A number of informal laws apply to high-end audio, and one of the most potent states that "everything matters." This refers to the careful work required to build a fine audio system, and it is especially true as that system improves -- becomes more resolving and is better able to reveal the effect of changes in equipment, room treatments, and cables. Many years ago, I dismissed the sonic importance of power cords out of hand, reasoning that these non-signal-carrying lengths of wire couldn't possible influence the sound that comes from the speakers. But "everything matters," especially the quality of the power our audio systems receive. I heard the improvement a good aftermarket power cord could make and have since experimented with many different cords, each displaying its own sonic personality.

Now there are a few power cords that I turn to when I want to hear exactly what electronics sound like, among them Essential Sound Products' The Essence Reference, which I wrote about in late 2005. Since then, I've discovered particular components with which The Essence Reference performs better than any other power cord I've used, including the uniformly wonderful Shunyata Research Helix models. Among these are the Convergent Audio Technology electronics, which is no surprise given that Ken Stevens of CAT recommends the ESP cords for use with his creations without reservation.

When Michael Griffin, head of ESP, introduced The Essence Reference, he promised that an Essence Reference power distributor would follow. And it did, after roughly a year of detail work required to bring such a product to market all over the world. Thus, unlike so many of the products that you hear about online these days, The Essence Reference power distributor -- both standard and Schuko -- is a finished design. Michael spent the bulk of his professional engineering career in the automotive industry, and this has given him a seriousness of approach that keeps his product line small and slow in terms of development. You won't see incremental changes to The Essence Reference, or a quick "Mk II" tacked on.

While The Essence Reference power distributor may look nearly identical to the unit it replaced, it has changed substantially. Even so, the theory behind it is the same: The captive Essence Reference power cord is what does the power cleansing, not an array of esoteric filters, an isolation transformer, or a power-regeneration circuit. A new feature, however, is overload protection, about which Michael says, "It's just what's needed, nothing more." It is, in fact, a two-stage system incorporating "mode-1" surge/spike protection between the hot and neutral legs of the circuit and a fast-blow ceramic fuse for severe overload protection. The unit's anti-resonant, RFI-shielded aluminum chassis is damped with a proprietary material to mitigate the effects of airborne and structurally transmitted vibration. Thus, while the power distributor does what its name suggests, it also does much more, including protect whatever is connected to it while retaining its sonic relevance.

Like The Essence Reference power cord, the power distributor is cryogenically treated to -300 degrees Fahrenheit to realign and reduce the space between the grain boundaries of the copper and brass components used, which, Michael explained, leads to lower resistance and greater current delivery with fewer distortion effects. Internal wiring is custom designed, and each of the four hospital-grade duplex outlets is wired back to the unit's attached power cord, not daisy-chained to the outlet next to it. Daisy-chaining is much easier, but wiring to the power cord effectively isolates each outlet from the others. When you consider everything that goes into The Essence Reference power distributor and the fact that you don't have to buy a separate power cord to use with it, its $1499 USD price seems reasonable.

In order to test The Essence Reference power distributor fully, I used it with my entire system, amps and all. Each component was connected to it with a number of different power cords, including the stock cords that came with each product. Michael is adamant that not only do his products break in, the components connected to them -- specifically their capacitors -- do as well. So I took my time, living with the power distributor in my system for over a month before doing any close listening.

The good news about The Essence Reference power distributor is bad news for ESP's bottom line: One power distributor offers the benefits of The Essence Reference power cord to all of the products plugged into it. There is a fulsome neutrality, not the emaciated version that so many audiophiles have come to identify as neutrality, along with a fast, wideband handling of transients. Its sound, if "its sound" does exist, has the character of flowing water: clarity with no dominating flavor, which is the point of a product like The Essence Reference.

I was especially impressed with the way The Essence Reference power distributor worked with amplifiers, even ones that draw lots of power like the CAT JL2 Signature stereo amp and Atma-Sphere MA-2 Mk III monoblocks. Both of these amps dim the lights when I switch them on, and the CAT amp has even tripped the breaker a time or two. Plugged into The Essence Reference, both sound clear and natural. The CAT amp's low-end drive and Atma-Sphere amps' see-through midrange were on boundless display.

When I swapped stock power cords for The Essence Reference cords, I did hear some additional improvement, though the power distributor was certainly pulling most of the weight. Low-level musical elements -- the swishing of brushes on cymbals, the last breaths blown through a trumpet -- emerged from the very low noise floor with a bit more clarity, though I am convinced that some listeners will think that an even brighter, more obviously vibrant presentation will pull such detail out of the system's ether better. Of course, these same listeners will complain of razory edge definition and spotlit treble -- such is the tradeoff you make when your system tips too far one way or another. The Essence Reference doesn't play this game. "Real neutrally" is how I referred to the sound of The Essence Reference power cord, and the same is true of the power distributor's.

Compared to the Shunyata Research Hydra Model-8 or V-Ray, the two power conditioners with which I am most familiar, The Essence Reference power distributor held its own with amplifiers and one of the source components I have here -- the Esoteric P-03/D-03 transport and DAC. The Shunyata products sound a tad richer, and the V-Ray seemed to reduce the finest noise-dust to an unparalleled level, the effect of which was easily heard. This served the Audio Research Reference 3 preamp and Aurum Acoustics Integris CDP CD player/preamp especially well. What the Shunyata and ESP products impressed upon me, however, was the efficacy of a well-thought-out passive approach to power conditioning. While industrial-strength ideas about power may tickle our minds, less-is-more implementation seems to make the most sense to our ears. "Everything matters," especially if there's too much of it.

Has Michael Griffin shot himself in the foot by making the sonic performance of his top-of-the-line power cord available to multiple components with The Essence Reference power distributor? It seems like a dicey proposition for a company's bottom line, but it's a winning one for audiophiles.

...Marc Mickelson
marc@soundstage.com

• Current Issue Equipment Reviews