"...plainly arrived at a higher octave of clarity"

"This before/after difference was unexpectedly profound now. Already my rig's performance had moved ahead of its usual status."

"Resolution clearly reached deep into the noise floor."

"Yet nothing shifted, compressed or even minimally distorted."

"...depth went deeper. Whilst the plucked string timbres lost none of their innate glassy energy, they gained in fullness and fluidity."

"I knew right away that the LessLoss loom played it quieter, more articulate and quicker."

"...majored on very fine detail, adroit articulation, very high separation, silence and unadulterated tone. If each of these aspects is the end of a wheel's spoke, tracing them all back to their center leads to... clarity."

"If you threw "extreme clarity" at me for an instant reaction, I might reflexively respond with "hyper contrast" or "very crisp edges". That's not what the LessLoss flavor was. Its clarity wasn't built on crispness but mellifluence."

"LessLoss' was about smoothness from relaxed litheness. This manifested as ease, as an absence of effort and showiness. It felt quick, calm, natural and less massive. Faux Vivaldi's pizzicati were more intelligible."

"...unembellished naturalness and strangely tacit ease didn't equate lack of drive..."

"...the LessLoss power treatment showed off plenty of pop, slap and bite..."

"Whilst I considered the LessLoss loom a nice resolution gain over our Allnic brood, even greater gains were had upstairs against our Crystal/Puritan pack."

"Having reviewed some C-MARC signal cables, the C-MARC based Firewall for Loudspeakers, a DAC with C-MARC wiring and now the latest Entropic Process C-MARC power cords, there's been a near eerie family resemblance. Call it a design-based leitmotif or DNA which connected them all like pearls on a necklace string. A reduction of noise meant higher resolution, a parallel bleeding out of stress a very peculiar sense of mellifluousness. It's this latter relaxed natural quality which stands out as the USP, the unique selling proposition of this cable tech."

"After about two days, not only did it stabilize and blossom but in that period covered a lot more ground than usual break-in seems to. Never mind the definition of entropy which calls it a gradual decline into disorder. Louis Motek's entropic process was the opposite: a rapid ascent to perfect order. Very well played!"

"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."

"The Bakoon with Bindbreakers underneath was snappier; rapid transients it further shortened and injected extra power to make the effect more palpable, involving, energetic and somewhat spicier."

"I took this particular shift as extended dynamic range, thus a clear upgrade, then followed by clearer lowest octaves and more firm and precisely sketched instrumental outlines."

"Both the EX-M1 and 925 scored extra points on clarity; virtual outlines were yet again penciled stronger and thus separated a notch better to become more visible in effect. The Brit in particular was a bit speedier but without any loss or gain on its downstairs fullness. The already very smooth Kinki became a touch more buttery on this count as well. Although subtle, all listed changes didn't involve any specific tonal balance adjustments, hence were mapped as rather universal."

"Extra speed and energy happened without any heft or temperature makeovers. It's safe to say that Bindbreakers underneath all three amps opened them up in a way and extended their inherent flavours in the dynamic and snappy direction at no real cost."

"It was repetitive from one device to another."

"The standard anti-vibration scheme in my DAC netted the result a bit speedier but slightly itchier and slimmer versus today's pucks, which reversed this order by shifting the focal point to the more mellow, relaxed and less grainy, yet as equally opened up, direction."

"The last exercise included the LessLoss Echo's End Original DAC, which purposely doesn't incorporate any stock feet. Three Bindbreakers in-between this machine and my rack's shelf not only resulted in more potency points versus the Pacific case, but also showed how much more performance the Lithuanian DAC still held. The improvement today's decouplers introduced in this particular case still wasn't of night and day variety, but my ears mapped it as the biggest yet. As I wrote in my Echo's End review published here, this machine's core voice includes pristine backdrop, moisture, overall elegance and top notch expressiveness well-trained ears oftentimes associate with the R-2R architecture. Mellowness and earthiness also are a part of this sophisticated package. Three Bindbreakers underneath the Lithuanian DAC yet again acted in the already well-known way, which resulted in sonics speedier and more open. Thinner and stronger pressed pencil swirls applied to all virtual outlines, which upped the ante on overall clarity. Bass became tighter and snappier but had its density intact. Background got a bit darker to reveal even more tiny bits suspended in-between instruments."

"At this point I knew which product benefited the most from Bindbreakers' presence, the LessLoss Echo's End emerged as the DAC of choice."

"In short, the result was better with Bindbreakers than without them, it arrived at no sonic penalty and scored high enough to justify the expense given my platform's total value. In this context today's pucks introduced the subtle yet audible improvement for mere pennies."

