Most Significant Product –Synergistic Research HFT and FEQ devices - The Absolute Sound
Best cutting edge technology demonstrations: Synergistic Research FEQ and HFT Devices - 6Moons.com
At Synergistic Research when we do a show system we tend to go big, as in big state-of-the-art systems with big price tags to match (scan down now if you want to skip this primer on last year’s RMAF system). Just look at past shows and you find electronics from Soulution, VAC’s Statement Line, Burrmeister, Esoteric, MSB and Technical Brain. The speakers we show with are equally impressive from industry leading companies like Magico, YG Acoustic, and Wilson Audio. Big every year that is until last year’s RMAF when we broke the mold with a total system cost of $25,000; speakers, duel subwoofers, amplification, computer audio front-end including a Mac Mini, hard drive, DAC and iPad. Active SR Element interconnects, Active SR Element speaker cables and Active SR Element power cords. This system even had two Active SR subwoofer cables and Active SR digital cables. Not only that, last year’s RMAF system even had two Tranquility Bases, one for the computer based digital front end, and another for the Rouge Audio integrated amplifier. Finally the entire system was plugged into a non-current limiting Synergistic Research PowerCell 6SE. All for $25,000. As we said, all inclusive. The amazing thing about last year’s system aside from its affordability was its jaw dropping, make no excuses sound quality which extended from the lowest octaves through a textured mid-range to highs with air and decay that exceeded the boundaries of the listening room. To say this system possessed the attributes of the finest systems is not an exaggeration. In the end we took two “Best Sound at Show” awards with a 25k system directly competing with deep six figure systems. You can read all about last year’s RMAF system Here
BOSE Acoustic Wave Music System II with Synergistic Research Element Tungsten AC Cord and Element Tungsten Interconnects
RMAF 2013
For this year’s RMAF we wanted to take what we started last year a big step further, by going as small and unassuming as possible. But how? How do you build a system around something so modest people will automatically assume it can’t possibly sound as good as it does? A system that defies anyone hearing it not to say, “how can what I’m hearing with my ears possibly come form what I see with my eyes?” In short we wanted a system that left no doubt as to what was creating the amazing sound in the Synergistic Research room. In the end we could think of only one system that would drive the point home that our new HFT and FEQ technologies are an audio breakthrough of the highest order. Enter the Bose Acoustic Wave® music system II. As modest as anything a high end manufacturer could ever use to showcase a major new technology. All that was necessary to demonstrate the power of the HFT / FEQ combo was to turn the FEQ off and remove the tiny HFTs from the walls of the room and the sides of the Bose Acoustic Wave® music system II. With HFTs in place and FEQ turned “on” the soundstage was massive, layered and holographic; with the FEQ turned off and all HFTs removed the sound was just what you would expect form a small plastic radio with two tiny speakers. In the end this demonstration left little doubt as to the efficacy of our new HFT and FEQ technologies that transformed an otherwise stock Bose Acoustic Wave® music system II into a respectable and holographic high-end two channel system.
Our Lead Designer Ted Denney III talks about HFT and FEQ,
“For over 20 years I have been working to eliminate compression from music playback. This journey has resulted in a series of new technologies starting with system specific cable geometries in 1992 and the world’s first high-end power cable, the AC Master Coupler in 1994. In 1998 I invented Active Shielding which has evolved through 6 generations over 15 years. In 2007 I turned my attention to cleaning up AC with the invention of the world’s first Electromagnetic Cell as found in our PowerCell AC line conditioners and later, Tranquility Bases and Galileo Cable Cells. In 2008 I focused on acoustic tuning through sympathetic resonance as found in our Acoustic ART and MiG resonators. In 2011 I discovered the holographic realism of tungsten as a signal conductor and applied this knowledge to build our new Element Series Active cables; the world’s first audio cables with pure tungsten conductors.
