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Firewall for Loudspeakers: free from downsides — nothing else like them on the market — mandatory.

August, 2020, author: Dawid Grzyb
"To say that the firewalled Boenicke W11 SE+ caught me off guard would be a major understatement. Although the newcomer resembled the W11 SE version I reviewed here, it sounded much better than I remembered."

"Was I delusional? Was one extra component capable of sonic shifts this severe?"

"This stuff is the result of two decades of extensive proprietary work unlike anything else in the industry."

"Think extra moisture and gravity on vocals, rounder edges, tighter bass response, sound sources isolated more distinctly and an even darker backdrop behind them."

"The Firewall effect did stack indeed, and efficiently enough to consider external LessLoss modules in addition to those inside my speakers not as an excessive expense."

"exceptionally effective"

"LessLoss signal conditioners improved performance by a lot via extra muscle tissue and substance."

"Yet again vocals became rounder and fleshier, the natural color palette expanded, upstairs gained extra points on decay length and weight, air around virtual outlines became clearer, darker and more real, and any residual edginess was no more."

"The extra firmness the LessLoss set introduced was indeed a highly desirable step. This sort of efficacious work spelled noise reduction at its finest. But in case of speakers inherently lean, ethereal, edgy, texturally pale and geared towards hi-res performance, this report's Firewall set emerged as profoundly effective and as free from any trade-offs as ever."

"Although the Lithuanian barrels by design remove excess noise, their audibly additive action seems to contradict what filters tend to do. Srajan already pointed this out in his own LessLoss Firewall for Loudspeakers review, and that's exactly how I understand this product's job as well. It doesn't add anything that's not within a setup in the first place, but rather unlocks its untapped performance reserve normally held hostage by residual noise. It breaks shackles, drops veils, rescues, extracts and delivers safely home, that sort of liberating service."

"If after connecting a Firewall set one still doesn't much feel like a freed prisoner, "ouch!" is the only word that comes to mind once the product is disengaged. That's when our ears start to fully acknowledge what was just lost, and this sensation alone tells a lot how audible these latest Firewalls truly are. Their action in most cases will be severe."

"This report's effective noise-killers don't tinker with tonal balance or truncate sound in any particular way, thus to my ears are universal enough to recommend them to anyone."

"They flesh out internal moisture, inject heft and reveal color previously buried under a layer of excess noise."

"Bass stripped from noise usually gets fuller alright, but also tighter and more powerful, so the opposite of what its chunkier earlier life would suggest. Blacker canvas behind instruments might imply darker images, but more pronounced, weightier and longer lingering highs say otherwise."

"More solid yet less thin, glassy and chiseled vocal lines. The entire musical image gets bigger and tauter, but edginess that causes listening fatigue vanishes."

"These transparent plugs still elevated the former's performance by several notches."

"Tonal palette gained complexity and sophistication, which was mapped as the primary upshot, followed by its disposition to become more agile, composed and tighter than before. All these changes were enough to easily mark the latest Firewall as an upgrade perfectly compliant and worth pursuing."

"Firewalls provide bite, tightness, openness, and effectively land a spot on overall balance."

"swiftly pushed the sonics one tier up"

"more explicit"

"more refined and fuller on vocals and string instruments."

"Think substantial horsepower boost to effectively land faster 0-60 times, the same ride comfort, and a noticeably more luxurious interior."

"The Firewall for Loudspeakers decreased wobble, injected moisture into landscapes in-between them, brought key sound sources closer, made them more fluid and gutsier, and provided more powerful slam."

"I could go higher with SPL without any hints of fatigue."

"Thus far nothing else like them was available on the market."

"It's robust, enjoyably easy to use with all passive speakers with no exceptions, and provides substantial sonic upgrades above all else. You could easily spend more and get less in return."

"Free from downsides"

"Any passive loudspeaker set I can think of would get the Firewall treatment pronto."

"In my roster it ranked high enough to become mandatory."

Hifi Knights
6moons
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Firewall for Loudspeakers integrated into Boenicke Audio W11 SE+ Floorstanding Loudspeakers

April 2020, author: Dawid Grzyb
"The Swiss [Sven Boenicke] labeled the latest Firewalls' impact on his loudspeakers as spooky."

"[This] left me quite smitten and caught off guard. I truly didn't see most of the W11 SE+'s latest action coming."

"That unmistakable Swiss aroma was still in the air alright, but now heavily augmented to be more complex, fragrant and substantially more enjoyable than initially expected."

"The major twist came in form of the SE+'s greatly elevated moisture, organic textural substance and background blackness. Not only did it have a far upper hand on sheer musical tissue, but it was also no less high-res and muscular in comparison to the SE version I remembered so well."

