They are Helmholtz resonators. They have a relatively low resonant frequency due to the wide, short "nozzle" of the bowl even though the volume is low. A clue to how they work is the placement of the bowls at first reflection points and standing wave locations. An empty coke bottle also exhibits a relatively low resonant frequency when one blows across the lip of the bottle. In fact, coke bottle resonators should work very well in a pinch.
Can a tiny silver bowl affect music reproduction
I am speaking of the Ziplex one half inch wide silver bowls, but the same questions apply to the Synergistic Research ARTs.
About two weeks ago I had four audiophiles in my listening room. We were listening to the impact of the Tripoint Troy Signature. I was standing and noticed that one of the eleven Zilplexes in my room was laying flat on the three silver support rods on the wall. It was the one that is about midway down the left wall and about seven and a half feet off the floor. It is supposed to be at a 45ยบ angle facing the wall. As unobtrusively as possible I stepped on a foot stool that I leave there as this is a common happening and carefully inclined the bowl into a proper condition. I then returned to where I was standing.
Someone asked what did I just do, and I stated the above. They all were in disbelief about how it could have such an effect. I told them that Zilplex had been at CES and at the RMAF about a year or two ago, I repeatedly did their demonstration of removing all eleven Zilplexes. Always those in the audience said exactly what my four friends had said.
Having stumbled onto these a couple of years ago, I said that the inventor and owner really didn't have an explanation for the effect that it was all a trial and error process, which, of course, had taken countless hours. Synergistic Research also has a comparable bowl device, which Ted Denny attributes to his hear Tibetan monks and their bowls. There are of course Tibetan bowls. Syn. Res. ARTs are bigger than the Zilplexes but neither is the size of typical Tibetan bowls.
Tibetan bowls, of course, resonate when struck or rubbed at the rim. SR ARTs ring when knocked together. Zilplex don't ring. I asked Zilplex about this and was told they ring but at a frequency we cannot hear. My question is why would ringing bowls located variously in a room, greatly improve the apparent size of the rooms and the realism of the reproduced music?
All I can say is that they do, and I have heard no real explanation.
About two weeks ago I had four audiophiles in my listening room. We were listening to the impact of the Tripoint Troy Signature. I was standing and noticed that one of the eleven Zilplexes in my room was laying flat on the three silver support rods on the wall. It was the one that is about midway down the left wall and about seven and a half feet off the floor. It is supposed to be at a 45ยบ angle facing the wall. As unobtrusively as possible I stepped on a foot stool that I leave there as this is a common happening and carefully inclined the bowl into a proper condition. I then returned to where I was standing.
Someone asked what did I just do, and I stated the above. They all were in disbelief about how it could have such an effect. I told them that Zilplex had been at CES and at the RMAF about a year or two ago, I repeatedly did their demonstration of removing all eleven Zilplexes. Always those in the audience said exactly what my four friends had said.
Having stumbled onto these a couple of years ago, I said that the inventor and owner really didn't have an explanation for the effect that it was all a trial and error process, which, of course, had taken countless hours. Synergistic Research also has a comparable bowl device, which Ted Denny attributes to his hear Tibetan monks and their bowls. There are of course Tibetan bowls. Syn. Res. ARTs are bigger than the Zilplexes but neither is the size of typical Tibetan bowls.
Tibetan bowls, of course, resonate when struck or rubbed at the rim. SR ARTs ring when knocked together. Zilplex don't ring. I asked Zilplex about this and was told they ring but at a frequency we cannot hear. My question is why would ringing bowls located variously in a room, greatly improve the apparent size of the rooms and the realism of the reproduced music?
All I can say is that they do, and I have heard no real explanation.
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- 95 posts total
- 95 posts total