(Jolida) Black Ice Audio Foz SS-X Sound Enhancement

It only affects the bottom end.  There is no affect beyond at all. It simply warms up the bottom end with a 9db plus (or minus) adjustment which I needed.  It is very satisfying and nothing like a traditional equalizer.  The device itself is flat to beyond audibility.  The specs are impeccable.  

The big plus is how it widens the soundstage on live recordings without sounding the least bit gimmicky. Been there - done that.  I am a stickler for tone, clarity and musicality. It is a well designed and well executed circuit.  Very well built.  It has transformed my listening space just as I was hoping it would.  Actually, I wasn't prepared for just how much.

Jeez, judging by this it sounds like the cocktail waitress served me a few already...still waiting but enjoying the music!

I spent years working in recording studios and there are many, many devices that are used to "enhance" the recorded sound that manipulate phase and eq. While high-end has traditionally eschewed tone controls, equalizers and phase manipulation at the end-user, things seem to be changing a bit, IMO because of the popularity of super-revealing systems that sound good on first listening, but then become tiresome over time. Again, IMO. If you like the sound and you can wrap your mind around the fact that you are not hearing what was actually recorded, have at it.  But I can see where this would be abhorrent to those people who spent a lot of time and money assembling a system that was as true to the recording as possible.  I'm not sure they could intellectually enjoy a system they knew deliberately manipulated the sound.  The human mind is a strange thing.   

Agreed.  I am one of them.  I spent good money on a very revealing all tube system for those same reasons.  I'm just stuck in a small room and my 3.7s can't disappear due to the physical limitations of placement and can't generate quite enough bottom due in part to their design as well as the room dimensions.  

This is a fix.  I was well aware of that in my deliberation.  But it is one heck of a good one.  I've have owned and have heard many enhancers over the years and never cared for them.  This one is done right.  Subtle, clean and unobtrusive save for the fact that it accomplishes what I need done.  I am a happy camper.

There is nothing worse than speakers that won't work with the room.  I've said this many times, but in a normal domestic environment without a huge amount of placement flexibility, it is a total crapshoot in finding a speaker.  But when it clicks with the room, a whole world opens up.  Believe me, I know.  I had the Harbeth Monitor 30s and I so wanted to love them, but it sounded like everything under 100 hz was missing.  Then I tried the Opera Callas Monitor and it sounded perfect.  The errors in the speaker complimented the errors in the room.  My guess is you will eventually abandon this product and try for a better matching speaker because you won't be able to deal psychologically with inserting a $400 box in between all your expensive components.  Part of the audiophile mind.  Maybe not.  Try to enjoy.  

Thanks for the comments. Good observations.

It would be really hard for me to give up the Maggies. I wanted them in the worst way since the early salad days when I first heard them powered by Audio Research. I knew I wanted tubes and Maggies. I was finally able to buy them in mid 1990 after I acquired the Carys. They were the last in the chain of my build.

Actually, they were never intended to stay in my office at home. They sounded tonally great even without the bass and imaging. It was always my intent to move them into a different area but that option never happened. Family issues precluded that move. In the intervening years, I wasn’t necessarily suffering from the lack of bass and imaging, I just missed both. My prior speakers, Celestion SL700SEs, would disappear and image like crazy in that other area, but no, I just had to have the Maggies. Well, to be fair, the Celestions suffered a catastrophic loss too painful to recount. I decided to opt for the Maggies rather than replace them.

This product brought it all together. I’m under no spell. I know it is signal/phase manipulation, but I accept that. It is well-executed, the build is exemplary and the sound very satisfying, such that, the compromise to absolutism is more than amply offset by the glorious compromise it is.

Bottom line is I get to keep my Maggies with their seductive mids and now have the warmth in the bottom with the imaging I was missing. To directly address the responses to my post, I’ll take that compromise for sure, even though I don’t view it that way at all.

I’ve been into this hobby since boyhood with soldering iron in hand and I have heard enough to know immediately what I like and don’t like; hence, despite the room acoustics, I kept this system this many years. This, I like, and my compromise is over.

I posted this as I suspect others may be in the same dilemma and need this capability. It may merit consideration. It truly is a great tool.

Now that I have shot my 5 (posts), I’ll return to the music and anonymity.

Best and happy listening to all!