Synthesis

We learned a lot of things during this shootout.

We learned to hear the telltale signature of the ELROD PC in a system.

We like and use ELROD quite a bit here. And listening to those systems,

we can now hear the slight emphasis on the bass frequencies and the

slight overhang of each note as its decay lasts the tiniest bit too long.

This slight overhang causes there to be a correspondingly slight lack of

separation and the perception of a, again, slightly higher noise floor.

We learned that, in a partially ODIN-power-corded system, the Valhalla

power cord's telltale signature was much harder to detect - that it

sounds like a dynamically compressed ODIN, and it's specific sound does

not call attention to itself.

We learned to hear the AcroLink's telltales - a highlighting of the upper

midrange, which we knew, but now also the corresponding lack of

emphasis everywhere else.

We learned that the ODIN helped the Ongaku sound a lot more like the

Lamm ML3 in terms of linearity and the revealing of many subtleties in

the sound. Linearity in terms of the dynamic, harmonic and timing

responses being much more even across the frequency band. Subtleties

in terms of a lot of information present at a live show were now evident

- not because certain frequencies were spotlit, like some speakers do,

but because there is a blacker background. A lower noise floor not

because information, subtleties are removed, like most conditioners and

vibration controls and other tweaks, but because - well, I am not sure

why. Apparently power cords impart their own noise to the system.

We learned to wonder, if the ODIN made the Ongaku sound more like

the ML3, what would the ODIN on the ML3 sound like?