Audiophilepure

There’s no power cord provided with AC-2K; Connected Fidelity is primarily a cable company so upsell opportunities are available. The test unit was supplied with a new cable just added to the range, the Chronos 2 (£840). It’s based on a braided weave of cryogenically treated multistrand UP/OCC copper and silver-plated copper wires, totalling 12 square millimetre for each of the two power lines, terminated with Furutech IEC and MS HD Power UK plugs.

Inside the box, protection circuitry on the balanced output side is specified as two residual current circuit breakers with overcurrent protection (RCBO). On the input side is a soft-start relay switch to reduce switch-on surge. The toroidal transformer is mounted on a compliant anti-vibration support plate, with transit screws to secure the mass when packed for shipping. And in a bid to extract the best performance from this transformer, it undergoes deep cryogenic treatment prior to installation in AC-2K, cycled by a commercial specialist down to –195 °C in a process that is said to benefit the ferrous core of the transformer by increasing the proportion of martensite and decreasing austensite in the steel’s crystalline structure. And since the toroid is treated complete with its copper wiring, there may be positive effects of cold annealing on the primary and secondary windings.