Do you believe in Magic?

Returning to the original topic of this thread…

After extensive experimentation with ERS cloth, I’ve come to the conclusion that, in my system, it is harmful more than helpful. Some folks predicted I would say that. You were right.

In virtually all applications I tried, ERS had the effect of making things sound strangely “muffled.” Many people report high frequency roll off and reduced “air.” To my ears, it isn’t a simple roll off, like you get with treble control. It’s something more unusual and difficult to describe. But the end result is less immediacy, and therefore less involvement. So now it’s all gone.

As to why my first impression with ERS cloth in the preamp was (slightly) positive, I believe it was for the reason Al hypothesized, i.e. the reduction of jitter. But after installing the ERS, I went on a crusade to reduce EMI/RFI in the system, which you can read about here, if you're interested. Among other things, I added about 15 pounds (!) of copper/steel/TI shielding inside the preamp. Presumably whatever benefits the ERS cloth initially resulted in were altered or offset by the additional shielding. Or my ears changed. Or my brain. Regardless of the explanation, after my extensive countermeasures in the battle with EMI/RFI, the ERS cloth definitely made things sound worse.

What is strange to me about the ERS cloth is that it seems to have a "muffling" effect when you place it on a variety of different equipment, e.g., preamp, power conditioner, circuit breaker. How in the world it could have the same effect on equipment as diverse as that is a mystery. I assume the answer is Magic.

Bryon

Hey, same thing happened to me. At first, in part due to all the hoopla surrounding the ERS paper when it came out (was it six years ago?) I thought the sound was better. Then a couple A/Bs later I noticed the sound was actually worse, even when using smaller and smaller squares of the material. The sound became woolly, more opaque, less musical. Even with all the ERS paper taken away from all the electronics and placed on the coffee table the weird sound persisted. Only when the stuff was taken entirely outside the house did the sound get back to normal. That's some bad juju.

I submit that the strongest evidence here is the mercurial nature of the experiences with such supposedly wonder-products. That they can be perceived to be efficacious, only later to be eschewed shows they're essentially worthless.

03-28-12: Geoffkait
Only when the stuff was taken entirely outside the house did the sound get back to normal. That's some bad juju.

You are the second person on this thread to report that kind of bad juju. Hmm. My unused ERS is sitting on a shelf in the listening room. Maybe I should burn it. :-)

03-29-12: Douglas_schroeder
I submit that the strongest evidence here is the mercurial nature of the experiences with such supposedly wonder-products. That they can be perceived to be efficacious, only later to be eschewed shows they're essentially worthless.

I think there's some truth in that, Douglas. No doubt there are lots of examples of products that are initially impressive but leave something to be desired upon further listening. That may be a consequence of the initial impression being a placebo effect, or a consequence of the subsequent impressions being the result of long-term listening (which, IME, is a more reliable method of evaluating).

In this case, I would speculate that what accounts for the difference between my initial impression of ERS and my later impressions of it may be everything that happened in between, namely, I...

-Added about 15 pounds of internal shielding to the Meridian G68.
-Built new reinforced enclosures for the reclocker and the Sonos.
-Placed a heavy steel plate under the amp.
-Replaced unshielded Cat5 cables with shielded Cat6 cables (my source is computer based).
-Replaced Apple Airport with a simple shielded ethernet switch.
-Replaced the romex for the dedicated line with VH Audio’s cryo’d romex.
-Replaced the outlet for the dedicated line with a Maestro outlet.
-Added about 50 ferrites all over the house, and some in the system.
-Added RFI pigtails to the amp and the preamp.
-Replaced the fuse in the amp with a Hifi Tuning fuse.
-Added grounding pigtails to the negative terminals of the amp.

It was only AFTER all that insanity that I reevaluated ERS and concluded that it was harmful to sound quality. FWIW.

On a slightly different subject...

It's worth pointing out that the last three items on my list -- the RFI pigtails, the Hifi Tuning fuses, and the grounding pigtails -- are most certainly some form of Magic. Actually, I don't know if any of them have any effect whatsoever, so maybe I should call them Black Magic.

Bryon

Douglas_schroeder, actually, in my experience, it is uncommon that have experiences such as the ERS paper. I never liked it at all and made a valiant effort to get it to work. Usually, I am satisfied by a modest improvement if the tweak is not very expensive. At some point later I decide they aren't worth the effort. With quartz products, I basically gave up as requiring too much trial and error fiddling.