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Published LessLoss Reviews Now Number Over 698

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Firewall Module

Date Added: 07/29/2020 by René, Copenhagen Denmark
My first Review of a LessLoss product has been a long time coming. Not because there wasn't an immediate effect on Sound Quality, on the contrary, but because it was the beginning of a completely unintended journey in to a music wonderland I had unconsciously hoped for but not quite expected, a journey I am still continuously on half a year after I "discovered" LessLoss for the first time. So this will be a review, I shall update later on referencing what else has happened on my journey.

Back in January I had invested heavily in peripherals meant to clean up the effects of dirty/lousy power. After decades of enjoyable stereo appliances I had bought a Steinway&Sons System S setup, the one that had been Editor's Choice in The Absolute Sound six or seven years in a row. A most wonderful combo to my ears, but I had already found out that, contrary to Steinway's own recommendations, the standard power cords supplied were bettered considerably by some second hand Wireworld PC's I had purchased. A Telos Ground Noise Reducer had added it's wonders after that, but I still wanted more - don't we all?

Sniffing around the internet I, (Thank you, God) stumbled upon a review about something called a Firewall by a company from, of all places, Lithuania. Long story short, I decided to try it out but, since everything seemed expensive to me and I was rather unsure, settled for the cheapest version, the Firewall 64x. The Firewall arrived, and I was immediately sold. Even though there had been no burn-in the sound enhancement was so obvious I found it to be the single most amazing passive thing I had ever put in my system. Everything opened up, became more natural sounding and dynamics improved.

After a week I took it to my son's place. He has a very capable Lyngdorf setup, all digital, using an Innuous Zen mk. III as source. We decided to put the Firewall before the Lyngdorf TDAI 2200 which is an integrated digital amp with digital filters controlling another Lyngdorf driving the subwoofers. On top of that the amp control RoomPerfect room correction, which is probably why the effect of the Firewall was greater on that amp as opposed to on the source, the Zen mk. III. My son was stunned and begged me to not remove the Firewall, so after a week he bought it off me as I had decided to buy a couple of the more expensive C-MARC Firewall 64x.

This has already been lengthy and I could ramble on about all the good things the cheapest Firewall did according to my son, but I will cherry pick two:

He told me, "For the first time ever, I am able to understand every word in all my Swedish songs!" (My son is native in Danish). He also experienced his four-year old daughter who had always enjoyed her childrens' songs singing along, the next morning freezing in front of one of the speakers, then running to the other speaker finally looking at him asking: "Dad, what am I hearing?" listening to a song she had heard and sung along to more or less every day.

Let me finish off by saying to anybody owning Lyngdorf or Steinway equipment:

You have never heard what your gear is actually capable of.

This probably goes for a lot of other fine amps, speakers, sources, but this is what I KNOW now....
and this was only the beginning of my very much extended journey since January '20

To be continued.......
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C-MARC Classic Power Cable

Date Added: 07/16/2020 
My name is Moti and I am from Israel.
I am 50 years old and sound was a hobby since I was 15.

Without mentioning brands, I have tried everything. I don't read reviews, from my experience it's the wrong way to go.
I ran into your product by accident, as a friend was mentioning that he has a power cable to sell.
I have made that mistake and took it for trial, basically I was so sure of myself and I only wanted to prove him wrong. To make a long story short, I have ended up replacing all my power cables to the LessLoss C-MARC power cables then to the Bindbreaker and now I'm saving for the Firewall filters.

When I met one of the biggest and most expensive Japan's brands I new then that I have met the top of ultra high end, I was still thinking that about them but when it comes to power cables I was deadly wrong.

I haven't tried the signal cable yet, honestly I'm afraid I'll have to try it, moreover I'm thrilled to imagine that something can sound better than what I'm using at the moment.

This is what I wrote to Louis 24 hours after connecting 5 of his C-MARC power cables:

Dear Louis,

I just want to tell you that I'm deeply impressed and that desn't come easy.

