Ansuz Hits a Home Run - Positive Feedback

Ye Olde Editor with pipe: a portrait by John Robinson

Hold the phone!

Every now and then I run across a new audio design whose virtues are so obvious that I need to make our readers aware of it as quickly as possible.

In this case, the discovery came immediately after PAF 2022. Having been extremely impressed by the Aavik/Ansuz/Borreson room, as I reported in my Audio Oasis! Awards report, I was pleased that Peter Hansen and I had already made arrangements before PAF for him to spend a couple of days here visiting with me in Happy Valley. He had some Ansuz devices that he wanted me to try out in my LAN and on my Ethernet switches. (Note that Ansuz is one of three companies of the Audio Group Denmark consortium. Ansuz specializes in "high-end cables, power distributors, streaming assessors, and resonance controlling devices." Aavik provides the component electronics, while Borreson is the loudspeaker arm of the group.) And since I've known Peter for many years now, I trusted his audio judgment.

Peter Hansen and an Ansuz PowerSwitch D2 here at PF Central

Peter was quite confident that I would like what I heard. Given my strong and ongoing interest in streaming audio, I was ready to evaluate what he had to share.

He wanted to try adding components one at a time to our outdoor streaming system. It is one of four listening spaces here, with a chain consisting of an Xfinity gigabit feed, cascading through Cisco managed switches via a final run of Furutech NCF CAT8 Ethernet cable to our i-9-based exaSound Delta Music Server with 32GB of RAM. That in turn fed our exaSound e62 DAC via Furutech USB. The analog output went out via the latest generation of Furutech NCF XLR cables to our Mytek Brooklyn Amp+, and thence to our Focal 100 008 Outdoor Loudspeakers.

Overall, this is a very fine streaming system, running Roon on the Delta Music Server, which accesses our Qobuz and TIDAL accounts. It is also able to access our QNAP 1273U NAS, on which we have terabytes of music, both DSD (out to DSD1024), DXD, and PCM of various resolutions. I have always enjoyed it, and have spent many hundreds of hours listening to it by myself, and with friends.

Could Ansuz bring any significant improvements to the performance?

I'm going to keep this as brief as I can.

Peter had brought with him two Ansuz PowerSwitch D2 unmanaged switches, plus some Sortz RCA and Ethernet Noise Suppressors, and some Darkz C2T Resonance Control devices. I was a bit gob-smacked that Ansuz was using unmanaged switching; after all, my IT experience made it clear that in order to assure the highest quality of performance with audio and video, managed switching with its Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities was necessary.

No problem, said Peter; we'll just put the PowerSwitch D2 in front of the Cisco managed switch. More on that in a moment.

Our procedure over two days was very simple. We listened to the baseline sound using eight or nine reference recordings, which Peter liked well enough, but thought could be significantly improved. Then we added components one at a time, and listened to the changes in our set of recordings again after each single component was put into place.

The Ansuz Sortz RCA Noise Suppressor (image courtesy of the Audio Group Denmark)

Peter started by adding a single Ethernet Sortz to the Cisco Managed Switch.

Back out we went to listen. To my surprise, the noise floor seemed to have dropped, and transparency improved. And the improvement was immediately noticeable…there was no doubt about it.

The Ansuz Ethernet Sortz on one of our Cisco Managed Switches

After that, we began inserting single RCA Sortz devices to other analog devices: the Mytek Brooklyn+ Amp, the exaSound e62 RCA output (we were using XLR as the signal output), and elsewhere. One by one.

And one by one, each addition was leading to increasing improvements in the sound of the outdoor system.

The Ansuz PowerSwitch D2 , ready for installation

The PowerSwitch D2 with an Ansuz A2 power cable, rear view

When Peter put the PowerSwitch D2 with its Darkz C2T Resonance Control feet into place, however, we got our greatest single improvement of them all. It was like the D2 had pulled veils off our streaming music in both DSD and PCM formats, and had increased the transparency, detail, and resultant musicality of our reference set of recordings.

The Ansuz Darkz C2T Resonance Control feet before installation under the PowerSwitch D2

The Ansuz PowerSwitch D2 showing the mounting channel for the Darkz C2T Resonance Control devices

One thing that Peter made quite a point about was the fact that the PowerSwitch D2's chassis was not composed of standard aluminum. Ansuz had determined that aluminum chassis had the effect of producing electromagnetic currents inside the chasses. Such fields can introduce issues with the purity of playback in high-end components. Instead, Ansuz developed a special material for the chassis, one that enhances their dual mission of Resonance Control and Noise Reduction.

Certainly, the feel of the chassis of the unlike anything I've experienced before. It doesn't feel metallic; it's like something else.

It took hours and hours over two days to complete the step-by-step set of devices to our outdoor reference system, and to listen to the improvements. The results didn't require any level of rocket science.

After two days of work on the PF outdoor system, it was time to celebrate! And yes, we were listening to the outdoor system...makes it easy to enjoy cigars and drinks with exceptional music happening....

By the end of the second day, both Peter and I were agreed: the PowerSwitch D2, the Dartz C2T Resonance Control feet, and Sortz Noise Suppressors had completely transformed the experience of outdoor listening here.

In fact, Peter commented that he had never heard an outdoor system that sounded like this one. "It's like a real listening room, outdoors! No walls, no room treatments…but great sound!"

After Peter left, I had one RCA Sortz Noise Suppressor left. I decided to put it in an open RCA port on my beloved Vinnie Rossi L2i SE Integrated Amp to see if it would improve the sound there, as well. In a word: yes. A brilliant design became even better with the addition of one single Sortz device. And I could tell the improvement instantly.

Enough! There's no point in holding back. Ansuz has developed some amazing products whose collective effect on streaming music/LAN-based music is truly world-class. Having listened to it constantly now for a couple of months, my initial impressions are confirmed, and I must give Ansuz one of my 2022 Brutus Awards.

Immediately, and with enthusiasm!

If you're streaming music, you'll definitely want to put Ansuz way up high on your list….

Prices: Vary. Contact Ansuz or Peter Hansen in the USA for the latest pricing and custom configurations

Ansuz Acoustics

https://audiogroupdenmark.com/ansuz-acoustics/

USA Distribution

Peter Hansen

[email protected]

All photographs and image processing by David W. Robinson, unless otherwise noted. Black and white drawing by Dan Zimmerman. Alice in Wonderland drawing by Sir John Tenniel, in the public domain.