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Placement tips for Synergistic Research HTFs

I just bought 15 HTFs and will also be making about a dozen of Ozzie's homemade models.  While I will re-fresh myself with SR's placement tips, and I get that I will have to do some experimenting to tailor the HFT effect to MY listening room; are there any "Advanced HFT Placement Tips" some of you would like to share with us?  Something that might be overlooked by many of us?  Or maybe, just a good rule-of-thumb tip for someone just starting to use these?
The tips could be tips for bring out more highs, solidifying the bass response, placement hi vs low, in front of vs behind speakers, on side walls, at reflection points, behind the listener, on the ceiling above the equipment or above the listener, on the equipment.
Any ah-ha that you would like to share?  I would also be very interested in hearing from people using Magnapans.

toolbox149
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
Toolbox - i just looked at the pics of your resonators. It's funny, I just went to Lowes last night and bought 3/8" OD compression caps and made some resonators with them as bases instead of the 3/8" copper pipe caps. It looks like you are using the same thing! I think I like the sound better with the brass compression caps. Plus, they look better. Ha! The difference in ours is that I crush the brass beads/bowls into the caps using a bench vice, instead of gluing..

Interested to read what you heard!
toolbox149 OP
248 posts
 
Todd,
I have stopped pressing my cones into bases and now only use glue.  I would be very interested (if you have a couple of jkbtn's 14mm cones) if you would take some Elmers and build two or four temporary models with the cones sticking out, and test them against your press fit models.  I'd love to find out if what you hear is the same as I heard.
Oh, and yes, I agree.  I'm finding out that big cones are the best and a big bottom can help too.
toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
Toolbox - I posted some pics of my resonators on my system page. I filed the bowls down so they are flush with the copper caps. They look better and sound the same. I think they sound slightly better, but I think that’s completely expectation bias. I’ll get a few more copper caps and make some glue in resonators and report back. I think I’m single handedly depleting Lowes’ stock of 3/8" copper caps!

What’s blowing my mind with these resonators is how effective they are. I was incredibly sceptical. But man, they’ve helped open up the soundstage loads. And, more importantly and surprisingly, they’ve solved a massive resonance problem I had. My left wall is half floor to ceiling glass doors and half large window. That’s a lot of glass. But our design choices preclude heavy curtains, or, really, curtains of any sort. With my current setup of 18 HFTs, the resonance in the high mids and up is gone. Nice!
theaudiotweak
2,778 posts
 
Do any or all of your devices touch the wall surface? Tom
theaudiotweak
2,778 posts
 
Todd,

If you filed down the tubular diameter so it was flush with the interior taper as seen in your photos that is a very good thing. From my experience the shape you have selected either by intuition or much listening has little to do with compressive waves but more about wave types that can be dispersed thu solids of a geometric form. Good form makes for better sound. Tom
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