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REVIEW: Highwire Audio Power Wraps Accessory

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Model: Power Wraps
Category: Accessory
Suggested Retail Price: $50pr
Description: RFI Trap for AC cords
Manufacturer URL: Highwire Audio
Manufacturer URL: Highwire Audio

Review by Brian Cheney ( M ) on January 28, 2004 at 08:56:21
IP Address: 198.81.26.75
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for the Power Wraps


I not not exactly in the Power Cord camp. Most of my equipment is plugged into the AC through their stock cords, mostly 3wire 14 gauge molded. I do have Bybee and Audio Magic AC line filters for low and high level gear, but that is not the focus of this review.

I read a post on this forum about the efficacy of the Highwire Power Wraps, contacted the manufacturer, and received eight of them in time to take to CES. The Power Wrap is a 12" pigtail, open in the center, which wraps around the AC cord at a point close to its center. You can then, if you so desire, slide the wrap up and down on the cord a few inches from said center to "tune" the sound. I ended up not hearing much difference from the tuning so no snickering, please.

The Alexis Park is a wonderful place to listening to music: high ambient noise, noisy AC lines, tiny rooms, and easily-overloaded circuits. After setting up, listening at night, I found my sound somewhat opaque inspite of no less than five AC line filters (nothing was plugged directly into the wall). Don from Highwire dropped by and offered to wrap my AC cords, so I tried one such on my Wadia 861se CD player.

I should mention at this point that many people come by at CES with tweaks and beat-all "improvements" which sometimes pan out and usually don't. I don't care for sideways moves; better has to be better and not merely different. Highwire also fails to score points on the value scale: at $50pr the wraps are definitely super bargain-basement High End accessories.

So was there an improvement in my sound after wrapping a single AC cord with a single Power Wrap? Absolutely. At 9pm with no distractions I heard a lowered noise floor and cleaner presentation. I took the darn thing off, and reinstalled it, several times without unplugging the AC from the CD player just to be sure. Over the course of the Show I added more wraps to the low level gear where it seemed to do the most good. I had less audible improvement with the power amp cords so eventually did without the wraps there.

At home in my big soundroom results were similar. Adding one wrap to a cord at a time, listening for a day, and then wrapping another cord brought progressive improvements in blacker background and detail retrieval. I discovered, for example, how much page turning was going on during the Overture to Rossini's "Italiana" (Teldec)--I don't know if that brought me closer to the music, but it's nice to hear what's on the recording.

The last and final improvement was adding a wrap to the AC cord of my vintage Krell MD10 transport which I plugged into the Wadia as a separate digital input. I got yet another level of transparency and have been listening to it now for about a week. Outstanding.

I don't know what the Highwire policy is on home trials but for $50, if you don't hear anything you haven't lost much. Please don't start about AC cords, that is not the subject matter here. I'm sure there are cord configurations that improve sound, like thicker gauge wire on a power amp.

The "miles of housewire" argument doesn't apply either, since we're talking trapping RFI just before it enters the unit. Open up that mind, let the butterflies go free, and see what you think.


Product Weakness: On the inexpensive side. Looks weird when installed.
Product Strengths: cleaner, clearer sound


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Ampzilla 2000
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): none
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Wadia 861se, Krell MD10
Speakers: VMPS RM30/215 sub
Cables/Interconnects: Bolder Bebee Nitro
Music Used (Genre/Selections): classical, jazz, rock
Room Size (LxWxH): 31ft x 14ft x 9ft
Room Comments/Treatments: full LEDE w/Tube Traps (4)
Time Period/Length of Audition: one month
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Audio Magic Stealth Matrix
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Highwire Audio Power Wraps Accessory - Brian Cheney 08:56:21 01/28/04 ( 12)