Shakti Hallographs..

es347

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..I'm a skeptic when it comes to tweak voodoo but having read several positive reviews of these thingamajigs curiosity has gotten the best of me. $1500 seems pretty ridiculous but I suppose if they really improve the soundstage as claimed...oh what the heck. Any comments by folks who've actually had experience with them would be much appreciated....thx in advance..
 

bonzo75

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I have tried them once and was impressed. However another person here who owns them bought the SMT and said they were slightly better - don't recollect his exact impressions but he likes both.

PM caliaripaolo
 
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es347

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Midwest fly over state..
I have tried them once and was impressed. However another person here who owns them bought the SMT and said they were slightly better - don't recollect his exact impressions but he likes both.

PM caliaripaolo

..pardon my ignorance but what is SMT?
 

microstrip

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May 30, 2010
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..I'm a skeptic when it comes to tweak voodoo but having read several positive reviews of these thingamajigs curiosity has gotten the best of me. $1500 seems pretty ridiculous but I suppose if they really improve the soundstage as claimed...oh what the heck. Any comments by folks who've actually had experience with them would be much appreciated....thx in advance..

Everyone should be intrinsically skeptical about something described as tweak voodoo. However I have seen in the net that the owner of what is considered by many people one of the best existing listening rooms includes the Shakti Hallographs. Considering that this person has produced some recordings I consider some of the best in my collection and that give me great pleasure I feel inclined that in the proper system these particular tweaks are not voodoo, but can result in serious improvement of sound quality. As always, these type of thinks is strongly dependent on system and user preferences, you should try with a money back option.
 

Andre Marc

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..I'm a skeptic when it comes to tweak voodoo but having read several positive reviews of these thingamajigs curiosity has gotten the best of me. $1500 seems pretty ridiculous but I suppose if they really improve the soundstage as claimed...oh what the heck. Any comments by folks who've actually had experience with them would be much appreciated....thx in advance..

I have several Shakti Stones and they do indeed work as advertised. I use them on sources.

BTW, Shakti's technology is used in elite level competitive auto racing.
 
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DaveyF

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Jul 31, 2010
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I think there is consensus that the Shakti stones are based on some very good science and do in fact work....I'm not so sure that can be said of the Hallographs.
 

Ronm1

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I have several Shakti Stones and they do indeed work as advertised. I use them on sources.
.
I also use them with my Dac's and sources Certainly one of the reasons, IMHO, in achieving music to come from blackness.
 

ddk

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May 18, 2013
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..I'm a skeptic when it comes to tweak voodoo but having read several positive reviews of these thingamajigs curiosity has gotten the best of me. $1500 seems pretty ridiculous but I suppose if they really improve the soundstage as claimed...oh what the heck. Any comments by folks who've actually had experience with them would be much appreciated....thx in advance..
It depends on your taste but Shakti is a very power tweak and what that means is that like all tweaks it imposes a very strong character i.e. COLOR, on the system. My experience, they seem to subdue some frequencies and give the illusion of better focus and detail, the effect compounds with each additional Shakti component. I don't like everything sounding the same why I dislike tweaks of any kind and the more powerful the tweak the worse it is for me. Tweaks introduce colorations, period.
david
 

Andre Marc

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I also use them with my Dac's and sources Certainly one of the reasons, IMHO, in achieving music to come from blackness.

That is what i hear as well. I first used one on a Naim CD player and the improvement was clear as day, i did not get the same results on amps or preamps, at least in my system at the time.
 

MRJAZZ

Industry Expert
Jan 20, 2014
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That is what i hear as well. I first used one on a Naim CD player and the improvement was clear as day, i did not get the same results on amps or preamps, at least in my system at the time.

