Shakti Hallographs
Jonathan Valin -- Mon, 07/10/2006 - 12:10
Any of you guys tried these mysterious tuning-fork shaped items? From my own experience, I can tell you they have a profound effect on the size and clarity of the soundstage (and on imaging within the stage). I just can't tell you why.
I also tried the Hallographs and couldn't hear anything that they were supposed to do, despite Ben Piazza's persistent enthusiasm. They are now at a friend's house, and we have never been able to hear any improvement from them in his system either.
I'd love to know exactly what you're hearing from them. I like the other Shakti products, by the way, and think the Shakti stones actually impart some benefits. I've never heard anything from the Hallographs, however, and when I told Ben this he insisted that they were set up all wrong. I don't know.
Barry Wilis
With the MAGICO Minis or the Ascendo Ms, the differences I've heard with the Hallographs in the back corners of my listening room were profound, unmistakeable, adjustable, and repeatable. As you know, Piazza claims that the Hallographs “reduce(s) the audibility of the chaotic reflections from the walls of the listening room so they won’t overpower and interfere with the direct sound from the speakers.” Though, like you, I couldn’t get the Hallographs to clarify anything with the omnidirectional MBL 101 E loudspeakers, they did precisely what Piazza claimed they would do with the conventional direct-radiating Minis—vastly improving soundstaging and the resolution of inner detail, seemingly without touching timbres, durations, or intensities. I have since tried a second pair of Hallographs on the sidewalls and they intensify the same effects, allowing a surprising range of soundstage/image focus and size adjustment. However, the second pair does seem to "damp" dynamics just a bit, although I'm sure Piazza would claim that what are being damped are the "chaotic room reflections" that artificially exaggerate dynamics.
I know I'm not imagining these things because experienced listeners--including several speaker manufacturers--have also heard the differences the Hallographs make in my room. Believe me, those differences aren't subtle. (I can also report that Robert Harley heard them make a huge difference in the sound of speakers in a CES room--though that should not be taken as a recommendation by Robert as he hasn't tried them in his own digs.)
I don't doubt that you aren't hearing what I've heard, Barry. As noted I couldn't hear any difference with the MBL 101 Es and, initially, dismissed the Hallographs as a boondoggle. All I can tell you is that they work as claimed with two conventional direct-radiating speakers, the MAGICOs and Ascendos.
I believe that you and others have heard benefits. I suspect the effect is very room-dependent. My room is open and acoustically asymetrical, so that may be why the Hallographs didn't perform as advertised there. I'm willing to keep experimenting.
BW
Quite some time ago I had the opportunity to hear the Hallographs in a joint Kharma speaker/Tenor amplifier demo suite at CES (Consumer Electronics Show).
I found that the Hallographs definitely made an audible, repeatable difference. What was less clear to me at the time was whether the difference represented a real step forward. I remember thinking that one could probably build a case for the Kharmas' overall presentation whether they were used with the Hallographs or not.
I really have no idea exactly why the Hallographs work, but it occurs to me that their effects are somewhat like those I experience when using RPG BAD (Binary Amplitude Diffsorber) panels in my system.
In any event, hearing the Hallographs turned out to be one of those great, late night high-end audio moments where passionate enthusiasts get together to check out a new piece of gear.
Best,
Chris Martens
TPV/TAS
Chris Martens
Editor, Avguide.com/Playback/The Perfect Vision
Greetings, this is my first post here. I have some home made Hallographs (thanks to a post at AudioAsylum) and frankly can't imagine ever taking them out of my system. I use them mainly for soundstage enhancement--toed in for ensemble and out for orchestral, but they also do subtle sonic additives as you might find with spikes on speakers, or for example, it seems the bass is enhanced more so when they are toed in, rather then out, and I end up hearing more INTO the mix. Recently I picked up a free piece of bowling ally (sans pins) and ended up making 3" maple platforms ala Mapleshade, that ended up under my Dunlavy SCIIIs, my Space Deck and my VAC Avatar. I found that my overall sound is now...cleaner, the bass is more solid, imaging more solid, and there is a clarity to the sound that was not as evident before. Which brings me back to the Hallographs in that I put some brass (feet) under the base of the Hallographs wondering if, as with the other equipment, they would benefit from having the base more--sturdy. To my ears the sound is again...cleaner, so try the hallographs with some spikes and let me know if you do hear what I hear. Thanks for listening!