"The height of this leap was the opposite of subtle."

"Team LessLoss made it scalable, additive and free from any audible tonal makeovers, thus universally beneficial, whereas the Firewall for Loudspeakers is their latest and the most advanced such development to date."

"Picture a hauntingly black musical backdrop free from any hints of grain. All virtual sound sources finely outlined, pleasantly round, internally loaded with pigment and very much alive. Upstairs with A+ notes on decay, differentiation and weight. Even the tiniest nuances visible. Bass slams as tight, wild and sensible as your music allows, plus expanded immediacy, wider dynamic contrasts and upped clarity as cherries on top. Now remove one of these potent noise killers from your setup and its performance instantly plunges to become more matte, tense, edgy, chiseled, coarser, grainier, artificial and considerably less pleasant. Put the thing back in and music blossoms, ditch it and the sensation's gone again, poof, just like so. That's exactly what one tiny accessory capable of profound silencing acts does, and it's spooky indeed."

"Figuratively speaking, an effective silencing therapy in audio is quite comparable to a specialist restoration job on a valuable vintage collector car. Preservation, detailing, polishing and a fresh coat of paint as found on the original are allowed, any alterations aren't. Such a costly ride has to remain exactly the same, otherwise its value plummets. But squeaky clean, fresh and kept in pristine overall shape, it'll be worth much more. In today's context this type of service translates to upgrades at no sonic penalty and also labels LessLoss as the go-to workshop with lots of street cred. Sven knew just the address. If he wanted his four wheels pimped up, i.e. coloured and tonally wobbly, he'd have to avoid the Lithuanian garage and go elsewhere, but now you know why he didn't."

"Sven's [Boenicke Audio] self-explanatory take on Firewalls in his boxes, Srajan's [6moons.com] recent LessLoss review and the omnipresent silent footprint recognized in today's speaker's voice by yours truly, are neither a coincidence nor a conspiracy."

"As loaded with torque and spatially mighty as it is, my recent purchase simply wasn't expected to present gentle female lips nearly touching a mic in fashion fully exposed, explicit and borderline pornographic. I didn't think its voice could be this well-moisturized, finely outlined, dense, fetching, charming, sensual and personal, but it is. If, say, two years ago I was asked about the reason of changes this severe, I'd point my finger at a costly key component, but one inconspicuous Lithuanian accessory managed to turn things quite upside down today and that's brilliant."

"Although the W11 SE+'s extra vividness might seem as something I shouldn't gush over this much, it struck me as pronounced enough to change the product's performance and the way I experienced it. If this newfound quality arrived with any strings attached as it usually does, I wouldn't be this enthusiastic. Then I'd say that I gained something but at a cost of losing something in return. Audio is a game of compromises after all. But again, that wasn't the case this time around, not at all. The clearly organically boosted W11 SE+ neither had its propulsion, energy, directness, openness, astuteness or open-throatedness truncated, nor did it become more diluted, slow, foggy, warm or withdrawn. Nothing of the sort happened. If there was any catch somewhere, I haven't found it yet."

"This discovery was as thrilling as the path which led me to it, which is why, now, I sincerely encourage all Boenicke owners to have their boxes Firewalled pronto. If integrated internally, the final tab would include two-way shipping costs to Sven's workshop plus €1'800 on top of that, whereas a bit lower coin spent directly at LessLoss.com is the external plug-and-play route. But most importantly, all evidence collected labels this specific step in my book as exceptionally effective, irreplaceable by anything else I'm aware of, and quite frankly critical."

Hifi Knights
6moons
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6moons: Firewall for Loudspeakers on par with or eclipse good power conditioning. Blue Moon Award.

March, 2020, author: Srajan Ebaen
"These will be here to stay."

"More density, color, spatial connectivity, fullness, suavity."

"And these gains require no golden ears to hear or flash gear to bring to life. They're instant and easily repeatable even on simpler hardware."

"These 'tweaks' were a surefire very predictable thing. Doing without meant shrinkage of space, dimming of colors, shedding of weight. It was an obviously smaller flatter less developed sound. It was more mechanical, edgy, rigid and pale."

"The vast majority of hifi systems will benefit loudly and clearly."

"Most any loudspeaker ever made needs a set of these."

"[They are] mind benders and voodoo ballistics."

"Its benefits are on part with or eclipse good power conditioning."

"Thinking on a suitable award caption, it struck me. The ideal go-faster car modification would be a genuine bolt-on. It'd require no visit to a garage or automotive tweak shop. Car owners could do it for themselves. The before/after improvements would sell themselves. Any car would benefit. That's exactly what today's invention is for loudspeakers."

"Guaranteeing that you've never heard anything like it is easy. There hasn't been anything like it. Until now."

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