av guide ch A2 Power Switches User Manual

av guide ch A2 Power Switches

Product Information

The Ansuz PowerSwitch is an Audio Switch designed by Ansuz to clean the incoming digital signal before it is fed into the system via the streamer. It acts as a large filter and enhances the sound quality of the audio system. The PowerSwitch features a power socket, 8 Ethernet sockets, and 10 3.5 mm jack outputs, which can supply the Active Shielding of the Ansuz Top Digital and Ethernet cables D-TC2 and D-TC Supreme. Additionally, Ansuz offers resonance absorbing feet called Resonance Control Darkz feet made of different metals, which dissipate resonances and further enhance the sound quality. The Ansuz Sortz is another tuning device available for the PowerSwitch, which shields the RJ45 version of the Ethernet inputs from electronic noise and improves the sound image purity.

Product Usage Instructions

1. Connect the Ansuz PowerSwitch to a power source using the power socket.
2. Connect up to 8 Ethernet devices to the PowerSwitch using the Ethernet sockets.
3. Connect the Active Shielding of the Ansuz Top Digital and Ethernet cables D-TC2 and D-TC Supreme to the 10 3.5 mm jack outputs of the PowerSwitch.
4. Optionally, attach the Resonance Control Darkz feet to the PowerSwitch to dissipate resonances and enhance sound quality.
5. For additional shielding from electronic noise, use the Ansuz Sortz tuning device on the RJ45 version of the Ethernet inputs.
6. Enjoy improved sound quality and optimized digital signal transmission in your audio system.

Test review: Ansuz Audio Switch A2

Published on 13th May 2022- Editor: Silvan Karrer

High End Audio (Power) Switch from Denmark
We wanted to know exactly what is behind the Ansuz components and how well the Danish newcomers do. We tested the Ansuz A2 PowerSwitch. To write that the tester was thrilled would be an understatement!

• Ansuz Acoustics, still little known in Switzerland, is part ofthe young Danish triumvirate consisting of Aavik and Borresen Acoustics and Ansuz. The Danish triumvirate of “Audio Group Denmark” is based in the northernmost Danish city of Aalborg This trio emerged from the high-end loudspeaker brand “Raidho Acoustics”. In 2017 Raidho was bought by Dantax and the current heads behind Borresen, Aavik and Ansuz have then said goodbye to Raidho Acoustics and founded the Audio Group Denmark.
• Why three brands and not everything under one brand umbrella, you will probably ask yourself right now. Lars Kristensen, sales director, and co-owner, that the three product lines complement each other ideally, marketing-wise and, of course, sound-wise! After all, a dealer can choose just one or two lines without having to take on the entire portfolio. However, three brands strain the marketing budget of Denmark Audio Group more than “only” forone brand, but the advantages described outweigh and the growth so far, which amounted to a whopping 45% in 2021 compared to the previous year and speaks for the strategy of the successful Danes from Aalborg!

The modest headquarters on the outskirts of Aalborg

Alesca Audio Fidelity in Fehraltorf, itself only active in the Swiss market for just under two years, distributes the three fresh Danish high-end brands from Aalborg in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

• The Ansuz A2 has a modern, anthracite-colored stealth design that blends in visually unobtrusively with an existing installation
• The Ansuz Acoustics range is quite extensive. Starting with cables of all kinds, Ansuz Acoustics offers high quality power distributors, resonance devices, termination plugs and even high-end racks! Ansuz, by the way, is the name of a Scandinavian rune and means wisdom – well chosen, I think!
• In this review, we will focus on the Ansuz A2 PowerSwitch (audio switch). We have already tested Borresen speakers and Aavik electronics. To get in the mood for the test product, here is a short

YouTube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfB1nRdzd0A

The technical background

• The technical mastermind behind all Audio Group Denmark components is Michael Borresen. To understand the special design of Ansuz and Aavik components, we need to go back 80 years to the military technology ofthe time.
• The British, radar pioneers in World War II, would have noticed that their radar-equipped destroyer ships would have detected the U-boats faster and more effectively than radar aircraft. Theoretically, the planes would have had all the advantages on their side. According to Michael Borresen, the engineers found out that it was the swell or wave motion ofthe radar tracking ships that created a modulation and were thus more successful.
• As an example, Borresen says that if you hold your hand in front of your face and keep it still, it covers most of your field of vision. But if you move it up and down quickly, you see much more. So you get more information with this “modulation” of the hand and that is the technical trick of Ansuz and Aavik electronics. Here a short video about Michael and his visions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BscWaihM6Ck
• Quote Michael Borresen: “The electrical fluctuation, i.e., tiny time axis modulations, thus bring more acoustic information into the listening room.” The many small spirals used for this – Ansuz Acoustics calls them “Tesla Voice Coils” belong to an oscillating circuit that incessantly shifts the signal. The Ansuz circuit modulates the signal in its entirety on the time axis but remains untouched.

