We’ve been keen advocates of MusicWorks mains blocks for the past decade or so.
Their first ‘killer’ product for us was the initial G3 block. Subsequent upgrades involving sheets of Peek loaded acrylic on the underside led to greater gains, not to say bafflement and enthusiasm in equal measure. These blocks have a lot of very happy owners!
I shall quote just one, a previous G3 owner who went from a large pre-power system to a far simpler Accuphase ‘rig’ and felt he no longer needed a block since all the components could go straight to the wall. A friend had raved to him about a G3 that we had lent him and the surprisingly large impact. Our man wondered about whether it was worth trying again and we sent him an ex demo G4.
“Absolutely gobsmacked here. It just gets better and better as the box and new Powerline settle in. I can’t believe the transformation in the sound I’m hearing. Many thanks. It only took me three years to be a believer again! It makes no logical sense with me previously having Powerlines fed directly off the end of my mains spur, straight to the CD player and amp”.
The latest MusicWorks block, called G5, arrived in dribs and drabs at the beginning of 2024 and I took one home to see what I made of it. Very rapidly, we were in ‘cold dead hands’ territory and a G5 remains on my own system at home. Subsequently, a revised version of the G3 block has come along.
At work, we have four systems being powered by G5s and the more modest G3 Plus is in the smaller dem room. Quite a few customers have taken the plunge for G5 and their traded-in G3 and G4 blocks have been sold on our ‘pre-owned’ pages.
Today, with fresh stocks of the new G3 Plus and G5 to hand, we decided to have a comparative listen.
The system used was reasonably modest, being a Supernait 3 amplifier and NDX 2 music streamer, currently available for a special price of £7999, running into a pair of Dynaudio’s excellent £1350 Evoke 10 loudspeakers. Power cables were Naim Powerline throughout.
Kicking off with the original AcouPlex based G3 block, it all sounded pretty damned good.
G3 Plus nevertheless elevated things quite substantially, bringing noticeably greater overall clarity, a greater sense of space and surprisingly better defined bass with more weight but sharper defined edges of the notes. For a supposedly modest reworking, this was an unexpectedly big leap!
We entered Linn ‘tune dem’ territory making rolling comparisons of small sections of recordings.
Now for the G5 and it was another step forward. This time it was less about ‘edges’ and clarity and more the richness of tonality and overall plausibility of voices. A substantial step, sure, but perhaps a little less dramatic than the one from the older G3 design.
We have both of the new G3 and G5 offerings available for demonstration or straightforward sale. The ex dem Mk1 G3 accouplex block is currently on our ‘deals’ section.