[This article appears in original Dutch language in Music Emotion print magazine.]

"...a very different and special product."

"...a startling increase in ease, tranquility, fluency, relaxation and integrity."

"...you are closer to the actual intent of the music itself and much less concerned with reproduction."

"Significant strides have clearly been made here."

"The Firewall 640x shows very well that the blow with the brushes on the snare drum and the bass lines played by John Illsley sound completely natural and more importantly, that all band members really audibly playing together!"

"With the Firewall 640x really new insights arise. It sounds more intimate, involved and colorful and when I equip all the devices in my chain with these wooden devices, there really is next level insight into this beautiful album. Magnificent."

"...being able to disconnect even further from so-called 'hi-fi' listening and thus make even better contact with the intention of the performers."

"...the almost complete disappearance of the previously observed rounding that strikes me the most."

"This Firewall 640x makes music anything but soft and soft. No, what I mean has more to do with the observation that most hi-fi equipment applies a subtle (or less subtle) 'hard' edge along the contours. Think of it as a make-up eye-liner. The Lessloss 640x removes this line and thus shows the person or in this case the music in a more natural way."

"The mains pollution is dealt with in a more natural way and as a result you can get closer to the performers. As far as I'm concerned, the strength of this product lies in more and deeper musical satisfaction in the long term."

"It is downright clever and intriguing how Louis Motek and his team time and time again, with almost insatiable hunger, an increasing level of knowledge and enormous motivation, manage to improve their existing designs time and time again. Anyone who has been acquainted with Lessloss products before will immediately recognize the hand of the master here as well. But on a much higher and more refined level."

"This is another one of those rare products where you miss them when you take them off the chain."

"It is also clearly a long-term solution that you will appreciate more and more and where the 'magic' takes more and more possession of the user, as it were. A fact which is caused on the one hand because the audio set will perform more easily and smoothly, but also because of the increased naturalness with fewer artefacts that invites longer listening sessions."

"The beloved reproduction of your own beloved audio system remains completely intact and recognizable. Only then further stripped of clutter in the mains and in terms of tuning with an intriguing ear for the best aspects that get even better."


Original review in Dutch
Automated English language translation
Republished review in FWD magazine

"Sven Boenicke of the eponymous speaker house and Martin Gateley of sound|kaos have embraced LessLoss Firewall tech by optionally installing it inside their speakers. That's quite an endorsement of its efficacy."

"Clear changes."

"Made the sound darker, softer, denser, moved it forward then dialed up contrast."

"An unusual twosome, namely higher contrast plus softer darker density. Those don't often go together. Here they do."

"Without losing resolution but rather gaining separation, the treble feels smoother, less lit up"

"Contrast/resolution improves."

"The progression from zero to four 640X to four C-Marc Entropic was one of growing wood. That's not a lame locker-room quip but a description of how cello and piano transformed from metallic strings to resonant tone-wood bodies."

"Taking the [multiple Firewall 640x'es] out again was - really bad by comparison."

"The overall sound acquired lengthier decays for richer tone and removed the edge burrs."

"More density whose gravitational aspect also felt darker."

"More audible decay action whose overlap with following transients wrapped them in fine reverb gossamer to seem softer. Simultaneously subtle venue cues floated up into awareness."

"A cleaner purer treble followed the same trend."

"Worked like a massage therapist honing in on trouble spots."

"It became dead obvious: microdynamic range had expanded."

"Gave melodic arcs more expression."

"The instrumentalist's or singer's small inflections and accents registered as deeper so had more wiggly life and less flat-lined dynamic evenness.
As you play really loud, the onset of treble glare native to your system will delay as well or disappear altogether."

"A pair of [C-MARC Entropic Process Firewall 640x] on the first connection strikes me as similarly potent as a Firewall for Loudspeakers on each speaker. So it's fair to say that the Firewall 640X C-Marc Entropic is equally effective to grandfather into the earlier award."

"By removing a previously unnoticed noise intruding on the music, there was now a quietness, a focus, a relaxation to the sound that was instantly recognizable, even when heard from another room."

"With the Firewalls installed, familiar recordings displayed newfound reverberation trails around instruments; treble notes were purer yet still exciting, and percussive attacks were quicker, with increased force. Instruments and voices that I had previously thought of as well reproduced by my system were now more truthful in timbre, their image placement on the soundstage was clearly drawn, and ambience was greatly enhanced."