The culmination of my life’s work has been a lifting of veils from recorded music playback with a resulting increase in soundstageing and a lowering of the noise floor for a more realistic portrayal of live music. But my latest inventions, HFT and FEQ, are by far my most significant contributions to the world of audio. These devices are small, unobtrusive, easy to implement, and very easy to afford. They neither compete with, nor replace any current Synergistic Research technologies but rather supplement the performance of all my previous inventions. In fact HFT and FEQ can dramatically transform even ordinary systems to a performance level that amazes all who hear them”
Synergistic Research FEQ - Frequency Equalizer and HFT’s - High Frequency Transducer
So there you have it, in the three days of RMAF 2013 we sold through our entire stock of 100 HFT 5-packs and 20 FEQs to music lovers who were amazed by the performance of an otherwise stock Bose Acoustic Wave® music system II. Show goers could not wait to get home and try our new HFTs and FEQs in their home systems. In fact, since RMAF ended we’ve sold over 2000 HFTs and dozens of FEQs, in less than 4 weeks. Moving forward we’ve placed the industry on notice with HFT and FEQ, the most powerful technology to come to audio in a generation from the most innovative company in high-end audio, Synergistic Research.
Synergistic Research FEQ - Frequency Equalizer atop of a set of Synergistic Research MiGs
Synergistic Research VP Peter Hansen and Peter Beckman of Electrocompaniet at the bar.
Notable coverage for Synergistic Research at RMAF 2013:
6Moons.com
Best cutting edge technology demonstrations: Synergistic Research FEQ and HFT Devices
http://sixmoons.com/industryfeatures/rmaf2013/1.html
By Steve Marsh• Posted: October, 2013
As I noted in my introductory remarks, I had a few invaluable experiences at RMAF 2013. The Synergistic Research demo of their new HFT (high-frequency transducer, $299 for pack of five) and FEQ (frequency equalizer technology, $750) devices certainly ranked high among these and may have been the single most impressive demo I heard at this show (and possibly any show). I am sure other show reports will show a similar reaction. In the center of the room sat a Bose Wave Radio on top of an equipment rack. Behind the rack sat the FEQ device that did get plugged into AC power. The HFT devices are a litte bigger than a thumb tack in diameter but have a much thicker disc-shaped head that looks like ordinary machined aluminum. Steve Rochlin was in the room when I entered and he recorded a YouTube video of the demonstration. Ted Denney from Synergistic began the demo by playing the Bose Wave radio without FEQ or HFT devices. Then he proceeded to plug in the FEQ. Unfortunately my listening notes have nothing on the specific effect of the FEQ. Then he placed a set of five HFT devices at strategic points in the back half of the room. hey were placed on the radio itself, a couple on the wall behind, one on the ceiling center and one on each side wall. The soundstage opened up like you would not believe! Next Ted placed more HFT devices in the front half of the room. Wow! Now the soundstage was huge and music seemed to be coming from the entire width and depth of the room. You would have to be deaf not to hear the effect. Bring on the skeptics. They will be hard pressed to poo-poo this one!
While I do not claim to understand Ted’s explanation of how these devices work, the FEQ uses ground plane technology as Synergistic already does in some of its other products. The Ground Control devices I reviewed from Audioprism also claim to work on this principle. Ted’s explanation of the HFT devices had me a bit puzzled though. He said they “overcome the Q of the room” and operate into the megahertz region. He stomped his foot on the floor near the side wall and noted how your brain knew from the sound that you were near a wall. The HFT devices somehow remove these cues so that the side walls as well as other resonating objects in the room seem to sonically disappear as obstructions to the music playback. I would love to demo these at the next Connecticut Audio Society meeting. We have a number of skeptics who will howl over these!
Enjoy the Music.com
http://enjoythemusic.com/rmaf_2013/bonus1/page2.htm
By Steven R. Rochlin • Posted: October, 2013
Synergistic Research was using a Bose Wave radio with their HFT and FEQ ($299 for 5 and $750 respectively). Was intriguing and sounded quite nice actually. Amazing how some tweaks and perhaps digital processing can make even the Bose Wave radio sound impressive. We do indeed live in interesting times.
The Absolute Sound
The Absolute Sound awards Synergistic Research HFTs and FEQ as the most significant new product at RMAF!
