I've known Ric for about 8 years and over that time I've used many of his products; analogue, digital, tube and solid state. In addition, he has done many one off mods to my existing components. Ric's extensive knowledge of the 'sound' of passive parts enables him to allow more music to flow through into your room. He talks of 'transparency' and that is exactly what his mods do. The quality of his workmanship is absolutely first rate. His extemely transparent Ultimate Attenuators are a perfect example of his 'Less is More" philosophy. Ric offers a money back guarantee on his products. I don't see how anyone can loose with an EVS product; as a matter of fact, one can only win with them. If you want to get as much 'stuff' out of the way of your music, you need EVS!
I remember the first time I saw an ad for EVS products, it was in my first Audio Mart, and when I read the ad I thought to myself, "this guy thinks like me". Mr. Schultz was ranting and raving about how Monster Cable exterminators should be exterminated and how the audiophile community really needs to get tweaked. I had been a tweak for a number of years prior to that, with custom amplifiers, custom built pre-amps, custom modified speakers, most done by Randy McCarter of the now defunct Randal Research. It took only about 2 minutes of talking to Ric Schultz to realize that I had found a kindred spirit, a person who believed that no holds should be barred and that there was only one goal in audio: accuracy through lower distortion. I've been privileged to gain a lot of advice and some insanely good products from Ric . It's always a pleasure to go to the high-end shows and have your friends walk out of it saying, "Your system annihilates any of this stuff!" I owe my success and my incredibly good sound in greatest measure to Ric and his incredibly tweak approach to audio. His products are uniformly the best I have ever encountered. Imagine a CD play that sells for $3000 and annihilates the best Levinson rig available. Now you are talking EVS product.
You might wonder what kind of system I have. It's all custom built. Essentially, you get a good design, buy it used and cheap, gut all the crap in it (the wires, the caps, resistors, etc) replace them with the best available, and then you get somewhere. The thing about EVS is that Ric does this for you! You don't have to mess around with the stuff when it comes from Ric. It is basically completely tweaked out. Sure you can add Shakti Stones and lots of Shakti Onlines, but for something you just pick up and plug in, EVS makes the world's best sounding equipment.
Some of the current EVS products I am using are: EVS modified low distortion sign wave Inverters for the digital front end. A totally tweaked Pioneer transport featuring 3 power transformers, regulated servos, InfiniCaps, low jitter isolated clock module, super low jitter output stage, tons of damping, greening, etc. A totally tweaked DAC from EVS that may be the best 20 bit DAC ever made: hardwired single coax input through a low jitter transformer with Vishay resistor and Yamamura hook up wire, UltraAnalog input receiver, HDCD filter, 3 parallel Burr-Brown PCM-63Ks per channel, a discrete single ended class A fet current to voltage stage, no output filtering or buffering, 10 power transformers, 18 regulators, 2 power cords, shielding with copper foil and mu-metal, damping of most parts, etc. 31 position EVS Ultimate Attenuators mounted inside my totally tweaked Audio Research Classic 150 power amps. Most of the power amp mods were done by someone locally as they are too heavy to send to Ric. Ric helped immensely with knowledge about what to do to the amps: including adding separate 600 watt transformers for the tube heaters. Modified Dunlavy SC-1 speakers. Ric found some woofers to go under the Dunlavy's and I had a neighbor build 100 lb cabinets for them. The Dunlavys were further modified by me with Marigo dots on the cones, Deflex damping material inside the cabinet, on the back of the drivers and Deflex speakers gasket material, and I did a lot of resonance tuning using various size washers glued onto the outside walls of the speaker.
Hey, this stuff isn't for everybody. If you want to just muddle around in mediocre soundville, hang in there and hope that the "stereo gods" take pity upon you and throw a few sonic morsels your way (E.G., 24/96 or 24/192, etc.). If you want the best, and I mean the best, then you deal with EVS, you get their products, you plug them in and your jaw hits the floor. We're not talking subtle differences that it takes 15 times back and forth to discern; no we're talking stuff that slaps you in the face and gives you the giggles and goose bumps. I don't know how many of you were lucky enough to hear the DSD demo at the Sony exhibit at the Stereophile Show in LA last year, but when they went into the surround mode using the original recording device with the original DSD master, it was one hell of a good sound. In fact, it was the best sound that I had ever heard, including my own system. (I had the cat-bird seat, it should be noted.) A number of other Stereophile writers felt the same way. Nobody thought it was bad sound. Of course, when they went to their two channel stuff, it sounded like dog shit. But when they played their minimally miked five channel material, it was mind blowingly good. Well, the best testimonial I can give to Ric's products is that with the addition of a whole lot more Shakti Onlines, I can now say that I've got sound that rivals, if now surpasses the performance of the DSD at the Stereophile show. And this is on standard crappy, 14 or 16 bit recorded CDs. Imagine what EVS's new products sampling a 24/96, 24/192 or DSD will sound like. If I didn't have a wife who said she'd kill me if I sunk any more money in my stereo, I'd probably be unable to resist the temptation. Stereo bliss comes second to marital bliss and so I'll continue to tweak what I have. But I know deep down inside that what Ric's offering now is just going to blow the living daylights out of what I have, especially after I've Shakti onlined it to death, so I'm a little envious of all of you who are in a position to make a purchase now and experience the joy of an EVS product.
