French Sunfire User, but not only ...

[Rob 6,575]

Welcome to the site. I think you have exceeded the meaning of OCCD! 🤣

 

Nice collection of equipment 😎

[Receiver2000 4,948]

Speaking of acoustical damping, I saw this gizmo at an audio show. Supposed to acoustically damp a room. The guy did a demo that turned it on and off that brought the music into better focus with a remote. But who knows what that really controlled? 

[crvt 38]

OCCD ? 

 

And the Guizmo stuff, just control your mind and wallet ... 

 

My two cents.

[Receiver2000 4,948]

Obsessive Compulsive Carver Disorder.

Common around here.

[Half Life 1,478]

6 hours ago, Receiver2000 said:

Speaking of acoustical damping, I saw this gizmo at an audio show. Supposed to acoustically damp a room. The guy did a demo that turned it on and off that brought the music into better focus with a remote. But who knows what that really controlled? 

In case anyone wants to know a bit more:

 

https://www.synergisticresearch.com/acoustics/vibratron/

 

$3,995.00

[AndrewJohn 11,173]

17 hours ago, Half Life said:

In case anyone wants to know a bit more:

 

https://www.synergisticresearch.com/acoustics/vibratron/

 

$3,995.00

 

@Rob and I, as we walked around AXPONA a couple years ago, sat through one of these demos from a different supplier.  We caught on that something was up..., 

 

The premise was that this "passive" device, when placed in the room, could do room correction of some kind, and improve the sound.  The device was small, like a USB stick drive size, as I recall.  The demo jock said he could take the unit out of the room, and the correction would stop, and the sound difference would be noticeable at the moment it left the room.  we sat through that demo once..., and there was a subtle difference - but nothing spectacular.  The audio system was a smallish remote-controlled non-branded (that I recall) integrated system, small enough to fit in a suitcase with the speakers.

 

I caught on that a second player in the con was in the back of the room, arms folded..., and I noticed in his hand was a small remote control unit.

 

I requested that guy, in the back of the room, to put the remote down on the floor, in front of the system they were playing music through.  A look of "shock" and "we're busted flooded their face - their con had been exposed. They tried to continue with the lie of the con, saying "it will still make a difference..."

 

They complied, and the other demo jock took the "component" which was not powered, no wires, not in the "chain" anywhere..., out of the room again, and this time, no sound change that we could tell.

 

My conclusion is that the remote, operated by the quiet guy in the back corner of the room toggled on some "loudness" feature in the system that was playing the demo tracks, in synch with the con man that took the component out of the room.

 

Con men are everywhere - it just takes common sense to see through it, and not get duped.  But, then, cults of followers of this kind of snake oil are sucked into it every day..., and when a mark pays $3995 for something, expectation bias kicks in and they "believe" it works, and would rarely come out and risk their pride by admitting they had made a mistake and fell for the con.  While his museum has no evidence, PT Barnum is credited with saying "a sucker is born every minute" - others with the sentiment also credited with this phrase include David Hannum, PT Barnum's critic, as well as the notorious Bunco Man, Joseph Lewis ("Hungry Joe") a gambler in the 1880's in several print references...  The term applies to Audio, for sure! 😉 

[Half Life 1,478]

Could it actually change the sound?

Possibly.

We all know that almost anything placed in a room can change the sound a little.

A diffuser can.
A bookshelf can.
A plant can.

 

The real question is whether it performs better than:

• a small diffuser,
• a decorative sculpture,
• a bookshelf full of books,

at its selling price. That's where the burden of proof belongs.

My assessment

From an acoustics and engineering standpoint:

• Reflecting/scattering high frequencies: plausible.
• Generating even-order harmonics: highly questionable.
• Making a room "acoustically transparent": marketing language.
• Producing dramatic soundstage improvements: unproven.
• Worth the asking price without independent measurements: doubtful.

If someone handed me one for free, I'd happily fool with it. If someone asked me to spend my own money on it, I'd want to see controlled blind-test results and measurement data first. 

 

Right now, the description reads more like audiophile marketing poetry than acoustic engineering.  Give me some solid data and I'll hit the "I believe button".  But for now, I'll assume it is much like the "super-whamodyne, mega-twist, copper/silver infused premium" audio cable and take a hard pass.

[Receiver2000 4,948]

If someone gave me one to try with my own system in my own environment, I would be curious and try it. I certainly didn't trust their demonstration.