Sonic Tonic fom the Tweek Geek

Dave,

Thanks very much for your review of all three speaker cables. Given your descriptions, it seems that each has its strong points, but in the end, as in all things audio, it will come down to system compatibility and what sound brings the listener the most musical enjoyment.

Brian

Hi again ozzy, I had gotten notice from the tweek geek touting the Sonic Tonic. His money back guarantee convinced me, as I felt I would hear little improvement but was curious. I ordered 4 and where I placed them at first the music seemed irritating. I wrote to Mike in an email I will copy and post explaining initial problem that ended up an unexpected blessing. I will post the first and after reading if anyone cares to read the rest of emails I will post also.  It starts here.  Very interesting Mike! Last night around 2 AM I had been enjoying music playing some well known favorites in preparation for testing sonic tonic . I got the 4 bottles of sonic tonic and curiously placed 1 on each of the 2 Shunyata PCs feeding my JL1300 subwoofers at the wall and the other 2 on both ends of the PC feeding my Deviatet 200. This is a a Shunyata Sigma PC cord. There was an almost immediate difference in sound that seemed bright. I had read where its may be bright for possibly 2 days. BUT the more I listened the sound seemed irritating! I grabbed the 4 sonic tonic bottles and held them while listening again and all was back to wonderful. Wow, one side of my brain is enjoying music while the other side is trying to sort out what just happened. So I put them back again and same thing happened. I was very torn as I trust your ears but my ears were were hearing something negative. As I was deciding what to tell you and even going so far as to wonder what tweak I should try next. Not wanting to change my current tweak set-up I then realized due to it's small size it could easily fit in area where the resistors are for crossovers of my Wilson Sophia 3 speakers. About 20 to 30 seconds later, after tonic seemed to charge up, then it was a good WOW, the midrange and treble were improved just as described. Excited I then put the other 2 back on subwoofers at wall and bass likewise improved nicely. Ended up excitedly staying up playing many hours more of glorious music.    Now I want to buy more product in order to sort out why the negative reaction at Devialet happened and of course further improvement. I have some theories, as I have multiple other tweaks in the Devialet area, and I think interaction between these may be responsible. One question is I saw where you will have an active sonic tonic. Will these be as small or almost as small as the original? If so I want some of those instead because I am limited as to where I can put tweaks due to a fruitful and major simplification of stereo 3 years ago. Also have you tried 2 sonic tonics very near each other? I read where the bybee iqse and tonic were a good match so I was curious if 2 sonic tonics had similar gains? Thanks Marc Brown PS So let me know cost and when available for the active sonic tonic.

Ozzy I decided to post the 2nd email since it ties in, the rest if any interest. 2nd starts here.      Well Mike another night of testing sonic tonic. Since I had such success placing tonic in resistor area of Wilson Sophia 3 and at the wall of my 2 JL 1300 subwoofers I started there. The reason I had thought of the resistor area in Wilson speakers is the English magazine HifiCritic's editor had his Sophia 3 speakers as a test bed to try different resistors for sound. The Duelund CAST won by a large margin. I totally agree so I wanted to mention that fact that I have those in.Well the improvement was unexpectedly as much or more than first night. I was expecting some improvement but what I got pretty much totally amazed me. When I put a tonic across both tweeter posts and one across both posts of subwoofers the music was tighter and more fluid with both high and low extremes extended. Everything was clearer, easier to understand and everything seemed more in time, even though my stereo already excelled in timing. One example, a favorite blues song has a bass drum that NOW when struck it is so much more distinct and the timing so dead on I could hear leading transient from the tweeter perfectly timed with subs, something I have not ever noticed. All acoustical instruments are improved as well as voices. Extremely addictive.       So there I was having only used 8 of the 12 tonics you sent and more than totally satisfied I listened for hours before I finally got curious as to where I would place the other 4. Having so much success at the Wilson speaker I realized I had a Skakti online across both speaker posts so I wondered how much better tonic would be in their place. While playing music as I was testing placement I confidently removed the onlines and replaced with tonic. Hmmm music was less distinct and out of time some with less air. Very surprised so I took tonic back out and music better but with less sparkle and air. Hmmm again so I replace onlines and ahh all good again. So I retried and same thing. Double hmmm, hard to fathom. 2 tonics close together in resistor area sound suburb but adding one more at speaker terminal muddies up sound. Head scratch! I was enjoying music sooo much I stopped there for now to experiment later. I will let you know after I finish testing. I uncovered one of the problems as to why tonic did not sound right at the PC feeding the Devialet. Some vials of crystals made by the Mad Scientist were causing the irritation, but there is still another problem I plan to uncover when I test with the other 4 left.        Right now the synergy between Sonic Tonic, Stein, bybee and quantum qx4 is amazing. Either turning off the qx4 or Stein or removing bybee or Sonic Tonic causes a collapse of sound stage and other detriments to sound. Totally addictive!!

The Sonic Tonic are a very good cost effective tweak. Placement experimentation is important. Very good on Video and at high power sources. Careful though on interconnects. IMHO.

ozzy 

ozzy: When you attatched the Sonic Tonic bottles to your dedicated lines ( I assume you mean the Romex coming out of the breaker box or sub panel), how did you attach them? Lengthwise or with the bottom of the bottles facing the wire?  Did you use the supplied Blu Tac or just electrical tape? Thanks in advance. Jeff