review of K Works products

I'm enthusiastic about a company called K Works and want to review some of his products:

• power conditioning and power cords
• interconnects

I will soon be receiving some of his vibration isolation products as well.

Over the years I've tried several types of PCs, ICs, and power conditioning. Primarily I've tried Cardas cables, and for power conditioning I've tried (1) a DIY noise filter based on common-variety noise suppression caps, and (2) an isolation transformer.

What strikes me about K Works products is the rightness of the musicality compared to other products.

Before I say more let me describe the products I'm reviewing here:

• Silencers: these are small boxes containing noise-suppression capacitors and ERS paper. (See note at the end of this review about ERS paper.) You plug them into the wall... you can start with  plugging one into the same circuit your audio equipment is on, and if buy more you can plug those into other circuits in your house/apartment. Approximately $75/each. (Ignore that white power cord... that's another device.)

• Power Station: this is a power strip that is filled with a huge amount of noise-suppression capacitance and ERS paper, and also ferrites. Because I use this with my audio equipment, I don't need to use a Silencer on the main circuit. But I still use Silencers on other circuits in the house. Last known price was $800 direct from K Works.

• Empowered Power Cord: this is a power cord. If you use it with a power conditioner, its function is to deliver the power without creating additional contamination from RF. Even if you don't have a power conditioner and just plug this into the wall, it will do some filtering (it contains noise-suppression capaciters and ferrites). Last known price was $275 from Todd the Vinyl Junkie. Notice the mylar covering which conducts RF to ground and also note the bulge near the IEC connecter which is a large ferrite.

• Goldenheart Interconnects: this is an unshielded interconnect, the theory being that shields are bad because they cause dynamic compression. To prevent RF contamination, this uses ERS paper instead. Last known price is $550  direct from K Works. In the first picture, you see the interconnects. In the second picture you can see the single-point ground contact it uses in the RCA connector---instead of using a round cylinder to contact ground, it uses a small contact. This is consistent with the no-shield philosophy.

As we all know, audio electronics come in a huge variety of signature sounds. Sometimes these are very appealing. For a particular device, I might notice the excitement of the transients. Maybe I notice the toe-tapping rhythm. Maybe the smoothness, maybe the detail.

Over the years, my understanding of good sound has deepened and become enriched. Very often it happens that I change my mind about a device---perhaps those exciting transients get less appealing and start to sound "less right" over time.

To cut to the chase: with the K Works products, my reaction was: "This is closer to the center of what matters than I've heard before."

What is the center of what matters? That's complex, but one aspect of it is differentiation, which is making different things actually sound distinct in musical character. On any cheap device I can tell that an oboe sounds different than a clarinet, but I want to feel the difference. I want to sense the deep beauty and rightness of the musical choices of the composer.

Of particular importance is differentiating small dynamic changes, sometimes called "microdynamics" or "inner dynamics." A huge portion of musical expression lies there.

I tested K Works products with the following setup:

• Naim CD5X CD player with Flatcap external power supply.
• DNA Sonett headphone amplifier (a SET zero-feedback design)
• AKG K601 headphones.

I need to make a point: I prefer analog to digital, but the kinds of recordings I search for are mainly on CD. So I have committed myself to making a good digital setup. Nevertheless, you will often hear me complaining about the inherent problems with digital, and one reason I like K Works products is they improve digital.

My first test, before I got anything else, was the Silencers. I was impressed with the gain in highs... it sounded like the highs had greater integrity and that I was starting to get real musical information from stuff above 7K instead of the digititus that often strikes in that region. There was a large increase in palpable presence. And of course, this improved the music. I could give a crap about attention-grabbing changes that amount to gimmicks.

I was fascinated with the idea that noise-suppression capacitors could do so much good, so I went out and purchased some. Understand that I was purchasing garden-variety caps, while Igor uses type chosen for their good sound. But I wanted to experiment. What I found was that garden-variety caps just sound bad. In theory they are all doing the same thing, but the reality is that you have to choose the components carefully. It's apparent that Igor has listened widely and found some that work really well.

I also experimented with an isolation transformer. In theory this has a large noise-filtering effect, but it had a weak or ambiguous affect on the sound. It changed the sound, but not clearly for the better.

