December 2025

Nirvana Audio Chronos Optimizer Review: Big Sound In A Small Package
If you value sensational sound, the Chronos delivers delightful audio.
Review By Rick Becker

   One of the reasons I like to visit every room at audio shows is the possibility of discovering a truly outstanding new product. That's exactly what happened when I ventured into the Nirvana Audio room on the 5th Floor at AXPONA 2025 this year. Here is what I wrote in Part 7 of my show report:

The name Nirvana struck a chord because of the American rock band, but I couldn't picture any audio components with that brand name. When I entered the room and saw some familiar gear hosted by a pair of Asian gentlemen, I still could not connect the dots. As I took a seat during my show report for Enjoy the Music.com, among the others in the room, it became apparent that the room was dedicated to a comparison listening test. But what?

Eventually, I realized the little dark item on the counter at the right edge of the photo was the Chronos Optimizer pictured on the scrim in front of the window. A segment of music was played, and then two Chronos thumb drives were removed from the room. The music immediately collapsed behind the plane of the speakers, whereas before, it filled the room with glorious sound. It was very obvious to me, as this kind of tweak has been a specialty interest of mine for many years.

Everyone else in the room was picking up on the difference, too. In fact, throughout the weekend, they shot video clips of people's very positive reactions and posted them on their website. The people I saw in that room on two occasions were just as enthusiastic. And most of them were not sophisticated ‘golden ear' types. I sat through a couple of rounds of this comparison.

I was already familiar with the Boenicke W5 loudspeaker, having previously heard it at a couple of shows. I had taken a special interest in the Swiss Boenicke speakers because they incorporate some technology from LessLoss in Lithuania, which I have very favorably reviewed. The Boenicke speakers have intricate transmission lines routed out of solid wood. The two halves of the speakers are then glued together.

When I first heard this speaker some years ago, I was disappointed that the sound didn't escape the cabinet as completely as I hoped it would. The sound was a bit overdamped. It sounded the same here (at AXPONA 2025)—when the Nirvana Audio Chronos were taken out of the room. But when the Chronos were again brought in and placed on each side of the room, the music completely escaped from the box. It also improved in resolution, became stronger in the bass, produced more air in the soundstage, and had more tonal color. The music was no longer trapped behind the plane of the loudspeakers, but came forward to fill the entire room. I was excited.

I am familiar with the Heed brand, too, having heard their integrated amps at two Capital Audiofests high-end audio shows. On one occasion, I gave the room an Enjoy the Music.com Best Of CAF Blue Note Award. It is a very good, high-value brand from Hungary. The CHUPEI cables are a brand created by Chu-Pei Lin, the director of Nirvana Audio. From the photo, you can see they are not massive, but massive is not always an indicator of quality or cost. The CHUPEI company is also an importer of select brands to Taiwan and offers consulting services. Chu-Pei Lin has an extensive background as a tenor on a global level and in acoustics and material sciences.

I had an interesting conversation with Chu-Pei Lin and his associate, Huo, Kai-Yuan (Ian), from Taiwan, and they graciously offered me a review sample, which they would give me late on Sunday afternoon. That was a good idea, because what if I had the Chronos with me, and every room I went into at the show started to sound this good? On numerous occasions, I have returned from shows with a review sample, but never have I been so excited to review one like this.

Caution!
They cautioned me, and Enjoy the Music.com readers, not to insert the Chronos into a computer. So I took the longer way home through Ohio, rather than risk being questioned by Customs at the border when taking the shortcut through Canada." (I later learned that plugging it into a computer, NAS, car audio system, or putting it close to a strong magnet risks losing the magical properties of the Chronos.)