The interview with Michael Borresen

• Before we turn to the corpus delicti Ansuz A2, we interviewed Ansuz mastermind Michael Borresen about the PowerSwitch technology and he was more than happy to share his thoughts!
• Michael, what were your main design ideas for the Ansuz PowerSwitch?
• One of the main goals of Ansuz was to treat the digital signal with the same care as the analog signal. This is because the digital signal with the zeros/ones is underlaid by an analog carrier signal and therefore reacts
  very strongly to interference of all kinds. Also, the digital signal coming from the router offers no grounding (earth point) and this shortcoming we compensate at Ansuz with our Tesla-Coil technology. The Ansuz Sort devices also offer the possibility of capturing interfering RF signals and thus reducing them even further.

The Ansuz Sort Devices are also available as RJ45 – Ethernet version, here shown the RCA version How great do you consider the influence of the Ansuz PowerSwitches on the sonic qualities of the digital audio system?
Clearly, very big! We regard the PowerSwitch as a large filter that cleans the incoming digital signal before it is fed into the system via the streamer. All downstream measures are less effective and, in some cases,
even more expensive. Tip: also plug your TV LAN cable into the PowerSwitch, your TV picture should also benefit from the optimized digital signal!

Why don’t the Ansuz PowerSwitcheshave a hard power switch?
The power consumption of our PowerSwitches is marginal. In addition, many digital applications run 24 hours a day.

Why do the PowerSwitches run under the Ansuz and not the Aavik brand?

• Michael laughs – that was probably a funny question;-) Quite simply, all power supply-related products run under the Ansuz brand, and we include the PowerSwitches among them.
• Michael, thank you very much for the informative answers!

Now we concentrate on the test device:

• The test object – the Ansuz A2 PowerSwitch
• Before we finally turn to the test unit after this detailed introduction, you may be wondering what an Audio Switch – Ansuz calls them “PowerSwitch” – does and where it is looped in.

Here is a graphic for this purpose:

• Our test object, the A2 Audio Switch, costs CHF 3200 and ranks above the entry-level X-TC model in the model hierarchy, which costs CHF 2000. Above it is the model D2 at a price of CHF 5360 and the top model D-TC Supreme at a proud price of CHF 12,000. The four switches do not differ externally, but inside they differ even more! The tested A2 model has 2 “Active Cable Tesla Coils”. 90 “Active Square
• Tesla Coils” and 1 dither circuit. In the next higher model D2, there are 2 “Anti Aerial Resonance Coils” in addition, in the top model D-TC, there are also a fabulous SIXTEEN!! handmade “Active Tesla Coils” in addition, as well as 3 additional dither circuits. This certainly explains its price!
• The following graphic shows the inner workings, visualizes the different coils and dither circuits and lists the features of the 4 Ansuz PowerSwitches

All Ansuz PowerSwitches have a power socket, 8 Ethernet sockets and in addition 10 3.5 mm jack outputs, which can supply the “Active Shielding” of the Ansuz Top Digital – and Ethernet cables D-TC2 and D-TC Supreme.
As resonance absorbing feet Ansuz offers the Resonance Control “Darkz” feet made of different metals, which are supposed to dissipate occurring resonances and thus further enhance the sound of the Audio Switch. Other tuning devices are the Ansuz “Sortz” – the RJ45 version of the Ethernet inputs additionally shields from electronic noise and thus bring even more peace into the sound image purity.

