How HFTs and other miniature tuning devices might work?


After living with some SR HFT room tuning devices for about a month now, I only know one thing for sure. They work. Specifically, they seem to work by improving image specificity, which flows on to other areas such as image size, soundstage dimension and finally subjective tonal balance. 

As I listen, I ponder the question of how and why these devices may be doing what they do. I have come up with an answer but it's only speculation. Could it be that...

The sound waves projected from the back of speakers (in my case ML electrostatics) are normally reflecting off the back wall, and then returning to the listener's ears at the listening position. The highest frequencies are the most directional, and they are the frequencies which the listener uses to focus on, as the source of the sound. Normally these highest frequencies would be reflecting off many "spot sources" on the wall behind the speskers.

If a device were placed on the wall which synthesized even higher frequencies from the highest frequencies, then those ultra-high frequencies would become the most directional ones. The mind's focus would then be on the position of that single device, as the source of the sound. Could it be that high frequencies entering the HFT (or similar device) are divided (or dithered) into ultra-high frequencies (perhaps by a grid or mesh), and then projected out of the device, amplified by its horn-like structure? The effect would be to make one "spot source" (the highest frequency source) the focus of attention, rather than many spot sources. All lower frequencies would subjectively appear to originate from the same point source, based upon the detection of the source of the ultra-directional highest frequencies. In that way, the tiny devices could influence image placement and soundstage dimensions.
whostolethebatmobile
Geoff, perhaps the bowls when excited by music also emit extremely high frequency resonance that is able to attract the ear/mind to a point source which helps to enable focused attention. I’m only speculating, but since it appears no-one has provided a definitive explanation, the option to speculate remains open. :-)
Sometimes it’s better not to look 👀 for proof but to look 👀 for evidence. I’ll repeat, the dimension of tiny bowl an electromagnetic wavelength and an acoustic wavelength. The real mystery, gentle readers, for these tiny little bowls is how they affect the low frequencies so strongly. You know, since the acoustic wavelength 3/4” is a very high frequency. Where’s my wavelength calculator? 10,000 Hz. rf wavelength low GHz.
What is it with tweaks that attracts kooks? I guess because its hard to imagine how they work they seem nutty and so people assume they must be nutty and next thing you know sure enough kooks are coming out of the woodwork all over with one nutty idea after another. Most nutty seeming ideas are in fact nutty. As are most kooky seeming kooks.

Which is especially nutty when with something like this it turns out there's a really serious and near universally accepted idea behind it. Dither is widely used in digital and in video. In both of those its used to improve resolution. Which is exactly what we hear with the various HFT versions. 

A main difference seems to be the dither in those applications is universal. Software, in other words, distributes the dither uniformly throughout the entire work. ECT, PHT and HFT on the other hand, the dither they introduce (if that is indeed what they are doing) is localized. Or at least that would be my explanation for why they work better in some locations than others, why it makes a difference how many are used, etc.