RUSS ANDREWS NETWORK PURIFIER REVIEW

Russ Andrews Network Purifier is a device that is intended to clean up the nasties on your Local Area Network. Janine Elliot gives it a spin.

The doctor of HiFi cleanliness, Russ Andrews, has for many years been trying to purify everything associated with audio, whether mains taming, zapperating everything that can be “zapperated”, or even deploying cleaning liquids for your CDs, cables and belts. Whatever it is, he has a cure for it… unlike my local GP. Whilst I have done everything I can to make my HiFi sound great – whether it’s expensive cabling, mains taming circuitry, or supporting my gear on microphonic-soaking bases – I have never looked at the possibility of getting my LAN line in tip-top condition. I took it for granted that it would just do its job – just as we once accepted bell wire as adequate loudspeaker cabling. Until now, that is. I’m sure this review will rattle some readers, but I needed (as a sceptic myself) to at least give this product a go. £649 might seem like a lot to pay for such a small box, but this new product certainly exudes quality with its 250g matt black box, all in keeping with other RA devices, and Russ says it works, so it must do… 

Russ has been trying to further perfect the nirvana of hi-fi for many years now. It all started with his HiFi shop in Edinburgh (Russ Andrews Hi-Fidelity) in the 1970’s. It was during this time that he came to the conclusion that not all was well in the HiFi industry, and so began his investigation into mains quality, cabling, and bits and bobs to make your HiFi sound at its best, culminating in the formation of a company with his name in 1986 positioned in picturesque Kendal, Cumbria. Since then, he has extended his portfolio to equipment and equipment modification, and also acts as a consultant with several UK manufacturers on products such as cartridges and loudspeakers. Having been one of the earliest to look into the effects of mains pollution in HiFi systems, he is now regarded as an expert in this field. And so confident is he about your satisfaction that his products are even offered with a 60-day money-back guarantee and come with a 25-year warranty to purify your confidence.

BUILD QUALITY AND STYLING

As this is a “backroom” add-on, looks aren’t everything here, but even so, it is well-made and comes with nearly everything you need to get improvements to your LAN-line. A simple matt black thermoplastic box about the size of a Walkman, it weighs 0.25kg, which is heavier than I expected when I first lifted it up. It has two RJ45 sockets marked “in” and “out” to connect between your streamer/server and modem. As the output to your streamer (or computer or video source) should be as close as possible without adding any RFI after the “treatment” (it doesn’t matter so much the other side), it comes supplied with a very short Cat6 cable. Using it with a new Bluesound NANO server, also up for review, I similarly connected a very short (8”) RCA cable that I had built many years ago using solid silver wire from the streamer to my preamplifier. There is no need to plug the Network Purifier into a mains unit as it is a purely passive device. There is also a 4mm grounding socket to create even better noise protection, if you can supply the wiring. This is a simple unit to connect up, but the simplicity is just on the outside. Internally, there no less than eight MiniZap filters, one connected to each wire. Each is designed to remove the very high-frequency noise from phones, wireless laptops, fridges, Alexa, etc, and works like a Zobel network RF filter.

MEET FAMILY ZAPP

Russ has been deploying his Zapperators in a wide range of equipment over the years. It all began with a loudspeaker Zapperator to connect at either the loudspeaker terminals or the amplifier LS output itself, and now the range also includes the line-level Zapp family mini-plugs, and those for the mains, such as the wallwart Mains Zapperator.  Zapperators are basically filters, an idea from Ben Duncan in the 1970’s. He is also responsible for the RF Router I recently reviewed for HiFi PiG.  Russ Andrews also does a tiny RJ45 Zapperator at £298 which has 4 “Zapps” onboard and plugs into any spare RJ45 sockets you have. For the Network Purifier on review here, they went back to basics and started again with a clean sheet. This one is bigger and (presumably)better. This should give even more noise reduction, so resulting in greater dynamics, and more information. As we add more Wi-Fi devices in our homes (as well as phones and speakers, central heating thermostat and lighting control, there is even a toilet you can flush whilst away from your home, and “clever” i-windows, so you can check if you left them open for burglars when you went out to the pub), so there is more interference feeding its way through your network to your valued audio than ever before.