"Price-to-performance ratio was generous. Save select hardware swaps, I'd have a hard time spending the same coin elsewhere and netting a similar result."

"LessLoss Echo's End is many things, but surely not a regular DAC. If I had to point my finger at the most minimalist hassle-free machine of this particular sort, today's would be my easy top pick with no afterthoughts."

"Simply put, it was clearly made by people strongly convinced that less is in fact more if done right."

"As a reporter with more than a decade under his black audio belt I've seen and heard dozens of such products, but nothing quite like this publication's purist machine."

"Echo's End doesn't pursue the usual voicing trends but instead it handles music in an unmistakably enchanting way, which well-trained ears will map in a jiffy. It's a very expressive product, with strong and always present character of its own."

"Felt more grounded, rounder and clearly milder."

"Echo's End swiftly redirected my attention from resolution and insight to blackness of its background, general politeness, musical tissue and that particular well-known moist sensation."

"We could narrow this profile down to quite vinyl-like charm or relieving freedom from digital tint and harshness."

"Careful avoidance of excessive fat and warmth, which would undeniably cover details essential in music, is where the Lithuanians truly got the job done right. Echo's End simply didn't sound overly thick, sluggish or bloated, but pleasantly earthy and organic instead. It performed like a vintage top class d/a converter with PCM1704 on-board, albeit with its upper end not trimmed but in perfect check, namely as audible as everything else."

"That's why to my ears the Echo's End introduced no second-grade core flavour in comparison to its far pricier opponent, but something from elsewhere; more substantial and less light-spirited at its core, yet very much appealing on a purely subjective emotional level, enough to provoke the shedding of a proverbial tear or two."

"This review item's sound landed in the zone occupied by quality, chic and maturity, not quantity, exposure and abnormal zeal. All traits listed above effectively turned LessLoss Echo's End into a most pleasing product. Its sound came through undeniably effortlessly and never was piercing. It always felt pleasantly gravitational and coherent yet not even once overdone or extreme in any way."

"I've found this product's sound as focused as it was tactile and euphonic. Its agility and wide dynamic contrasts supported traits which elevated expressiveness and charm."

"Bass [is] internally focused, fabulously elastic, texturally very generous, admirably deep and upon demand capable of hitting like a truck with no apologies involved."

"That's what Echo's End is about, with this machine one's focus will be on qualities related to pleasant undisturbed music flow and not its informational load. Such voicing my ears have found tasteful and yours might as well, should your taste in sound presented in an organic way be a priority."

"Right from the get-go LessLoss Echo's End introduced itself as a great performer for the coin, but in time it flourished into a major overachiever, that's the key takeaway."

"I would not change a single thing in this machine's voicing. Never had I the urge to actually ponder about any potential sonic improvements. Not even once. I've found it simply too vivid, seasoned, coherent and pleasant to bother. Each time the Echo's End was on, I was instantly immersed in its reality and always had a blast, whereas its inherently forgiving approach towards repertoire of lesser quality enabled struggle-free ventures beyond my usual musical diet. If after switching from a product five times as costly - that would be my DAC - all this remained, then that's pretty much all there is to be said."

"Its purposely applied operational minimalism I've found liberating. LEDs, knobs, switches and alike usually all deemed as necessary, today's experience turns into a bunch of distractors. It's a well-made, hassle-free affair, always ready for action. Its simplicity isn't ordinary but elegant."

"All things considered, if a plug & play brilliantly voiced minimalist DAC is on your hit list, then this report's LessLoss DAC fits the profile just perfectly. That's the target right there."

"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..."

"smitten with LessLoss"

"this has to be among the finest built bespoke digital converters out there."

"Without a doubt, Echo's End Reference follows the clear sound path set forth by everything I have auditioned from LessLoss"

"organic, authentic, resolved, dynamic."

"Whereas some digital systems favor a more spotlit presentation, cueing the listener into each of the themes, Echo's End presents you with more of a stage view, which is to say you are listening to the entire production rather than drawing your focus to and from each note and phase effect."

"That organic, natural and neutral sonic signature of Echo's End plays fantastically well"

"Echo's End proved once again that no matter the input and source, this DAC's sonic signature stayed the same.

"Echo's End further helped clarify this with its organic character highlighting just how good, nay, great, good old compact disc can sound."

"build quality, internal makeup and parts quality are undoubtedly first rate"

"more musical information, detail retrieval and texture. Editorializing isn't part for the course. What you hear is what you get. Once you bite off the LessLoss tree, you may not look anywhere else."

