Synergistic Research ECT

[postjack]

From the manufacturer:

 

HOT – Headphone Optimized Transducer

Headphone Transducers or HOT for short, is the new UEF headphone filter that dramatically improves headphone / amplifier performance.

Nearly one year in development, HOTs were voiced with Audeze LCD-3 and Sennheiser HD 800 stereo headphones. Amplification included a Luxman P-700 solid-state amplifier and numerous tube based headphone amplifiers. When HOT is used with your favorite cans you hear sound that gets out of your head as well as smoother more articulate highs with improved bass. If you’ve been looking for more holographic sound with smoother highs and increased resolution, you’ve gotta try HOT!

 

Nothing beats a HOT set of cans:

Whether you’re a seasoned headphone fanatic or an open air two-channel audiophile looking to explore the magic of personal audio, HOT maximizes your enjoyment with increased resolution and smoothness in the world’s most holographic headphone experience.

 

Review from head-fi:

 

I have the Synergistic Research Headphone Optimizer Transducer (HOT) in my dedicated headphone system. Senheisser 800 cans with Double Helix cables, Eddie Current Zana Deux tube amp, Marantz SA11S-2 SACD player.

 

This device gives a major improvement to my systems sound. Soundstage detail is improved. Images are precisely placed. Harmonic textures are more clearly heard. I do not hear any added brightness to the system. Instead the music is more flowing with a sense of ease and improved transmitted emotion.

 

I am enthusiastic having the HOT in my system and after listening for the past two weeks, it is staying in my system. I do hope you are able to audition this device. They have not shipped any of the transducers to England yet but will soon. Another way to audition the Hot is to E-mail the Cable Company here in the USA. They do offer the 30 day money back trial. Europian buyers are responsible for shipping- $14.80 each way to England.

 

I look forward to other head-fiers impressions of the Synergistic Research Headphone Optimized Transducer in their systems.

 

...

My listening experience is similar to the Cable Company reports in many ways. The soundstage definitely is now wider and deeper such that the music is no longer inside the physical head but extends outward. This is very pleasing sonically. The sound is also more articulate but not due to increased brightness. There is less grain hence the relaxed and flowing analogy in my earlier post. Listening to multi instruments or vocals it is so much easier to pick out individual voices. Last night was a Vivaldi concerto night with Rachel Podger- Channel Classic SACD disc recorded with the fabulous Grimm DAC. I know this disc well. The placement of the individual musicians is now so better defined with the HOT in place. The improved articulation allows the harpsicord and lute to be heard more clearly. Rachel"s violin has more emotion and energy.

I was concerned that maybe the HOT unit extending out of the headphone jack would cause a stress on my amps jack. I do not think this is a problem now that it is actually in place. I have taken a paper cup, cut it to size and placed it under the Hot unit to provide support. This may not be necessary in practice but now I do not worry about stress at the jack imput.

 

I am looking forward to tonight's listening- Stevie Ray Vaughn and some Ray Brown jazz.

fuck yeah less grain. i HATE GRAIN.

Edited November 12, 2014 by postjack

[RudeWolf]

What is that supposed to be?  A really short extension cord? 

 

If you buy just one, then yes.

[Jon L]

What is that supposed to be?  A really short extension cord? 

 

I was curious myself, and according to Steve Eddy's guess:

 

"Looking at the photos, it looks like the granular material could be quartz, which has piezoelectric properties. Meaning that if you apply an electric field to it, it will physically deform. That's mechanical energy. Or more to the point, conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy. So we have the shield of the female jack covered with (what looks like) bits of quartz. And then some strips of foil laid over them, which at least for the left and right hots, would produce an electric field between the foil and the shield on the female jack. The ground foil doesn't make any sense however. The female jack's shield is connected to ground, which would put it at the same potential as the ground foil, in which case there would be no electric field between them, and hence no transduction of electrical energy into mechanical energy. Perhaps it's there to keep the other two foils company. 

