I have a very good sounding setup in a dedicated room I built myself with some idea help from experts. My speakers are VMPS RM40 BCSE w/ al the best upgrades except the OXO. I have a heavily modified TRL DUDE preamp, the 2 best upgrades to the Nuforce Reference 9 SE mono amps from Bob Smith at TDSS, a heavily modified MW Sony 5400 Signature Truth CD/SACD, and very good ICs from Teo using the Schroeder double IC method, power cords from Bob Smith, WyWires, Dynamic Design, and one awesome Verastarr Statement, SC from Clarity Cables Organic.
My system had 3 minor problems specifically with the speakers that kept them from being close to my definition of perfect reproduced sound: 1.) the 66" H speakers have their ribbon tweeter exactly in the middle of the speaker--when sitting, there is very nice highs with great air and detail, when you stood up, there was a very noticeable loss in the highs; 2.) the 10" bass woofers are located top on the front near the top and near the bottom front--10" passive radiators are located facing down very near the bottom of the speakers--on loud deep bass transients, the sound bottomed out occasionally; 3.) on my pair that I've had for about 10 years, if the volume knob on my DUDE was turned up past 11:00, the right channel sound would stop until I returned the dial one notch lower or more, when it would resume playing like it should.
With those points in mind, Krissy sent me 2 sets of holostages about 6 months ago. Within a couple days of locating the holostages and 2 of the Perfect Path E-Mats in spots, all those problems went away. I placed the first 2 holostages on top middle of the speakers (one on each), put one mat on top of the bottom board that holds the two side and rear boards to give the passive radiator room to breathe--that put the mat in the middle on that board. 2 other holostages went in my car's backseat. My audio buddy told me about his in his car. 2 more holostages were put on my MW CD player about 3" from the power plug. The other was placed about 3" from the power plug on the power supply of the MW.
I have many CDs and records with great bass players on them. On these cuts, the bass would bottom out on deep transients prior to placing the holostages on the equipment. At no time since using these, has the bass bottomed out no matter what the volume level was. As I stood up at 6'6", no longer did the highs lessen. It was now like they were a point source speaker--highs all the way to the top of the speaker and even beyond. Lastly, after about a month, the volume shutting off on the right channel stopped happening. I could now play the speakers at VERY LOUD levels as high as I could listen at and all was well. 10 years of this problem were suddenly vanished just like that.
The two holostages in the car began doing their thing about a week after putting them in the back seat. I have a 2005 Ford Escape SUV with a head unit from Kenwood that I installed along with a pair of $69 Kenwood speakers in the front. I did not replace the rear speakers from stock. I had a slight buzzing the right front speaker after installing it and it suddenly disappeared. I use my vehicle more like a van and keep the back seat area flat all the way to the rear door. I've had several aftermarket stereos installed in previous cars. The sound of mine now was much better than I've had in previous vehicles--even my Impala that had a separate Infinity amp and 4 Kenwood speakers in it. The holostages caused all matter of new sounds from my CDs from various spots in the vehicle.
The kicker on the car parts was I thought I was going to have to replace the transmission because the vehicle keep missing as it would try to accelerate especially up hills. My SUV has about 165,000 miles on it and never had a tune up. It didn't have very good pickup. Now, the buzz is gone, my acceleration has really increased, the car stereo sounds much better in SQ and has more power.
I told Krissy that I didn't care what's in the little boxes, only that they did these things. I wasn't expecting the performance increase in my SUV. Another thing, the AC used to take about 5 minutes to cool the car and now, it cools it in a bout 30 seconds. Same with the heater, heats the vehicle in about the same time. The aright front brake was squeeling if I braked too hard before. It hasn't made a noise since.
If you guys who haven't tried the holostages like talking crap when you have zero knowledge, be my guest. That's a lot of good things from 2 small boxes in my SUV. Thanks Krissy. I have quite a few of her black boxes in my home system and each one significantly improves the SQ of the music. I feel quite blessed to have a system in both my house and my car that I can hardly wait to listen to. Those who are ignorant, bash away--but you don't know what you're missing. Every system will improve with each addition.
Bob