The Purifier can cope with as much as a 1-Gigabit per second of traffic, without any fear of lip-sync or data lag problems. The two RJ45 sockets are fully shielded and the PCB inside the box has 4oz copper tracks with gold immersion finish to protect against the enemy that is oxidation. The PCB is a two-layer design, meaning that there are tracks on the top and the bottom of the board to ensure low resistance connection and improved handling capacity. The box itself isn’t made of metal, as some might have expected, but rather 3D printed plastic, chosen on the basis of Russ and his team’s knowledge of these materials and their acoustic properties; if you remember in my reviews on the Balanced Mains Units they were similarly made of thermoplastic. Internal ground wiring is made by Russ’s American friend Ray Kimber, utilising the Kimber Kable TCSS. Aside from that, the inside is made from magic. Whatever it is inside this box (I didn’t get out my Stanley knife to look) it seemed to work far better than I could ever have expected and due to its reasonable weight, it was able to sit securely next to my music streamer. If you need to connect lots of Cat6 cables around your living room (computer, ROON media server, smart TV, etc) then you can perhaps consider also buying the RA RANS-1 network switch and putting the Network Purifier between that and your modem.

SOUND QUALITY

Burn time is needed so I also gave it a week before starting this review. The interesting thing about this is that unlike conventional “cleaning” gear from Russ that I have reviewed, such as balanced mains units, mains purifiers or RFI-reducing cables which can give you an audible result immediately, this network purifier was not quite so easy for me in finding out if it worked or not. So I then decided to approach it the other way round; having it in place in the first instance and then later unplugging it to see if I heard any difference. Playing a track I know so well full of low, mid and high frequencies from Jethro Tull on a Qobuz player through a Bluesound NODE and onto my amplifier, I enjoyed the 3D soundstage and transparency in the music. As soon as I removed the Purifier the soundstage collapsed and the music was slower and muddy. It was like going from an 8k 98” Samsung QLED TV to a 32” Pioneer plasma. OK, the bass extension was more audible, but it was notably more clammy. It just missed on details in the music. The network purifier works by removing wi-fi interference around 2-4Ghz. Your ears cannot pick up these frequencies (I wish mine could even still get up to 20kHz!), but it is the effect that they have on the music that I could hear. London Grammar’s “Fakest Bitch” is all about people not changing and miracles not happening, though I could certainly hear some changes here, if not miracles, with the Purifier. The music comprises an out-of-tune piano, along with Hannah Reid’s beautiful Annie Lennox’ style voice. The track has lots of quick transients that seemed less “tight” when the Network Purifier was removed. London Grammar’s music is very atmospheric and full of electronics which gave me a good opportunity to test the digits. “Hey Now” is one of their best-known tracks and which enabled the musicians to get “known” to a wider public. The track has an amazing bass line and using the NP made it tighter and cleaner, but slightly less imposing.

“Muffled Screams” from Ambrose Akinsmusire is a new track that is even more atmospheric than London Grammar; modern jazz with trumpet in the foreground and piano broken chords behind. Their official video for the track is full of Kandinsky-type brown/orange/grey/black colours that visually explain the music’s musical colours quite well. The album is called ‘Honey From a Winter Stone’ and is about the struggles Ambrose suffered due to his colour and expectations, so the album is certainly very visual in all aspects. The NF certainly opened up the sense of “ambience” and “space” and the music was able to express itself without any fear of digital distortion at the loud points. The cymbals were clearly portrayed when the percussion set the long (15-minute) track into motion midway, and the spoken vocals that then appear as the music got angrier and angrier never lost control at any point. The strings appearing along with all the other instruments are tightly packaged with a clarity that was slightly reduced without the Purifier. The music, I am pleased to say, settles down at the end and the irate nature of the speech and music reduces to a quietness as if all is now OK in the world. I wish. For classical music, I turned to the excellent 12-movement version of Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ by composer Max Richter. ‘Recomposed by Max Richter’ is a very clever recording, where he constantly plays with timing;  Listening for the first time you could be confused into thinking the music was glitching as Max adds and removes beats in the bar to give it more excitement and a new meaning. I remember when studying electro-acoustic music at university, one of our first tasks on reel-to-reel was to edit out the unconventional off-beat accents on Stravinsky’s ‘The Right of Spring’ second movement to make it sound “straight”. Great fun, and it totally changed how the music sounded! Max has done it the other way round here, starting with “peace” and turning it into “tension”. The Purifier helped keep the music on its toes with greater detail and speed. Max Richter is a German born British composer who has played with Arvo Part, Eno, and Glass, hence his musical influences, and is a post-minimalist composer who studied with Luciano Berio in Italy. He loves adding and taking away beats in music, reinterpreting the great work of Vivaldi, and as he puts it “discarding” 75% of the original material. The album also has 6 extra pieces, some of which really show his inspiration from Steve Reich and other minimalist composers. “Shadows 1” and “2” has the repeating synth semiquavers sounding much clearer with the Purifier connected, and the background sounds of birds along with the Vivaldi melodies in “Shadows 3” and “4” are much more “open” and ambient with the Russ Andrew box connected. The Purifier also gave a quieter noise floor resulting in greater dynamics and information detail and better soundstage.  

