2. cables
  3. 989703612

Synergistic Research IC Active Shielding

Syn. Res. IC users that have the ICs with the "pigtails", ie set up for active shielding are probably aware of the $1000. box that provides the power for the active shields. Well, SR now has "wall wart" power supplies for a single pair of "pigtail" equipped ICs. I got two of these a couple days ago and like them a lot. SR has an introductory price of $50. apiece ($75. list). Mine came from A Sanctuary of Sound-- a good Audiogon Dealer.

I first plugged these wall warts (they have about 3 ft. leads) into a Monster HTS 1000 power strip, which was plugged into a dedicated outlet-- but forgot to turn the power strip on-- and listened for 3 hours. Duh! These first 3 hours, music sounded too bright, analytic and gave me a headache-- I think there may have been some kind of negative antenna affect going on? And I was wondering if the dealer would take them back?

But when I went to unplug them, I realized that the Mini's were not powered, and the shields not active. After ACTUALLY GIVING THEM POWER, music had a completely different and improved character, whehter compared to the non-powered Minis or compared to my system without them. I don't want to use a lot of Stereophile verbiage here, but I will say music was natural, some edge was gone from what I thought were overly bright CDs, but the most striking improvement was in soundstaging-- stronger and wider, while still sounding natural. The overall improvement was definitely worthwhile, but not dramatic. I sure recommend them. Cheers. Craig.
garfish
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
No Mr. Garland I don't know that shielding voltage, but a VOM test would tell very quickly. I wonder if S.R. offers a choice? Or if you might be able to swap out the one-chip DC regulator inside of a wall wart supply?
For myself I asked them for an ADJUSTABLE range of shielding voltage, but the reply was a humorous "no" as customers would then be asking them "is it better at 14.7 volts or at 22.3786 volts (you get the idea).
audiofrk
6 posts
 
I was also looking at the Master Control Center, but thought I'd investigate this new MPC product - since it;s only $50, much less than the big unit! Synergistic says they do the same thing, though the big unit is "more refined" and has a big power cord. I was told that it passes a current into the shield and "turbocharges" the shield, while it charges the dielectric at the same time, so it secures the conductor purity or something (that's where he lost me). I did a demo on the dealers system and it sounded AWESOME - richer and more dynamic soundstage - but I haven't been to this dealer before, so I wondered if anyone else tried it. Glad to hear others have had positive results.
evo845
70 posts
 
I have the Designer ref. with the updated module and have found after months of switching between the 3 outputs that indeed the J3 sounds better on CDP. A more alive musical presentaion . I was unaware of the difference in voltage between J1-J3 thanks for the info Bob.
steve
sorlowski
236 posts
 
I would like to try SR cable son my system
I have tried TaraLabs The 0.8, huge soundstage dynamics, my speakers for the first time disappeared completely, and Silversmith Silver, soundstage is constricted between speakers, but resolution is incredible and harmonics are giving me goose bumps. Midrange is just magical. Tara in comparisons sound blurred and dead when it comes to voices.

I would like to have Tara dynamic impact, vast soundstage with Soundsmith resolution and magic, maybe SR are the answer.

Problem is some of my components are connected to 220V and some to 110V power source.
Are SR cables (PC, IC) galvanically isolated from wall warts ?
So I could put SR IC between 220V power components and at the some time connect wall wart to 110V source ?
tbg
5,263 posts
 
Sorlowski, I would suggest that you call Synergistic Research and ask your questions.

I would strongly suggest that you guys visit http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1171895489&openmine&Tbg&4&5&st0

Much of it will be of interest to you.
More to discover