Some HOT Science From Synergistic Research

[bigshot]

I heard they are rebranding these with a new name... Synergistic Headphone Integrated Transducer

 

[esldude]

Check to see if that coating is magnetic.  Once was a youtube video on making your own power and speaker cables.  They put iron filings around the wires with some other dust.  Supposed to absorbed and filter bad harmonics or some such stuff.  Not that it would make any sense here, but just curious if they bought into that. 

 

[bigshot]

Remember that speaker wire that cost thousands of dollars and it turned out that it was a Monoprice cable inside aquarium tubing filled with potting loam?

 

[esldude]

  Remember that speaker wire that cost thousands of dollars and it turned out that it was a Monoprice cable inside aquarium tubing filled with potting loam?

Well don't know if we are thinking of the same thing, but that is also the company who made the video.  Though as I recall it wasn't even monoprice just house wiring, the dust was iron filings mixed with vermiculite inside a garden hose with a high tech looking outer covering.  The silicate was supposed to be piezoelectric and mixed with iron filings transduced the bad harmonics into heat. Don't remember if they covered it with foil or not. 
 
So maybe SR has done the same thing.  Vermiculite or some other silicate mixed with iron dust and glued between foils.
 
And this isn't going to actually do anything you can hear in my opinion.

 

[bigshot]

  And this isn't going to actually do anything you can hear in my opinion.

 
You didn't even need to put "in my opinion" after that sentence. A chimpanzee could tell that this doesn't do anything (in my opinion).

 

[esldude]

   
You didn't even need to put "in my opinion" after that sentence. A chimpanzee could tell that this doesn't do anything (in my opinion).

Hey as this thread isn't in the Sound Science section, I kept in mind that opinion trumps facts.  That was the strongest manner of making my statement considering. 

 

[Music Alchemist]

Even if this worked, I wouldn't get it, since I'm getting the Smyth Realiser A8 and using balanced headphones anyway.

 

[castleofargh]

  I heard they are rebranding these with a new name... Synergistic Headphone Integrated Transducer

 

[castleofargh]

  Even if this worked, I wouldn't get it, since I'm getting the Smyth Realiser A8 and using balanced headphones anyway.

I need feedback on this. I couldn't make myself send 3200euros to get a 30days trial of it. if I was an IT macgiver I would take the flight simulator software that reads your head movements with the webcam, and virtually duck tape it to a surround DSP. but I'm really not that guy

 

[bigshot]

 
Hey as this thread isn't in the Sound Science section, I kept in mind that opinion trumps facts.

 
The picture should make it pretty much self evident. No need for opinion any more.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  I need feedback on this. I couldn't make myself send 3200euros to get a 30days trial of it. if I was an IT macgiver I would take the flight simulator software that reads your head movements with the webcam, and virtually duck tape it to a surround DSP. but I'm really not that guy

 
Ha. Well, if by feedback you mean impressions, they're all over the Internet. Not to derail the thread, but since you inquired, many people (including ones with a lot of experience with headphones and speakers) said they couldn't tell they weren't listening to speakers while using it. The ability to emulate practically limitless speaker systems (given that you have the opportunity to visit them and take the measurements) makes it even more interesting.

 

[esldude]

   
Ha. Well, if by feedback you mean impressions, they're all over the Internet. Not to derail the thread, but since you inquired, many people (including ones with a lot of experience with headphones and speakers) said they couldn't tell they weren't listening to speakers while using it. The ability to emulate practically limitless speaker systems (given that you have the opportunity to visit them and take the measurements) makes it even more interesting.

I think your post is quite ironic in this thread.  We have positive impressions in this thread of the HOT device.  After the tear down photos the positive impressions seem not to be accurate.  Not equating the Smyth device with the HOT, but just the reliability of subjective impressions on the internet take a bit of a hit in this thread.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  I think your post is quite ironic in this thread.  We have positive impressions in this thread of the HOT device.  After the tear down photos the positive impressions seem not to be accurate.  Not equating the Smyth device with the HOT, but just the reliability of subjective impressions on the internet take a bit of a hit in this thread.

 
Perception can't always be trusted, that's for sure. I only mentioned the A8 because it targets a similar experience, but is a heavy-duty device that is one of the few on my "definitely buy" list, among countless "maybe try/buy someday" components. I don't claim to know how the HOT is supposed to work, but unlike Synergistic Research, Smyth Research go into some detail about how their technology works.

 

[Currawong]

So what is that whole thing around the socket? It is a socket alone? Does anyone actually know what it is supposed to actually do to the signal?
 
@bigshot I deleted your thread. You posted it PURELY to mock the product, without either A: owning it, or B: having any knowledge of what it actually is supposed to do with a signal. This isn't a forum purely for mocking products, and certainly science isn't about mocking things either. If you want to do anything of value, maybe see if Tyll can get a hold of one and measure some headphones with and without it in the chain to see if anything can be discerned that way. THAT is a proper application of science.

 

[Steve Eddy]

So what is that whole thing around the socket? It is a socket alone?

Yeah, it's just a regular 1/4" female socket, which typically feature a shield around them like that.

Does anyone actually know what it is supposed to actually do to the signal?

They claim it's purpose is to convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. So it's apparently not doing anything to the signal. Couldn't do anything to the signal unless you converted that mechanical energy back into electrical energy. Remember, headphones operate on electrical energy, not mechanical energy.

They call their "technology" UEF for Uniform Energy Field. Sorry, but it sounds like nothing but gibberish to me.

se