Entreq

Entreq are a Swedish company founded in 2007 and the name Entreq is an abbreviation of the term “Energy Transforming Equipment”.

Entreq manufacture an extensive range of ground boxes and ground cables, signal cables, power cables and several key accessories. These products are all handcrafted in Sweden and are designed to eliminate unwanted noise in the audio chain, working across both mechanical and electrical domains they can dramatically improve audio performance and get help get the very best from your system

Entreq keeps me incredibly busy, it can be incredibly effective at improving system performance and the vast majority of people who try some Entreq come 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, which designed to remove high frequency noise from whatever you connect them to.

Every electronic device generates unwanted radio-frequency (RF) and electromagnetic interference (EMI). Much of this noise accumulates in the signal-ground reference (the point against which all audio voltages are measured). When this reference carries high-frequency contamination, it introduces instability and masks fine detail, reducing an audio system’s ability to resolve low-level information.

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. The components in a hi-fi system itself can also create noise and all of this noise can interfere with your system preventing it to perform to the best of its ability.

Of course, you can’t hear this noise and most people will be happy with their system to some level but if you can remove that noise, or deal with it effectively you can dramatically improve the performance of your hi-fi and when you go back you will quickly realise just how much noise was present and how it gets in the way of the music.

Connect an Entreq ground box to a component in your system and in simple terms it will remove high frequency noise and interference contained within the signal path. The sonic benefit to this can be quite profound and it’s important to stress that it does vary from system to system. Typically it makes the music calmer, more natural and refined with greater detail and information, but without making the sound strident, forced or lively.

Entreq is all about a natural, organic presentation, the removal of the noise lets the system and music really breath and it brings out textures and layers in the music that previously were being masked or subdued by noise.

The Ground Boxes almost act like a an attractive pathway for the noise and it’s important to stress that they do not replace or bypass the safety ground.

In most cases once a Ground Box is connected to a component you can detect a change in the music within 2 or 3 songs being played, but it can take a little time for it settle and reach its optimum, it’s not like flicking a switch.

Some people often find the benefit can be initially quite subtle, but after a few days when you remove the box it benefit it brings becomes much more obvious.

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, a customer recently said to me “I don’t understand how it works or why it works, but it don’t want to be without it now I’ve experienced it”.

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 highlight what is required. If you stream music for example one key area to explore is connecting a ground box to your router and any other network components like switches etc, this has proven to be a popular upgrade for many customers over the past few years.

Entreq has been a brand that has suffered from a certain level of scepitism from the wider audio world and they frequently get dismissed as ‘snake oil’, usually from people who have never experienced them first hand. I have several customers who are total converts to Entreq who initially were incredibly negative and dismissive of it.

The vast majority of people who spend any time with Entreq products in their system, knows how significant the results can be.

There is a comprehensive range of boxes, varying in size, performance and price.

Some boxes are single cell boxes only (designed for 1 component to be connected to – like a Macro Kit Tungsten or Silver Minimus Tungsten), whereas others are multi-cell boxes where you can connect a number of items (Tellus 3 Tungsten, Silver Tellus Tungsten, TenTen).

It’s important to stress that Entreq aren’t just about ground boxes, they also manufacture and excellent range of signal cables and power cables. Plus they have an extensive range of accessories, many of which are designed to enhance the performance of existing Entreq pieces, but importantly there are many that can be used in isolation with no other Entreq present in a system.

To call these products simply ‘accessories’ is underselling them as they can dramatically enhance a systems ability.