Mains: part 1

Friday, 12 February 2010

MusicWorks Reflex Lite IEC

We at the Reading store have been fans of MusicWorks mains products for many years now, in particular their Megablock 6 way mains distribution block. It’s design was simple yet most effective. Ignoring the trend by some to incorporate any form of mains filtration, it was largely made from third party components and ‘tweaked’ by way of removing all ferrous metals and crucial to its design, star earthed. The sonic benefits were obvious to all who heard it and was reasonable priced at about £200. If it had drawbacks, it was rather long, being 6x switched sockets mounted inline, and nothing if not purposeful in its design.

A little while ago MusicWorks decided to totally redesign the whole thing from scratch, to produce what one must agree is a most elegant solution.
The new models, ( there are a number of variants including deep cryogenic treating ), are now housed in a beautiful layered acrylic form to control unwanted vibration ( a material know for such properties ). As one can see from the photo, gone is the inline form, now it’s a more easily accommodated 3 by 3 layout and the sockets are now un-switched. Retained of course is the crucial star-earthing arrangement.

At a starting price of £400 for the Reflex Lite IEC model, (having no mains lead attached allows one to using a matching lead to the ones used for the components) we were a little concerned as to its new price point and the impact it would have on sales. We shouldn’t have been. This has proven to be our fastest selling mains product ever such is the improvement in performance over the Megablock and all others now I come to think of it.

The look of disbelief on our customer’s faces when we demo it says it all really, often transforming the sound of what is already top-notch equipment as well as working its magic on more affordable components.

But hey, don’t take our word for it, why not take one for a no obligation home demo in your own system and hear it for yourselves.

NOW ON PERMANENT DEMO INSTORE OR FOR HOME LOAN BY APPOINTMENT.

Simon