Over the past few years Entreq has gone from strength to strength here at Audio Therapy. It’s a wonderful brand and they create some of the most musically rewarding products I’ve ever experienced in my years in hifi. It’s something that certainly raises eyebrows among many audiophiles, but there is no question once people get some Entreq in their system and live with it for a period of time it’s incredibly difficult to take back out, simply put it unlocks more detail, texture and engagement from your music which is ordinarily masked by unwanted noise present within the system. I have surprised many people by its benefits, any system at any level can take advantage of it.
To connect an Entreq box to your system (or simply just a single component within it) couldn’t be simpler. Take a suitably terminated Entreq eartha cable (they come with RCA, XLR, USB, RJ45, Spade, 3.5mm and 5 Pin Din terminations) and connect the cable to the back of the box and connected the terminated end to an unused socket on your amplifier, CD player, DAC, streamer, router etc.
This connection creates, in effect a drain for each piece of connected equipment and removes the pollutants/noise present in the signal path. How quickly this works does vary from component to another. It is quite often something you will hear instantly, but it typically takes 2 or 3 songs before getting an indication that something is changing. Best results usually occur after 24 to 48 hours.
The first thing most people notice is the drop in the noise floor, the desire to increase the volume is commonplace because of this. You will typically get a reduction in coarseness and grain (even where you don’t think it’s present) and the creation of an inky black background is another thing which frequently occurs. This allows the music to flow more naturally with focus, stability and improved harmonics and dynamics.
Entreq make an extensive (and sometime confusing!) range of boxes and cables, and I can advise which combination will be most suitable for you and your system. Over the past 6 months one of the most popular boxes has been the Tellus II Infinity. As you can see from the image on the rear there are 3 posts, which are completely separate to one another. The 2 outside posts are Silver Minimus Infinity and the centre post is an Olympus Ten. If you bought those boxes as 3 separate items it would cost £2300. The Tellus II Infinity is priced at £1800 so if offers superb value for money.
With the combination of the right eartha cables the level of improvement this can bring to a system can be very powerful. The cables start with the Copper Infinity and go from there. As I’ve mentioned with Entreq before in other posts don’t assume the more money you spend on cables the better the result – it all hinges on the tonal balance of your system and what you like the sound of. Copper, Konstantin, Challenger, Silver, Apollo and beyond they all have their place, the Challenger and Apollo are the most popular cables. The Challenger are £420 each and deliver warmth, weight, lots of texture, the Apollo is more open and transparent and offers more insight into the music. I keep demonstration cables of the most popular cable types from Copper right up to the flagship Olympus Infinity, so it’s easy enough to try them out.
I thought it may prove useful to feature a handful of real work examples of how customers are using their new Tellus II Infinity boxes in their systems since their installation over the course of this year.
Customer 1
This system is based around a Vitus Audio RI-100 Integrated Amplifier with an RCD-101 doubling up as both a CD player and a DAC. The customer’s Melco N1ZS/1 connects to the RCD via USB (using an Entreq USB Interconnect).
The RI-100 is connected to the centre post (Olympus 10) of the Tellus II with an Atlantis Infinity Ground Cable and the RCD and Melco are connected to the outside posts using an Apollo Infinity on each item.
The addition of Entreq in this system brought about more detail and texture and an increase in the size/scale of the soundstage. The placement of subtle details from within an Orchestra’s positioning and the nuances of people moving off the stage in the Opera were stand out observations from this customer. The customer added lots of room treatment which he was very happy with the but the impact of the box/cables was more significant in terms of the customer simply enjoying his music more.
Customer 2
This system also uses a Melco, this time an N1ZS/2 but here based around Linn, with a Klimax DS1 Network Player and Klimax Kontrol Pre-amp. In another rack just out of shot in another rack with Linn amplification, speakers are Linn Akurate 242 (running active). This customer tried Apollo and Challenger cables and preferred the balance of the Apollo overall and found the addition of the Tellus II Infinity offered an instant improvement to the system. The Melco is connected to the centre post using an Apollo Infinity USB cable and the 2 outer posts are connect to the Klimax Kontrol and DS1. The overall presentation become more detailed, but more natural and refined at the same time.
Customer 3
This system also features a Melco (N1ZH/EX) and Linn (another Klimax DS1 and Klimax Kontrol) but here used with a Naim NAP300 DR and a pair of B&W 803D3 loudspeakers. This system was configured slightly differently to most in that the Melco N1ZH EX, D100 and S100 and the Entreq are located in a different room to the main system. There is a hardwired network in the house, so the Melco and Linn are both fed from the S100. We connected the Melco N1ZH/EX on 1 of the Silver Minimus Infinity posts, the other Silver Minimus Infinity post has his router and the S100 connected to it. All 3 ground cables are Challenger Infinity. The centre post of the Tellus II Infinity in this system is used to ground a Challenger Infinity RJ45 Interconnect cable (which is connected to the Player port of the Melco and the S100.
The addition of the Tellus II Infinity brought an instant and obvious improvement to performance. The music became much more engaging, the lower noise floor brought out more detail and more texture. After running it for a week or so in his system the customer disconnected all the Entreq to go back to how is system was originally configured. He listened for about 30 minutes, then but all the Entreq straight back in and the customer has never looked back and is enjoying his system more than ever.
Summing Up
I’ve got a large number of customers absolutely delighted with their systems since the integration of Entreq into it in one form or another. There are almost a limitless number of configuration options when you browse the Entreq products available, but it’s relatively straightforward to cut through the options based on your system, your budget and what you are looking to achieve. The Tellus II Infinity is a great product, it offers great performance and flexibility and great value for money as well. We keep a Tellus II Infinity (along with all of the other Entreq boxes) and a large selection of key cables on demonstration so having a demonstration in your own home is something that can be easily arranged.
Any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch
