Synergistic atmosphere field generators

marty

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Apr 20, 2010
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+1
I have a hard time with Synergistic Research for two reasons. First, Jon Valin and Peter Bruenniger like that stuff, which makes me suspicious. But, open minded as I am :cool:, I bought their latest power conditioner, the UEF 12 and their whiz bang AC power cord last August. Try as I might, I thought it sucked. Got rid of it after a month. Its putative Schuman resonance cancellation and other magic mystery juice failed to make anything sound better in comparison to no filtering at all. Plug your stuff directly into some good AC and spend your money elsewhere.
 

BruceD

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Dec 13, 2013
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+1
I have a hard time with Synergistic Research for two reasons. First, Jon Valin and Peter Bruenniger like that stuff, which makes me suspicious. But, open minded as I am :cool:, I bought their latest power conditioner, the UEF 12 and their whiz bang AC power cord last August. Try as I might, I thought it sucked. Got rid of it after a month. Its putative Schuman resonance cancellation and other magic mystery juice failed to make anything sound better in comparison to no filtering at all. Plug your stuff directly into some good AC and spend your money elsewhere.

I agree Synergistic is damn near pure Snake oil--I've heard show demos with their stuff--frankly no difference with the "tweaks" installed/out /etc.

The last time was those ball bearing like objects you place around the Room(?)--they did absolutely Nix--$$'s down the toilet if you were so inclined to indulge.

I actually picked up a couple of the smallish silver "balls" and one of the nasty salesmen grabbed them from my hand with a snarl:mad:

--totally with Marty--their stuff --and their attitude suck BIG time.

BruceD
 

GaryProtein

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Jul 25, 2012
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Chief designer? the announcer really means chief story teller.

I don't know how that guy can describe the products with a straight face.

This is just more stuff from the company that brought you the emperor's new clothes.
 
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ack

VIP/Donor & WBF Founding Member
May 6, 2010
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If he still in business, then all that means is that some audiophiles can be quite gullible. I have Ted D and Peter B in the same bucket
 

Folsom

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Actually it all really works. The thing that is almost every single thing adds bandwidth controlled noise instead of removing it. Basically all their stuff does the total opposite of what it says it does. That might be a sound you like, it might not. There is no shortage of limited bandwidth noise appreciation among maybe even the majority of members here. The only shortage of people is those willing to consent to the reality of whether what they like is from noise, instead of removing it. I don't think there is anything in the world wrong with someone appreciating what limited bandwidth noise can do for their enjoyment. I don't personally use it, as I'm going for a polar opposite in a direction that hasn't really been explored enough/much.

The most impressive thing to me, since I don't care for the subjective value of their gear, is the make-believe-techno-babble. It's just non-sense. That guy doesn't know anything that the foremost leaders in electronics don't know, but he talks like he's invented a new world of physics.
 

marty

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The most impressive thing to me, since I don't care for the subjective value of their gear, is the make-believe-techno-babble. It's just non-sense. That guy doesn't know anything that the foremost leaders in electronics don't know, but he talks like he's invented a new world of physics.

He's hardly alone in spewing techno-babble in high end audio. But he seems to have a Ph.D in this whereas other seem to have a Masters or a lowly Baccalaureate. My favorite was regarding their UEF 12 Power Conditioner which claimed that due to their "special" technology, one could actually deliver more power to one's gear, than the power provided by the AC coming into their unit. Caveat emptor.
 

pjwd

Well-Known Member
Jun 22, 2015
508
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Brisbane
Has anyone used their active shielded cables - I have built DIY versions for power cables and it really does work IMO ( I used 12v dc on active and neutral and weirdly the polarity did matter even thought it is AC) - I have done blind tests with others and it was pretty clearly positive - sadly the mercuy vapour valve power supply with unobtanium tubes that was the top end offer sounded pretty dodgy as does the gear outlined in posts but there are possibly positives that are achieved but for less esoteric reasons

cheers,

Phil
 

microstrip

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May 30, 2010
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Actually it all really works. The thing that is almost every single thing adds bandwidth controlled noise instead of removing it. Basically all their stuff does the total opposite of what it says it does. That might be a sound you like, it might not. There is no shortage of limited bandwidth noise appreciation among maybe even the majority of members here. The only shortage of people is those willing to consent to the reality of whether what they like is from noise, instead of removing it. I don't think there is anything in the world wrong with someone appreciating what limited bandwidth noise can do for their enjoyment. I don't personally use it, as I'm going for a polar opposite in a direction that hasn't really been explored enough/much.

The most impressive thing to me, since I don't care for the subjective value of their gear, is the make-believe-techno-babble. It's just non-sense. That guy doesn't know anything that the foremost leaders in electronics don't know, but he talks like he's invented a new world of physics.

