Go Big Or Go Home! Torus Power RM 16 AVR

Torus Power RM16 AVR

Torus Power RM8 AVR, spot the diference?

It's been a good 10 years since I've settled down with the Torus Power RM8 AVR. Read my original review here:  http://hifi-unlimited.blogspot.com/search/label/Torus%20Power

I have been happy with my chosen power supply solution for so long, I had never considered any form of change or up grade. For me, the Torus Power RM8 AVR is always a keeper. 10 years is a long time in any product life cycle, and unlike any of my other hifi equipment that came & went, the Torus Power stayed. Even when I moth balled my hifi and took a sabbatical then restart, I still stayed the course with the RM8 AVR, as I believed even with newer generation products in the market, the Torus Power remains one of the top solutions when it comes to power supply & conditioning.

The Torus Power is a balanced transformer based design with a voltage regulator circuit added for good measure, keeping the output voltage at 230V+/-10V range. In my hands, 10 un-eventful years passed by with no wants, and the Torus Power more than satisfying my hifi power needs.

Then came one fateful day a local used hifi classifieds this Torus Power RM16 AVR appeared and I started thinking, hmm..........., what if? After consideration of the worst outcome would be that I just spent a few thousand to top up a trade in deal, would result in no sound improvement!

I called the dealer who put up the advert, made the deal discussion and the rest was set in motion. a few days later, the dealer called that he would deliver to the Torus Power RM16 AVR to my place, and bring the RM8 back as a trade in. Weighting at nearly 60kgs. 3 of us  had a tough time bringing the RM16 AVR up 2 flights of stairs in to my man cave, located in the 1st floor of my house. Once that was done, bringing down the 40kgs RM8 AVR was less of a problem.  

This is the Torus Power RM8 AVR with 5 UK style power points, the RM16 AVR has only 1 extra point, even though it has double the power supply capacity! 

I proceed to plug the RM16 AVR in to my system and realized that despite the big heavy box, I only got 6 UK style power points, compared to 5 on the RM8 AVR. However, I only needed 4 to use om my system.

I fire up the system, not expecting much sound difference nor improvements. I am totally surprised by what I heard. 2 things stood out the moment the first track played on my Sony CDP X-7 ESD CD player, first the already black background just got blacker......, like black hole to nothingness, it's eerie! Next the high frequencies gain a buttery smoothness, a much longer tail end decay in to that black nothingness. I get the same full bodied, thick mid range magic as before. However the bass took on a more integrated in to the sound stage character. In the past I could still hear some the bass notes coming from the woofers of my PMC IB-2i speakers, but now all the bass is coming from the front stage imaging! another bass area improvement was the flabbiness. Forcing the big boy PMC speakers in to a small room was kinda cramping it's style. I had some degree of bass flabbiness that vibrated that whole room when then particular room mode hit! Funnily enough, the Torus Power RM16 AVR with is double capacity had much, much more grip on those 10 inch pistonic bass woofers that PMC uses. That bass flabbiness as mentioned, whilst not totally eliminated, was however, much reduced, to the point it's barely noticed. I guess there are limitations when going against the law of physics?

Overall, going the double the power supply didn't make sense at first. You see, my system was barely drawing 3 amps peak and when using the RM8 AVR, I already had more than double the headroom to spare. I was thinking buying more head room was probably a suckers game! However, now after a week in to the change over, I felt the trade up was more than a fair deal. I am glad I done it!

Wishing all our regular readers GONG XI FA CAI!