Stairways to heaven (audio) - the use of double resonator
Many weeks have passed since the exotic large wood horns took residence in my hi-fi abode and they have been giving me listening pleasure every single day due to my relentless efforts to look for ways to make them sing better and better by tweaking the speakers and room acoustics. I have also tried different types of tube amps and other things to improve the sound, slowly but surely, the sound gets incrementally better.
Franck Tchang, my acoustic master recently paid 2 separate visits to my place and showed me a few room-acoustic tricks, before he left, he told me now that my room is more or less reasonably well behaved, the next step forward is to use a double resonator in the middle section at the back of my room, the second resonator should be a platinum sitting in front of my present gold special. Since AE did not have such exotic (they are always in short supply) resonator in stock, I had to wait for 2-3 weeks before Franck sent one to me, although I was not expecting a lot what this fairly expensive gadget (a gold special & platinum can trade for a pretty modest piece of hi-fi component ! ) will do, I always trust what Franck tells me.
2 weeks ago, the platinum resonator duly arrived, however, somehow I was not too eager to try it immediately as PT also gave me the ORB power bar to replace my existing one, I preferred to try out one new component at a time to fully discern what net difference it’ll make to the overall system’s sound. Several more days had passed before I finally stuck the second resonator in front of the gold special residing just behind the Zanden pre-amp in the middle of the racks (see pictures below).
The first listening impression was not positive so to speak as although the overall dynamics improved together with better resolution and imaging, the sound was too tight (tension), resulting in what we may sometimes call hi-fi sound. Despite fiddling with several sugar cubes (noise filters) by raising them a wee bit higher, I was unable to remove the tension. So in frustration, I removed the platinum resonator and listened happily again to the music playing from my previous configuration.
Two days later, out of courtesy, I reported my initial listening impression to Franck and he told me to ‘lower’ the height of the double-resonator. To cut the long story short, after spending an hour and eventually lowering the resonators by 12 cm (I had to raise the gold special position several months earlier after adding the SRA platform under the Zanden pre-amp), the tension which had bugged my ears totally disappeared (the 12 cm difference in height did make a night & day difference), giving me a much more 3 dimensional, organic, richer, detailed and dynamic sound. It was like changing to a much better amp. I could not believe what I heard, sound details which hitherto were not noticeable in the past suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the solidity as well as clarity in sound image gave me goose bumps as it was almost giving me an illusion a person was performing in front of you. The sum of all these improved areas was like, to borrow the description “ Living Presence “. My initial impression was “ I’m now much closer to hi-fi nirvana than ever before” and I want to get closer and closer !
Later on, after several telephone exchanges with Franck, he explained the original tension in sound was caused by the blockage of energy/sound waves in the middle section of the room by the double resonator, once I had lowered them, the sound waves were then allowed to move freely. Furthermore, the additional platinum resonator had the power of ‘cleansing’ the air/sound waves in my room by increasing the damping factor of my hi-fi system, thus making the sound sounding more organic, with better harmonics and decays, bass modulation became more ‘tuneful’ instead of the usual monotone sound one associates with some speakers - obviously, I did not quite understand how this worked but since hearing is believing, I took his abovementioned words/explanation at face value.
The double resonator has been working nicely in my room for over a week now at the time of writing, I have also used separate amps with similar positive results, that’s why I am happy and confident to share with fellow AE’s audiophile comrades my latest encounter and would recommend to those who are willing to try should be happy with the result, however, a word of advice (or even warning), the resonators, noise filters and other wooden pucks are not the so-called plug & play accessories, they need to be installed correctly (in the right place) by trained person like PT, otherwise, the true potential of these extraordinary gadgets will be severely compromised to say the least or sometimes make the overall sound hard or robbed you of the harmonics from your system. Just a very quick word on the use of topline feet, I have noticed some of you did not quite follow the installation instruction, the 3 wooden pucks are not intended to be placed in the conventional manner i.e. 2 front 1 rear or 1 front 2 rear, they must be placed with 2 feet on either the left or right hand side of the component and the 3rd feet on the opposite side, if the weight distribution of the component (i.e. CD player) is even, the feet should be placed in the middle, if not - like in most cases, one should gently slide it towards the rear or front (whichever side is heavier) until the feet sits tightly, then you hear the sound again and be surprised by the improvement this proper setting brings.
