Synergistic Research HFT's

I'm one of the biggest skeptics on this kind of stuff.  I heard the demo at RMAF in 2019 and it was impressive.  Bought the HFT's (16) in total.  They made a positive impact on my system.  I previously had some bass traps in the corners and some diffusion but they improved the sound from there (bigger soundstage, openness and better placement of instruments).  Not all tweaks make a difference but these did.  I would have returned them if they didn't work but they did.

I'd put it this way: HFTs are better than nothing but they are not acoustical treatments that help with things like early reflections and the like. They help reduce high frequency energy.

How do I know this? I'm living it.
I have a large open floor plan that is a challenge from a logistical and aesthetic perspective. (Okay, WAF and related.)

For this reason I've resisted acoustic treatments and when I found out about HFTs, I thought they seemed like a great alternative

To date, I've deployed the HFTs, the Wide Angle, Speaker Kits and one Black Box. All nice stuff. It all helps. I would characterize the effect as quieting the room. I notice more clarity and space.

But, it's not the same as treating a room acoustically. I had a professional come over and do a room analysis. I already knew this but wanted to prove it with data. It's clear. I have to treat my room/space to the degree I can get away with. That means some permanent treatments and some that can be moved in/out of the room.

Again, I really like HFTs, etc. They did help. And they are very unobtrusive. But, for me, they're not enough.
I'll report back once I get my treatments in place, probably sometime mid-summer.
Hope this helps.

JPAN ---you saw the dimensions of my large room that acoustically speaking is God awful.  That said, I too have a wife who even hates the HFT's that I have scattered around.  She thinks they look like bugs and are an eyesore.  I am just curious, what are you hoping to do in your house?  Specifically what treatments and where?

Fast forward five months and this is what has happened in summary:
1. Bought a number of GIK acoustic panels to cover early reflection points. Mine are moveable and I move most of them in and out for listening sessions. They are easy to do so. (It took quite a bit of time to get them due to what we're all experiencing with supply chain issues.)
2. Focused on upgrading my isolation platforms for my amps, upgrading couplers for all my components and upgrading my tone arm RCA and power cord for the phono stage. I chose HRS bases and a mix of Vortex and Nimbus for my components. I selected Stillpoints Ultra5 for my turntable. Cables and power cord came from Synergistic (and now I have 100% Synergistic throughout my system).
3. Finally -- and this the big one -- I put in a Distributed Bass Array from James Romeyn which is a modified version of the AudioKinesis Swarm. The system was set up by J. R. Bosclair, of Wally Tools. It was a good eight hour effort using data analysis to find the optimum location for the subs and the various nob changes on the sub amps (2). I enjoyed the process.

The first two set of changes we good and valuable. It's amazing what you can do when minimizing reflections and improving isolation and chassis noise.
But none of that compared to the difference of the DBA. Implementing that was an order of magnitude change improvement across the spectrum of what we typically define or use to explain how a system sounds. Essentially, the DBA rendered the other changes as tweaks. Whereas the DBA was monumental in impact.
As others have described and as it's been written in TAS, it's not just the bass that improves, but everything from the mids to the highs. It's incredible and so fun. Finally, my room is less of an issue (although certainly not perfect) and I have real, "deeply" discernible bass (and not just deep but low and mid-bass) with speed and accuracy. But the crazy thing is how much this system "corrects" lots of bad stuff happening b/c the bass was previously "misbehaving".
Okay...I'll stop. I know how this might sound or appear.