February 2000

Essential Sound Products A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Cords and Power Distributor

by Roger Kanno

A/V Power Flow-Pro Power Distributor (top) and power cord

Review Summary Sound "Most significant contribution to improving the sound was in cleaning up of the midrange," but also offered "more precise imaging and a greater sense of space from left to right and to the rear;" the effects on video, though "fairly minor," include a more three-dimensional appearance and an increase in detail. Features Power cords are "heavily built with a sturdy IEC connector on one end, a large three-prong plug on the other"; Power Distributor "consists of a length of A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord and a bank of six heavy-duty outlets." Use "Work well with a broad range of components and to have a bit of a sonic character that was maintained from component to component"; more pronounced effects with audio equipment than video. Value "They improved the performance of every single piece of audio equipment with which they were used," but were "less of a cost-effective upgrade" for home-theater systems.

I have never paid much heed to power cords or power-line conditioners, and after making a modest investment in a couple of basic PLCs a few years ago, I have not given the subject much further thought. Although I believe that PLCs and power cords can improve the audio and video performance of a system, these upgrades have never been very high on my list of priorities. However, I did recently purchase an after-market power cord for an amplifier, but only after I was satisfied with the performance of all of my other components, interconnects, and speaker cables. Keep in mind, though, that power cords and PLCs don't usually bring about earth-shaking improvements in sound and video quality and thus can't compensate for any real deficiencies in a system.

Essential Sound Products, or ESP for short, has been manufacturing The Essence power cords for some time now, and Marc Mickelson reviewed these quite favorably in our October issue. Having established themselves with The Essence, ESP has branched out with two more affordable lines dubbed the A/V Power-Flow and A/V Power-Flow Pro. The less expensive of the two new power cords, the A/V Power-Flows, were also favorably reviewed alongside the A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Distributor by James Causey in our November issue.

The subject of this review is the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cords, with a follow-up of the A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Distributor. The A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord is priced at $299 for a two-meter length, twice the price of the A/V Power-Flow power cord, but slightly more than half the price of the Essence. At $299 and $499 respectively, the ESP A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord and power strip are not cheap, but they appear to be well designed and well built. Of course, you can spend a lot less on power products (or a lot more for that matter), but these seem to strike a nice balance of price, performance, and build quality.

Description

The ESP A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Cord is heavily built with a sturdy IEC connector on one end, a large three-prong plug on the other, and a black flexible woven outer jacket covering the entire length of the rather thick cable. This is one serious-looking power cord that will not be mistaken for a stock cord. It is also fairly heavy and stiff, but can still be twisted around objects with a modicum of effort provided no sharp angles are required. Like the Essence and A/V Power-Flow power cords, the A/V Power-Flow Pro cords are shipped with plastic caps covering the ends of the prongs on the plug and are packaged in an attractive zippered cloth bag. I find this type of packaging more aesthetically pleasing and easier to deal with than bulky cardboard boxes or those horrible sealed plastic packages that many cables and power products are encased in nowadays. I also received an A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Distributor, which consists of a length of A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord and a bank of six heavy-duty outlets. This is the same model that was previously reviewed by James Causey.

Pro-formance

Before doing any serious auditioning of the A/V Power-Flow Pro power products, I decided to break them in on the Roksan Caspian components that I had on hand for review. I also replaced the power cord of a Proscan PS52682 rear-projection television with one of the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cords. Even during the break-in period, it was obvious that the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cords were a definite improvement over the stock power cords that were provided with the Roksan components and the Proscan television.

As I casually listened to the Roksans and a few other components with the A/V Power-Flow Pro products, I noticed many similarities to the experiences described by Marc Mickelson and James Causey with other ESP products. Like Marc’s experience with the Essence line, I found the A/V Power-Flow Pros to work well with a broad range of components and to have a bit of a sonic character that was maintained from component to component. With the A/V Power-Flow Pros, the midrange was cleaner, detail increased, the bass was more robust, the noise floor was lowered, and the entire soundstage became more contiguous from left to right and from front to back. Every one of these improvements were conferred to a greater or lesser degree upon all of the components that were powered by the A/V Power-Flow Pro products. And like James, I noticed that video performance was also improved by the ESP power cords and power strip, even though this improvement was not as pronounced as what I had experienced with the audio system. The picture now exhibited a bit more shadow detail and had a slightly deeper, more three-dimensional look.

