MAGELLAN AUDIO TRANQUILO RFI FILTER BOXES

PRICE R25 000

SUPPLIED BY Magellan Audio 083 325-6017 / phisci61@gmail.com

DISTRIBUTED BY Multiroom AV 083 786-6911 / multiroom@mweb.co.za

The short of it…

The overall improvements the filters bring are not hard to determine. They are immediate, apparent and there is simply more music, dimension and detail.

The long of it…

A while ago I wrote a review on some Magellan Audio RFI filters that one attached to signal cables in a system. Those prototype filters certainly made a subtle difference to my system.

In the ensuing months after writing that review, Ryan Hill of Magellan Audio has moved the state of RFI filtration, as it pertains to audio systems, forward in leaps and bounds.

Hill’s thinking on trying to reduce RFI goes something like this…

While filtering out RFI noise at the input of a device certainly helps, what happens to the RFI noise picked up by the various antenna (such as downstream low level signal cables or speaker cables), or generated by switch mode power supplies or Class D high frequency switching, after those original filters were used?

The solution was to find a way of filtering out RFI noise at virtually the last possible place: your loudspeaker terminal.

This brings us to the filters reviewed here, which are elegantly finished wooden enclosures, inside of which are the magic RF-absorbing crystals. On top of the enclosure is a multi-way loudspeaker binding post. A short length of cable is supplied with a banana terminal on one end, and a spade on the other.

Installation is simple. Place a box behind each speaker, connect one end of the supplied cable to the negative terminal of your loudspeaker (either spade or banana plug, whichever is easier for you) and connect the other end to the terminal at the top of the filter. And that’s it. There’s no need to wait for anything to run in, for the earth’s lay lines to align or for solar flares to subside.

What I heard when listening to music was an immediate and clearly discernible opening up of the soundstage. This was accompanied by better image definition and stability. In visual terms, this is the equivalent of taking your glasses off and cleaning the haze off their lenses. Music also tended to sound less “edgy” while higher frequencies were crisper and cleaner to listen to. Similar improvements were audible in the midrange, too. If this description sounds familiar, it should. I said something similar when I listened to the previous iteration of the Magellan filters.  The difference now was that the improvements were far less subtle.

Since my initial listen to this iteration of the filters, first in prototype version and through to the final production ready models, I’ve been to numerous demos of the filters. At each demo, people have said practically the same thing. Importantly even those who weren’t in the listening sweet spot during the demos, heard similar improvements. Said improvements are to a large degree system independent, although they tend to be more audible the more revealing a system is.

I listened to the filters on systems employing everything from Class D (which due to its design creates its own RFI), Valve and solid state amplification, and there were similar results on all. I also listened with various speakers from dynamic cone to panel speakers, and again the sonic improvements were similar. Speaker cables were all different in design and construction, ranging from single run to bi-wire and from multi-strand to solid core conductors.

While the filters certainly made a difference to most of the music I listened to, I have to be honest and say that I didn’t hear an improvement on every piece played. Differences were less noticeable on loud, highly compressed tracks. My guess here is that the sheer volume of the music swamped any improvements.

And now on to the question of value?

The filters aren’t insignificant money. They are however in the price range of decent cables, and in my opinion they make more of a difference that many cables I’ve listened to do. They are system independent and as they are so easy to install, I would suggest trying to arrange a demo on them. If you hear a difference, as practically everyone who has heard them has, then it’s up to you to determine their value in your system and with your music. To me, if you can afford them, it’s a no brainer.

Joel Kopping