I thought I saw it all. I'm not going into details nor micro aspects of your work. In grand, macro view, let me tell you this, you are the real thing!
Your products are real, sadly it's a huge compliment in a time when it's usually all about the package. Your package is a plastic bag, inside that plastic bag I found a big brain and heart.

Your products are simply remarkable, one doesn't need more than minutes to understand, hear and feel you are touching the sky or listening to the sound of heaven, that is how I felt, kind of like nirvana.
It is a triumph, I read that somewhere, but this time it's true.
Please count me as one of your ambassadors, followers,,,,

Yours truly,
Moti

I just want to add one thing that I believe everyone who contacted Louis by mails, phone or in person will agree to. Your attention to customers, your availability at any moment, your advice, those are hard to find. And all is done with modesty, authority and knowledge above all.
Just keep up the hard work and stay as you are.
Moti.
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C-MARC Classic Power Cable

Date Added: 07/10/2020 by Colin Gray
[Entropic Process C-MARC Power Cable]

Well, after two weeks with both new cables in my system, things have gone exactly as you suggested.

On first listen I could hear some improvement in overall clarity, but nothing that would warrant the cost. Things went all over the place for the next week, but on the eighth night when I sat down to listen, the SQ was simply glorious resulting in a huge smile on my face. SQ has remained consistently at this new level of ‘realism’ during the second week. All of the CDs that I have played over this period sound like they are new remixed/remastered versions with superb clarity and realism to the sound. Some instruments and especially backing / harmony vocals have been given more prominence and can take you by surprise, even on tracks I have listened to for some 40 years.

The most enjoyable and satisfying sensation now, whilst listening to music, is that it has this ‘wrap-around’ feeling that my ‘speakers have disappeared and I am wearing giant, super-comfortable headphones!

Another brilliant product and promise fulfilled by LessLoss!
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Firewall Module

Date Added: 07/03/2020 by Viktor Szabo
Got my 3 entropic power cables to replace my signature cables and the firewalls for LS 2 weeks ago. I have about 30 hours now on them. I can give you a short version of my experience: P E R F E C T.

If you are interested in the longer version:
I have been tuning my system for a long time. The speakers are Vivid Giya G2 powered by Line magnetic 508. Got filter, cables, dacs, etc. Most of the upgrades brought me a step closer to the audiophile nirvana.
However, after swapping my cables and installing the firewalls to my LS, I feel like all the puzzles got to the right place and my system has reached the finish line - finally. To name some positive changes that make me so happy:
1. fuller bolder sound allover the frequencies
2. but with increased detail level at the same time. So this is not the typical increased transparency coming with inevitable thinner sound kind of solution. I dunno how this could be done but it works.
3. absolutely zero fatigue - whatever I play, at any volume level. Nothing. Zero. And I am very sensitive to fatigue from hifi. Always watched out for components that would kill my pleasure from listening
4. everything is more natural in size, timbre and soundstage, vocals, everything
5. fuller bass but without syrupy sound. with still higher definition and accuracy (how can this be even done?- fuller more detailed bass is an oxymoron!)
6. highs also more transparent and very natural sounding

I confess - since i installed everything at once (dont have time for testing) I dunno if this all is thanks to the cables or the firewall. Im sure both upgrades did they part. And to be honest, I dont even care!

With this genial purchase I turned my system to P E R F E C T. Period.
So thats it. I m going to listen to some Fleetwood Mac now.

Urge everybody to try out!

PS: service from Louis was top notch as always...
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Firewall Module

Date Added: 06/28/2020 by Claudius
My System before upgrading with a custom distributor with latest firewall tech and a C-MARC unbalanced RCA interconnect:
All PCs LessLoss DFPC signature
IC: LessLoss Anchorwave, HMS Sestetto
USB: Transparent Audio
LessLoss Firewall 1st Generation, Furutech TP-609 distributor
Innous Zen Server
Ayre QB 9
Octave Audio HP 500 se Preamplifier
Adam Audio Pencil active
LessLoss Blackbody x3 first generation
Different Resonance Control devices and custom built rack

