Cost effective Schumann Resonator

Hi all, please don't take this the wrong way. I don't want to rain on anybody's parade or anything and I certainly don't doubt what anybody hears with it, but just be aware that it's my understanding that the Schumann Resonator is actually designed to, in effect, pump out a sizable enough 'sheild', or 'dome', of a form of EMI/RFI into the listening area. It's sort of like fighting 'fire' (the comparatively weaker, but random, sources of EMI/RFI from the in-wall wiring, the components and any other electrical source of EMI/RFI in the immediate area, as well as that which is passing through the air) with 'fire' (a much stronger and steady-state dose of EMI/RFI in a localized area). This will act to swamp the more weakly interacting and individualized effects and, to a degree, the area will then act as one larger, single orientation of it. This may actually be all well and good as far as your equipment goes, but for people it may not exactly be the most healthy thing to do. EMI/RFI pollution in daily life is not especially a good thing and there are known health hazards associated with it. You may have heard that it is not really recommended, for example, to live too close to high-tension towers because of that. The thing to keep in mind with it here is that the majority of people appear to live their whole lives without any real indication of being affected by it. But, often allergy sufferers and, particularly, people with auto-immune diseases can feel its effects, but in general some people are perhaps less sensitive to it than others. And it may be that you are not susceptible to it at all. All I'm saying is to just pay some long-term attention to your time spent with the Resonator. If you begin to notice any unexplained headaches, fatigue or allergy-like symptoms that, over time, you can correlate to your listening sessions with the Resonator on, then you may be one of the folks that can be affected by the device. Some people who use one say that they do not like to leave the unit on all the time, only when they listen, and say that otherwise leaving it on 24/7 tends to make them feel slightly ill after too much time spent in the same room with it. Should it prove to be a problem for you, I know there are other equally effective and inexpensive methods to fight EMI/RFI in your system that can be explored. I've even seen some that are so effective at ridding the immediate area of EMI/RFI that they can actually offer health benefits for people sensitive to its effects - just the opposite from using the Resonator. Hope this helps. Regards, John

RW: Thank you very much for the kind words. I think there is at least one alternative that has appeared only in the last month or so from Alan Maher designs (AMd or Alan P Maher on his facebook store). I don't yet know all that much about how it works except that it shunts environmental EMI/RFI to ground. A wallwart sized plug-in for an open outlet and you start with one plugged into each of the 4 corners of your home. Called the "Quad Cell Antenna" - cost: $40 ea. Haven't tried it yet, but I probably will early next year. User comments have also included the reduction in the amount of ringing in the ears...as well as reduction of pressure in the head or sinuses immediately upon plug in, for some. Alan, apart from designing a very wide (sometimes bewilderingly so) array of noise reduction products for AV use, is also an allergy sufferer and has learned for himself how to design all his products with that angle in mind. It should be pointed out though that Alan has done a lot more examination into the health ramifications with EMI/RFI than I and says (as is on his site in posts as recently as yesterday) that EMI/RFI poisoning is linked to increased risks of cancer (which he goes a bit into). He also specifically deals with the Schumann Resonator, as do some of the users who've used both it and the QC Antenna. The QC Antenna has an AV range of about every 10 feet or so in the area near the system and a range of about every 250-300 sq ft for health benefits. But, that should at least be a start for anyone looking to boost AV performance - and reduce health risks from environmental EMI/RFI....except for Nonoise, for whom it's apparently too late... ;)