Anyway, I hope the latest sound improvement brought about by these little room tuning gadgets to my system will do the same to yours. I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear to those who have not yet tried out the Acoustic-System’s products or any other proper room tuning devise to do so, otherwise, you won’t be able to realize the true potential of what your hi-fi system can bring. Just a rule of thumb, if you are willing to acquire exotic cables &/or vibration controlled platforms, then you should also spend at least 5-10% of the total cost of your system on room tuning accessories to achieve optimum room acoustic as this will give the biggest payoff in my experience. Apart from sound improvement, they will also train your hearing too as your ears will slowly learn to discern every nuances (be it positive or negative) in the change in sound whenever you move the position of these acoustic tuning devise. After many hours of tweaking your system, hopefully your hearing will be better as you are aware of the sound coming not just from the side, middle and rear of your speakers but also any undesirable reflection from other areas of your room. Later on, when you go to visit your audiophile buddy, you will probably be able to hear pretty quickly (after 60 seconds of playing) whether the sound coming from any system is balanced or is tilted to the upper, middle or lower frequencies. With the use of Franck’s products, you can literally tune to the sound your little heart desires (up to certain degree), like I said in the previous post, you are the “conductor” of your system.
Let’s use this coming weekend to fine tune your system to get closer to hi-fi nirvana. There is no need to be afraid to move your room tuning device, before you commence, simply mark/write down the original position of each devise and only move one or each opposite pair by a notch (2-5 mm) at a time. Just a general guide only if you are using the famed acoustic resonators, they are designed to be located on the upper, middle and lower area of your room. If you want more highs & details, lower the top resonator and if the sound is little bit hard on certain music, raise it by 10-50 mm. With the middle resonator, raising & lowering it will change the height of your soundstage, once it is properly positioned, raising it by 5-15 mm may reduce the mid-range prominence and vice versa. Lastly, the bottom resonator controls the bass response – if you find the bass is too much (all you Horning users out there), lower and lower and lower the resonator to as much as letting it touch the floor if needed, if you want more bass, raise the resonator but make sure it does not muddle the mid-range sound as a result.
Happy listening and tweaking !
Mr Z
I
Franck Tchang, my acoustic master recently paid 2 separate visits to my place and showed me a few room-acoustic tricks, before he left, he told me now that my room is more or less reasonably well behaved, the next step forward is to use a double resonator in the middle section at the back of my room, the second resonator should be a platinum sitting in front of my present gold special. Since AE did not have such exotic (they are always in short supply) resonator in stock, I had to wait for 2-3 weeks before Franck sent one to me, although I was not expecting a lot what this fairly expensive gadget (a gold special & platinum can trade for a pretty modest piece of hi-fi component ! ) will do, I always trust what Franck tells me.
2 weeks ago, the platinum resonator duly arrived, however, somehow I was not too eager to try it immediately as PT also gave me the ORB power bar to replace my existing one, I preferred to try out one new component at a time to fully discern what net difference it’ll make to the overall system’s sound. Several more days had passed before I finally stuck the second resonator in front of the gold special residing just behind the Zanden pre-amp in the middle of the racks (see pictures below).
The first listening impression was not positive so to speak as although the overall dynamics improved together with better resolution and imaging, the sound was too tight (tension), resulting in what we may sometimes call hi-fi sound. Despite fiddling with several sugar cubes (noise filters) by raising them a wee bit higher, I was unable to remove the tension. So in frustration, I removed the platinum resonator and listened happily again to the music playing from my previous configuration.
Two days later, out of courtesy, I reported my initial listening impression to Franck and he told me to ‘lower’ the height of the double-resonator. To cut the long story short, after spending an hour and eventually lowering the resonators by 12 cm (I had to raise the gold special position several months earlier after adding the SRA platform under the Zanden pre-amp), the tension which had bugged my ears totally disappeared (the 12 cm difference in height did make a night & day difference), giving me a much more 3 dimensional, organic, richer, detailed and dynamic sound. It was like changing to a much better amp. I could not believe what I heard, sound details which hitherto were not noticeable in the past suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the solidity as well as clarity in sound image gave me goose bumps as it was almost giving me an illusion a person was performing in front of you. The sum of all these improved areas was like, to borrow the description “ Living Presence “. My initial impression was “ I’m now much closer to hi-fi nirvana than ever before” and I want to get closer and closer !
