Nebby Posted August 6, 2014 Report Posted August 6, 2014 (edited) The product is called the Electronic Circuit Transducer or ECT. These tiny devices...are placed on D to A chips, fuses, near vacuum tubes, capacitors, transformers, op amps, and analog and digital cables. The ECTs can also be placed on the exterior of the chassis to improve the electromagnetic environment of the component. Synergistic Research states that high frequency noise is reduced with a resultant drop in the perceived noise floor. Compression of the sound is decreased with application of these devices on your electronic components. Improvements in clarity and definition, along with soundstage size and air, are claimed to improve with use of the ECTs. The ECTs convert ultra-high frequencies that are found with RFI-EMI circuit board component emissions to more musically consonant frequencies. There's so much marketing talk, where's the description of how it does all this magic? Maybe we'll find it in the related High Frequency Transducer review: I know that some of you will be wondering where is the technical explanation of how the HFT and FEQ achieve these startling sonic results. I don’t have that information nor was it provided to me. I do know that the HFT and FEQ do what Synergistic Research claims that they will do in my system. So there is no baseless marketing hype here. As far as I'm concerned, these products live up to Synergistic Research’s claims and advertising. Oh, the company doesn't even bother explaining how it does all this magic. The reviewer is fine with that and agrees that it works. Edited August 6, 2014 by Nebby
Dusty Chalk Posted August 6, 2014 Author Report Posted August 6, 2014 It obviously runs on a hybrid of black hole and Maxwell's demon technology, with a little bit of entropy reclamation thrown in the mix... ...or perhaps it's mostly entropy reclamation, with a little bit of black hole and Maxwell's demon technology on the side...
n3rdling Posted August 6, 2014 Report Posted August 6, 2014 Sad how many people still believe in magic.
Aura Posted August 7, 2014 Report Posted August 7, 2014 I thought they were small lazercut pebbles for throwing at and distracting people during audio demo's.
Leonardo Drummond Posted August 9, 2014 Report Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) Well, it is Synergistic Resarch... the lot that go for the string theory to explain their cables. Is it likewise correct to assume that all there is to know about signal can be represented and explained through known objective measurements when our experience tells us we can hear so much more? Again the answer is “only if you are not very smart.” I love how a fully understood and established hypothesis to explain the difference in perception (placebo) is not even considered by so many hobbyists, but a full paradigm shift in physics and electronics somehow is. I also love how some random guy making electronic components has this revolutionary physics all figured out, but physicists, electronic engineers and huge corporations with massive budgets don't – and, lastly, how the sound properties of cable materials magically match their aesthetics (silver is bright and thin and copper/gold is warm and veiled). Nice. Edited August 9, 2014 by Leonardo Drummond
Leonardo Drummond Posted August 9, 2014 Report Posted August 9, 2014 ^ Seeing is believing. Indeed! But then a little bit of doubt and skepticism should not only make you get a better grip on reality but also help your wallet, I guess 1
jp11801 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Posted October 15, 2014 We went to their room at RMAF, they are in the On Higher Note room run by Philip O'Hanlon. We heard some crazy shit, some small disc that was placed on the top of a phono cart that clearly changed the sound. There were two different varieties and each had a distinct sound to them, both appeared to sound better than stock. Three years ago it was small Tibetan monk prayer bowls that did change the room sound. These guys must have some sort of mass hypnosis capabilities. I'd like to buy the phono thingies to do needle drops with stock, flavor A and flavor B and post them without tagging which was which. I'd only do this though with a 30 day refund.
nikongod Posted October 15, 2014 Report Posted October 15, 2014 We went to their room at RMAF, they are in the On Higher Note room run by Philip O'Hanlon. We heard some crazy shit, some small disc that was placed on the top of a phono cart that clearly changed the sound. There were two different varieties and each had a distinct sound to them, both appeared to sound better than stock. Three years ago it was small Tibetan monk prayer bowls that did change the room sound. These guys must have some sort of mass hypnosis capabilities. I'd like to buy the phono thingies to do needle drops with stock, flavor A and flavor B and post them without tagging which was which. I'd only do this though with a 30 day refund. Did they reset the VTF after putting the 0.75 & 1.5g weights on the headshell?
jp11801 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Posted October 15, 2014 no but both presentations were very different in a way that I had never heard by varying the VTF. Not sure what they weigh as they are tiny and I really really want to chalk this up to expectation bias but what I heard was different and in at least one case better. I am very open to the people running the demo (experiment) setting it up in a way that alters the outcome but that would seem like a risky move with the gear out tin the open. I did not closely examine the cart/TT as we were moving quickly to take in as much of the show as we could.
