New level of ridiculousness

READ BELOW FOR PORTIONS OF A REVIEW BY JACK ROBERTS OF DAGOGO.

I’ll start this review with two confessions. First, when I first saw the HB Cable Design PowerSlave distributors, I thought these have to be the most expensive, best looking power bars I had ever seen. To be honest, they seemed a little ridiculous; I mean there is no traditional kind of power conditioning going on here. There is nothing to help keep the voltage stable; they are simply “power strips on super steroids.” The only reason I was interested in reviewing them was because they were being imported to the U.S. by Brian Ackerman of Aaudio Imports and my experience had taught me that he has quite an ear for finding great sounding gear.

So I agreed to review HB Cable Design’s three passive power distributors, starting with the their entry level PowerStar Horizon ($3,995) which I reviewed in January of this year. I ended that review by saying, “I’ve tried so many power conditioners that I won’t try to list all of them. In the end, I am a firm believer in the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle when it comes to audio design. Just look at my system, it only has three power cords, and one pair of interconnects plus the tonearm cable. The HB Designs PowerStar Horizon fits right into that principle. I can’t wait to get the Acrylic and the Marble in for a listen.”

Then, in April I reviewed the PowerSlave Acrylic ($6,995) which remained in my system until August when I finally got to hear the PowerSlave Marble, the subject of this review. I ended the review of the Acrylic by saying, “I know this review is short, but it’s simple: this thing works! Brian will be sending the PowerSlave Marble to me; I can’t wait!”

Let me be honest: After all the great and some not-so-great power conditioning products I have owned and/or reviewed, I simply was stunned by the improvement the HB Marble made in the sound of my system. After the time I had just spent with the Audience aR6-T, the Synergistic Research Tesla PowerCell with active power cords, the HB Acrylic, and the new Audience aR-6TSS (by the way, all incredibly good units) I just wasn’t prepared for how much better my system sounded with the HB Marble in the system.

With the HB Marble the bass was full and fast at the same time. It also had outstanding attack and equally good decay. The bass had more weight, and depth to it; it actually seemed to occupy a more realistic space. The best thing of all was how the bass seemed to undergird the entire sound.

During my time with the HB Acrylic, transparency was one of the first words that came to mind when describing how my system sounded. With the Marble, my system sounded just as transparent, but that was not the first thing that came to mind. It seemed to sound more balanced from top to bottom. It’s a kind of transparency that allowed my system to let voices come to life right there in my room and at the same time to have really nice body and power. I was able to hear more inner detail than I have with other power devices. This detail comes through by allowing instruments to sound more like the real things with an actual decrease in edginess or brightness.

My system simply sounded more fundamentally right with the HB Marble in the system. I’m sitting here as I write, listening to an old mono Chet Baker LP, and I have never heard his horn sound better, nor have I ever heard the piano have such natural decay. Likewise, the standup bass lays a beautiful and strong foundation for the music. It is neither too fast or too romantic. It is also relaxed sounding in that the horn hits certain notes with nice bite to it.

I know $9,000 for a glorified power bar sounds insane, but I can’t imagine listening to music without it — so it stays. I’m not saying you have to spend this much on powering conditioning, but at the cost of my entire system this doesn’t seem all that out of line to me. I don’t use one of these on my digital/video system upstairs, but I do use some power conditioning. By the way if you haven’t plugged your HD/TV into a good power conditioner you have no idea how good your picture really could be. I’m not saying that you can’t enjoy music without the HB Marble, but you do need some decent power conditioning. If you can afford the HB Marble and your system is at the place that this could be your next big step, then go for it. You won’t be disappointed!

Seems like it should be better for TV/video as well. Seeing would be believing. More so than hearing I think. IS hearing alone enough to believe? Not as easily I think. No need to go into all the shortcomings of using a/b listening tests alone to establish a products value.

Also a technical explanation of how why this power device works its magic would help in this case. Power conditioning isn't rocket science. There must be some basis for how it works beyond a suppliers magical ability to hear good things.

... "$8995 for a power strip?" ... My first thought was that carpetbagger in the white suit in "Outlaw of Josie Wales" who was trying to sell Clint Eastwood his special elixir and Clint taking that huge hocker all over his jacket lapel and asking him if it was good on stains.

For $8995, I like to see Clint do a repeat of that scene and instead of spitting on the carpetbaggers lapel, he'd spit on the carpetbaggers power strip and ask him if it works when it's wet.

Mapman, it does have a major impact on tv, but I don't know whether your supposition about vision being more sensitive than hearing is true.

Noromance, once I hardwired my entire system for ac. It was much better but scary as I had no fuses, etc. I, of course, doubt your statement that, of course, it would be better. I would suspect it would be but am not about to bother to try it. With fewer contacts everything should be better. So hard wire everything together and hope for the best.

"I don't know whether your supposition about vision being more sensitive than hearing is true"

Not necessarily more sensitive,just easier to assess differences with video versus audio I think.