[Review] Getting animated

I have considered that ...but as stated both my headphones and blue light are with Uncle Ants.

I'm recovering them later!

 

Too late I just saw them over on ebay.

 

Pete just called around to my place today...mainly to collect/deliver a few bits ,as he was in the district anyway.....but he had also brought the " blue light " device with him. I was interested to give it a try.

We cranked up a cd fro my Bonnie Raitt collection (USA/folky/bluesy) which I've listened to for many years, after giving the gadget its 2 mins warm up time. Knowing Petes enthusiasm for the thing I had to admit that I wasn't certain of any dynamic improvement. Maybe a little extra definition? Not conclusive though.

As a test, Pete unplugged it whist we were listening .......there WAS a difference at this point.....for me slight loss in warmth in presenatation. SOMETHING happened.

I personally would n't pay £700 for the kit (even if i had £700 , which i don't).....but I did like its effect.

Pete reckoned he was hearin an improvement in soundstage. Maybe I've been playing with different bits too much this last week, maybe my cold has stuffed my ears...I didn't pick that up. I do know Pete well enough now to know he has got an ear for this stuff (when mine's had enough), which is mainly why my system, under his guidence, is beginning to sound ok (with a presentation to rival my brothers MF/Spendor floorstander combo). So if Pete said the blue light gadget was improving the sound satge , as far as i'm concerned , it probably was.

 

As I mentioned to dave ...this was a bit of a disappointment one of the smallest changes noted.....though oddly dave's system is maybe the lowest perceived value system with a tremendous performance... may be what dave has done has used up any performance "slack" . Though as its still not known how the unit operates who knows why ......
factors known to influence include air movement dave lives in an old cottage. The best results are from systems in rooms with minimal clutter...thing dave will agree his does not fall into this catagory [oh and I don't think the belt sander is a good idea in the living room ! ]

Earlier in the day I'd been to see Andy ....well talk about odd ..the blue light did the usual stuff ...what was really strange was that leaving the blue light on whilst we went to another room for a few minutes..when we returned to the recently decorated room there was a distinctive chemical/paint smell . As Andy had decorated a few weeks ago one would have thought that any smells would have dissipated. On my arrival there was no obvious smell either. Could the blue light have liberated trapped smells who knows ....definitely unusual and of course may have no connection whatso ever.

On tuesday I spent the afternoon with uncle Ants and his partner......The idea was to see if his partner [who has very sensitive hear] could tell if anything had changed.
Virtually from the first note after allowing the unit to "warm up" she was able to say what I was hearing [before we had discussed any possible effects]. On lp it was as if the back ground /groove noise had been removed " as if you were listening to cd". Improved bass and instrument separation were also commented upon. When the unit was switched off and left for a few minutes the sound became flat and less dynamic......within seconds of the unit being turned back on she said she could hear the sound change back.

Following this we set up a smoke test ie placing a single joss stick in a holder next to the unit .....with the unit off the laminar flow of the rising smoke lasted for about 8" above the burning point ...with the blue light on it averaged 24" ! this was repeated upward of ten times with identical results .......no, I have no explaination.

Can I ask the people who don't think this is possible or can't work, not to jump straight in and say it can't happen [with out being present] because it patently did.... as you will also be disrespecting people who don't deserve it.

 

thankyou.......

...er ,no, certainly not just now.

A function as an acoustic testing room doesn't help.

(I take some time off to get a bit done ,then i'm knocked out with a cold...I can't win)

Yeah, cheers pete (!)..............

(I live on my own........ )



I forgot to add when describing the bue light, it seems to give a warmth tot the sound (stronger fuller bass). Somehow it makes the presentation warmer/fuller. ITs difficult to quantify. It did sound better with it.

 

....I feel I ought to point out that this as an exception for me (even without waf/swmbo considerations.....).......

 

Today i had the pleasure of Pete's company for a few hours this morning. He brought alone various bits from his boxes of tricks, the blue thing, the Platinum interconnect and the wood and ball bearing cones.

First up was the Platinum interconnect. I currently run a variation on Petes ribbon silver interconnects using his 5mm ribbon for the return, with a twisted pair of Chtis Venhaus 5n silver in cotton for the hot silver soldered to homegrown audio solid silver pin RCA's.

There's definately a difference to my interconnects and also if memory serves me right to his Au/Ag, which i still feel sound better in my system than my current wires.

To my taste the Platinum IC's didn't offer an improvement over my current IC's, but they do offer a different presentation. I couldn't really pin them down, his Au/AG's sounded sweeter than my wires on last audition, whereas the Platinums just sounded different, a little more rounded, as i say i can't pin it down, but there wasn't the synergy i've heard from previous changes.

Not one for me, but if they fit with your set-up then the change could be worthwhile.

Next we moved onto the Blue box. The snake oil dispenser. Frankly i have no idea at all what this unit does, but it does something, and in my system it was found to be beneficial.

It takes time to 'warm up' come on song, whatever you care to call it. The effect was more noticable after returning to a closed listening room after a ten minute break than it was with it turned on previously for ten minutes.

