When swapping to the Sortz Supreme version, the sound is audibly darker in the highs, which is easy to trace in the string passages within the "Simple Symphony". Claire Martin's voice is rendered more powerful and the bass sounds more voluminous. At the same time, a little of the resolution gets lost on the way, while Claire Martin and her accompanying musicians are sized into the room in a little more compact manner. I somehow like the Sortz Basic better at this point. Nevertheless, my clear favourite is the Sortz Signature, which simply does everything a little better. The music sounds even finer and more confident, with higher resolution and even greater spatial depth. I find it remarkable that the various Sortz versions, Basic, Supreme and Signature, used in such different places as the switch (digital data distribution) and the preamplifier (analogue signal amplification), each tread the same path tonally. Obviously, the different coating finishes of the connector housings seem to play a decisive role for the tonal characteristics. What is also worth mentioning, is that the spatial depth of the sonic image is much more influenced by the implementation of the Sortz in the network than in the analogue section of the system.

We can even surpass what we have attained so far by connecting a Sortz Signature and a Sortz Basic in parallel to my switch - true to the saying: two Sortz are better than one. With this configuration, one of my favourite albums, Flamenco Passion with Gino D' Auri (Flamenco Passion FIM XRCD), the flamenco guitar sounds exceptionally rich and round, without hard-strummed chords becoming blurred or losing their brilliance. It is also impressive how small details, such as the creaking of the cello or the tapping on its body, are carved out, making this recording even more interesting for me. This is simply fantastic and I am slowly beginning to understand the great fascination that the Ansuz Acoustics PowerSwitch D-TC Supreme, which has some of the technologies used in the Sortz plugs incorporated, has exerted on Dirk Sommer.

But I'll make you an even better suggestion now: Instead of using two Sortz on the switch, I'll let the switch get along with only one Sortz Signature and plug the Sortz Basic into a free LAN port on my router - yes, you have read that correctly. This puts us at the starting point of my data network and at the same time furthest away from the analogue section. For me, this variant is the sonic optimum. Now, the sound frees itself from the speakers in such a thoroughness that their location can no longer even be guessed at. The musicians are virtually standing in my "living room". It is quite impressive how, in a network cleansed of background noise, the smallest musical details are revealed that normally get lost in the broad noise floor, and how a clearer and more transparent sonic image is created leading to an immensely relaxed enjoyment of music.