I think most of you are familiar with my writings over the years about the superb Acoustic Revive Hi-Fi performance products from Japan, but just in case you're not, let me provide a quick introduction from an earlier article:

"Those who have been following the Acoustic Revive Chronicles know all about Mr. Ken Ishiguro and his impressive design work that has created the Acoustic Revive system & room tuning products, but for those who are just tuning in (inadvertent pun) let me provide you a little background primer.

Mr. Ken Ishiguro’s design goal is provide products through the Acoustic Revive brand that help voice one’s Hi-Fi system so that it will play a recording "so that it sounds natural and not as though it is being played back over an electrical device." Those who have been following my writing know that’s exactly the kind of products I want in my own system. Or as Jim Smith puts it in his excellent book Get Better Sound, this is the “going for the musical balance before going for the audiophile sound effects” approach (you should get a copy of Jim’s book if you haven’t already)."

When I went back recently to review the articles I have written about Acoustic Revive the list was a surprisingly long one:

Chapter 1 – The RR-77 ultra-low frequency pulse generator.

Chapter 2 – The RIQ-5010 & RIQ-5010W quartz Insulators and QR-8 quartz resonators.

Chapter 3 – The RCC-24 ground conditioner and the SIP-8F RCA input shorting plugs.

Chapter 4 – The RPT-2 & RPT-4 Ultimate Power Distributors and the Power Reference power cables.

Chapter 5 – The REM-8 EMF canceller.

Chapter 6 – The RWL-3 Acoustic Conditioner panels; the CB-1DB receptacle base plate, the CFRP-1F carbon fiber outlet plate, and the CS-F2 outlet stabilizer.

Chapter 6a – Getting Top Performance From Your Digital Media: Shine Ola Optical Disc Cleaner, the Acoustic Revive RIO-5II Negative Ion Generator, and the Acoustic Revive RD-3 Disc Demagnetizer

Chapter 7 – The Custom Series loudspeaker stands, the RST-38 & TB-38 quartz under-boards, and the RAF-48 air floating board.

Chapter 8 – The Single Core speaker cables & RCA interconnects, RCI-3 Cable Insulators.

I had thought that the Acoustic Revive Chronicles Chapter 8 article at Positive Feedback Online was to be my closing chapter for writing about the fine Acoustic Revive products, as I had worked through all the review samples, but then a couple of more goodies came my way, to my surprise and delight, so now we shall see a Chapter 9!

Chapter 9 of the Acoustic Revive Chronicles will be about the RAS-14 AC power conditioner (no photo yet) and the USB-1.0SP USB interconnect (see photo below.

I've had both the RAS-14 AC power conditioner and the USB-1.0SP USB interconnect in my reference systems slow-cooking for a couple of months, and my initial impressions are quite positive. If you look closely at the photo above you'll notice that the Acoustic Revive USB-1.0SP interconnect has two USB connectors on the computer end to separate the signal line from the power supply line. It's an interesting idea for sure, and you can read more about it on the Acoustic Revive website here. I'll talk more about the RAS-14, and provide some photos, in another post.

Yesterday I spent part of my morning installing my digital front end from System 3 into my big system with the Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers (below).

My digital front end consists of an iMac running iTunes and Amarra software, the superb Locus Design Group Polestar USB cable, and for the first time a Sablon Audio 'The Robusto' power cord powering up the over-achieving Mhdt Havana USB DAC, to really, really, fine effect. The interconnect from the DAC to Leben RS100U preamplifier is by Auditorium 23.

I'll tell you what, this digital front end combo has real synergy going for it, and I've heard digital systems that easily cost ten to fifty times what this one cost, and they don't play music as well. It's simply superb, and a great place to hang out until digital matures to a level that it can match analog for musicality & sonics. By the way, the Harley-Davidson piggy bank is a real performance enhancer (just kidding!), and reminds me daily to spend my money where it matters most in life.

So that's a quick update on what I'm up to on the reviewing front. Happy listening to you all!