There was a noticably sweeter air to the sound, a bit more deliniation around voices and instruments in the mix. Definately an improvement, similar in scale to realising that you've wired the polarity the wrong way for those few CD's that sound god awful unless you reverse the speaker polarity.

it's a blue LED in an alloy box that rattles when you shake it, it draws marginal current, it doesn't get warm, it appears to have no method of action, but act it does.

Even if the effect it causes is purely psychological in source, it definately has an effect. Maybe it would be more accurate to say it allows you to hear a difference in the sound, whether it physically changes anything or not. For me that is the acid test, i percieve a difference, therefore there is a difference, i trust my ears.

£700 though...mmmm

And last but by no means least, little oak cones with ball bearings on them.

With the balls mounted top and bottom there was a tightening of the sound. With the balls just on the top of the cone the sound was tighter,fuller and simply more musical. On a cost basis, i can't fault this, the cones stayed, Pete left, with some replacement 11mm balls in his pocket and a set of 3 balsa wood & carbon rod feet that have the exact opposite effect to the cones.

I know the blue LED snake oil dispenser is contentious,no doubt due to our inability to explain its apparent action. Maybe it does nothing physical at all, maybe it's a mains cleaner, maybe it beams signals of joy straight into your brain, but it does let me hear a difference, whether one physically exists or not.

 

you forgot to mention your sinuses.....this was the oddest thing, the moment that I switched the blue light on sq225917's sinuses started to play up .....this happened more than once, but this may of course be coincidence...!

Well the system sounded better than I remembered it ....with the blue light and davidf's 60mm cones ...stunning, depth, weight, and dynamics...

the listening room is at the top of a flight of stairs with doors
at the bottom ...once we closed these the results were much more predictable ...again leading me to think that is air linked.
The effects in this system were good but slightly less than I get .. and I would rank the effect as slightly below average [I'm taking my sytem to be average] ..the cost of the unit is £750 by the way.

I'm off to see a pinkfisher tomorrow with the blue light .....the only person on that forum who took up my challenge [todate]...

 

...thankyou......interesteing developments on the ball concept....sound better with a large BB on top, non underneath......wil give that a try ..........

 

its just coincidence Pete, i now have a belter of a cold, unless you want to take the blame for infecting me of course. ;-)

but it was definately an improvement.

 

is the product similar to this?

http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/rr77/rr77_01.html


I've been offered distribution rights from the Japanese comapny,but its in early stages,but looking at the price list they sent me,thier product is miles cheaper than the Phonosphire version.

 

Looks like the same gobbledygook to me.

 

No its different gobbledygook

 

no doubt descriptions for both are utter bollocks, at least Petes one lulls me into beleiveing im hearing something. even though i might actually not be.

 

Done some more lulling today .....been down to milton keynes to see Ed [very nice chap] I'll leave any comments to him...
whether these are positive thats a matter of opinion

played with whale sperm ...cd flux difference yes !
messed with lathed disc's difference yes!
swapped cables to AgAu.... difference yes!
added blue light to mix ...... difference yep !
added davidf's isolation feet ....... difference sodding h*ll!
fiddled with his gyro se ..... now sound better than his cdp!

so a great day, great music ...and thanks for the food !

 

OK, genuine question: how come none of the above tweaks/mods make a negative improvement?

I don't mean in the context of the specific trials today, but in the broader picture: differences I can accept - even if I am rather sceptic - but the bottom line is this: Pete are there any tweaks/instances you've tried that make you think' no...actually, I preferred it without' ?

If there are - and I'm not asking you to name and shame - then it would lend rather greater credibility to these kind of threads, to my mind anyway (for what that's worth!). It's the endless 'positives' that get in the way: a bit like Stereophile apparently only ever publishing positive reviews, even if the underlying principles were sound ten 'heads' in a row simply flies in the face of statistical expectation.

 

There's also this one, the Hikari Hado Coaster. Not sure if something is lost in the translation of the gobbledygook, probably not. Also makes your coffee taste better and charges your futon with good energy. Which is nice.





Light of [ru] blue, green and white is the general light from with the light-emitting diode, but separately, the light energy which had the wave length of the super micro discernibly resonating and discharging this light. As for this light energy furthermore that power there is a function which propagation, it transmits and remembers the substance revival active [baransukontororu] with the power which it harmonizes & agrees.

 

I think you're maybe misunderstanding Pete here a little, felix.

Such is Petes enthusiasm he wouldn't say anything against any one experimenting in this field.

From personal experince I feel Pete would opt to keep quiet if he felt things weren't quite/totally right..........but were for now acceptable.

 

Surely its a good idea to say if you tried something and it didn't work, so that others do not repeat what didn’t work.

 

Theres no mileage in doing things don't work ....thats plain silly
and a complete waste of time. All tweaks tried were mentioned as far as I can remember.

there are any number of things that I could have tried ...but experience has shown these are mostly always positive ..thought the amount varies...[from no effect upward]

I've passed on a number of other ideas that he may find useful.

The owner of the kit should comment about the nature of the change as he has to live with it.

the suggestion is that the coaster works in a different way ....I have not tried it so can't offer any speculation as to its effectiveness or similarity other than shape and the colour of the light [though blue appears to be more turquoise if that important ?].