After this informal assessment of the A/V Power-Flow Pro products in both an audio-only and a home-theater setting, I set out to describe more objectively the improvements brought about by these power cords and power strip. To accomplish this, I systematically compared the ESP products with the stock power cords provided with the Roksan Caspian components and Proscan television, an MIT Z-Cord II, a no-name power bar purchased at a local hardware store, and basic PLCs from Rotel and Adcom. Because of the many combinations of power products and audio components that I was planning to compare, I did most of my critical listening using only one CD: Music From the Motion Picture City of Angels [Warner CDW 46867]. This reduced the number of variables during A/B comparisons so that I could more easily distinguish the effects of each of the different power products. Comparisons on the home-theater system utilized a few select DVDs that were chosen primarily for their demanding video material.

Listen up

The sound of the Roksan Caspian CD player and integrated amp when using the stock power cords and no-name power bar was good, but had a hint of grain in the midrange and a slightly hard leading edge that gave close-miked vocals and instrumentation a bit of harshness. The soundstage lacked some depth and dynamics were a little more compressed than I would have liked, which prevented the music from really opening up.

When an A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord replaced the stock cord of the Caspian CD player, there was a definite improvement in the sound of the system. The graininess in the midrange was lessened, and the soundstage opened up considerably. There was a breathiness to Sarah McLachlan’s vocals on "Angel" from the City of Angels Soundtrack that was not present with the stock power cord. The piano was brought forward with increased body in the bass notes and more of a sense of the instrument occupying a particular location in the recorded space rather than a vague area somewhere between the two speakers.

I found, as James Causey did, that the amplifier I was using benefited more from the use of ESP power cords than did the digital source components. This was the case with the Caspian integrated amp, which improved the sound of system more with the use of an A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord than the CD player. The presentation was now more focused with a more substantial increase in midrange clarity and more authority in the lower registers of McLachlan’s piano. The Caspian integrated sounded even more powerful than its 70Wpc rating, especially when used with the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord.

When the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cords were used with both the Caspian CD player and integrated amp, the improvements were complementary and additive. There was more precise imaging and a greater sense of space from left to right and to the rear. McLachlan’s vocals and the piano seemed to trail off into the distance well beyond the loudspeakers. The piano was more realistically portrayed with the differentiation of notes and even the sound of the strings as they were struck, followed by the resonance of the body of the instrument were more easily distinguishable.

Finally, when the A/V Power-Flow Pro power strip was combined with the two power cords on the Caspian CD player and integrated amp, there was yet another incremental improvement in the sound. This full complement of ESP products was able to eke out the last bit of detail that I thought the Caspian components were capable of. The very delicate, lilting quality that well-recorded female vocals exhibit was present, and nearly all of the sibilance of McLachlan’s close-miked vocals on "Angel" were gone. In addition, the sound of the stand-up bass was more involving as it took on a resonant and woody "purring" quality as the bow was run lazily over its strings.

I also auditioned one of the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cords with the Krell KAV-300i integrated amplifier that currently resides in my two-channel rig. The ESP power cord was able to improve on the already transparent and accurate sound of the Krell. Admittedly, the extreme neutrality of the KAV-300i can sometimes make its presentation sound a little sterile, but the ESP power cord was able to add some richness and body to it without introducing any coloration. The Krell was still transparent and extremely fast, but it had a warmer and more full-bodied sound, especially on vocals. Robbie Robertson’s Music for the Native Americans [Capitol C2 724382829522] had tight, articulate bass that provided a solid underpinning to the music, but more importantly the vocals, flute, and guitar were exceedingly smooth and non-fatiguing.

