Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity has reviewed the Electric Bamboo AC Line Purifier ($2,995). This device “has eight Hubble star grounded receptacles, four of which are designed for digital, the other four for analog.” Reviewer Jason Victor Serinus writes what can only be described as a painfully honest review. He compares the unit to his reference, the Nordost Thor:
But with the Electric Bamboo, I felt the highs somewhat damped compared to the Thor. It was as though the triangle on the opening section of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances had a curtain drawn over it, dulling and minimizing its impact. It rang less in space, and seemed to die off faster.
On the recommendation of the manufacturer, he changed interconnects and noted:
Not that I particularly liked what I heard, or thought it “better†than the sound with the Thor. It was just that, with highs dulled and colors more homogenized, the entire gestalt became more acceptable.
Finally, in conclusion, Jason states:
No grand conclusions here. Different strokes for different folks, different conditioners for different systems.
Read the entire review, then thank your diety of choice that there are earnest people out there who are willing to spend this kind of effort to evaluate cryogenically treated power strips. You gotta love this hobby!
Please consider the following reasons why we do not agree with Jason’s harsh and negative review of our very competent Electric Bamboo Line Purifier. We are very perplexed as to the reason Jason’s official review was so contrary to his comments during the initial listening session.
1) We listened with Jason for over an hour and heard only positive changes in the music. If our Electric Bamboo did not outperform the Nordost Thor we would not have left it for a review as agreed with Jason.
2) Before we took the EB over to Jason’s we compared it against the Nordost at a respected high end store in the Bay Area. We ran it on very revealing and highly regarded Electrostatic speakers. The Audiophile owner and three of his audiophile friends, one of which is a professional classical musician, were sure after only a short listening time that the Electric Bamboo was far superior. They all said it was like removing a blanket from the speakers. The version that we took to Jason’s had 2 additional significant upgrades and was even a better performing product.
3) Jason mentions that other acquaintances were at his house listening with him but fails to share their opinions. One of those present owns an Electric Bamboo and does not share Jason’s evaluation of it. He in fact is keeping it and selling his new PS Audio Premier, and he will continue to share it at future BAAS events.
4) Everyone (except Jason) who has heard the EB at BAAS events, private homes, high end stores, and professional studios has only said the music definitely sounds fuller, more organic, more 3 dimensional, more detailed, less aggressive and more airy in the high frequencies and correct in the low bass.
5) At the recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver this past October we had the privilege to install an EB into several great sounding rooms. Every room that had a line conditioner costing $3000 plus said ours was better without a doubt. In the rooms that had no conditioner they said we wowed them and made their equipment sound fuller and better that ever.
6) We challenged Patrick a recording engineer for Blue Coast Records in Belmont CA to listen to a couple of tracks from their famous Blue Coast Collection in our room at the show and see if we weren’t one of the best playing it back as he had intended it to sound. He took our challenge and said “After hearing these songs in many other rooms, your sound is the best. You are the only ones to keep the important high frequencies and to get them right. The music is clear, clean and just right on the mark. Congratulations for a job well doneâ€.
7) Please do not accept Jason’s evaluations and conclusions as the absolute truth about the performance of the Electric Bamboo. There are far too many talented audiophiles who have come to the opposite conclusions. To settle the challenge between the Electric Bamboo and other great line conditioner’s we invite the music loving community to join us in our quest to prove that the Electric Bamboo is really one of the best line conditioners available.
As far as us recomending changing the interconnects was not to improve the Electric Bamboo but to introduce a very high end interconnect.
It’s apparent thay Jason’s review is inconsistent with other reviews. I do not have the EB yet, but plan on comparing it to the Running Springs Haley and the Synergistic Power Cell.
I would also like to add, that in my experience, the power cords used have a great effect on the final result. I will post ass soon as I do the comparison.