CONCLUSION

I found that particularly in electronic music, the Network Purifier kept the music more relaxed and unfettered. Indeed, whilst any music (but particularly loud music) played on digital sources can often sound claustrophobic or even distorted due to the interference, the Network Purifier kept the music much more focused and with a cleaner top-end (particularly trumpets and cymbals) and better imagery. If it had any downfall, it was slightly more clinical, but as the overall sound was more relaxed and life-like and that clinicalism was a small price to pay for all the benefits. Having said that, though £649 is still a lot to pay, if you are of the new generation that has to have all your music sources on a server or downloaded (and not MP3!) then this is certainly a good investment.

AT A GLANCE 

Build Quality: 

Typical Russ Andrews quality, rigid and pretty much unbreakable

Sound Quality:

Helps to control “peaks” in music with more control and generally a more open sound

Value For Money:

If you depend on good-quality, un-compressed digital feeds from a server or streamer, then this could well improve your music – and it comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee!

We Loved:

Focus and imagery was better controlled

Tightened bass

Reduced squeeze at louder passages of audio

We Didn’t Love So Much:

Slight reduction in bass warmth

Elevator Pitch Review: As an analogue diehard, I didn’t expect I would feel the need to add a Wi-Fi-nasties-killing filter for my streamer and online music sources. After all, I do have RFI filters and mains taming apparatus in my system. However, as we all need fridges that tell us when our food has gone off, or a toilet you can flush remotely when you visit the pub, 2-4Ghz RF is making its way everywhere, and as a result, it can affect sources leaving our modem. So, having created Zapperators for loudspeakers, mains and line sources, Dr Clean, otherwise known as Russ Andrews, has now created the Network Purifier to improve all our Cat6-linked music and video sources. It works, but I really noticed it did so when I didn’t connect it! You’ll get what I mean when you read the above in full…..

Price: £649

Janine Elliot

SUPPLIED BY RUSS ANDREWS

System used:

Bluesound NODE streamer (using Qobuz, Deezer and FLAC/DSD sources from Samsung phone and A&K SE180 DAP); Music First Audio Baby Reference preamp, Synthesis Roma 98DC and Krell KAV250a SS (amplification); Graham Audio LS5/9 (speakers); Tellurium Ultra Silver 2, Esprit Audio, and Townshend F1 and Isolda cables, Coppice Audio stand and Townshend rack.

SUPPLIED SPECIFICATIONS

• Inline device designed to use with a single component
• Eight MiniZap filters
• Custom-designed PCB featuring wide, 4oz pure copper tracks. It is also a two-layer design (tracks are top and bottom of the board) to ensure a good solid low-resistance connection and improved signal handling capability.
• Cat6 Ethernet ports
• 4mm grounding socket allows connection to our grounding system
• Smart, compact form factor for easy installation
• KIMBER KABLE® TCSS internal wiring for (internal ground connection)
• Supplied with 30cm Cat6 link cable
• Dimensions: (WxHxD): 118mm x 35mm x 76mm / Weight: 0.25kg