After I bought the first generation firewall, I listened happily for almost 10 years. I remember calling it the single most important upgrade to the sound quality of my system and my listening experience.
Recently I upgraded from a customized Mac mini to the Innous Zen and was blown away by what is possible by optimizing the way that digital signals are handled on the way to one's DAC. I also had the Innous Zenith at home but decided against it, because of the more natural sound of the zen. Dynamics, Tone, Harmonics, natural integration of details, and emotional quality of the presentation are what I am looking for.
After living with the zen for a while, I was wondering what else could be possible. Having too much time because of the pandemic, I looked at the LessLoss website and contacted Louis, asking about what upgrade path he would recommend. Right away he proposed a custom made distributor, which would bring a substantial upgrade never before experienced. Although in these hard times money doesn’t come to you that easily, I figured, if I had to stay at home for a couple of months, I want at least phenomenal sound. After exchanging a plethora of emails with me asking questions and Louis answering sometimes in a matter of minutes I ordered the distributor and one new C-MARC IC to try. After two weeks I received a box with the distributor and the cable.
Before I get into the details of how everything sounds, I have to talk about Louis. He is the most responsive person I have ever done business with. By far! And I remember thinking this already 10 years ago when I first started doing business with Louis. To keep this level of service up over such a long time is alone an achievement. Thank you, Louis.
If you haven’t read about burn-in on the LessLoss website and remember your experiences everything starts off pretty good and then gets worse and slowly builds up to sounding as good as it can. In between, you experience performance bumps. It was exactly like this with the cable and the distributor. After two weeks everything sounded stable with the usual bad system day.
The Sound Difference
This distributor does exactly what I dreamed of and more. I will not talk about music but more about instruments. Listening to a concert grand gives me the feeling I stand right beside the instrument and look at the performer. I can hear him breathing, have a sense of the size and scale of the instrument, hear the pedals moving and the influence of the pedal work, and the whole mechanic action on the sound of the instrument. Ah, of course, I also hear the performer move. What is most satisfying, is that all this sounds completely natural. Not as if somebody puts a magnifying glass on the scene! More as if the instrument is in your room. If it is recorded that way of course. Before introducing the Firewall, I could maybe hear 25% of this. Don’t get me wrong, people said to my system before, that it sounds wonderful and I thought so myself. But hearing the microdynamics of a gently played chord and the full impact of somebody banging on a piano is so profoundly different to what I was accustomed to, that it is not easy to not sound like someone is extremely exaggerating the effect of a distributor. I was dreaming of this magnitude of a change but was not prepared for the impact this change made on the sound and my listening experience.

Listening to chamber music, it sounds like chamber music, listening to orchestras you hear the size of the concert hall. Sometimes you sit in the first row, sometimes further away. Each recording sounds distinctly different. No need to listen searching for differences, they are immediately apparent. With some recordings, the walls of my room disappear. Sadly not with all ;-)

I also listen to a lot of electronic music. After marveling in the newfound naturalness for days, sometimes wanting to just listen e.g. to the 1st movement and suddenly realizing that I listened to the whole symphony, maybe sometimes a little disturbed by the sheer dynamics I was experiencing. More than once I was worried if my speakers would survive - but not only did they easily take each macrodynamic blow, but also sounded extremely controlled.

But back to electronic music. It is as if my whole system has gained a whole octave in the bass region. And the bass is so articulate and punchy. Before, I had to fight with my room modes in the 31 and 62 Hz region, always leaving me unsatisfied with the bass response of my system. I know that the firewall cannot change the physics of my room, but it seems to control the frequency extremes so well, that it does not matter as much in my situation.
This week I invited my brother, who is a professional recording engineer, to have a listen. Before we started listening we had to talk and catch up on each other’s life after not seeing each other for three months. While we were drinking some wine in our kitchen I had some easy listening jazz in the background. We were talking and then I had to finish cooking, so my brother went to the listening room and didn’t come back until I called him and the family for dinner.
After sitting down he said: „Damn that sounds good, what exactly did you change?“ He couldn’t believe that a distributor can have an effect this profound. He was amazed at the micro and macro dynamics, about the naturalness of instruments. „This sounds as if you are in a world-class studio with the musicians, listening as they play live.“

Everything which I love about my system is so much better now. Does everything sound good? No, sadly not. Some recordings are now unbearable. Especially overcompressed ones. But most recordings gain so much from this change in my system, that I am constantly listening to pieces that I skipped in the past. The music does speak more clearly to me now.

