GIGAWATT PC-4 EVO
Power conditioners
The GigaWatt’s PC-4 EVO represents the state-of-the art of power conditioners. It is more effective than any other filtering device that I have come across since I reviewed Accuphase’s PS-500 back in 1996 - that is in the last fifteen years. The PC-4 EVO provides more solid sonic pictures than my modified Nordost’s Thor power distribution system, more transparent, open and dynamic sound than PS Audio´s Power Plants and by far better connectivity than Accuphase’s brand new PS-520 or PS-1220. With the PC-4 EVO it was once again reconfirmed where one should start building a reference grade system.
Function and form
The PC-4 EVO is the top-of-the-line offering from GigaWatt. Adam Szubert resigned from using separation transformers in the PC-4 EVO and applied a new generation of multi-stage parallel filtration. There are three totally independent filtering sections for three pairs of output sockets. It made adapting of the filtering parameters to the respective load possible. It is especially important for analog stages as well as for high current draw units like power amplifiers that must not be driven into ´current clipping´ if natural dynamics should be preserved.
The industrial effectiveness is used throughout the PC-4 EVO´s design as well. For example, oversized components with redundant capacities were used throughout the design not to compromise on anything. The two-layered PCB circuits with 550 micrometer thick silver plated copper traces are mounted with silver solder, RFI filtering blocks use low-inductance metallized polyester capacitors. There are no conventional wires used for the distribution of power inside the unit’s first filtering stage. This task was delegated to massive silver plated high purity copper bars. Rather than thermal fuses there is a modified Carling´s hydraulic-magnetic switch to protect components from overload (current or voltage) – it is the very same switch that switches the PC-4 EVO on and off.
In GigaWatt they are very well aware of the dynamics devastating effect of current limiting. Therefore they used the professional Neutrik´s PowerCon connector as the main unit’s power connector rather than a standard IEC socket. Whereas the former can handle continuous load of 25A the latter capabilities are rather limited with maximum current rating of 16A. And this is continuous load only – the PC-4 EVO can handle as much as 70A in peaks.
Bass management
Credo, the third movement of the Ramirez’s mass, develops around a persistent rhythm of Argentinian chacarera trunca – the rhythm that is created completely by native instruments of Latin America. Through the PC-4 EVO the music was in perfect order. The charango lute starts the track and it materialized approximately two meters behind the plane of of the right speaker in diminutive resolution. The strings were portrayed with very precisely spatially and temporally defined transients that were rather delicate than overdrawn, still lightning fast and superbly contoured. The music of Missa Criolla extremely benefited from the presence of two choirs and from the presence of the PC-4 EVO that enabled easy reading of the two choirs. Should I wish to follow any voice within a choir I could do that easily including its position that was firmly locked within the soundstage.
Powered by the ultra-high resolution the listening to a piano was a real delight. At around 2´25 mark a mass of air is set by the instrument to move into the depth of the recording, through the GigaWatt I could trace not only this but the soft reverb from the cathedral walls as well. On top of that this was not a singled out act but greatly integrated event happening on the background of an appearing gig drum that itself was initiating more and more intensive eruptions of the reverberant sound. Credo was well sorted out through the PC-4 EVO - I felt no sign of any stress or constrain that is normally present in a non-filtered system and that often borders with a kind of microchaos.
Clarity & delicacy
Listening to the Opus 3’s Vaquero I could once again enjoy the very fine resolution that was enhanced by the GigaWatt. The dreamlike piece was recorded at a 13th century stone church so instruments naturally show much longer decays than usual. The basic rhythm of Vaquero is set by maracas rattles that were simply f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c through the PC-4 EVO, especially at the end of the track when they fade into silence. I did not have a feeling that the conditioner would somehow impair energy, impact or dynamic scale of the drums that appeared from the depth of the church, still, this was something that had to be yet tested.
