At this point, any time an audio manufacturer claims to be run by a "physicist", as does Lessloss, I know somebody is trying to separate me from as much of money as possible. I have owned Lessloss interconnects and a Synergistic Research power conditioner. Both were mediocre at best. And both companies are run by "physicists". I have yet to find an academic paper authored by any of the physicists who run Lessloss, Synergistic Research, or Bybee. I am also still looking for a reference to "quantum tunneling" (as performed by Synergistic Research) in Richard Feynman's books and lectures on quantum mechanics. |
Mcondon, I tend to agree with you about the flimsy nature of the scientific basis for these products. I read the Lessloss description of the Blackbodies and was thoroughly unimpressed. I can see how the technological nature of the discussion would prove impressive to many audiophiles. A lot of conceptualization with little evidence that an audible change would result. A half hour of intense listening to Blackbodies in and out of a system convinced me I wasn't going to spend any more time on them. Even if they did *something* it was so insipid that it wouldn't be worth my time. One can get a far greater benefit by swapping a pair of interconnects, imo. I am not anti-tweak in my perspective, but I demand that a product pass what I call my Law of Efficacy; it has to make a significant, immediate, easily discernible, repeatable difference - to the casual listener as well as the audiophile. One "tweak" which has consistently passed the Law of Efficacy is treatment of CDs. Though there is debate over the proposed benefit from a technological/scientific standpoint, the result audibly is clear, and so I treat every disc. The second you think, "Well, there MAY be a difference," or "... I don't care for the sound, but I'll have to let it break in for a few weeks," or "... wait, let's try placing them here (after the third time)," the product is unworthy of consideration regardless of price. That is, if your goal is to eschew marginal improvements in favor of major improvements to the rig. The ART system demoed for me at RMAF the and Blackbodies both failed such simple testing. I wrote "nearly" instead of "clearly" as I have not used every tweak out there and there is a (perhaps remote) possibility that some technologically driven tweak guru has developed a seriously beneficial product. I try to base my conclusions on products I have heard versus those which I think cannot be beneficial, that precludes making a universal statement about them all being ineffectual. |
I enjoy very much trying audio tweaks, lets face it, some of them work and add to the experience, and it's fun to "play" with it! Heck, with some of the audio gear costing so much money, where is the harm in having some fun and maybe improving your enjoyment without spending a fortune! That said, when it comes to the blackbody, I purchased two of them......and this was not an inexpensive tweak, so I expected some bang for my buck. To be honest, I moved them around, tried placing them in different positions, and just could not feel comfortable about keeping them. I think they do something, and probably more or less of something depending on the system, but, they were not worthy of being kept in my system! If others have had positive results with them, all the power to you and enjoy! |
Here’s the science of it, in an alternate scientific path. The devices in the article have been proven to be functional by 6 different organizations, including NASA (repeatedly!), and the Chinese have confirmed it’s function in space. FYI, just so you know, the Chinese have taken this so seriously, they are moving to dominate space, period. Ie, the half trillion dollar level of pressure over the next few (3-5) years. It’s true. Start looking. The space race is on. Hard core, full bore. Tools that are functional have become available. Enabling has become real. Land Ho! (Just in case you’ve been sleeping. The vast number of humans are) Mars in 20-40 days, no notable (spacecraft) mass restrictions. Pluto in less than 200 days, in the same spacecraft. 300k-400k/km/h and higher, kinda thing. Looks very probable. Thorium reactor, a couple of megawatts for the drive.... and you’re off....(I can't imagine micro meteorite impacts at those speeds!) The article incidentally provides scientific connection to the borderline 100% reality of the function of the Blackbody device, via explaining the reality of the devices in the article. The proposed EM drive. It involves, unruh radiation, blackbody radiation effects, and the quantitization of inertia. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.03449.pdf I’m not talking about the efficacy of such things in audio systems, just the science. The efficacy is a personal thing, a personal choice and understanding. The science is looking to be very very real. |
