Synergistic Research HFT's
As a side note, I just moved my FEQ into the HT system to make room for the Atmoshere mini in the main rig and am very pleased with the results, especially the visual acuity on my plasma monitor. Who would have thought the FEQ would improve that?!As it happens the Atmosphere does not replace the FEQ, you can and should use both. See the discussion here on how to set up (scroll down and ignore the haters) http://www.audiostream.com/content/synergistic-research-atmosphere#Rt5TQHCerctCpQTD.97 |
Inspired by this thread I spent an hour or so relocating my Atmosphere and 2 FEQs this morning. In my wide but not deep room I ended up with best results (most openeness and air) with a) The Atmosphere on the ground center front, it had been raised on a Grand Prix Audio Monaco amplifier stand which actually did not help - maybe that the issue was it blocked direct sight to my ART resonator but in any case floor works best b) Both FEQs mid way along the side walls, while this meant not having the FEQs connected into my dedicated power lines the location mattered more than the power c) Both FEQs placed on the floor isolated by Les Davis’ thin constrained layer damping pads (these are very useful accessories) The differences were pretty subtle but at no cost other than my time well worth getting it tuned in |
Well I have my Blue duplex now but I cannot afford to lose hundreds of hours waiting for it to break in (not that I ever felt that my Blacks changed that much over time btw). So what I'll do is rig up an old power cord so I can burn it in via my Cable Cooker (same settings used to burn in power cords) and leave it on that for 72-96 hours before installing it. So most likely it will be installed next week. Good thing is this should allow me to get used to a new set of speaker cables in the mean time and not get confused by the simultaneous break in of an outlet and a cable change |
Got my Blue outlet burning in on my Dharma Cable Cooker now -- have a pair of power cords (one with its plug cut off) so that one is plugged in, and the other is connected to the screws on the outlet. The Cable Cooker is set at the level for burning in power cords and speaker cables I’m going to give it 4 days/96 hours at least before I try putting it in the wall |
Still cooking the Blue outlet but for those that are interested in the difference between the Galileo LE and newer UEF it's an interesting comparison Firstly they're clearly cut from the same cloth tonally and changing one for the other does not alter the fundamental tonal balance. I'd also recommend that you definitely use the grounding connection as without it the noise floor is noticeably higher. I have the full active ground block and made up a connection using the stock SR wire -- upgrading to the HD links or a custom pair from Verastarr will no doubt be a nice tick up. Once grounded and with the gold bullets (I've yet to try the silver) the UEF has noticeably less pronounced bass than the LE but more detail and a major step change in clarity and information retrieval in the upper mids and highs. This is especially apparent in the clarity around breathing and vibrato on vocal and in the more high pitched percussion. The drop in perceived bass is something I've found often happens on my analog rig when I improve things, at first it seems you're missing something but then you realize that a bass hump has been smoothed over and all the detail and extension is still there but now in better proportion to the rest of the frequency range. Overall the gestalt of the UEF is more natural and open, greater information retrieval but with no edge or harshness. In fact with the UEF some vocals that had been shrill became more natural and even toned. The main benefit of the UEF is a much lower noise floor -- it seems the old cliche of hearing into the recording holds true in spades with this one and you may find yourselves turning the volume up a notch or too (it tends to be the case that it is low level distortion that limits where you place the volume control -- more of this tends to make the same absolute level seem louder) So if you're system can handle natural bass and doesn't need the bit of bass bump the LE provides I'd say the switch to UEF is a no brainer |
Just wanted to relay first impressions on the Blue duplex. It's had 120 hours burn in on a cable cooker which should be plenty. I installed it this morning -- other than having the ground on the opposite corner to the red installation was a cinch. By the way I have found a lot of reds strip the cover mounting screw, hopefully no such problem with the blue. Anyway how does it sound? I swapped my power amps (and FEQs, Atmosphere and SR Active Ground) from the Black to the Blue and they do sound very different. The Black is the king of delicacy and detail while in the Blue there's almost an extra half octave of bass, a greater sense of pace and immediacy and the potential for more openness and extension. However there is a big caveat to all of this - unlike any power outlet I've ever tested the Blue is very sensitive to setup and ancillaries. If there's any noise in your system the Blue seems to pick it up and magnify it. Cable dressing needs to be immaculate -- for example I had a couple of interconnects running too close to power cords - never been an issue with the Blacks but with the Blue getting these better dressed made an immediate and profound impact on the soundstage. I still need to run down a level of amp hiss and even some odd ultrasonics that are apparent with the Blue that I never heard with the Black. Overall I suspect the Blue is such a wide open window it is exposing problems I didn't know I had. The bass while deep is still a bit uncontrolled but I suspect this will settle down over time. Net net I think the Blue is a good complement to the Black -- ideal for power amps and situations where you want to prioritize slam and openness over finesse -- I'll probably stick with the Black for my sources as exposing noise issues here would be even more of a bear to track down but for my amps I suspect I'll be sticking with the Blue. |
