The Inakustik Power Station AC-3500P and LS-4004 Air Speaker cable just might be the end of your Cable/Power Conditioner search!
Contrary to the normal procedure here at The Sound Advocate, I’ve decided to give our readers a glimpse of 2 extraordinary products that have recently made an entry into my home audio system through the courtesy of Mr. Robert Neill, president of worldwidewholesalers.com. Although testing of the Inakustic AC-3500 Reference Power Station and their top of the line Reference LS-4004 Air Speaker Cables are still in their initial stages, both of these products have inaugurated themselves with some extraordinary listening impressions; conclusive enough to warrant this commentary.
Established in 1977, the German audiophile company, Inakustik is an integrated part of the family-run Braun Group, which, besides the cable specialist braunkabel, also includes the model railway manufacturer BRAWA and Eagle Cable. They are just recently breaking into the American audiophile market, “having been dedicated to perfection – in audio, video, music and media, with some “exclusive design principles”.
My curiosity prompted an inquiry to Robert, a truly dedicated and supremely knowledgeable audiophile and music lover. He promptly suggested I give a listen to his Inakustik Power Station AC-3500P and LS-4004 Air Speaker Cables. (In our formal review, we will include the Inakustik Power Cords as well).
In practice, many people have thought of power conditioners (myself included) to be a bit of a myth. On the other hand, certain spheres in the Audiophile community believe that a power conditioner will, in fact, improve audio reproduction quality, particularly in a state-of-the-art system.
Theoretically, a good power conditioner (I repeat, good!) filters and cleans incoming AC power and dramatically improves your equipment’s performance. In this case, it appears that Inakustik has gone head strong in developing a “power station” that appears to be quite different than the plethora of audiophile conditioners currently available.
INAKUSTIK AC-3500P POWER STATION
With the advent of the AC-3500P power station, Inakustiks engineers have produced a specifically developed filter network that compared to the average filter designs, operate in parallel to the power supply; pushing most of the distortion to the land surface. As such, there are NO components connected in series to the mains power, which will compromise your systems power and dynamics. This makes certain the acoustic foundation remains intact—and hence, this “filter” most undeniably has allowed me to hear some of the most subtle, yet fundamental characteristics from well recorded program material more distinctly as compared to a few other audiophile conditioners I have used in the past (most recently the AudioQuest Niagara 1200 Power Conditioner and a few others).
The AC-3500P power conditioner reliably suppresses all unwanted interference from the power system. Its Active Power Distributor implements a highly efficient parallel filter perfectly attuned to an audiophile’s needs. The filter leads off all interference from both the power system and the connected devices themselves without restricting the supply. Adding to this is a well dampened sub-chassis that reduces mechanical vibrations of the filter components caused by the 50-Hz grid frequency
It’s unlikely that you will be able to detect a drastic change in sound reproduction with most power conditioners and in most cases, these differences may be very subtle; if noticeable at all!. However, in the case of Inakustiks AC-3500P power station, the more you listen and interchange your source components back from the AC-3500P to your wall mains outlet, the more surprised you become.
At this stage of my listening to the AC-3500P, I have, quite undoubtedly, found incremental, yet marked improvements in image precision, sound quality and focus. One can detect a subtle yet distinctly, notable ‘tinge’ of instrumental tonal “clarity” (particularly discernible on great quality piano recordings) and an extreme amount of expanded depth and width to the sound stage. Background quietness is once again, totally prodigious. I’ve also noticed little bits of musical nuances that heretofore have never been observed with definitive source material on my system! Interestingly, when coupled with the below LS-4004 speaker cables, this compelling combination produces a standard of quality that is quite addictive and hard to forget!
INAKUSTIK LS-4004 AIR SPEAKER CABLE
In the distant past I had been a bit skeptical as to the ultimate influence loudspeaker and interconnect cables have on an individual’s particular systems overall performance (and most particularly at some of the exorbitant prices they command!). Over the years, I have slowly, yet thoughtfully reassessed my thoughts and ideas on this subject of audiophile reproduction. This is particularly the case when one is assessing cables with his own specific set of gear, whereby improvements or indeed, a deterioration in sound quality might be observed. This is most dependent on the respective components being engaged with a given cable or interconnect.
Having been listening to the pure copper version of the Inakustic LS-4004 speaker cables for the past 3 weeks, I can say that these cables have been a bit of a revelation in the overall sound quality of my home system!
The ‘monster’ snakes you see above are the Inakustik Reference LS4004 Air Speaker Cable. In fact, I had installed these cables prior to hooking up the Inakustik power conditioner. The technical attributes that I’ve been reading about this speaker cable have been quite interesting to me.
The Inakustiks LS-4004 uses what they call “Air Helex Technology”. The claim here is that Air Technology completely reduces any type of signal loss to the original signal, virtually transmitting the music reproduction totally unchanged; and in this case, these Air Technology cables claim to be as close as possible to ‘lossless transmission. Inakustiks have objectively measured the increased quality of sound reproduction of the Air Cables and a lot of this has to do with the air insulation or dielectric properties of the cables; arguably being close to perfection!
They have focused on the construction, arrangement, and dimensions of the conductors to exploit all that is physically possible. To achieve this, Inakustik uses no less than 16 Cross Link Super Speed wave-guides and of course the quality of the conductors themselves. The Air dielectric ensures extremely low capacitance and inductance. What’s more, they have a version of the Air Cables which are, finally,100% ‘Pure Silver’. (Other high-end cable companies claim it, but it ain’t necessarily so!) Yes, the cost is more, but they are pursuing the best; and neutrality s the keyword here!!
In fact, my current sample of the LS-4004 Air Cables are so natural that the string tones of violins can be heard with complete individuality and an initial transient ‘streak’ of the specific bows, but with no stridency whatsoever!
As of this time in my auditioning, the LS4004’s sonic endowments are quite thrilling and breathtaking, to say the least. Tonal neutrality, instrumental timbres, width and precise depth of soundstage—particularly when paired to the AC-3500P, (yes, we’ve all heard this before, but these wires seem to leave the competition behind) are the hallmarks of these speaker cables. Well recorded vocals and orchestral music will give you a more ‘distinct’ tonal naturalness, while also rendering a cleaner and more innate sounding acoustical decay effect from program material and their singular recording venues.
Talk about an unadulterated, huge, but accurate bass response- look no further than the LS-4004 Air. As I continue listening to the Inakustik cables, I am beginning to think that they just might be one of the best overall sounding set of audio cables I have ever had the pleasure of auditioning! (I have heard almost all of them!) The above are just a few highlights of this magnificent cables’ attributes!
As a full review of the Inakustik LS-4004 Air’s, as well as their power cables and AC3500P power station is in the works, you can read up on these superb audiophile products at the links inscribed on this article. Watch this company!!
INAKUSTICS in-akustik GmbH & Co. KG
Untermatten 12-14
79282 Ballrechten-Dottingen
Deutschland
NORTH AMERICAN DISTRIBUTOR: Robert Neill ~ President
Worldwide Wholesales 519-619-9924
WHERE the MUSIC BEAT meets the AUDIOPHILE ELITE !
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