Listening experiences

• The reference listening test chain consists ofthe AavikI-180 amplifier, high-quality Ansuz speaker, digital and power cables, signal cables from Econaudio and the Ansuz Power Distributor A2. The
• Blumenhofer FUN loudspeakers are currently providing excellent sound quality, and the listening room is additionally optimized with Steinmusic room acoustics elements.
• As an audio switch served so far, a “Silent Angel Bonn N8”, an entry-level audio switch with an external power supply, cost about CHF 450. This already brought a sonic improvement, no issue and the tester is already aware that
• in a digital chain, the audio switch, if one is used at all, is the gateway for the digital signal into the audio chain. Ansuz already demonstrated to the tester in Aalborg headquarters in comparison sessions HOW important a good Audio Switch is, based on a high quality power supply. The levels of sound improvement within the Ansuz hierarchy were always clearly audible. In addition, an audio switch should not only filter the signal supplied by the router optimally, but also provide good grounding, so that the most optimized digital signal can then be fed to the DAC via streamer.
• Enough talk – now we want to listen to music. So, we took the Bonn N8 out ofthe system, plugged in the comparatively massive Ansuz A2 and started the Qobuztest playlist. The A2 was powered by an Ansuz A2 power cable and delivered its digital signal to the streamer via an Ansuz “Digital Ethernet A2” cable, so it was “en famille”, so to speak
• What should I write to remain objective, which is really difficult for me. Anyone who has not made and experienced the comparison between a basic switch and an Ansuz A2 PowerSwitch can simply not imagine the increase.
• The increase from “no switch at all” to a high-quality audio switch like the Ansuz A2 must be downright shocking.
• Digital is all the same, they used to say – ones and zeros, period, and that’s it. My dear man, but the comparison of shellac to vinyl would be apt or for the younger generation of Spotify to Qobuzor Tidal would also be such a good comparison. It was just more of everything, more resolution, more depth, more stage, a deeper but more contoured bass that thus also increased the spaciousness. The music was just (even) more fun and so the test playlist rushed through, I forgot the time and caught myself continuously turning the volume control ofthe AavikI-180, which is always such a good sign – at least until the neighbors ring the doorbell. By the way, especially the stage gained massively, in all directions. Since I installed the Steinmusic tuning devices, the music in my listening room floats anyway detached from the speakers in my room, but with the A2 PowerSwitch it started to become
  almost eerie, so three-dimensional the music played up. The Blumenhofer Fun speakers also soared to new sonic heights and played far above their price range – what more could you want!

Here is the A2 switch with Ansuz Ethernet and power cables, of course!

Third-party testing with the Ansuz A2 PowerSwitch or a second opinion
A few days later, I met an audio buddy who also has “golden ears” and a lot oflistening experience and raved to him about the Ansuz A2 Switch. In an act of “mercy” or “joy shared is joy doubled”, I visited him at his home with my magic digital box and wanted to find out ifit was just me as a tester who had fallen into a sound frenzy. After installing the Ansuz A2 in his high-end system (he already had an audio switch from another manufacturer), his jaw dropped, and the immediate want-to-have effect set in within minutes! With hands and feet, I defended my test device after the listening session and grudgingly he had to give it back after the listening session. Only his pending car purchase (still) prevents him from buying an Ansuz Switch! So, you see, dear readers, the author has not fallen into a “delirium audiophilus» but declares – still slightly euphoric – from now on for all high-quality, digital
high-end chains the use of a good audio switch as obligatory!Joking aside, I have rarely experienced such a significant increase in sound with an affordable device and before you next time think about buying a cable or other equipment, try out a high-quality audio switch before, you will make eyes or ears, promised. It should be noted that, of course, a high-quality audio switch is also happy to be supplied by a high-quality power cable, as well as appreciate good, high-quality Ethernet cables. Recommendation: especially the Ethernet cable between the audio switch and the streamer should be ofthe best possible quality. So, please don’t skimp on the cables, or would you buy budget tires for a luxury sports car? Ansuz Acoustics has even two more advanced PowerSwitches in their assortment, I could convince myself at the time in Aalborg, “My A2” is sufficient for my sonic Valhalla, at least for the moment! But we all know it, only the sky is the limit!

Conclusion
The brand Ansuz, until today little-known in Switzerland, has an absolute dream device in its portfolio with its A2 digital magic box, which is affordable and brings maximum sound gain for the sought-after price. From a tester’s point ofview, an outstanding audio switch like the Ansuz A2 is practically indispensable for a digital high-end chain and can also be further upgraded with high- quality Ansuz power and Ethernet cables, Dark feet and Sortz termination plugs. Feel free to borrow an Audio Switch A2 from Alesca Audio Fidelity in Fehraltorf – but I warned you!

Online link: https://www.avguide.ch/testbericht/test-des-high-end-audio- switch-a2-von-ansuz-ansuz-powerswitch-a2
Copyright 1999 – 2022 avguide.ch GmbH

References

• HiFi & Foto Testberichte und Kaufratgeber | avguide.ch
• Test des High-End-Audio-Switch A2 von Ansuz - Ansuz PowerSwitch A2

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