Sound off

There was no question that the stock power cords and no-name power strip were easily surpassed by the ESP products, which is not surprising considering the large difference in price. However, when the ESP A/V Power-Flow Pro power cord was compared to the $175 MIT Z-Cord II, the sonic differences between the two cords were much less noticeable. The MIT is an excellent budget power cord and improved the sound in much the same way as the ESP, but to a slightly lesser degree. The ESP A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Distributor, though not a true PLC due to its lack of active filtering, did an excellent job in providing power to my audio system, especially when used in conjunction with the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cords. When a Rotel RLC-900 PLC was substituted for the ESP power strip, the sound became less focused and lost much of its airiness and sense of depth. Although the Rotel is more of a true PLC, it could not match the ESP power strip in terms of increasing the width and depth of the soundstage as well as adding more layers of resolution within it. In fact, the A/V Power-Flow Pro power cords and Power Distributor were able to outperform every combination of the less expensive power products that I had on hand.

Watch this

Because the A/V Power-Flow Pro products are intended for both audio and video use, I also utilized the Power Distributor to feed all of the components in my home-theater system as well as one of the power cords for a Proscan PS52682 rear-projection television. Although these products were able to enhance the video performance of my home-theater system, the improvements were much less dramatic than the improvements in sound quality that I had experienced with the two-channel systems.

When an ESP power cord replaced the stock power cord of the Proscan television, the picture took on a more three-dimensional appearance, there was an increase in the amount of detail, and colors became deeper and more vibrant. For instance, during the opening scene of the Replacement Killers [Columbia 21629], the outline of Chow Yun-Fat’s shadowy figure was more visible through the darkness and less blob-like. Colors of uniforms in the grandstand during the launch sequence of Apollo 13 [Universal 20461] and the patches on the astronauts’ pressure suits were brighter and more vivid. Very fine details such as the thin mist surrounding the tower during the launch scene were more wispy and dimensional. However, these improvements in video quality, although noticeable, were fairly minor and sometimes difficult to detect.

When the A/V Power-Flow Pro power strip was used to power the entire home-theater system in conjunction with one of the power cords on the Proscan television, there were further subtle improvements to the picture. The opening sequence of the Replacement Killers now exhibited less smearing and color bleeding of the red titles against the black background. There were also more details in shadows as the sun shone through the walkway of the Apollo 13 launch pad, and the shimmering wings of Dim and the lighting on the faces of Tuck and Roll were more natural and less flat in Chapter 10: Flik’s Flight Home from A Bug’s Life [Disney 16698].

Although the ESP A/V Power-Flow Pro products were able to improve the video performance of my home-theater system, the improvements afforded by each by the ESP products individually and even when combined were relatively minor. The MIT Z-Cord II and a $200 Adcom ACE-515 PLC were able to bring about similar improvements to the picture quality as the much more expensive ESP combination. Although careful comparison did demonstrate that the ESP products were superior, the differences were hard to pin down. For example, both the MIT and ESP power cords improved color fidelity, but the MIT often seemed to do a better job with extremely bright and vibrant colors such as with the well-saturated reds and blues of Apollo 13, but the differences were so subtle as to make subjective comparisons difficult.

Summing up

High-quality power cords and power strips such as the ESP A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Cord and Power Distributor can improve the performance of your audio and home-theater systems, but the improvements will probably be relatively minor when compared to upgrading other components or loudspeakers, which is generally more costly. I found their most significant contribution to improving the sound was in cleaning up of the midrange, which made the background quieter so that more detail could be extracted from recordings. The combination of the A/V Power-Flow Pro Power Cords and Power Distributor was a worthwhile upgrade to my audio system, but the improvement to the video quality of my home theater was not as impressive in comparison, making these products less of a cost-effective upgrade to that system.

Having said this, do I like the ESP A/V Power-Flow Pro products? You bet. They are well-built products that provide a significant upgrade when compared to stock power cords and el cheapo power strips. They were also better than any of the less expensive power cords and PLCs that I compared them with and they improved the performance of every single piece of audio equipment with which they were used.

...Roger Kanno
roger@soundstage.com

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