Already during the burn-in period accompanied by some new acquisitions such as the 88.2 kilohertz version of Barre Phillips solo bass album End To End, the sonic image fascinates with an stupendous calm, black background. The often in a percussive style played bass is depicted immensely clear in the large recording room. From time to time, even Barre Phillips' breathing becomes audible. Thanks to the perfect reproduction, these not really catchy sounds nevertheless become an experience. But let's stay a little bit longer with ECM and music performed through those mighty four-stringers, i.e. Larry Grenadier and his album The Gleaners. In "Pettiford", a tribute to a well-known colleague, the bass seems to stand freely in a quite large room and indulges initially with warm voluminous sounds, before Larry Grenadier soars into higher registers. The position of the speakers can't even be guessed, the sound completely detaches itself from the transducers and one feels beamed into the recording room. What a delight!

The next stop is Patrice Heral's "Improvisation" from the album Le Concert Des Parfums, recorded in the monastery of Noirlac, played first of all via the SOtM switch: The large, reverberant refectory in which Patrice Heral has set up his manifold percussion instruments sounds very familiar, the impulses burst with energy, and the ebbing away of the beats on the kettledrums can be precisely traced. The PowerSwitch from Ansuz Acoustics, however, draws level with it. But now the sound has got a touch more warmth, the deep drums unfold a little more power, and even the fading of the beats on the smaller drums lasts longer. Despite the music revealing additional information, the playback seems a bit more organic, more complemented and slightly less technical to me. By the way, I had momentary disconnected the PowerSwitch from the mains while the SOtM sNH-10G was on duty, as Ansuz Acoustics points out that the "Active Cable Tesla Coils" are supposed to have a positive effect on the sound of the whole system as soon as the switch is connected to the mains.

Well, one may argue about whether the use of a switch whose price ranges almost in the sphere where converter and up-scaler cavort is wise, or not. But on the one hand, this article is not primarily intended as a purchase recommendation, but rather an attempt to find out what is feasible and if such extreme purpose-driven efforts still result in sonic advantages. And on the other hand, every audiophile is aware of the fact that an exponential amount of constructive and financial effort is being required to achieve those one or two percent more on the way to perfect euphony. And that's why I don't burden myself with any more thought on the pricing of the PowerSwitch D-TC Supreme, but rather verify with a few more pieces of music if the Ansuz happens to harmonize particularly well with "Improvisation" only by coincidence.