Here is what I wrote about the Chronos in Part 12, the summary of my ten most favorite rooms at the show:

"In room 564, the Nirvana Audio Chronos Optomizer was my most exciting discovery at AXPONA 2025. This was a demonstration using speakers and an amplifier I was familiar with. Moving the little thumb drive-sized Chronos into the room transformed this modest system into a listening experience that was far more tactile, three-dimensional, and engaging than without it. It is one of a new generation of products that deal with the EMF fields that surround our systems with increasing noise as more electronic devices become a part of our lives. I was loaned a sample, and I drove the long way home to avoid having to explain EMF to Customs officials, either entering or leaving Canada. The Chronos was even more impressive in my rig at home. Hopefully, you will be hearing more about the Chronos from this Taiwan (ROC) company in the fall."

Home At Last
The good news is that the Chronos was also impressive in my rig at home, but at a higher level, given the higher quality components and the Audience Hidden Treasure dedicated AC line feeding the Synergistic Research PowerCell 14. Quality AC makes a very significant difference, but there is still the nasty EMI / RFI and micro-vibrations to deal with, and that's where the Nirvana Audio Chronos comes into play. With the near-instantaneous effect of bringing it into the room or removing it, I was able to easily detect the benefits with the very familiar music on my compilation CD.

Track 1 (Buddy Guy, "Five Long Years", electric blues guitar): The music was largely smoother, more transparent, higher resolution, and more dynamic.

Track 2 (Bruce Springsteen, "With Every Wish", acoustic guitar, and band) Tighter bass, better soundstaging, and a smooth, sharp edge on the trumpet caught my attention. This cut also has two versions of the line "With every wish, there comes a curse," where the "se" in the word "curse" is difficult to perceive. The first one was still inaudible, but the second time it appeared as a slightly delayed "se", which was an improvement.

Track 3 (Bruce Springsteen, "57 Channels") The driving bass line of the electric bass drew me into the music further than ever before, with improved PRAT (pace, rhythm, and timing) that resulted from more prominent attack and decay of the bass notes. This cut also has a refrain where Springsteen echoes the line "57 channels and there's nothin' on" in the far left corner of the soundstage. He also double-tracks that line as the song ends and fades out. In both cases, these challenging signifiers were more clearly audible with the Chronos.

Track 5 (James Taylor, "Steamroller Blues" from Live) Here again, greater resolution, particularly noticeable in the cymbals and crowd cheering and applause at the opening of the song, contributed to a greater "You are there" experience. The PRAT drew me further into the music. There was greater transparency and dynamics, courtesy of a blacker background that was readily apparent on this live concert recording—especially at the end with the crowd applauding.

Track 9 (Lyle Lovett, "Church") Here, the black backup singers were more intelligible and more specifically placed in the soundstage.

Track 10 (Wilson Phillips, "Daniel", from Two Rooms) The female voices in this 3-part harmony were more easily separated and distinguished. This is a complex cut with a wall of sound that makes it hard to separate the voices from the loud music, but the Chronos made a significant improvement here.

On "Shoo-Fly" from Bluesiana Triangle with Dr. John, David Fathead Newman, and Art Blakey, the Chronos threw more light on the soundstage, adding more transparency, inner detail, and air, especially at the top end with the cymbals. And don't let me forget the spectacular dynamics with Art Blakey on the drums!

While each of these tracks and their particular signifiers may seem rather trivial on their own, the cumulative effect of their strengths makes the music more intelligible and enjoyable. They reduce the brain activity involved in trying to decipher lyrics and identify instruments and rhythm, leading to greater enjoyment of the gestalt of music.

What stood out when the Chronos was removed from the system was an increase in granularity, or "digititis," if you will. The Chronos made CDs even more analog-sounding than my LampizatOr Amber 4 DAC with tubes. The soundstage would collapse behind the plane of the speakers when the Chronos was removed, just like at the show. I had removed the Synergistic Research Vibratron from the room for reviewing the Chronos, but when I reintroduced it in combination with the Chronos, the music leaped out into the room with even greater presence, a spectacular combination for those who love the "You are there" experience of being close to the stage at live music events.