HeadphoneAddict Posted October 15, 2014 Report Posted October 15, 2014 I use a synergistic research powered shielding coax digital cable that I got really cheap as "used" one year when I bought the square wave XL amp, but I don't bother to plug it into the wall because I was thought that was a hocus-pocus cocoanut audio kinda shit. Does that really work too?
skullguise Posted October 15, 2014 Report Posted October 15, 2014 I remember the email list Thunderstone Audiophile, led by Thorsten Loesch, now of AMR. He offered a lot of high quality sounding but cheap cable designs on that list. One of them was an active shield cable. Tom Kenny of Aural Thrills Audio created several cables off that design, I got a couple pairs as cheap demos. As JP# mentioned above regarding his thoughts, there may have been some expectation bias, but I definitely heard less noise with the batteries in (or in the case of one cable, the DC power wall-wart plugged in). What I wasn't sure of but thought I experienced was better image focus, IE placement of instruments and voice in space. BTW, this was with analog IC's, not digital cable. Call it hi-fi review BS, but that was my experience. I never followed up on these designs, because the price for the brand names was always pretty high for the value IMO. Even the cheaper Audioquest DBS stuff was more than I wanted to pay.
Salt Peanuts Posted October 15, 2014 Report Posted October 15, 2014 Anyone remember this thing? http://www.stereophile.com/ces2008/10708syn/index.html
Dusty Chalk Posted October 15, 2014 Author Report Posted October 15, 2014 Yup, first thing I thought of. Didn't want to set anyone off (or put anyone off their lunch, as it were), though, so didn't bring it up.
Jon L Posted October 15, 2014 Report Posted October 15, 2014 I remember the email list Thunderstone Audiophile, led by Thorsten Loesch, now of AMR. He offered a lot of high quality sounding but cheap cable designs on that list. One of them was an active shield cable. Tom Kenny of Aural Thrills Audio created several cables off that design, I got a couple pairs as cheap demos. As JP# mentioned above regarding his thoughts, there may have been some expectation bias, but I definitely heard less noise with the batteries in (or in the case of one cable, the DC power wall-wart plugged in). What I wasn't sure of but thought I experienced was better image focus, IE placement of instruments and voice in space. BTW, this was with analog IC's, not digital cable. Call it hi-fi review BS, but that was my experience. I never followed up on these designs, because the price for the brand names was always pretty high for the value IMO. Even the cheaper Audioquest DBS stuff was more than I wanted to pay. I actually had/have several pairs of Aural Thrills "active" interconnects. Sound definitely changes with power on vs. off, but after using them for a long time, I decided different people may prefer one sound over the other, as "active" had blacker background and more liquid sound but lost some of the sparkle and life. I also have used Omega Mikro active power cords for a long time, which are fantatic power cords. It really doesn't make much scientific sense to me why battery biasing would make a big difference for AC power, but the difference is clearly noticeable, similar changes as Aural Thrills although I place Omega Mikro stuff at a higher baseline level of quality to begin with.
spritzer Posted October 16, 2014 Report Posted October 16, 2014 Anyone remember this thing? http://www.stereophile.com/ces2008/10708syn/index.html Gotta love the plate cap not connected to anything.
kevin gilmore Posted October 16, 2014 Report Posted October 16, 2014 better yet, that is a mercury rectifier, and clearly there is a blue glow indicating that current is flowing. Which would be impossible without the plate cap hooked to anything.
postjack Posted October 16, 2014 Report Posted October 16, 2014 Anyone remember this thing? http://www.stereophile.com/ces2008/10708syn/index.html this is awesome on so many levels. i'm going home and putting tubes in all my cables.
GrindingThud Posted October 17, 2014 Report Posted October 17, 2014 Crap, my OBECALP prescription just ran out.
RudeWolf Posted November 12, 2014 Report Posted November 12, 2014 I hope I don't get flogged too hard for it, but the image comes from the other forum.
spritzer Posted November 12, 2014 Report Posted November 12, 2014 What is that supposed to be? A really short extension cord?
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