Is this distributor worth the asking price? Compare a 5000 Euro amplifier to a 10.000 Euro one. I doubt that the gains you can have by changing a component in this price range can have such a profound effect on any system as the firewall does. Highly recommended.

I hope this helps your customers with their buying decision and I hope you can read past my spelling and grammar mistakes. I didn’t have time to check for it. Since the economy is picking up again I am extremely busy and could only listen for an hour the whole weekend :-(
Hope everybody is doing fine out there
Stay save and healthy
Claudius from Berlin, Germany

Oh and of course I kept the C-MARC RCA interconnect. If there is a LessLoss house sound, then the C-MARC fits in perfect. No idea how Louis and his team do it. Here you get consistency across all products!
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C-MARC RCA unbalanced signal cable, stereo pair

Date Added: 06/21/2020 by david | Colorado USA
I can relax again. I have just put back into my modest system the RCA C-MARC interconnect that I have owned for about nine months. I have been trying some different cables since I have been thinking about converting to a fully balanced system.

As I have explained to Louis, the longer the cables are in my system, the better they sound. I am not talking a couple of hundred hours -- I mean 750+ hours on the C-MARC cables. Every time I pull them out to try something else, it is always the same when I put them back. Clarity, depth, and an overall sense of calm permeates throughout my system.

Now it is time for the Firewall for Loudspeakers...
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Echo's End

Date Added: 06/16/2020 by Frédéric Chaplain
For many years I have been a fan of the Aqua R2R DAC. I admit to being skeptical about the seemingly unending plethora of new DACs that keep coming out, and they all seem to sound pretty much the same, often with unnatural sounds and a kind of synthetic depiction of the midrange of voices. This, despite the artillery of ultra modern technologies constantly being developed, such as upsampling algorithms, the latest chips, etc.

Is this related to our modern era's performance, focussed on robotics? Emotions put on ice, everything preserved in appearance while serving true music can only be done with respect to a beating heart (ah! Poetry in this world of brutes!).

The Echo's End arrives and replaces an Aqua La Voce S3. Upon first listen, I hear silence like I've never heard. The object is surprising in its compact wooden format: technology mates with natural materials beautiful to the eye. I start with an album of Olafur Arnalds - Islands Songs. It begins with the voice of an Icelandic who comes to look for us deep in our roots.

It is intimate, close, as if the DAC was an exhaler of emotion. We feel that the voice speaks directly to our heart.

The low-medium / low register is full, coherent, and the mids are slightly accentuated, just where it gives one goosebumps, and the highs are silky and deliciously sweet. One appreciates the quintessence of timbres, superb spatialization and layering of layers. We feel that the Firewall filtering is there to serve music. It serves naturalness and not artificial performance. Listening to music, I am captivated by this sound that grips me entirely, that permeates me. It's organic, robust, but not overly opulent like an overtly obvious sound signature. The tonal balance is sublime. It is really a DAC for music lovers, for those who are gourmets of beautiful music.

It's been a long time since I heard such an original DAC in its cosmetic and sonic presentation. Louis Motek, the designer, was able to create a unique rendering, personal in the service of music, an enchanting DAC in the middle of this boring litany of new DACs. Of course, no DAC is perfect, no DAC can claim to please everyone. This DAC is special. It is for the music lover captivated by the adventures of listening, those who need the equipment to serve only the musical communicative dimension instead of the technical novelties of the day...

For me it is a happy discovery. I feel the benevolence, the know-how and the creativity of an inspired designer. Original but not extravagant, just a concentrate of talent and beauty. Magic d'or 2020!


