Entreq
Energy Transforming Equipment
Entreq are a Swedish company and the name Entreq is an abbreviation of the term “Energy Transforming Equipment”. They manufacture an extensive range of ground boxes and ground cables, loudspeaker cables, interconnect cables, power cables and some key accessories to help get the best from your system.
Entreq keeps me incredibly busy, probably more than any other brand in my portfolio if truth be told. It is incredibly effective at improving system performance and the vast majority of people who listen to some in their systems end up buying some and most customers end up coming back for more, which says a lot about a product and how effective it is.
Entreq are probably most well known for their range of ground boxes, designed to remove noise from whatever you connect them to. The modern home is electrically a noisy environment, there are countless devices which create noise and unwanted pollutants from things such as network routers, dishwashers, fridges, countless phone and tablet chargers. A hifi system itself can create mains noise and this noise can be passed around the system via your cables.
Of course, you can’t hear it and most people will be happy with their system (although many aren’t based on the number of people I speak to) but if you can remove that noise, or deal with it properly you can dramatically improve the performance of your hi-fi.
Connect an Entreq ground box to a component in your system and in simple terms it will remove noise and interference contained within the signal path. The sonic benefit can this can quite profound, it does vary from system to system, but it makes the music more natural and more detailed, but without making the sound strident or lively, quite the opposite – Entreq is all about a natural, organic presentation, the removal of the noise lets the system and music really breath and it brings out subtle micro details and textures in the music that previously were being masked or subdued by noise.
This noise is extracted to the box, in most cases once box is connected to a component in your system you can detect a change in the music within 2 or 3 songs being played, but to be it does take a few days to fully do its thing. Some people often find the benefit initially quite subtle, but after a few days when you remove the box it benefit becomes more obvious, it helps make the music more coherent.
Watching a customer listen to his system with a ground box connected for the first time is a brilliant experience and it almost always results in the same feedback, “how is it possible?” or words to that effect. In many systems a box is connected to just one key component (like an integrated amplifier) and in some systems we may connect to 2 or 3 items across a number of boxes. No two systems are the same and different systems and components can interact with one another in many different ways so there is no magic recipe card to what is required. One key area to explore is connecting a ground box to your router, this is a particularly effective place if you stream music.
People are often initially a little sceptical about these wooden boxes but once they’ve experienced them in their system it doesn’t take very long for them to be convinced of their merits!
As well as the entry level ground kits, standalone ground boxes and ground cables, Entreq also produce a brilliant range of interconnects, speaker cables and power cables, as well as a superb equipment support and a few key accessories.
If you want to hear how you can listen to your hi-fi at its most natural and focussed without fatigue, colour or aggression please explore the links below!