The physical appearance of the unit works very well for me. Its anodized black (available in silver as well) front panel has been milled from a slab of aluminum and its center is occupied by a LED display that reads effective input voltage. The reviewed unit sported the display in green but GigaWatt allows customization to match the PC-4 EVO with the aesthetics of your components and you can have also red or blue segments on order. In my listening room the voltage on the input varied between 238-242V most the time a shown on the display. When I measured the voltage on the output sockets of the PC-4 EVO by a precise Schneider Electric voltmeter, the measured values were exactly same as on the input. This is not contradictory to what was already said – the GigaWatt was designed for lossless current distribution and it only filtered off the noise and RFI, leaving the sinewave amplitude intact.
Tonal accuracy
I Want Jesus to Walk with Me (Eric Bibb, Opus 3) exhibited an increased noise level in the background when I removed the GigaWatt from my system. It was not like the music started to hiss, rather the noise was a kind of threshold noise that induces kind of fuzziness and hum at the very furthest level of our perception. The longer was I listening to the track the more I hated that noise. It was also like guitars and vocals dropped in their dynamics so the listening experience became flatter and less enjoyable. With the guitar I observed a slight shift of timbre, from the body of the instrument towards its strings, from wood to metal. These artifacts were so clear and obvious that I would submit myself to any blind testing voluntarily to identify the change.
The similar feeling of fuzziness was induced in Missa Criolla. Whereas there was a sense of joy in the filtered system, I felt that the orchestra was conducted in a very stressful manner in the unfiltered system, as if the conductor had another appointment in five minutes and wanted to finish earlier. The soundstage was not so well integrated and a communication link between instruments that was present in the filtered system disappeared when the PC-4 EVO had been disconnected. Apparently, there is much more information than we think (or dare to admit) that the GigaWatt can extract from the music.
I expected that something bad would happen to the choirs and it had. The expansive feeling was gone. The stereo precision was gone. The lifelikeness was gone. Does it look dramatic? Well, without the PC-4 EVO I was still listening to a superb high end system, but if you knew that just by moving few cables into the GigaWatt’s black box that was resting on the floor the level of enjoyment could reach different heights, you could not stay calm. A lot of money can buy just a little improvement in the high end audio – here the impact was apparent immediately, especially on the emotional level. Without the PC-4 EVO I was suffering.
Spatial resolution
I mentioned that I started with the cumulative effect of the GigaWatt. What if I only leave source components and preamps to be conditioned and the power amps will be provided with the unfiltered juice at full furce from a socket in a wall? According to many theories the system should benefit out of this. In the next step I did exactly this.
Equipped with Carreras, Ramirez and Credo I once again dissected the duel of two choirs at Santuario de la bien Aparecida. The first impressions were that the music is heftier and more impactful and powerful. Also the drum’s tranzient edge seemed to be more incisive. It might be either because the amps did really need the unfiltered power or because the conditioned voltage enables finer dynamic scaling to be develop. Here any quick conclusions are tricky and long term listening is the only judge – it is similar to listening to a compressed and an uncompressed recordings. The former are attractive short term but unlistenable long term. It does not take days to realize the change: I had been listening for merely fifteen minutes when I started to prefer the fully conditioned system. This was reconfirmed by a day of experimentation with different power supplying combinations. With the amps not being in the filter the charanga was blurred, the Carreras’s rich and velvety tenor was bleached and the dynamics got rougher. Any possible benefits, like the drums having more energy in the direct-to-the-wall constellation, were outweighed by the myriad of other benefits. For me the resume is clear: I preferred the sound of the fully GigaWattized system.
Recommended resellers
HTP Studio, Praha, tel. +420 606 346 822
GigaWatt, Zgierz, Poland
Manufacturer's website: http://www.gigawatt.eu
Associated components
- Sources: Accuphase DP-78, Pioneer PD-S 904G
- Amplifiers: Accuphase A-60 and C-11, Bryston BP 25 DA, Bryston 7B SST
- Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Homegrown Audio DNA, Cardas Clear
- Loudspeakers: Audio Physic Virgo V
- Power conditioning: Nordost Thor (modified), Nordost Valhalla, Gigawatt PC-3
Gallery
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