Frédéric Chaplain
Magic Mastering
Clisson, France

https://www.magic-mastering.com/shop/fr/lessloss/2026-lessloss-echos-end-dac.html
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Firewall Module

Date Added: 05/29/2020 by Frank C
I recently purchased the Firewall for Loudspeakers and could not be happier with the added musicality they have brought to my listening experience. Simply put, there is a more satisfying presence and refinement to the music across the board. The Firewall for Loudspeakers are one of the best investments that I have made in my system. I highly recommend!

Louis, thank you for sharing your talents and those of your team with me. I love listening to music and the Firewall for Loudspeakers have made listening all the more enjoyable.
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C-MARC Classic Power Cable

Date Added: 05/28/2020 by calloway
I recently had the opportunity to audition one of the new Entropic C-MARC power cords through Atelier13 in Nashville,TN. I replaced a very well known expensive, PC on my Lumin S1 with the new LessLoss cable. The improvement in sound was very significant. The detail and musicality was so much better. The transients were quicker and the bass was tighter. Vocals were/are so much clearer with better tonality. Needless to say I purchased the sample. I strongly suggest that everyone try one of these great cables on their digital sources.
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C-MARC Classic Power Cable

Date Added: 05/21/2020 by Joerg Meinhardt
C-MARC Entropic Power Cables

After great experiences with other products from LessLoss, like power distributor with firewalls, Bindbreakers for all devices, a C-MARC power cable without entropic treatment, loudspeaker firewalls, a custom C-MARC loudspeaker cable splitter for the bi-wiring ports, and the Echo's End DAC, it was time to turn all power transport into LessLoss hands.

The greatest opportunity was to jump on the early bird train for the entropic treated C-MARC power cables, which I needed 4 of, one replacing the "old" C-MARC and 3 for "ancient" high-end power cables from Tice ... If anyone remembers.

What shall I say, the waiting time was so painful, but definitely worth it, including the money spent, after I finally could plug them in. And it was a similar story as with all the other components from LessLoss. Definitely a WOW experience, I am used to hear with a new LessLoss piece:
- More of a "being there feeling", with hearing the event room space rather than my listening room
- A feeling of "all is right and natural"
- Human voices now much more sound as HUMAN voices. And it comes with much better understanding of the lyrics. Many of these, I could never decipher before
- More bass punch, great control and really believable. My speakers only go down to 35 hz, but I would no more dream about subs
- An extended stage in all 3 dimensions
- Great positioning and separation of instruments and voices.
- Timbres and according transients are richer and correct. Identification of instruments better than aver before, even in the densest arrangements.
- ....

And what does it mean for me:
- Lots more toe tapping
- Easier to listen and just falling into the music

And now about the entropic promises!
Yes, indeed an amazing break-in time, no sudden changing colourations or collapsed space ... except for day 4 and 5 which was still mild. But that was most likely not a break-in effect, but rather something that will be covered by the upcoming Blackbodys ... I hope and will definitely try!! And the sound was great from minute one, as described above. Cannot warrant, that it improved in time or not, but it was definitely minor if at all.

And what about the comparison to the non-entropic C-MARC? Yes, there is a strong improvement, not nearly as strong as the total replacement, but clearly identifiable: more meat on the bones, richer timbres and more precise space, which all pays into the more natural bucket.

Thanks again, Louis and team. Another step into the audiophile heaven!!
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LessLoss History From the Very Beginnings

LessLoss started its business on Audiogon in late 2007. Within the first couple of month, word about LessLoss spread like wildfire among Audiogon members. Here is the feedback received from our clients during our first year of operation. This is from even before we had our own website.

Louis is one of the best in the business, truly professional and very fast production and delivery. I am very satisfied by your superb service. Many thanks.

Positive by Buyer Sebastian (135) on 07-29-2008

Excellent transaction with Lessloss on dynamic filtering power cord. Good communications & fast shipping. A+++++

Positive by Buyer Sennett (45) on 07-03-08

Bought 3 pc's from Liudas in Jan/08. Outstanding product as advertised. Performance is everything and more than I expected. Kudos to Lessloss cable for a great product. Very highly recommended...A+++

Positive by Buyer Phillykid (33) on 06-19-08

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