Audiophilepure

A strong empirical example of the amazing noise reduction powers of the Core Power Technologies AV Equi=Core 1000 was what occurred when I first got the Equi=Core and the LSA Warp 1 Amplifier. Due to a series of mishaps, I ended up powering up the Warp 1 without an input connected which due to the design of the Warp 1 caused a loud humming sound. Since I had set up the Equi=Core at the same time, my first impulse was to bypass the Equi=Core in case that was the source of the issue and the noise was a magnitude louder with a significantly wider bandwidth of noise. Or to put in terms of the effect of the Equi=Core, the noise was reduced to about 10% of the level without the Equi=Core and reduced in frequency to say about 60 Hz, which one would expect if they had a pure 60 cycle AC signal without injected noise from other sources. The difference was jaw-dropping and while this is not a normal test case, it does parallel the effect of inductive noise that is not filtered out by a component’s power supply.

For active listening tests, I decided to use the Questyle CMA Fifteen (Review Pending) as Questyle is well known for their over-built power supplies which should make for a spectacular challenge. For headphone, I chose my Noble Zephyr IEM’s as they are one of my most efficient and articulate IEMs, and to maximize noise potential I put the amplifier in high gain and used the 4.4mm balanced output. At about half volume with the player (JRiver) on pause (IE: no signal but not open), I could hear the transistor noise. With the Equi=Core bypassed you could hear spurious noise added to the steady hiss of the transistors