I was hoping Chu-Pei Lin would give me two Nirvana Audio Chronos like they were using at AXPONA 2025, but he only gave me one, along with instructions to try it plugged into an AC outlet using a USB adaptor. (He also warned me / Enjoy the Music.com fans reading this review, again DO NOT plug it into a computer.) The above testing was all done by simply taking the Chronos in and out of the room for comparisons. The effect was evident within 30 seconds, giving me time to settle into my chair before hitting ‘Play,' and the effect dissipated long before I returned to the room after hiding it.

During this time, the results were similar, but not quite as spectacular as I heard at the show. The Chronos, I was told, is activated by energy either in the form of light or sound. In daylight hours, it was by a window on the front wall of the listening room, and at night I put it on my turntable beneath its dedicated lamp. (I took it to my office and put it in a drawer at the other end of my house to isolate it.)

The Plug-In
It is even more energized when plugged into an AC outlet. I finally tried this and immediately understood why Chu-Pei Lin only gave me one Chronos for review. The effect more than doubled, and everything I had heard the first time around became even more apparent. The string quartet in Zoltan Kodaly's "Glass Bead Game" on John Marks'  Music for a Glass Bead Game CD was immediately "In the room." And other classical music orchestral pieces played just as well, depending on the quality of the recording.

The timbre of the bass in "57 Channels" improved. The Chinese Drum cut had a wider soundstage. The organ at the opening of James Taylor's "Steamroller Blues" was so far to the left that I slipped into "enjoy the music" mode and lost my critical listening faculties. The 3-part harmony of Wilson Phillips became even more separated from the wall of sound behind them. Track 12, Mahler's First Symphony, Fourth Movement, was even more impressive and engaging. When I switched to my hot-rodded Sony FM tuner to listen to classical music on WXXI-FM, the result was brilliant—more transparent and dynamic than ever before, competing in sound quality with my CDs.

Switching back and forth, with and without the Chronos Optimizer plugged into an AC outlet on my power conditioner, adding the Chronos was more impressive than removing it. Oftentimes, it is the other way around, but perhaps I had become conditioned to expect these improvements by this time.

Overall, the bass slam improved by virtue of the noise floor being lowered, revealing more music at lower levels. The lower noise floor also encouraged me to raise the volume, which made the bass slam even more impressive. But resolution, timbre, transparency, and instrument separation remained excellent regardless of the volume. The music was more present in the room, commanding my attention, with the space of the recorded music extending from the soundstage out into the room, all the way to my ears. This is a quality I treasure highly. There was no sense that the music was in a separate bubble behind the plane of the speakers, which is so often the case with other systems I hear.

Some Competition
Previously, I reviewed several LessLoss products that address the issue of ambient RFI / EMI here on Enjoy the Music.com and found them to be excellent. For the Nirvana Audio Chronos Optimizer review, I removed them from the room and stored them at the other end of the house where they would have little effect, if any. After reaching the above findings, I reintroduced the LessLoss Giant Steps footers for comparison after the Chronos had been removed for several days to ensure the effect had dissipated. With nine footers at my disposal, I put three Giant Steps under the LampizatOr Amber 4 DAC, Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme 1.4 preamp, and the Synergistic power conditioner.

With the Giant Steps alone, the music was a little more transparent, a little higher resolution, and a little more dynamic. It was like the music was powered by an amp with a faster rise time and unrestricted current.

I then added the Nirvana Audio Chronos, placing it on the power conditioner (but not plugging it into the AC) while keeping the Giant Steps in place. The music became more polished, more analog-sounding, but a little less like "being there." It had less presence, and it was more relaxing. It was like music with the Chronos and Giant Steps together bathes the skin, while music with just the Giant Steps penetrates to touch your nerves and move you emotionally.

Then I plugged Nirvana Audio's Chronos into the power conditioner (with the Giant Steps still under the components). The music became more dynamic and present without losing the analog effect of the Chronos. It almost achieved the unrestricted, raw experience of "Being there" that the Giant Steps alone provided, while retaining the sweetness of the analog-like quality. The combination of the two technologies had slightly better resolution than either one alone. And also tighter bass, but not a bass that was any louder or deeper. The Giant Steps alone had more bass slam, while the plugged-in Chronos created slightly better soundstage placement.