"Before installing the Firewalls, I had assumed that the treble range would be affected the most, but in my system the midrange also benefitted from the Firewall's noise reduction."

"better recognition of lyrics."

"saxophone tone was also improved"

"I could now easily follow his clarinet"

"and have a newfound admiration for his performance."

"When a product makes such an immediate and obvious difference in my system, I'm curious to hear if that is due simply to synergy with my gear or if the results can be duplicated in other systems. So I arranged to listen to the Firewalls in two friends' systems."

"After the Firewalls were installed, the applause at the beginning of the track had more definition, with individual claps apparent instead of a wash of sounds."

"The Firewalls eliminated the added harshness from his voice, but kept the treble true to the microphone's sonic signature. The resulting sound was much closer to what I imagine is the recording's true sound, more like listening to the feed from the mixing board and less like hearing it through the PA. This was a great improvement to an already fine system."

"the Firewalls did a fine job of cleaning up the treble and improving the separation and clarity"

"After connecting the Firewalls, not only was the sound more clearly heard, but the improved clarity revealed that it also panned from left to right in a straight line."

"the Firewalls improved the focus and clarity for a clearer picture of the performers."

"The Firewalls delivered full frequency response without dulling or blunting the leading edge of treble attacks, and that held true with every speaker I heard."

"this track now sounded like a well-engineered studio recording with lots of layering and spotlighting of solo instruments."

"the Firewalls produced a more accurate representation of the recording"

"the treble was considerably cleaner."

"there was greater differentiation between each singer, as a unique voice in the recording's mix."

"The LessLoss conditioners took this system up quite a few notches in that respect. Later that night, Chris texted that with the Firewalls removed, the tracks we had listened to had lost their 'reference quality.'"

"In each case, the Firewalls improved resolution in the upper midrange and lower treble. I was able to follow complex musical lines more easily and have discovered new low-level information in material I thought knew very well."

"the Firewalls can be daisy-chained in series for even better performance, and that proved to be true. The soundstage grew deeper and wider, with the treble becoming even smoother and sweeter."

"it produces an addictive result."

"It needs to be viewed as an important addition to an audio system, and it improved the sound of every speaker I used during the review period."

"always musically significant, accompanied by greater resolution that extended well into the midrange. The LessLoss Firewalls ensured that I heard all the music my system was capable of."

"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

"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

"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."

"Surprise."

"Because the LessLoss FireWall units spent a relatively long time with us and we knew we liked them, we used them for daily music listening - with great satisfaction."

"Perhaps for the first time we heard the maximum capabilities of the HD 600."

"The Firewall's performance here became even more tangible and plastic, and even had a positive impact on the stereo image that we had not expected in our headphone experience."

"We heard details like never before, in a space so much more than expected from headphones. The sound became more open, bolder, but it also kept its dynamics and bass. We achieved a practically perfect, impeccable response, naturally within the given headphone category."

"The LessLoss Firewall 64X caused a huge surprise."

"A common problem with power filters is that they greatly change the sound of the system. This is not an issue with Firewall 64X. It has a very good effect on the sound, since it is capable of filtering out the noise generated by the polluted current without modification."

"In addition, it increases the stereo width - and especially the depth of the sound field - and make the stereo image clearer and more accurate."

"Opacity is removed from the sound and dynamics also benefit from its use."

"All in all, it can actually be said that the LessLoss Firewall 64X increases the sound of the system by one category, which is certainly thought-provoking."



[AV-online's Excellent Product Award]

"...audibly lowered the noise floor within my setup"

"...darker backdrop, easier nuance comprehensibility"

"...more orderly image"

"...sound sources became rounder, more tangible and separated finer."

"...led to easier music intake; less choppiness in favour of greater textural complexity, edge replaced via more lively and softer approach, dryness off and increased tunefulness on, plus organic finishing touches."

"...they led to clearly greater musical good. No tonal balance shifts in any particular direction and no cost to essential performance were the key upshots."

"Once connected to any newcomer product, they simply allow it to speak for itself in unaltered honest fashion and quickly map its core voicing, which in effect spells time savings on my end."

"A pristine canvas and the revelatory power of C-MARC products are very useful in my daily work, hence the 'flavourless' word listed above describes their major pro in this specific context, not a con."