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/rmaf-2013-digital-products-show-report/
By Steven Stone • Posted:
“Most Significant Product –Synergistic Research HFT and FEQ devices. If they can make a Bose Wave Radio sound like an audiophile system, think what they could do for an audiophile system. I’m sure that Ted Denny’s demo raised a lot of eyebrows and blew a lot of minds during RMAF. And maybe even sold some Bose Wave Radios…”
AudioStream
http://www.audiostream.com/content/synergistic-research-hft-feq
Photo by Michael Lavorgna at AudioStream - Bose Radio with HFT - High Frequency Transducer attached to the front
Photo by Michael Lavorgna at AudioStream - FEQ - Frequency Equalizer and HFT - High Frequency Transducer
“Bigger, sound expands” read my notes… Then Ted stuck 5 HFTs on the wall behind the Bose. “Bigger” is what I had to say. 4 more HFTs were added to the walls and 1 to the ceiling—”better image specificity”… Finally 5 more were placed behind us on the wall and I wrote, “more relaxed more focus and clarity”. Someone else in the room commented about this last addition, “It felt like pressure was relieved.”
Audio Matters
“Best demos were from Synergistic Research and Nordost. The former set up a Bosewave system playing Neil Diamond with a before/after demo of the impact of some dots and an energizer. Hearing is believing but the energizer ($750) is a strange black box that plugs into the wall (not your system) and is either on or off. Switched on, I heard a transformation in the sound for the better. Added to this were a series of small metal cones about the size of your small finger nail that were placed in the corners of the front wall, one on the ceiling, and a another on the Wave unit which in combination made the Bose sound better. Huh? Right. $299 for a set of 5, add in the energizer, and hey presto, instant room transformation for about $1k and nobody can tell you’ve changed a thing unless they know where to look. Beats most room treatments I’ve seen. But I’m still trying to make sense of what I heard”
Stereophile
By Jason Victor Serinus • Posted: October 12, 2013
“With up to 75 rooms to cover on multiple floors of the Marriott’s tower, I decided to check out Synergistic Research’s much-heralded new products before the show officially began. Inventor Ted Denney decided to dem his new babies, not with the expected megabuck system, but rather with a Bose radio. Positioned atop one of his Tranquility Bases, used as shelves on a Solid Tech rack, the radio played a vocal track by Anne Vada and Aki Fukakura as Denney demonstrated the cumulative effects of his tiny aluminum passive HFTs (High Frequency Transducers, $299/5 pack), active FEQ (Frequency Equalizer, $750), and Tranquility Bases. (In the photo, Ted is pointing to the HFT affixed to the front of the radio.)
My initial impression, with everything in the system, was that despite the radio’s glaring limitations, the room-filling size and depth of the soundstage were pretty amazing. As Denney progressively removed the 20 HFTs he had positioned around the room (including two on the front and back of the radio, and one on his Synergistic Research active FireWire cable), then the FEQ which rested on a table behind the equipment rack, and finally the Tranquility Bases, the soundstage shrank, bass lost impact, music became localized in the radio, and, most important, the listening experience became less compelling.
Activating just the Tranquility Bases made the bass more solid and the picture more dimensional. Even with just two out of the 20 HFTs returned to the front and back of the Bose radio, sonic depth increased. The more HFTs Denney added—there are five levels of treatment, each comprised of five HFTs—the larger and more room-filling the soundstage became. With everything restored, percussion seemed to be coming from all over the place, color increased, and the three-dimensional illusion was pretty uncanny.
Having said that, I wish I could have heard this experiment on a far more refined system. After all, a Bose radio can do only so much, no matter how much help it gets. Regardless, the demonstration sure whet my appetite to hear the HFTs and FEQ again, and experiment with them in my reference system (currently in storage [sigh] pending a move to new house)”
Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
https://plus.google.com/communities/107625336931068040032
By Chuck Barger • Posted: October 14, 2013
“OK, this one needs to be looked into by Mulder and Scully. These High Frequency Transducers, HFT from Synergistic Research are the size of an oxford shirt button. They come in packs of 5 at $299.00, and when placed on the walls/ceiling, they create a more open sound stage. I heard it ladies and gentlemen, and I am still scratching my head. To be fair, the room had 20 of these strategically placed as well as their FEQ, Frequency Equalizer Technology. The FEQ is an $800.00 device that actively addresses bass frequencies in a room. It does not hook into the system; it’s plugged in to an electrical outlet and placed behind the speakers”
If you haven’t already contacted an authorized Synergistic Research dealer to arrange an in-home audition of these amazing new products, make sure to do it today, you have nothing to lose, as these products come with a no-risk 30 day money back guarantee. Enjoy!