Acoustic ART TAS Review
The Acoustic ART System just keeps generating more and more buzz! Jonathan Valin and The Absolute Sound have published a complete review of the Acoustic ART System in a high performance 2 channel system, which also happens to feature a complete Galileo System and a PowerCell. Click here to find the original publication (with full color photos), or read our transcript below. Scroll to the bottom of this page to find more reviews of the Acoustic ART System.
Unusually Effective New Tweaks For Hi-Fi Systems
Jonathan Valin
Reprinted from: The Absolute Sound, February 2006
Over the last few months, I’ve come across a number of new devices for room treatment and vibration/resonance control that really work in the ways that I like such things to work—which is to say, all of them lower coloration, increase transparency to sources, and raise resolution without killing dynamics.
The first item—or items—is an unconventional room treatment from Synergistic Research, called the ART (Acoustic Room Treatment) system. I will be reviewing these temple-bell-like objects in The Absolute Sound in the near future, but for the time being know that all four parts of this system (the large Vibratron, which sits on a tall tongue-depressor-shaped stand, the smaller Bass Station, Gravitrons, and Magnatrons, which sit on wooden stands in front of your speakers or on little wedges of wood attached to your walls) work together to improve room acoustics by masking early-arrival reflections and comb-filtering, thereby clarifying and seemingly expanding the soundfield. In combination with Shakti Hallographs, which have much the same effects, they can do wonders for reducing brightness in an overly live-sounding room or for controlling midbass resonances in a smaller one. A starter set of ART products (including a Vibratron for the front wall, a Bass Station for the front wall, a Gravitron for the back wall, and two Magnatrons for the sidewalls) will set you back $2995. Granted this is a lot of money (especially if you combine the ART with Hallographs, as I do), but it is a WHOLE lot cheaper than custom-building a dedicated listening room and—from my experience of “scientifically designed” dedicated listening rooms—a whole lot better sounding.
Additional Acoustic ART Reviews:
2 Responses
5.22.2010
I have installed a Synergistic Research ART room treatment system on loan from my dealer. After talking at length with Ted at Synergistic, I finally have the ART all dialed in. The room resonators are simply amazing. I love the bass station. It really evens out the bass in the room. I had to turn the sub down and for some music I turned it off. Next is the Vibratron, it centers the image and soundstage in my slightly off center system. The satellites seem to make the soundstage a little bigger as well.
Joey
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vevol&1201124477
2.11.2011
Mr. Denny, I would like to comment on my most recent purchase of the SR ART System. I have owned the Acoustic System Resonators for about three years. I had been satisfied with having ten units in my system, however last year after reading a few reviews about the ART I became curious and asked Mr. Robert Stein of UltraSystem if I could audition the ART system. To be honest I was not impressed especially since I had become so accustomed to the ASR system. However after reading some additional reviews I decided to give the ART System another A-B with the ASR system. This time I learned a very valuable lesson, and that is the ART system is extremely sensitive to placement. I read a post on audiogon about using a pair of the BASS units in front of the subs, I also moved the magnetrons until I was able to hear a dramatic upgrade from what I had been getting from the ASR system, I mean I was floored at how natural and open the music became. One thing I did to accomplish this was using a mirror to find the point of reflection whicn in my setup is very critical to achieving the maximum sonics and what the ART is capable of. I don’t want to bore you with all the intrical details, however after living with the ASR system for all this time, I am simply blown away with the improvements I have witnessed once setting up the ART and doing it correctly. I apologize for my first encounter with the ART which ended up sending them back to Mr. Stein, however it must be made known to anyone who purchases this system, proper placement is a must and this in my opinion cannot be done in a day. I will probably experiment with some of my other tweaks and try to maximize their union with the ART system. All in all the ART system trumps the ASR, no question about it. And I mean by a large margin. I have never heard my system sound so good and with such a natural sound, depth, height, voices, simply incredible. Thanks for making this possible, audio is hard enough trying to get it right and your product paves the way at cutting some of the difficulty out of a difficult journey