Random Noise 30

Mike Silverton

[July 2011.]

Mysteries of varying density

In earlier columns I covered strange tweaks that work. I also mentioned — often! — that the reasons for their effectiveness lie beyond my ken.

Prominent among the inexplicables, the ever enigmatic Acoustic Revive RR-77 Schumann Resonance Generator sits atop a book tower in a corner of the listening room doing its thing. The test of its potency couldn’t be simpler. Turn it off and the soundfield loses width, depth and dimensionality. A frequent visitor wise in the ways of electrons and such hears what I hear and cannot explain why this should be so. We’re told that the tiny, nigh-weightless RR-77 mimics an aspect of earth’s magnetic field that benefits the space it’s in. I’d call that beyond goofy were it not for the on-off switch….

Acoustic Revive also produces a digital disc demagnetizer and heated negative-ion bath to which I submit my CDs to good, if somewhat less obvious, effect. I’ve mounted four of AR’s beautiful room-tuning panels on the wall behind my audio components, also to good effect. Nowhere near being audio voodoo, I mention them here primarily because I love looking at them. They make our living room feel like a Zen sanctuary. I restrict these comments to AR products I cherish.

Two NuForce Magic Cubes midway on my speaker cables are perhaps less of a mystery — in other words, only vaguely voodoo. These links may help to explain their designer, Bob Smith’s, innovation. You won’t find a schematic or detailed description of innards. The Cubes are sealed off from inquisitive eyes:

http://www.nuforce.com/hi/products/magic-cube/magic-cube-theory.php

The sun also arouses

Yet another aid to better sound is in fact a rediscovery. When my audio system was less well resolved — we’re going back 15 years plus — a test and burn-in CD co-produced by Doug Sax’s Sheffield Lab and Roger Skoff’s XLO Electric contains a demagnetizing sweep (track 6) and low-frequency demagnetizing fade (track 7) that then seemed effective tho perhaps not so much as to keep it in use over the years. I set the disc on a stack of similar ilk and forgot about it. I have my shitty memory to thank for that. In going through the stack recently, I remembered the tracks and tried them again.

The sweep and fade now impress me as especially effective. An exquisitely resolving audio system reveals differences heretofore less evident. I’m getting a cleaner, more polished sound. The sweep and fade dispel some manner of accumulation, be it magnetic or otherwise.

I asked two NuForce colleagues with a solid foundation in electrical theory if they’re aware of these enhancements. They are. Moreover they agree that they’re effective but can only guess at how they work. Me, I’m with Alfred E. Newman. My smile and I just sit here enjoying the ride. The CD is available, now in gold only, at $30. Money well spent. See ReferenceRecordings.com.