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Audience Adept Response aR1p Line Conditioner

Audience Adept Response aR1p Line Conditioner

The way I see it AC line conditioning is a key building block for any high-end audio system. However, it would likely be the last item on my checklist of purchases—not because it matters least, but rather because of its system-wide impact. Just like you wouldn’t place a maraschino cherry in a bowl before the banana split, you’d want to fully assess your entire system’s performance— weaknesses as well as strengths—to better put yourself in a position to identify a line conditioner’s impact.

That said, I welcomed the opportunity to listen to the Audience Adept Response aR1p—a compact, single-outlet transient suppressor and RF/EMI filter based on the twelve-outlet flagship technology of the Adept aR12. It can be used alone or with a power strip for multiple components. In the latter case, however, it won’t provide isolation between components, like the heavy-duty aR12. It’s a sturdy little box (roughly 6″ high and 2″ deep) designed for wall, floor, or ceiling outlets, and is supplied with a ceiling-mount bracket. It has a footer at the opposite end of its hospital-grade plug for stability. It’s been designed for individual components like a receiver, CD player, integrated amplifier, power amplifier, or video monitor. And its small size allows it to be used in custom-install situations—a ceiling outlet for a video projector, for example.

When it was used with a superb CD player like the Simaudio Moon Super Nova or the Sony DVP-9000ES (for SACD), the results were interesting and, at times, impressive. The Audience doesn’t change a system’s inherent tonality. But it does impart a sweeter character to the sound and smoothes its edges slightly in an almost analoglike way. However, it primarily concentrates its strengths in the realm of soundstaging and most particularly in the enhancement of dimensionality and depth. On a great orchestral recording like the finale of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto [DG-SACD], it seems to peer more deeply into the orchestra’s interior, revealing details and increasing transparency. The unit seems to extend the back wall of the hall even farther back. And then it fills this new space with an extra helping of reverberant air. Norah Jones’ “Sinking Fast” [Not Too Late, Blue Note] is a song that gives up inner details grudgingly. But the resolving power of the Audience unit clearly digs deep to expose the lowest-level information about the tapped percussion and the nearly buried-in-the-mix, flat-picked mandolin. The widely panned backup voices are more bloom-filled, and their separation on the stage is widened. And then there’s Billy Joel’s penny-whistle soloing during “Rosalinda’s Eyes” [52nd Street, Columbia]. With the Adept Response aR1p I was better able to follow this delicate filigree right into the song’s fade-out. In the past I’ve lost track of it altogether.

I’m less sanguine about running a current-hungry device like the Plinius 9100 integrated amplifier with this particular Adept Response conditioner. Generally, I felt that transients were not as quick or responsive, and dynamics, like the attack off of Mutter’s bow during the Tchaikovsky, failed to surprise my ear as they often do when I’m running power straight from the outlet.
 

Tags: AUDIENCE AV

Neil Gader

By Neil Gader

My love of music largely predates my enthusiasm for audio. I grew up Los Angeles in a house where music was constantly playing on the stereo (Altecs, if you’re interested). It ranged from my mom listening to hit Broadway musicals to my sister’s early Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Beatles, and Stones LPs, and dad’s constant companions, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. With the British Invasion, I immediately picked up a guitar and took piano lessons and have been playing ever since. Following graduation from UCLA I became a writing member of the Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theater Workshops in New York–working in advertising to pay the bills. I’ve co-written bunches of songs, some published, some recorded. In 1995 I co-produced an award-winning short fiction movie that did well on the international film-festival circuit. I was introduced to Harry Pearson in the early 70s by a mutual friend. At that time Harry was still working full-time for Long Island’s Newsday even as he was writing Issue 1 of TAS during his off hours. We struck up a decades-long friendship that ultimately turned into a writing gig that has proved both stimulating and rewarding. In terms of music reproduction, I find myself listening more than ever for the “little” things. Low-level resolving power, dynamic gradients, shadings, timbral color and contrasts. Listening to a lot of vocals and solo piano has always helped me recalibrate and nail down what I’m hearing. Tonal neutrality and presence are important to me but small deviations are not disqualifying. But I am quite sensitive to treble over-reach, and find dry, hyper-detailed systems intriguing but inauthentic compared with the concert-going experience. For me, true musicality conveys the cozy warmth of a room with a fireplace not the icy cold of an igloo. Currently I split my time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Studio City, California with my wife Judi Dickerson, an acting, voice, and dialect coach, along with border collies Ivy and Alfie.

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