That's why I take the next step in trying "Improvisation" from Le Concert Des Parfums again. This piece I hadn't heard so far with the PowerSwitch combined to Mainz, the three Digitalz and the Darkz - and I'm really enthusiastic about it. Then I remove the costly feet again. As so often, the difference becomes clearer when you take a step back from the better version. Doing without the Darkz takes away much of the image's three-dimensionality: While the expansion of the stage in width and depth remains almost the same, the height of the stage shrinks considerably. Thus the loss of a little solidity in the lows and a touch of openness is much easier to be forgiven. The change from the standard feet to the Darkz may not seem immediately mandatory, but once you have gotten used to the Darkz under the PowerSwitch for just three or four tracks, and then remove them, you become almost painfully aware of the extent to which the Darkz have been beneficial to the sound.

In the first article about the PowerSwitch, I mentioned that decades ago, Lars Kristensen, one of the main shareholders of Ansuz Acoustics, impressed me with demonstrations where he used cables that were priced above the total value of the good but affordable audio system in play. I had no intention of emulating him in my occupation with the PowerSwitch, particularly as the total value of the Ansuz equipment used for distributing digital signals described here is a good deal less than the value of the whole system, but nevertheless above the price of converter plus up-sampler. This isn't an ideal foundation, but I just wanted to know what is feasible in terms of digital signal distribution. However, I won't get tempted to do something like that again in the near future. I promise.