As I mentioned in my article for Positive Feedback about the Acoustic Revive RPC-1 Power Supply Conditioner, I am always intrigued when I get a message from Yoshi-san or Elia-san from the MuSon Project in Osaka, Japan, who export Japanese audio exotica to The World.
Every time I get a message from Messrs. Hontani I get pretty excited, because long experience has taught me that with their extremely good taste in all things audio that something very good is about to happen!
Take for example, it is Messrs. Hontani who have introduced me to the joys of Japanese audio exotica from the Leben Hi-Fi Stereo Company, Acoustic Revive, and the Spec Corporation, and the colorful & creative personalities behind those companies, like Mr. Taku Hyodo, Mr. Ken Ishiguro, and Mr. Shirokazu Yazaki, respectively. What a joy it has been!
When I received a message last week from Yoshi-san that he would like to send me some new state-of-art AC power supply products from Mr. Ken Ishiguro of Acoustic Revive, I got pretty excited, because being a daily user of Ishiguro-san's already superb AC power supply products in my main music-listening system, I was really interested in seeing & hearing what Ken-san had done to take these AC products to their next stage of evolutionary design.
Dear Jeff,
Next week we are going to send the following items to you for
testing:
1 x POWER REFERENCE-TripleC (3 lines = with the Earth line).
2 x POWER REFERENCE-TripleC (2lines = without the Earth line)
1 x RTP-6 Absolute
1 x RAS-14-TripleC
Here is a comment by Mr. Ken for the best application:
a) Please use P. REFERENCE (3 lines) from the wall outlet to RTP-6.
b) Please use P. REFERENCE (2 lines) from RTP-6 to the equipments.
c) Please test RAS-14 with a power cable of any other brand to see the effect more clearly.
Thank you in advance for your efforts.
Best regards,
Yoshi Hontani
The Acoustic Revive RTP-6 Absolute.
RPT-6 Absolute top view.
The RPT-6 Absolute's chassis is CNC machined from a single block of aircraft aluminum, with the assembled RPT-6 Absolute weighing in at substantial 9.3 pounds.
The RPT-6 Absolute bottom view, with specialty fo.Q footers, and a quartz tuning disc.
The RPT uses rhodium plated brass footers with damping material inserts sourced from specialty company f0.Q. The damping material from fo.Q converts vibrational energy to electric energy, which is converted to heat energy.
Closeup of RPT-6 footer.
Ken-san is a fun man, and he likes to write various fun symbols on the devices he sends me, and I always enjoy looking for them!
Sometimes they're written on the outside of components, and I've even found them written on the insides of the chassis of the Schumann generators Ken-san has sent me. It's like a treasure hunt - what fun!
This time I found hexagram symbols subtly marked into the bottom of the footers fo.Q damping material. Some of you might know that a hexagram can symbolize the connection of the spiritual & physical worlds, and the symbols are Ken-san's way of wishing me good luck! Thank you Mr. Ken, those are good vibrations!
The outlets in the RPT-6 Absolute are custom outlets jointly developed by Acoustic Revive & Furutech
Ok, now that we've talked about what's on the outside of the RPT-6 Absolute, let's talk about what's on the inside, like the impressive GTX-D NCF specialty outlets that were a joint development between Furutech and Acoustic Revive.
The GTX-D NCF outlet's body material is made out of a specialty Nano Crystal Formula (NCF) that is a combination of a crystalline material incorporating nano-sized ceramic particles and carbon powder, which exhibits piezoelectric damping properties when exposed to mechanical stress, which in this case is provided by the vibration in mains electricity, which for example, is a 60Hz vibrational frequency in the USA.
The NCF's piezoelectric effect puts the mains AC vibration to work to generate negative ions that helps eliminate static, and it also dissipates AC mains vibrational energy by converting it into electrical energy, which is then converted to thermal energy in the far-infrared.
You might wonder why Furutech & Acoustic Revive are so interested in reducing vibrational energy in an outlet that they have gone to such an extreme as developing a high-tech solution involving piezoelectric nanomaterials for the body of an AC outlet.
Here's why: Signal-to-noise ratio. The vibration of the mains AC is transmitted by the AC line to the outlet, from the outlet to the plug on an AC power cord, down the power cord to the equipment where it vibrates the equipments' chassis, vacuum tubes, and other components that make up the audio electrical circuits, reducing the signal ratio of the music signal flowing through the hi-fi.
When we think about the deleterious effects of vibration we normally think about floor-borne & air-borne vibration, and compensate by putting our equipment on isolation platforms and stands. It does help, however, the vibrational energy transmitted to equipment by the AC line is often overlooked, but reducing it at the outlet is an easy way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, thus Furutech's & Acoustic Revive's interest in it. Pretty clever idea, I'd say.
As you've probably guessed from the diagrams above, there's lots that goes into the construction of a GTX-D NCF outlet, and there is.
In addition to the NCF outlet body, the Acoustic Revive version of the GTX-D NCF outlet uses cryogenically treated silver-plated pure-copper electrodes, that are rhodium-plated to protect the silver from being damaged by the metal blades of AC plugs, and to keep it from oxidizing. The electrodes grip the male connector blades of the AC plug via a stainless steel spring system that holds the AC plug firmly but won't damage the male connector blades or their plating.
The outlets are installed into the CNC'd aluminum chassis of the RPT-6 Absolute, and the chassis is filled with natural green carborundum, tourmaline, and quartz powder, to further damp it and reduced noise.
RPT-6 Absolute.
RPT-6 Absolute NCF AC inlet.
The inlet for the RPT-6 Absolute is also a custom Furutech item, with a cryogenically treated silver & rhodium plated pure-copper electrode, and Nano Crystal Formula (NCF) body.
The internal wiring of the RPT-6 Absolute is an elliptical single wire of 2.8 x 2.4 mm of PC - Triple C insulated in a combination of silk and Teflon.
The Acoustic Revive RPT-6 Absolute.
The Acoustic Revive RPT-6 Absolute is a remarkably well thought out product, and is built to an incredible level of quality befitting its lofty price of $3975 USD. I'm looking forward to giving the RPT-6 Absolute a listen and telling you more about my impressions of it.
In Part 2 of this post I'll tell you all about the accompanying Acoustic Revive POWER REFERENCE-TripleC AC power cords and the RAS-14-TripleC AC stabilizer that Yoshi-san sent me to test, so stay tuned, as there will be much more to come!
As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!
