IsoTek V5 Aquarius power conditioner

REVIEW
Alan Sircom
May 04, 2022

If it were just those timing benefits and nothing else, the V5 would be something to shout about, but it’s more than that. One of the big excuses for holding out on a power conditioner is that – although it might demonstrably improve the spaciousness, the detail retrieval, lower the noise floor and let the components ‘time’ better, they mess with the dynamic range… so I’m out! I can sort of sympathise; a power conditioner that improves nine out of ten things, but wrecks the last one, isn’t worth keeping. And when it comes to dynamic range, for power conditioners, the only way is down; you can’t extend that range because the limit is the AC mains itself; all a good power conditioner can do is reduce the loss to the dynamic range. And the V5 Aquarius once again scores a hit here. Play something with a spot of bombast – Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances [Telarc], for example – and many conditioners just flatten out the sweeping power of the orchestra. Once again, the IsoTek Aquarius EVO3 did good; the IsoTek V5 Aquarius did better. Much better.

There wasn’t any test I could perform where the EVO3 scored better than the V5. The EVO3 scored extremely well in all these tests; detail retrieval, sound staging, image stability et al. The V5 improved on the EVO3 in each area of performance, and then went further, it drew the sound together in the way only the very finest of this type of product can. That’s a joy to find at any price.

I’m not finding anything to dislike about the IsoTek V5 Aquarius; it looks great, it brings the best out of the sound of your equipment and if its predecessor is anything to go by it will be hugely popular and be incredibly reliable. Excellent!