Brought a new Tweak home today to try out.

True enough, but I fairly confident that I'm enough of a skeptic to avoid the majority of placebo effects. I wasn't really expecting to be impressed having heard them previously in the store. I figured I could always take them back. I do think that the change is fairly subtle (i.e. my wife can't tell a difference but she didn't notice a difference when I significantly upgraded my reciever).

My second impression of the Sort Kones is that they are as impressive as advertised. I was told to use a duet vocal CD to demo and specifically listen to the seperation of the vocals. I have the CD The Priests that is perfect because it's an excellent recording and great music, but I've had the thought that it was difficult to distinctly hear the individual voices due to the tight harmony. I heard things tonight that I hadn't heard before.

My plan is to leave the kones in for a few days to get use to them and then see how much I miss them once removed. I seem to realize negatives easier than positives.

I think I'm sold on the Sort Kones. I just spent some time listening to four specific songs with the Sort Kones, then without and now again with. It's difficult to describe the difference other than to say that something big is missing when I take them out. I would compare the difference to what I heard in the $2,000 Nordost speaker cables I listened to compared to the $7 ones I took in to represent the hardware store. I think my $180 plus tax for the Sort Kones is a much better investment.

I guess the best description is would be to quote two things I've heard different saleman at the store say.

(1) You can hear farther into the music.

(2) The seperation in the voices is much more clear and distinct.

It give the effect of smoothing the sound make it another step closer to the wonderful vinyl sound and also makes the music sound like it's coming from somewhere beyond the wall.

I don't really know much of the audio jargon yet, so that's the best I can do.

I got the AC kones. They are the 2nd step up and the only ones I've seen in the store.

I asked an electrical engineer friend of mine about the ground controls and he actually thought the concept was pretty sound other than some of their specifics were absolute BS. His biggest concern was that the product didn't look big enough to peform the function they were intended to do.

He commented that based on the advertisements alone he'd probably choose them over the Sort Kones. I'm pretty certain that he'll approve of the Sort Kones once he gets a chance to listen.

I have mine big end down, I wouldn't have guessed it would be possible to do it any other way.

I've only had two people come over to see if they could hear a difference and one heard no difference and his girlfriend thought she could hear some differences, but wasn't convinced that the kones always made for a positive difference. I think it was simply a recognition of the music itself and she wasn't really hearing anything related to the equipment. I couldn't hear much difference that day either. Sitting on the opposite end of the couch is almost like turning headphones around for changing what you hear.

I have one other friend that I expect to be able to hear a difference if anyone can.

A couple of inches I would guess.

I wonder if the concept of placement has as much to do with the improvement as the actual physical design does. Don't the Pulsar points just replace the exisiting equipment feet?

Mrtennis - According to Nordost, "Sort" is Danish for black and the concept is that the kones remove low level white noice from the audio signal. Ironically, that's almost the excact feeling I get during the times that I am convinced that I'm hearing a difference. I'll admit to not hearing a distinct difference every time I do an A/B comparison.

When I first got my Focal speakers I clearly noted that much of the improvement was simply the "blackness" of the sound when there isn't supposed to be sound. It was like the speakers stopped moving exactly when they were supposed to instead of continuing to cycle. The Sort Kones simply enhance this difference.

I find it difficult to attribute it all to placebo when my impression of the difference is exactly what they advertise.