These were small differences, and the combination of the two was better than either one alone. You may have personal preferences that cause you to lean one way or the other. Giant Steps are priced at $417 each, so a set of nine would come to $3565 with a volume discount, plus a Trump tariff. Of course, you could buy more or less. The Chronos Optimizer is around $2500, depending on U.S. tariff.

I also had the LessLoss BlackGround Power Base (~$4000, plus power cord) and LessLoss BlackGround for Speakers (nearly $8000, plus ground wire or power cord) on hand from previous reviews. When comparing each one alone and in combination with the Nirvana Audio Chronos, I found them to always be synergistic, producing much better sound quality than either product alone. This suggests that their technologies are somewhat different. Their form factors are certainly quite different, too. I would not let owning any one of these products dissuade you from exploring the benefits of the others. The combination of all of them has taken my music to a level of much more expensive systems.

The Back-Story
Ian (Huo, Kai-Yuan) shared the following back story after I expressed an interest in learning more about Nirvana Audio:

"The owner of Nirvana Audio Co., Ltd., Mr. William Su, is an audiophile. His primary profession is not in the audio industry; he is, in fact, a successful entrepreneur in the food manufacturing business, operating 58 physical stores across Taiwan with an annual revenue exceeding USD$23 million. His passion for audio, however, has been a lifelong pursuit—one that has served as both a creative outlet and a source of solace throughout his demanding entrepreneurial journey.

About 18 years ago, when William Su was still a struggling student, he used his computer as a digital audio source and actively shared his experiences with fellow enthusiasts. Around that time, a friend studying physics mentioned a phenomenon he had observed while using a CAT player—one that seemed unrelated to circuitry or digital data, but rather rooted in deeper physical principles. Intrigued, they continued to investigate the phenomenon.

Years later, after establishing a stable foundation in his primary business, William Su began directing significant resources into advanced research in fundamental physics. In 2021, his R&D team finally succeeded in transforming this breakthrough into a scalable, practical technology—culminating in the creation of Chronos."

The Technology—Is This Particle Physics?
I have been talking about the Chronos Optomizer as if the technology had something to do with EMI / RFI because the effect it created is similar to other products from LessLoss that deal with this kind of electrical interference. I was not able to press them deeply for a better description, but after I finished my critical listening, I found a review in a Chinese publication, Audio Art Magazine, that had a more intimate relationship with Nirvana over a couple of years during the development of the Chronos. In their review, they talked about physical micro resonances, and I've linked to that review here rather than pretending I really know more about this proprietary technology. On the Nirvana Audio website, it is referred to as 'Micro Resonance Sequencing' (MRS) technology.

What is clear to me is that the people at Nirvana Audio are in a small circle of very creative people in this industry that includes the likes of Ted Denney of Synergistic Research in California, Louis Motek of LessLoss in Lithuania, Holger Stein of SteinMusic in Germany, and a few others who are on my radar. All of these people keep their cards close to the chest, which leaves me as just the messenger about the acoustic effects of their products.

Some people may criticize the lack of transparency and decry such products as "snake oil." This lack of transparency is a key tool for protecting the intellectual property or proprietary technology, which is so often necessary to justify the capital investment necessary to develop such products and protect them from being copied. Unless you've had actual experience with a product, it's best to avoid mocking or spreading disinformation about it. I'm always grateful for adventures such as this review, especially when they exhibit such breakthrough technology. The fact that I don't have a PhD in particle physics doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the musical richness it brings to my system.

Value
Almost everyone who sat through the demonstration of the Nirvana Audio Chronos loved the effect of the unit, but many felt it was priced too high (~$2500) for their discretionary income. That is to be expected in the high-end luxury audio marketplace. This new and expanding technology addresses the ever-increasing RFI / EMI or micro-vibration problems that mask low-level musical detail. Thirty or forty years ago, power conditioners were becoming a new category, and now they are considered necessary by most audiophiles. These products do not replace the power conditioner; they supplement it.

