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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.
tbg
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Csontos wrote,

"If anything, they are probably just effective as a form of eq. Gearing the size to accommodate a certain freq. band and then focusing the reflection in particular directions stands to reason."

That can't be right since the tiny bowls are (intentionally) placed in locations where there are high sound pressure levels such as room corners, first reflection points, second reflection points. Nothing so mundane as focusing certain frequencies. The tiny little silver bowls have been fairly well understood for at least 10 years, ever since Franck Tchang introduced his Acoustic Resonators, just as Helmholtz resonators have been understood for, what, 150 years?
davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 
Salectric. Your post demonstrates what a small world it is. Like Tbg I have listened to the Zilplex and Synergistic Research Acoustic Arts system. I do not think Tbg auditioned the "full" Arts System. However he is using a full Ziplex system, and I am using and quite happy with a full Synergistic Acoustic Arts system.

My common bond with you is our use of horns, tube amps, Dulands and Northcreeks. I would suggest trying the new Synergistic Research HFT- FEQ system. A tremendous improvement in allowing the sound from the speakers to interact with the room acoustics. They have a 30 day trial, are easy to set up using the You Tube tutorial, and no damage to walls. The Zilplex and Acoustic Art systems are labor intensive to optimize the room sound. However the time is worth it.
tbg OP
5,263 posts
 
Davidpritchard, I did have the full Arts system in Texas. I had two Basik systems in New Mexico. I actually have two full Zilplex systems-one in NM and the other in TX. Frankly I thought the demonstration of the HFT-FEQ on the Bose radio was unimpressive.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Excerpt from a review of the Tchang Acoustic Resonators by 6 Moons in 2007. Apologies if I posted this previously.

"The resonators also become focal points for intense overtone radiation. That is denser at their points of origin than in the surrounding air. As directional organs, our ears key into these radiation sources and our acoustic perception of the space we're in is altered. Again, no music needs to be played to sense this spatial overlay. Speech will do, or the sound of our own foot fall. Being completely passive, the resonators can only be activated by received energy. As HF modulators, a full-range input obviously isn't needed. Franck Tchang has used a spectrum analyzer to corroborate this action up to 3GHz. By affecting the ordinary acoustic damping through adding parallel values from the resonators, original HF content reappears. It becomes audible again and rebalanced against the LF energies. Treble decays improve and the subjective impression of audible space deepens. The resonators equalize air pressure differentials and can be installed in a fridge, mailbox or outside a room. Distance will not affect their efficaciousness. That's quite a fatal blow to common sense but there it is according to the maestro. Franck has treated recording studios, performance venues, bars, living spaces and entire buildings. His demand as an expert tuning maestro is growing. That brings to mind Combak Corp.'s Kiuchi-San who enjoys a similar reputation in Japan."
davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 
Tbg, Thank you for the correction. I have installed the Synergistic Research HFT + FEQ system and I am happy with the sonic gains made. Especially for those looking for a simpler way of improving room sonics, I found this to be a good choice. I am sure you have your room dialed in with the Zilplex system. I also do not understand exactly how any of these systems work, but work they do!
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