I was skeptical of the Hallographs until I was dragged into a demo at CES. They played a piece of music without the Hallographs in the room, and then again with the Hallographs. I had them repeat the demo with different music and the result was the same; the Hallographs expanded the soundstage.
A very technically astute designer visited my listening room and we moved a Tube Trap slightly and heard a significant difference. He explained that some areas of a room can have acoustic anomalies that can be broken up with just about any object in the right location. He called it the "sock-on-a-coat-hanger phenomenon."
Perhaps the Hallographs have some properties that make them more effective than a conventional object. The difference I heard in the demo was signficant.
By the way, you can see the Hallographs in some of the photos of Jonathan Valin's room just posted in the Speaker Forum. The photos document the set-up of the new MBL X-101E.
I have had them for 20 years, and the smallest push -- less than 1/32" down a wall can improve or degrade sound. They are not for the faint of heart, or the quck-fix mentality.
Even after all these years with them, and just out of curosity I placed a sound panel (one of the wall panels ASC sells) on an oblique angle on the side wall, using push pins to angle it at say 42 degrees, than 43, than 45 (not really measurable, but you get the idea). I would listen and then angle it a smidgeon (the holes in the drywall between pushpin differences were literally almost touching) and found the acoustic "appearing" to a degree than made me think I'd been smoking. Putting them on the floor with the reflective side facing a speaker (and angling them if the speaker is also angled inward) eliminates lower-midrange suckouts to a large degree. I have one in front of each speaker and the noise floor drops (expected), but violins also "spread out" in space (not expected) and harmonics are better. I just read Bob Carver's reveiw in TAS, and he mentioned eliminating floor and ceiling bounce with his loudspeakes. The tts do the same thing.
I had the Hallographs as well, as was disappointed when I sent them back because only after they left did my heart drop and I thought, Oh, MAN, they DID improve the sound more than I thought. So, I took a tube trap and put it in between the speakers, exactly flush with the front of the speakers (Usher 718s, incidentally, non-BEs) and I was able to replicate SOME of the effect of the Hallographs, but only, say, 30%. However, moving a tube trap so the seam moves so insignificantly you can barely tell you moved it can be rather...alarming. The smallest turn opens ambience and depth layering up (or shuts it down). What I usually do is push the trap along the wall (back or side, I've got around 30) until I push it 1/100" too far and I can hear some inner detail disappear. I then push it 1/100" BACK to where it was (arbitrary: the distance is too small to measure) and THEN I orient the seam slowly.
Moncrieff's experiments were probably easier in his larger room, but as the room gets smaller, the slightest movement -- and I truly do mean so slight as to have you IMAGINE you even moved the trap at all -- gives doubts as to your sanity.
The Hallographs AND the traps were -- and I dislike hyperbole, because continually saying "amazing" and "incredibly" (as seen in TAS' pages too often these days, gents) invalidates what is truly amazing (a shooting star is my baseline for "amazing"). But it would definitely make your heart tremble for a while at how beautiful the two treatments are in combination.
not a wall panel. The half-rounds on the ceiling are also worthy of an eyebrow-raising look, like Bette Davis in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte when she sees the head bounce down the stairs (oh, Olivia, you were SO evil in that movie!) when correctly placed. The Ushers are BIG-sounding speakers, but with -ceiling and -floor mounted tube traps, they become bigger, as in soundstage height goes up to the 8' celing height of my room.
I also like the tune-ability to Tube Traps by turning them, using the seam as a reference.
That's an intersting experience with the Hallographs.
I don't see any Hallographs in this TAS reviewer's room:
I'm not sure which is more horrifying - the flammable foam on the ceiling or the picture on the wall. :?
Steven Stone
Contributor to The Absolute Sound, EnjoytheMusic.com, Vintage Guitar Magazine, and other fine publications
You'll have to ask REG about the foam placement.
I think the picture was painted by his father.
Any thoughts on the power conditioning, cabling and component vibration
control?
No thoughts worth printing....
Steven Stone
Contributor to The Absolute Sound, EnjoytheMusic.com, Vintage Guitar Magazine, and other fine publications
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