While the Chronos and Giant Steps may seem expensive, there are other products that address the same (or similar) low-level noise that cost far more. A more appropriate question is to ask how much you would have to spend on purchasing a new component that would give you an equivalent improvement in sound quality. Or could you even do it with just a single component? Also, consider that it doesn't require an expensive power cord or any power cord at all.

There are other ways to make improvements in transparency, resolution, dynamics, and so on. But many alternatives will cost significantly more. Even then, reducing the micro-vibrations may still be a challenge. I realize it is hard to sell a product in a new category, but I have adopted numerous tweaks over the years that have enabled my rig to achieve a much higher level than the total cost would suggest.

Hit The Road, Jack!
I almost didn't bother checking out the Nirvana Audio Chronos in my Volvo station wagon. I didn't think it would make much difference, and how could I recommend this expensive tweak for use in a vehicle where it could easily be lost or stolen? I rarely listen to the radio in the car except to stay awake on long trips, but I thought there might be some readers who would be interested. So, at 2 a.m. I slipped out to the garage with my compilation CD and listened to tracks 1 through 5 as noted earlier. The Volvo is a decent car, and the radio has more speakers than I can count on one hand, but the sound quality was sorely lacking when compared to the system in my house. I could have spent more time tuning it as I sat there, but it was optimized for my wife, who listens to music frequently when driving.

I went inside, brought out the Chronos, and replayed tracks 1 through 5. Whoa! The jump in sound quality was even greater than I experienced with my main system. There was a startling improvement in resolution across the entire spectrum. A soundstage appeared where there had been none before. Instruments had much more accurate timbre, and lyrics were far more intelligible. I actually liked listening to it!

But what would happen out on the road? I headed off toward the highway on the nearly empty suburban streets. Around town, the music was sounding just as good with only a little road noise coming through. Heading north on I-390, I cruised at 65 mph (105 km/h), not wanting to draw attention to myself at a higher speed. The music was still singing. I quickly realized I would love to have the Chronos along on a long road trip. Why would anyone want to spend big bucks on adding all kinds of fancy automotive high-end audio gear when you could just pop a Chronos onto your console instead?

Knowing what I now know, I wish I had spent more time in the car audio arena and asked to check out Nirvana Audio's Chronos on a mega-buck car audio rig. For an audiophile who travels by car frequently, you could justifiably cut the cost of the Chronos by half if you use it on both systems. And the Chronos won't go ‘bye-bye' when you sell your car. Nirvana needs to get a review sample into the hands of a car audio reviewer!

Conclusion
The largest amount of time and energy spent in research and innovation in the high-end luxury audio industry is in major components. That's where the momentum created by advertising, audio reviews, and audio shows is greatest. And that's where most of the money is spent and earned. Tweaks and research in more peripheral areas require the special genius of minds driven to search outside the box for answers to questions that are not often asked. The Nirvana Audio Chronos Optimizer is such a product. That it works as intended is easily demonstrated at audio shows and verified by reviewers in reference conditions.

The form factor of the USB thumb drive, despite its elegance, brings the perceived value into question for many. If you trust your ears and appreciate the sound quality the Nirvana Audio Chronos Optimizer brings to your music, you will realize the audible value far exceeds its diminutive footprint. If the basic needs of your audio or video system are in place, and the cost does not intimidate you, I expect you will be as highly impressed with the Chronos Optimizer as I have been. And don't forget to take it on your next road trip!

Specifications
Type: High-end audio accessory
Price: ~$2500 depending on U.S. tariff

Company Information
Nirvana Audio Co., Ltd.
4th Floor, No. 665, Bannan Road
Zhonghe District, New Taipei City
Taiwan (ROC) 23557

Phone: +886-2-8221-8989
Email: support@nirvana-audio.com 
Website: Nirvana-Audio.com/en