I use them on amps, preamps, phono, dac , and hear a consistent improvement. Music seems to sound more "relaxed" and calmer with a general smoothness that doesn't seem to remove or lessen detail and as already mentioned in this thread the background is definitely "blacker "
Cheers
 

PeterA

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Dec 6, 2011
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It depends on your taste but Shakti is a very power tweak and what that means is that like all tweaks it imposes a very strong character i.e. COLOR, on the system. My experience, they seem to subdue some frequencies and give the illusion of better focus and detail, the effect compounds with each additional Shakti component. I don't like everything sounding the same why I dislike tweaks of any kind and the more powerful the tweak the worse it is for me. Tweaks introduce colorations, period.
david

I understand this point of view. I tried a friend's Resonator, basically a large brass/copper bowl/plate positioned on the floor between the speakers. It improved the sound of his system so I tried it in mine. The problem was that it did excite certain frequencies and "seemed" to add focus and clarity to vocals for example, but I quickly heard the "effect" and removed it from my system. It was indeed a coloration. No thank you.

David, do you feel the same way about other tweaks such as cable risers or spikes/footers, isolation platforms etc? How do you actually define "tweak"?
 

Argonaut

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I understand this point of view. I tried a friend's Resonator, basically a large brass/copper bowl/plate positioned on the floor between the speakers. It improved the sound of his system so I tried it in mine. The problem was that it did excite certain frequencies and "seemed" to add focus and clarity to vocals for example, but I quickly heard the "effect" and removed it from my system. It was indeed a coloration. No thank you.

Peter... I also spent a few hours with this product in my own audio room, and whilst I am not entirely sure of labelling their perceivable effect as 'coloration' I did however, IMHO, come to the same conclusion as yourself in respect of their ultimate efficacy for the positive.

I did however eventually purchase a product, designed to work along similar principles, in the Zilplex Resonator System, which I found to be quite effective, without introducing any undesirable side effects that I could discern.

http://www.stereotimes.com/accZiplex112811.shtml
 

Andre Marc

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I use them on amps, preamps, phono, dac , and hear a consistent improvement. Music seems to sound more "relaxed" and calmer with a general smoothness that doesn't seem to remove or lessen detail and as already mentioned in this thread the background is definitely "blacker "
Cheers

I have a good friend who also uses them on all electronics with the same benefits you describe. For me the biggest improvement was more refined high frequencies.
 

ddk

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May 18, 2013
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David, do you feel the same way about other tweaks such as cable risers or spikes/footers, isolation platforms etc? How do you actually define "tweak"?

I consider isolation platforms, racks, etc., system components not tweaks and like everything else there are better and worse ones. As far as footers go, every hard type I tried as something you simply deposit your electronics on yielded exactly the same type of coloration, irrespective of design and/or materials used and soft gooey types have their own color. Pucks and things one sticks on top of electronics are no different, I don't know the how or why but they seem to effect the sound similar to one another, just some I found more harmful than others. The one exception I've come across are Shun mooks, when applied correctly and judiciously some of their products have worked as promised without imposing any discernible coloration on the system. There's nothing wrong with tweaks if one enjoys their effect, just be aware that a black or velvety background as brought up here is a strong coloration, it replaces the ambience of the recording. A live recording in a club has noise and a very different ambience, sound stage, imaging, etc., from one in a concert hall which is in turn very different from a studio recording. Its a coloration when everything thing you play has exactly the same type of "Black, Quiet?" background and instruments get highlighted in the soundstage similarly on every recording and in their own confined and defined space and not removal of noise as claimed by the manufacturers/vendors of such devices. Goes for cables, conditioners, etc. too. In the real world there's always some kind of noise and ambience present, maybe more palpable on some recordings than others but its always there. I have never in my life experienced this kind of applied "Blackness" even in the quietest and most remote places I've visited, no less a man made structure of any kind, everything has its own ambience, environment or whatever else you like to call it.

david
 

bonzo75

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The one exception I've come across are Shun mooks, when applied correctly and judiciously some of their products have worked as promised without imposing any discernible coloration on the system.

david

SHUN MOOKS ARE THE BEST!

They are my favorite product in hifi, because that is one product category I have 100% certainty about. Every time I do a local audiophile visit I take them along (easily portable) and they just slaughter everything else.
 

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