"The sensation was quite comparable to having the alike voiced power cable yet of substantially higher tier, which led me to conclude that noise rejection introduced by this cord was further amplified."

"...what happened next was quite unexpected. The difference between direct versus indirect power feed only to the Pacific was anything but small."

"My DAC directly powered via the C-MARC family sounded fleshier, more organic, a bit rounder and fuller, in a way more musical and civilized. The C-MARC loom was easily as agile as the GigaWatt yet put bigger, more present and tangible sound sources on the pedestal instead."

"The very costly DAC of mine [...] gained extra moisture and spatial presence, which led to a substantial increase in pleasure. But most importantly, is this how this machine should sound in the first place? Was this the very first time its original highly organic yet still exceptionally resolving character emerged past being subjected to GigaWatt's own input?"

"...a job well done."

"But most importantly, as a link between my DAC and power cable connected to a wall outlet directly, the LessLoss C-MARC Firewall 64X was profoundly effective, very much unexpected, all in all superb. Used in that way it surely has what it takes to dethrone many full-sized costly power cleaners..."

"As anticipated, this whodunnit was easily sorted. What I'll call the X amp [with Firewall modules]–internally in parts, sonically in 'more'–distinguished itself on two levels. The first had to do with raw quantity."

"Here [with Firewall modules] the bass was better articulated, front-to-back layering more developed, the treble more suave and vocals were more present."

"Describing why the feel was more organic and fluid leads to lazier lengthier decays and background sounds more connected to the foreground. The plain Jane's [without Firewalls] drier take coincided with sharper separation but lacked the more holistic elasticity of the X [with Firewall modules]. One was pricklier and more staccato, the other rounder, smoother and of a more legato persuasion."

"[With Firewalls:] better visibility at the frequency extremes and of the imaging precision in general."

"The depth layers of X [with Firewall modules] during chorus interludes had superior development. With it the low beats of the Bombay Dub Orchestra had more impact and weight."

"One [without Firewalls] was cooler, sharper, more bare boned and lean. The other [with Firewalls] was richer, mellower, smoother and fuller."

"[With Firewall modules had] this afterglow quality. Here lingered on a stronger flavour of space, ambiance and calm."

"For an alternate take on LessLoss Firewall effects, read Vance Hiner's review of the Echo's End DAC. Between us–and we've not had any exchanges–there's no doubt. These Firewall cards really do the trick."

"What today's experiment showed is that it takes no luxury gear at all to hear differences or create improvements."

"With the filter in circuit the background noise is significantly reduced and the decay of notes on the guitar are much easier to hear. The soundstage (as it is) was enhanced. Oddly enough the tonal colours also seemed enhanced. The drum kit was not some amorphous thudding but stretched skins being hit gently. I did not quite believe what I was hearing."

"With the filter in place, the sound was far more musical."

"The 3D soundstage was much bigger and made it easier to differentiate who was doing what."

"I then blinked. My notes for the music without the filter were hifi comments, with the filter I was commenting on the music."

"Well the filter certainly allowed all the individual elements to be easily heard without any frequency response changes."

"All the advantages of mains filters but no loss of dynamics."

"The sound was more 3D and it was easier to hear the individual instruments. Also, the drums had a stronger tonal colour than without the filter."

"It sounded as though the worse the mix the better the effect."

"On the DAC the noise levels were reduced. The tonal colour was much better. The biggest impact was again on the DAC. Was this a weakness in the Audionote DACs? No. I tried the 5x on my Metrum Octave and I heard a similar effect, less noise, more 3D sound, greater tonal colour. Is it possible it only works with NOS DACs? No. Out came my Esoteric DAC with a very similar finding."

"The biggest difference was with bright mixes where the 'truthfulness' of the Class D could make things a bit fierce. The 5x filter tamed that and all that was left was a bright mix. There are many reports on the web of people recommending mains treatments for Class D amplifiers. I had not tried that as I was concerned about the loss of dynamics. With the Lessloss filters there was no real change to the dynamics but the brightness had gone and the tonal colours had increased."

"So, at the end of all this I had to conclude that these filters do work and they do so particularly well with DACs and a Class D amplifier."

"But are they worth it? Given what most of the serious mains conditioning units cost and the fact that some do impact the dynamics (not all of them) then my answer is yes. Is the 5x worth the extra? In a high-resolution system, the answer is positive. A really interesting product that is easy to use and does the job without a negative impact on dynamics."