This review is quite unusual: Audioquest's "LowZ/Noise-Dissipation" mains power technology implemented in cables and power conditioners, which has recently received the Statement in High Fidelity award, has to show in the CSM mastering studio whether it has there just as positive an influence on the sound as in a hi-fi system. Best of all, you can have a listen and decide for yourself!

The abbreviation CSM stands for Christoph Stickel Mastering. The multi-award-winning sound engineer and lecturer at the Erich Thienhaus Institute - better known as the location of the sound engineer training at the Detmold University of Music in Germany -, the Munich University of Music, the ARD.ZDF Medienakademie (Media Academy of the German broadcast ARD and ZDF) and the SAE Institute, his list of references includes such illustrious names as Keith Jarrett, Mariss Jansons with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Yello, John Williams and Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Vienna Philharmonic, John Scofield, Sir Simon Rattle, Die Ärzte, Seal, Sergiu Celibidache, Friedrich Gulda, Conchita with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, No Angels, as well as a Star Wars soundtrack. In my purely subjective selection, the six-LP box set Exclusively For My Friends by Oscar Peterson and DePhazz's Garage Pompeuse must of course not be missing here. On the reissue I produced as well as on the recording of sommelier du son, it was Christoph Stickel who took care of the tonal finishing touches: a tremendously pleasant collaboration, the result of which you can download for free, at least in excerpts, under the links marked above – don't worry about the articles been written in German, the music download is international.

Even after the re-release of a number of MPS albums that were carefully edited in mutual collaboration in terms of sound, I still meet Christoph Stickel from time to time, whether for exchanges about technical developments in the pro and hi-fi scene, smaller new projects or for more private conversations including the exploration of typical Viennese restaurants, the so-called „Beisl“. During our first joint productions, Christoph Stickel was still working as a senior mastering engineer at the renowned MSM studio in Munich. A few years ago he then founded CS Mastering and set up his own studio in Vienna's 6th district. There he got disturbed from time to time by crackling noises in his playback system, which were probably caused by switching interferences from other devices in the building. So he planned to address this nuisance by using Furman mains power technology. The company enjoys an excellent reputation, especially in the event and studio sector. Not least because of this, my colleague Bert Seidenstücker reviewed a Furman power conditioner for use in hi-fi systems on these pages about seven years agoand was so convinced of it that he purchased the Elite 16 Power Factor Ei right away after having tested it.