"Reference quality in every regard."

"to genuine, bona-fide audio and music connoisseurs to whom bling is a dirty word and likely not even in their vocabulary."

"It's all about the music, nothing more, nothing less. Here, Echo's End shines and then some."

"I was immediately surprised at how much more information was spread across my living room. Reverb went on forever and the whole soundstage of the prelude seemed much larger and deeper."

"The LessLoss interconnects certainly revealed more detail than I thought possible from my DAC, and it occurred to me that until then, I hadn't really heard all that the BorderPatrol DAC had to offer."

"Quick attacks." "No sense of blur." "Huge soundstage."

"Increased sense of soundstage width and depth."

"Improved resolution and focus in the upper bass and lower midrange."

"I could more clearly hear the performer's technique, the instrument's character, and the idiosyncrasies of the performance."

"I listened to Andre Previn's After Hour's with Ray Brown and Joe Pass CD [Telarc CD83302], noticing a specific benefit of this improved clarity. In music education, we teach that great jazz bass players will play on the "front side" of the beat, enhancing the excitement of an up-tempo tune without rushing the beat. Alternately, the bass player will need play on the "back side" of the beat for ballads or the blues, for that lazy, but not late, groove. On "There'll Never Be Another You", Ray Brown drives the trio with a percussive right-hand technique, always on the front edge of the beat, to propel the tempo forward. The LessLoss cables conveyed greater insight into Brown's musicianship and his ability to play a melodic bass line while also acting as the percussive drive for this drummerless trio tune. I wish I could have used a similarly revealing system to teach this concept to my students."

"Image definition was definitely improved. The sound was purer, more focused, yet retained good extension."

"The LessLoss speaker cables [on electrostatic loudspeakers] did a fine job, with improved image location and depth. Owners of electrostatic speakers should certainly add them to their audition list. They seem made for use with electrostats."

"The change was equivalent to swapping a good preamp for a really great preamp."

"Every aspect of the sound was improved, but most notable was the treble, which had been too forward before, with the tweeter being much too obvious. The improvements exceeded those in my own system, and the owner texted me many times in the following days in amazement at the effect of inserting just one LessLoss power cord. I doubt I would have believed this story if I hadn't witnessed the outcome myself. This was certainly the best sound I've heard at his house."

"Prior to adding the LessLoss cables, I had auditioned many cables in the same general price range, and one power cord that was three times as expensive. While all were well made and sounded good, none of them made my system sound better in terms of bringing performers and their craft into my listening room. The LessLoss cable loom helped me hear more deeply into recordings, and I spent more of my listening time thinking about the musician's performance rather than the sound of the system. That is a high compliment for any piece of audio gear."

"The [LessLoss] cables' inclusion in my system removed a previously unnoticed level of confusion, or noise, resulting in clearer soundstage cues, cleaner upper bass and vocals, and greater overall musical enjoyment. The results were positive enough that I'm saving my audio money to add a set of interconnects and a power cord for my BorderPatrol DAC SE."

"I've really had a prolonged evaluation time, where I have freely explored the C-MARC power cables in more than a dozen top echelon systems."

"The all-round potent impact of the C-MARC power cord, in the most various of systems, is one of its most impressive highlights."

"The LessLoss C-Marc power cables have proved their established impressive performance."

"Take away the C-Marc from my MSB Select DAC and the all-important time and space information simply collapses. It becomes smeared and the three dimensional musical landscape, once appreciated from the vantage point of an eagle, is suddenly reduced to something an ant on the ground would perceive. Not a small difference by any means..."

"In absence of the C-Marc power cables, there was a paradigm shift not related nor limited to nuances. ...a whale of a difference."

"With LessLoss C-MARC power cables in action they never reduced the intensity of orchestral dynamic impact nor compressing the dynamic scale at which piano can span."

"C-MARCs acted on a grand and noble level of performance, way beyond their given price."

"The modest price point doesn't reflect the level of achievement of performance by any means."

"The performance towers within the elite realm of rarified art, and is an achievement here worthy of extra emphasis."

"Remove the C-Marcs and now what happens? It feels like the density of the vocal's formants are gone, making it sound flat and lifeless. It seems that resonance in the vocal tract is unnaturally altered, thus destroying the very essence."

"C-Marc rivals upper echelon performance at non-expected value given their price."

"This striking price/performance ratio already granted the LessLoss C-MARC cable loom products both Mono and Stereo's Highly Recommended Product and Best Buy awards, and it's no different for the power cable."