If you're hesitant about buying an EVS piece, don't be. Ric's been around forever and he's got a great reputation in my book. I've never had a breakdown ever happen with any of his gear (knock on wood), and he's been incredibly quick on returning updates when he offered them to the equipment that I currently own. I believe he's offering money back return policy, so you've got nothing to lose, and a whole world of sound to gain. Frankly, I'm jealous.
Happy Listening
-Michael T. Danis
I have a few EVS products: the Ultimate Attenuators, some isolation transformers, and a hotrod CD player. I have to say that once you've heard Ric's creations, it's very hard to go back to the traditional world of "high-end" audio. I could never go back to a preamp having used the Attenuators, and the isolation transformers make a very nice improvement to my system. The CD player I got from Ric at EVS is a HIGHLY modified Sony (except for the chassis, there's not much of the original Sony left). I don't think there are many -- if any -- people in the audio world who tweak their gear as relentlessly as Ric. He's a no-compromise perfectionist, and it really shows in his products. The parts quality is as good as it gets: Infinicaps, Vishays, etc. Most importantly, the CD player is the best I've ever heard -- and at a mid-fi price no less! I'd put it up against anything at any price. It's just so lucid and musical. When I finally take the plunge into the new format, I'm sure it will be with an EVS product -- I hear that his modified MSB DAC is mind blowing. To top it off, if you're not satisfied, you get you money back. How can you go wrong?
-Bruce Damonte
I have purchased several products from Ric at EVS including an isolation transformer and a modified DVD player. The isolation transformer improved any component with which it was used. It added soundstage depth and a greater sense of ease. The modified DVD player sounds great and has held its own with my friend's Theta Gen. 5A-Goldman Meta transport combination. I will be purchasing more from EVS in the future.
-Curtis Bell
The DVD player sounds fabulous. The dynamic range seems extremely expansive. The sound is very smooth and the stage is very spacious as well. Thank You,
-Ben Damonte
Scott Black and Mark Wilson posted reviews of the EVS modified MSB on Audioreview and Scott also posted on Soundstage online magazine.
My first purchase from EVS was a set of Ultimate Attenuators. I was skeptical that they would be much - if any- improvement on the variable out I was using on my Adcom CD player in to my Adcom amp. Boy was I shocked at the improvement in sound. Better dynamics, truer harmonic structure, much greater transparency. Since then I've built a system of almost exclusively built or modified EVS products. Here's the list of equipment that Ric has waived his magic wand over:
Proceed PDT3 Transport (modified). EVS "Hush" digital cable. EVS Handmade DAC-1 (with upgrades). Lindsay Geyer Interconnect (modified!). Spectron Digital One amplifier (modified) with Ultimate Attenuators built in. Power wedge (modified).
My previous amp was a Golden Tube Audio SE40 modified my EVS
Now every time I walk into an audio salon and listen to those expensive Levinson, Accuphase, etc. systems, I wonder how people can spend that kind of money when they can own gear that sounds as good or better from EVS.
Thanks, Ric, for making truly high end sound affordable.
-Joseph Pagan
Dear Ric,
This is a thank you note for the extraordinary CD player that is now part of my system. The S.D.T.T.H.R.S.C.D.P* is a musical marvel.
I sincerely appreciate all the time and effort you have put into the player...and all the patience you have shown toward me. There is no dollar figure that can be placed on the pleasure of listening to good music on a good system. I have received both tremendous value and enormous pleasure.
Sincerely,
Stuart Gershen
*Super Duper Totally Tweaked Hot Rodded Sony CD Player.
Whoever came up with the paper clip, provided a truly brilliant solution for a problem. Ric Schultz of EVS did the same for passive volume controls in high quality audio reproduction. One premium fixed-value resistor in the signal path; one premium quality switch contact to select the required value of load resistor---it could not be simpler. Others may copy this now, but it was Ric's original idea and his product reached the audiophile market first.
The current EVS "Ultimate Attenuator" is still one-of-a-kind in the world.
I have known Ric for a good while now. His modifications to stock audio equipment are based on untold hours of experimentation, endless listening comparisons plus feedback from others. It is all about pinning down what matters in high quality audio. Those efforts have resulted in a storehouse of extremely valuable audio data. For me, it was fun to have shared a few hours of that research with Ric in the past.
Many a manufacturer of high-end audio equipment would benefit from EVS input, weeding out those elements--hiding in their products---that prevent these products from reaching their ultimate potential. All audio designers bring their own approach to the art; Ric's is a highly effective one. EVS can prove that to all who 'have ears to hear.'