Of course the electric field produced by the relatively low voltages of a headphone output and such tiny strips of foil isn't really going to do anything to speak of to the bits of quartz, but even if it did, what would be the point of vibrating some little bits of quartz on the shield of a female headphone jack? You're obviously not intended to hear them vibrating. They're sealed up inside a rigid plastic tube, and hey, you've got a pair of headphones on."

 

From manufacturer:

"When HOT is used with your favorite cans you hear sound that gets out of your head as well as smoother more articulate highs with improved bass. If you’ve been looking for more holographic sound with smoother highs and increased resolution, you’ve gotta try HOT!"

 

I DO believe this may be the ANSWER we have been missing regarding our SR009 "brightness" or "imbalance" woes.  We need to take a couple of HOT's, a mere $600 bargain, get rid of the connectors, attach them to T2 or BHSE's Stax output jacks, add SR009, and BINGO, a sound Stax meant to produce but couldn't    

[Mr.Sneis]

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.

 

It is MAGIC I tell you.

[spritzer]

Holy fuck on a stick, the age of the tube and some BS story about where they have been sitting for 70+ years is crucial to the sound.  Ohh yeah, pumping 30VDC into the shield of a triaxial cable makes it "ghost" like...  I want to kill somebody right now... 

[Mr.Sneis]

If it makes you feel any better he was clearly in bed with Mikhail on it when that thing was originally released!

[GrindingThud]

Lol, I've been watching the train wreck over there....

I hope I don't get flogged too hard for it, but the image comes from the other forum.

 

[justin]

If you buy just one, then yes.

 

woah, i never thought of that. if i put several feet of them in series think of the SQ improvement

[kevin gilmore]

 

It is MAGIC I tell you.

 

now that I see the tubes, major stupidity. but really, what did you expect.

 

The one on the left is a standard low voltage high current mercury rectifier.

filament and plate anode.

 

The one on the right is a grid pulse thyratron with the plate disconnected

and the grid used as the anode.

 

Basically both are driven as equivalent 30v say 10 watt zeners.

 

Then the dc is applied to the shield wire of the cable.

 

Same trick as audioquest cables that use the 24 volt battery

 

Does not do anything. Never did anything

 

Evidently Mikhail built something very similar.

 

But look at the blue shinny.

[nopants]

I like the case though, needs more rings and buttons

[Pars]

Oh it does something alright... it relieves your wallet of unnecessary biasing

[guzziguy]

I especially like how Mr. Snake-oil plays the mil-spec card.

[kevin gilmore]

where is Ray Samuels and his magic military solder and wire when you need him.

 

OH wait, the guy finally retired.

[justin]

now that I see the tubes, major stupidity. but really, what did you expect.

 

The one on the left is a standard low voltage high current mercury rectifier.

filament and plate anode.

 

The one on the right is a grid pulse thyratron with the plate disconnected

and the grid used as the anode.

 

Basically both are driven as equivalent 30v say 10 watt zeners.

 

Then the dc is applied to the shield wire of the cable.

 

Same trick as audioquest cables that use the 24 volt battery

 

Does not do anything. Never did anything

 

Evidently Mikhail built something very similar.

 

But look at the blue shinny.

 

mikhail brought that same thing to the 2006? ny meet in babylon. i think he was responsible for designing it or building it. i really never heard about it again. so it's actually for sale and it costs 11k?

[Voltron]

Mikhail did design the Enigma but he never really closed a deal with Synergistic to manufacture it. I'm not sure if that thing is still available but I'm pretty certain he never made significant money from it.

[justin]

it was a loss leader to get people into the high-end

[Dusty Chalk]

I think mostly it was wishful thinking, to justify his purchase of the tube warehouse.

 

Entirely "thinking" out of my ass, as I have not heard from him, even indirectly through Hirsch, since then.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Well, now I'm feeling a lot better about not plugging the power adapter into my Synergistic Research coax digital cable. I was skeptical that it could help if I couldn't hear the difference. I picked up the cable for a song from Mikhail, like under $100.

[morphsci]

Cheap at half the price!

[kevin gilmore]

so for entertainment I was looking thru the SR price list.

 

Sure enough   394A Mercury Thyratron...   $250...

 

Now to go and find some with the socket.

 

Must have the blue shinny