At this point I was pretty impressed that Igor knew his stuff. His Power Station operates on a similar principle to the Silencers, but just way way more filtering. I purchased that, and also some Empowered PCs so I could deliver clean power from the Power Station to the components.

With the Power Station, I was just blown away by how the sound of CD had become emotionally intimate. I listened to Mahler's Symphony 4 which has an astonishingly beautiful adagio, and my heart was just soaring with the music.

Finally, I added the Goldenheart interconnect to the mix. The theory behind this cable is (1) no shielding, (2) ERS paper, (3) single-point ground contacts. I noticed the transients, for example the tonguing technique on brass instruments. As always, my acid test is: what does it do for the music? Well, it made the musicians sound like better musicians. It was like suddenly you realized these aren't recent graduates from music school, but world-class brass players that have carefully crafted every detail of their sound.

I could go on, but I think it's good to keep it brief and just let people choose to investigate more.

Notes:

• K Works is run by Igor Kuznetsoff. He doesn't have a website, but you can contact him at mailto:gorkuz@yahoo.com  If you are looking for a dealer, Todd the Vinyl Junkie (http://www.ttvjaudio.com/) sells K Works products, although he had to rebuild his website and does not have all products visible at this time. Contact Todd directly for more information.
• ERS paper is woven from carbon fiber and has RF-absorbing properties. You can buy large sheets of it, but Igor explains that it is better to use narrow strips in targeted locations. As he does with other things, Igor seems to pay attention to the actual sound achieved in different forms of application, and doesn't just slap a big sheet of the stuff on something.
   

I received Igor's Pneufeet today which are a vibration isolation product. They are rubber balls with a hollow inside, hence "pneumatic" suspension. The balls are treated with damping material. I received four of them, suitable for my headphone amp. I wanted to have Pneufeet for my entire system, but there is a delay in getting the rest of them. So today I used them with my headphone amp, the DNA Sonett tube amp, a SET zero-feedback design.

I listened to a recording of Beethove on piano and cello. The players were Alfred Bendel and his son. Just exquisite playing and a good, dynamic recording on Philips.

The was considerable improvement with the Pneufeet. Primarily I noticed microdynamics and PRAT (pace, rhythm, and timing). (I probably noticed those things first because I care most about those things.)

Microdynamics: when Alfred played a swelling, rushing upward scale, the sense of   dynamic swelling was clearer and had more emotional impact.

PRAT: As Alfred and his son varied the QUALITY of their rhythm---that is, the kind of dance movement it suggests---the changes were far more evident. Subtle changes from bar to bar were clear and had emotional impact.

I can't wait to get Pneufeet for my CD player. I wonder if that will be an even bigger difference, since CD players have very small signals and moving parts.

Mike

One more thing about K Works---

All of Igor's designs make physical sense.

In designing a power conditioner, what do you want to do? Suppress RF while not inhibiting the flow of current. And what suppresses RF? Two things that engineers have known about forever: caps and ferrites. They don't limit current and have a simple physical bases. Igor adds ERS paper to the mix, which also absorbs RF in a fairly simple way (that is, does not limit current or make the system unnecessarily complicated). Now, take these obvious design elements and tune them. It makes sense on paper, but it also sounds good once you tune it with synergistic materials.

Or interconnect design--there is a lot of contradictory information out there.  Igor's interconnects are pretty sophistcated, but one idea that makes physical sense to me is that shields constrain dynamics. To me, if that is truly the issue, then it seems like a big issue. So he gets rid of the shield and use ERS paper to suppress RF interference. He does a lot of other stuff too that I don't understand because I don't understand field theory,

And for vibration isolation---any physicist would say you need a "suspension" of some sort. For some reason, the opposite idea is prominent---that you use rigid conically shaped feet. That doesn't make sense to me. Maybe there is some way to tune it so it works, I don't know. But I like that Igor takes a sound physical basis, and again tunes it to sound good.

Apparently Patrik likes to use a LOT of sheets of ERS paper, while Igor uses strategically placed strips. You can kill dynamics if you use too much of the stuff.