Later on, after several telephone exchanges with Franck, he explained the original tension in sound was caused by the blockage of energy/sound waves in the middle section of the room by the double resonator, once I had lowered them, the sound waves were then allowed to move freely. Furthermore, the additional platinum resonator had the power of ‘cleansing’ the air/sound waves in my room by increasing the damping factor of my hi-fi system, thus making the sound sounding more organic, with better harmonics and decays, bass modulation became more ‘tuneful’ instead of the usual monotone sound one associates with some speakers - obviously, I did not quite understand how this worked but since hearing is believing, I took his abovementioned words/explanation at face value.
The double resonator has been working nicely in my room for over a week now at the time of writing, I have also used separate amps with similar positive results, that’s why I am happy and confident to share with fellow AE’s audiophile comrades my latest encounter and would recommend to those who are willing to try should be happy with the result, however, a word of advice (or even warning), the resonators, noise filters and other wooden pucks are not the so-called plug & play accessories, they need to be installed correctly (in the right place) by trained person like PT, otherwise, the true potential of these extraordinary gadgets will be severely compromised to say the least or sometimes make the overall sound hard or robbed you of the harmonics from your system. Just a very quick word on the use of topline feet, I have noticed some of you did not quite follow the installation instruction, the 3 wooden pucks are not intended to be placed in the conventional manner i.e. 2 front 1 rear or 1 front 2 rear, they must be placed with 2 feet on either the left or right hand side of the component and the 3rd feet on the opposite side, if the weight distribution of the component (i.e. CD player) is even, the feet should be placed in the middle, if not - like in most cases, one should gently slide it towards the rear or front (whichever side is heavier) until the feet sits tightly, then you hear the sound again and be surprised by the improvement this proper setting brings.
Anyway, I hope the latest sound improvement brought about by these little room tuning gadgets to my system will do the same to yours. I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear to those who have not yet tried out the Acoustic-System’s products or any other proper room tuning devise to do so, otherwise, you won’t be able to realize the true potential of what your hi-fi system can bring. Just a rule of thumb, if you are willing to acquire exotic cables &/or vibration controlled platforms, then you should also spend at least 5-10% of the total cost of your system on room tuning accessories to achieve optimum room acoustic as this will give the biggest payoff in my experience. Apart from sound improvement, they will also train your hearing too as your ears will slowly learn to discern every nuances (be it positive or negative) in the change in sound whenever you move the position of these acoustic tuning devise. After many hours of tweaking your system, hopefully your hearing will be better as you are aware of the sound coming not just from the side, middle and rear of your speakers but also any undesirable reflection from other areas of your room. Later on, when you go to visit your audiophile buddy, you will probably be able to hear pretty quickly (after 60 seconds of playing) whether the sound coming from any system is balanced or is tilted to the upper, middle or lower frequencies. With the use of Franck’s products, you can literally tune to the sound your little heart desires (up to certain degree), like I said in the previous post, you are the “conductor” of your system.
Let’s use this coming weekend to fine tune your system to get closer to hi-fi nirvana. There is no need to be afraid to move your room tuning device, before you commence, simply mark/write down the original position of each devise and only move one or each opposite pair by a notch (2-5 mm) at a time. Just a general guide only if you are using the famed acoustic resonators, they are designed to be located on the upper, middle and lower area of your room. If you want more highs & details, lower the top resonator and if the sound is little bit hard on certain music, raise it by 10-50 mm. With the middle resonator, raising & lowering it will change the height of your soundstage, once it is properly positioned, raising it by 5-15 mm may reduce the mid-range prominence and vice versa. Lastly, the bottom resonator controls the bass response – if you find the bass is too much (all you Horning users out there), lower and lower and lower the resonator to as much as letting it touch the floor if needed, if you want more bass, raise the resonator but make sure it does not muddle the mid-range sound as a result.
Happy listening and tweaking !
Mr Z
I
0
Comments
I admire your passion and willingness to share amongst AE fellows. I will get some resonators from PT soon. They are always sold!
Where is your SRA amp stand?
VR
I will try soon.
Jeff