Synergistic Research Tranquility Bases, Transporter Ultra and UEF Tuning Circuits Review

Listening

Clearly, I did a lot of listening in order to decide optimal choice and placement of Tranquility Bases, Basik and equipment supports. For purposes of comprehension, let’s proceed as though all the supports are already in their optimal places.

One of the first recordings I played was a hybrid SACD I’ve carried room-to-room at shows for many years, the Budapest Festival Orchestra’s recording of Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Channel Classics). I was amazed to immediately hear an increase in clarity and breadth over anything my system had produced before, as well as a major lowering of the noise floor. The sound was not only more three-dimensional, but also presented in a wider soundstage.

What I did not expect, however, was that the bass also tightened and seemed less bloated. I can only assume that either my rack is even more inferior than I prefer to think, or that noise emanating from components detracts from bass reproduction. (Or maybe it’s both.) All I know for certain is that every time I listened to music with significant low bass content, I discovered that once the Tranquility Bases were in place and activated, the quality and definition of bass improved.

Next I auditioned several tracks from Channel Classics’ beautiful SACD of Vivaldi’s La Cetra. “Tremendous sense of space and acoustic – there is also a beautiful depth to the bass viols and the lower notes of the organ,” I wrote in my notes.

My companion for this round of listening tests, BAAS member Jeremiah Horn, remarked that the music sounded less thick and congested than before the Tranquility Bases had entered the picture. We both agreed that more of the violin’s complexity emerged – with the lowering of the noise floor, there was more there there. We also noted that, with less bass bloat, the balance between the high sound of period instrument strings and the period organ’s lowest notes seemed more natural and evenly distributed, as it would in any well-played and conducted performance.

Jeremiah and I also spent a good hour switching the two Bases and Basik around to determine their different effects. There was no question that the Base tightened bass more than the Basik, and also transmitted a wider soundstage. “You can hear deeper into the soundstage, with more air,” I noted about the Base. “I hear more overtones from the piano on my beloved Murray Perahia CD. The sound is more multi-dimensional, and seems more real.”

Jeremiah agreed, describing the Base as “more involving” than the Basik. In fact, when we returned to the La Cetra disc, he noted greater natural separation of instruments, greater bloom to the violin when playing slowly, and crisper attack on fast passages. He also felt he could better hear the delicate sounds of strings above the sound of the organ. “With the Base, I’m even more involved in the music,” he said in summation.

At the same time we conducted these experiments, we tried switching the Enigma tuning circuits that came with various cables and components from silver to gray to black, and finally back to silver. Black, no matter where it was used in the system, resulted in far too dark a sound – the natural shine, light and radiant color of instruments was far too diminished. While a single gray inserted into the chain brought out far more bass – the effects were most pronounced on the Element Tungsten power cord that plugged into the wall, and least pronounced on the Tranquility Base that sat beneath the dCS Puccini – I felt that any loss of natural brilliance on top was too much a price to pay. So I stuck with all silver throughout the system.

If there was anything uncanny about the tuning circuit evaluation process, it was discovering that changing the color of tuning circuit on a single active platform dramatically altered the sound of the entire system. I encourage anyone who thinks Ted Denney’s Tranquility Bases are a trick of the imagination to simply change the tuning circuit on one of them, and discover what a major change it makes.

Finally, Jeremiah and I switched between Standard and Galileo power supplies. There was no question that, as is the case with any power supply upgrade, the Galileo increased the positive effects of whichever Tranquility products and cables they powered. I kept wishing I had more Galileos on hand.

The Transporter

As if in answer to an unspoken request, Ted soon announced the release of the Transporters. Shortly thereafter, he and Synergistic Research Vice President Peter Hansen supplied a Transporter Ultra to replace my large and sundry assortment of Standard and Galileo MPCs.

Instead of a host of outlet-hogging wall warts, a QLS Quantum Line Strip power strip that simply refused to balance for long on any equipment supports I could round up, and enough intercrossed wires to intimidate a spider from every spinning another web, I was able to switch to a single box plus a number of far neater extension wires. Even if the Transporter hadn’t improved the sound, which it most certainly did, the peace of mind and freedom from clutter it provides were most welcome.

Here’s what Ted has to say about the Transporter:

The Transporter has two separate internal electromagnetic cell power supplies. These employ the same technology as in the Tranquility Basik and Base and PowerCell. One power supply is for powercords and PowerCells; the other is for everything else.

The Transporter Ultra has four electromagnetic cells, two for the input power for each of the two power supplies, and one for each of the outputs of the two power supplies. These electromagnetic cells are not in the Standard or Galileo MPC wall-wart power supplies.

The Transporter creates a larger and more layered soundstage, with greater density of images. It does this by first realigning the AC signal before it enters the power supplies, and then filtering the DC output before it goes into the bases or cables. The results are better sound all the way around.

I’ll be honest. Given how much easier the Transporter and Transporter Ultras are to use, and how much freedom from clutter they offer, I didn’t spend much time the Transporter Ultra to the Standards and Galileos. I simply made the switch and rejoiced.

Speaker Changes 

Not long after the Transporter Ultra entered my system, my husband and I began to prepare our house for sale. Since our house stager convinced us that my large reference system was too owner specific, and would not convince a non-audiophile individual or couple to purchase our home, I made the painful choice to put it in storage. Since Wilson Audio already planned to get me other speakers for review, they retrieved the Sashas, just months before the release of the Sasha Series-2. The rest of my system made its way into a Pod.

Is it necessary to tell any committed audiophile what it felt like to bid my reference system a temporary adieu?

After months of open houses and private showings, each of which necessitated that we clean like crazy, then round up our three dogs and vacate the house – you don’t want to know from it – we decided to take our house off the market until mid-February. At that point, I said to my husband, “Enough is enough. I can’t live without my system any longer. I’ll forego the analog end of my system, retrieve one less rack, and use the old Von Schweikert VR-4jrs instead of the Wilsons.”

Which is exactly what I proceeded to do. I of course knew that the smaller VR-4jrs were actually too small for my listening room, and would not fill the space. But what I did not realize how much of an astoundingly good job they would do when abetted by the Tranquility Bases, Basik, and Transporter. There is no other way to account for the fact that, while the soundstage was of course smaller than that thrown by the mighty Sashas, the midrange hardly as rich, the treble not as refined, and the presentation less detailed, the soundstage was still sufficiently musical to leave me listening with arms open rather than closed.