angel Bonn N8 + Silent Angel S28 + Silent Angel Forester F1 + Luna Cables Gris DC
– Ethernet cables: Neyton CAT7+; Audiomica Anort Consequence + Artoc Ultra Reference + Arago Excellence; Furutech LAN-8 NCF; Next Level Tech NxLT Lan Flame
– Table: Solid Tech Radius Duo 3
– Acoustic panels: Vicoustic Flat Panels VMT

Opinion 2

For the past few years, we got acquainted with the idea, that if you want the best possible sound coming from your system, we should not only configure it properly in terms of components, but also provide it with appropriate accessories. This is now the ABC-book to follow by every music lover, who knows a little about the gear. And what would you say, when I tell you, that tuning your system does not end with static accessories? Are you surprised? You do not need to, because this is not really a novelty. The Japanese accessory specialist Acoustic Revive has similar items in their catalog for years. And that the market of such “sound improvers” took off lately, more companies started to devise their take on it. So what am I talking about today? Well, we will take a look at a device from France, a “system to polarize the room” Esprit Nova. A sleek, easy to place and esthetic looking item. And how does it work – if at all? I will tell you about it in the next paragraph.

Like I mentioned, the Esprit Nova is a very sleek construction. I would describe it as a kind of small room screen, made from esthetic plastic, housing a system polarizing dielectric material with quite large surface. Application is very simple, you just need to put it somewhere near your audio system and plug it in. According to the manufacturer the device should audibly eliminate harmful ultrahigh frequencies, caused by cell phones, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices and similar. So how does this work in reality?

Being frank, I had absolutely no idea, how this contraption, aimed at improving the sound of my system, or influencing me directly, should show its influence. Manufacturers often try to prove their ideas by throwing lots and lots of scientifically sound words at you, what in case of a device working in the area of sounds heard only by bats, becomes very important. But taking the challenge of testing such a unit, there was no other option, than to try and approach it with a possibly clean head. But how to do it, when the weather changes like crazy, and if you do not have migraine at the moment they you become overly sensitive. But you know what, this approach at leisure turned out to be the best one, as I heard the device’s influence even being at this mentioned hypersensitivity level. Very often I do listen to music not to search for audiophile content in it, but to soothe my soul after a full day of work. But despite me trying to detach from the daily routine, it does not always happen, as I am internally overagitated, as the audio system does have some signs of nervousness. I am not sure what is the reason for that, but after the test of the Esprit Nova I know, that there is a cure for it. And importantly, this cure is not a liver endangering result of fermentation and distillation, but proper cleaning from high frequency noise of our atmosphere, tormented by the ever changing weather conditions. This theory seems like a fairytale, but just until a certain moment. Which moment you ask? Of course the moment you start using the Esprit. You just put it in the front of your system – at least that is where I did put it, but you can just place it anywhere you like, close to you, plug it in and voila. Suddenly you have the expected calmness and nice smoothness appearing in the sound, but to my surprise, also you hear more information. No nervousness, just well visualized and readable virtual stage, what makes a short listening set, you planned for a quick soul reset, to become a multiple hour long experience, full with elation. This is exactly what happened on that day. But having in mind, that my fatigue might have caused me to misinterpret things, I tested the influence of this contraption during two other sessions. And what was the effect? It was as described before, plugging it in resulted in a slight calming effect on the music, resulting in being able to listen to the music a bit louder. And as I like to turn the Volume knob quite high, this is one of the reasons I have such big speakers and powerful amplifier, you could say, that the action of the French device was like designed especially for me, making me happily engulf in strong musical action. And the tested unit did it really very well.

Is the contraption described above a device for each and every person looking for a sound, which is full of energy and aggression, but deprived from distortion introduced by other devices we use on a daily basis? Absolutely yes. Another thing is, what kind of influence is desired by the potential buyer, because those are not on a level of changing tube speakers for BBC monitors. Those are changes on a level of a little calmer perception of the sound reaching our ears, which will be appreciated by music lovers paying attention to every single detail of the sound. How many of such music lovers are amongst our readers I do not know, this is why I assume, that for many the thing that the Esprit Nova does, and it does it for sure, would be too small of a change. Does this work against the French device? Absolutely not. This is just life. There is no one in the world who could make everybody happy. But most importantly, I would not cross the Nova from your wish list before bringing it home and listening for yourself. I have a gut feeling, that a contact with it might be a very positive surprise for you.

Jacek Pazio

System used in this test:
Source:
– transport: CEC TL 0 3.0
– streamer: Lumin U2 Mini + 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
Ethernet cable: NxLT LAN FLAME
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, Synergistic Research Galileo SX AC
– Table: BASE AUDIO 2
– 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
– Phonostage: Sensor 2 mk II
– Eccentricity Detection Stabilizer: DS Audio ES-001
– Tape recorder: Studer A80

Distributor: Audio-Mix
Manufacturer: Esprit
Price: 5 900 PLN

Specifications
Dimensions (W x D x H): 33,5 x 12 x 33,5 cm