Congratulations on having such a clear and spot-on view on most high-end devices. Most tweaks (and equipment) do exactly this - adding well selected and very controlled distortion or noise, creating a sound signature. However, for marketing reasons manufacturers do not want to admit it - everyone wants to be more neutral and closer to "art" than his neighbor, as consumers are not prepared to accept the truth ...

Surely many manufacturers openly accept it and not all devices work in this way!
 

Folsom

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He's hardly alone in spewing techno-babble in high end audio. But he seems to have a Ph.D in this whereas other seem to have a Masters or a lowly Baccalaureate. My favorite was regarding their UEF 12 Power Conditioner which claimed that due to their "special" technology, one could actually deliver more power to one's gear, than the power provided by the AC coming into their unit. Caveat emptor.

Actually it is possible to do work on the complex impedance that'll allow more current to work. But I don't see any indicator that it would do that.

Techno-babble isn't all bad. I like decoding it. But more techno-babble I read is just interesting ways to try and explain things to people that are not going to understand an actual technical write up. It's just very different when one manufacturer translates legit information, and another has straight up Willy Wonka...
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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Congratulations on having such a clear and spot-on view on most high-end devices. Most tweaks (and equipment) do exactly this - adding well selected and very controlled distortion or noise, creating a sound signature. However, for marketing reasons manufacturers do not want to admit it - everyone wants to be more neutral and closer to "art" than his neighbor, as consumers are not prepared to accept the truth ...

Surely many manufacturers openly accept it and not all devices work in this way!

SR has a wide range of products, but I'd agree the subject of this thread does add noise, it generates "RF".

On noise, it can be useful... A friend of mine produces electronic music, there's lots of noise tracks and effects possible. Noise and/or distortion is routinely added to many kinds of music on purpose.
 

Folsom

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Yes but those are very different. One is usually in the RF range that is inaubible and not recorded onto the media but affects the audible range when it's in electronics, and the other is in an audible range. It makes me think of how some room white noise is often added to spoken word tracks for like youtube etc or it sounds weird to us.
 

KeithR

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He's hardly alone in spewing techno-babble in high end audio. But he seems to have a Ph.D in this whereas other seem to have a Masters or a lowly Baccalaureate. My favorite was regarding their UEF 12 Power Conditioner which claimed that due to their "special" technology, one could actually deliver more power to one's gear, than the power provided by the AC coming into their unit. Caveat emptor.

are you sure? i thought he was a printer by trade before SR.
 

Folsom

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Congratulations on having such a clear and spot-on view on most high-end devices. Most tweaks (and equipment) do exactly this - adding well selected and very controlled distortion or noise, creating a sound signature. However, for marketing reasons manufacturers do not want to admit it - everyone wants to be more neutral and closer to "art" than his neighbor, as consumers are not prepared to accept the truth ...

Surely many manufacturers openly accept it and not all devices work in this way!

When you design gear it's not very hard to understand what a lot of people are doing as they make gear. It gets very interesting when you try to test some of your equipment with other gear...
 

microstrip

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DaveC

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Yes but those are very different. One is usually in the RF range that is inaubible and not recorded onto the media but affects the audible range when it's in electronics, and the other is in an audible range. It makes me think of how some room white noise is often added to spoken word tracks for like youtube etc or it sounds weird to us.

Yup, the end result is noise in the audible realm either way though. It is definitely true some music or speech can sound weird without background noise added.

I did sit through the atmosphere demo at RMAF a few years ago... it definitely makes a difference. A difference I really care about and consider an improvement? ...no.
 

Folsom

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Yup, the end result is noise in the audible realm either way though. It is definitely true some music or speech can sound weird without background noise added.

.

I don't believe that is true at all. Noise from electronics baring a radio station coming through usually doesn't come out of the speakefs, say when you crank the volume with nothing playing. If its super bad maybe. What yoh really get is an abberation quality to the whole music spectrum, that shows itself to more and less degrees depdning on source music.

See, most RF inducers bring detail forward that otherwise is quieter or not noticed. You get a surreal nature of detail that can be fun. But you are nit hear the 800khz or whatever that is causing it. What is occuring is a voltage elongation effect that happens as you bleed off some RF in whatever inductance you have following, say as one example, the final amplifier stage. (One example of many) The effects of the detail also make sound stage often expand and imaging including 3D can be stronger. So it has benenfits many can appreciate, its all a matter of taste. The funny part is the wrong noise, introduced at the wrong place, will be fatiguing even though you're just hearing music (that is modified by the noise).

Don't fret if you're just now taking it all in, and if the whole "you don't hear noise, you hear the affect of noise" concept is a bit to take in. Even some seasoned electronics designers haven't made that leap in understanding.
 

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