Experience with HFTs

I have been using 20 HFT’s in my system since around June 2021. 20 of these buggers. That makes level 4.  I am enthralled! My sound stage has expanded and moved forward and in some instances is like I have headphones on. Sometimes I need to make sure my surround is not on. My bass is better. More separation of vocal And instruments. This all in 2 channel and no subs. EVERYTHING I throw at my system drops my jaw, regardless of source.

20 is about where I'm at. Two speaker kits plus however many room. This is after years of experimenting with various panels and tube traps. HFT are far more effective than those old school treatments. Plan on adding some diffusers some day but for now I am like you, swimming in it. 

The recommended placement program works great, but within those recommendations they are surprisingly responsive to positioning. Mine were put up in pairs and sometimes one at a time, with each one being moved slightly an inch or three and always noticed a change sometimes surprisingly big. One on the back of my old Talon Khorus speakers went from great to awful by moving a mere 2"!   

The champeen of HFT is David Pritchard, who used to be a quite active poster. He had dozens in his listening room, all over his mom's place, and even in his car!

sokogear-

So you guys don’t use acoustic panels or bass traps and use the HFTs instead of them?

Don't know about others but with me it's not either/or it's both. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367This room is far from perfect, there's lots more to do yet it sounds fabulous and the imaging is to die for and HFTs definitely contribute to that.

What are ECT and PHT - are they alternatives to HFTs? It’s quite an alphabet soup.

ECT, HFT and PHT are the same technology tuned or optimized to different uses. ECT work best on electronic components. Although if you study my system you will see them used on my tone arm. PHT are tiny versions tuned for cartridges and look at the close up you can see a Green Dream and a Black Beauty both used on the Koetsu, with another Green Dream on the arm tube.  

These things each have their own character and used together are awesome. A couple guys who took my advice on that had the same experience. They are so small and light they barely even register on VTF.

I was skeptical about the Townshend pods but was blown away at the improvement in the sound. Is this along the same magnitude or more subtle?

Tough question. Hard enough to compare two amps or two speakers let alone two completely different things like HFT and Pods. Especially since they are both sensitive and subject to the details of how they are used. HFT for example, I can hear a difference in moving just one as little as 1". One HFT on the back of my speaker in one location made the sound worse, moved 2" higher and it made it a lot better!  

The difference with Pods is not as great, but even with Pods they are springs and so you might hear much better results with 3 vs 4 (or the other way around) and might well hear a different sort of improvement with different components. Under my turntable for example there was little change in dynamics or extension but there was a nice improvement in tone with much more accurate timbre. But under my amp there was a huge improvement in dynamics and extension, the midrange and top end came alive, it was like a whole new amp! 

All that said, and assuming you are a guy like me willing to do what it takes to get the most out of each thing, they are all pretty close. Pods and Podiums will by and large probably make a bigger improvement than an equal amount spent on the Synergistic stuff. But it would probably be close enough that it would come down to the room or personal preference.  

These things are all worth your hard earned dough. I take a long term approach and so what I did was once I figured out SR was worth it then I watched and waited for deals like buy HFT get a fuse. Buy 2 HFT get one PHT. highend-electronics.com does this, maybe it's all SR dealers, I don't know. This is a small niche the people in it tend to be dedicated audiophiles and when I find good ones I support them. So call Betty or Alfred, see what they can do for you.

That's all? Are you sure you don't want to know why aftermarket power cords are necessary? Why doesn't the manufacturer just ship the amp with the best tubes? Why do we have to move speakers again anyway???!😂

Sorry, but that was a lot of questions. Nowhere near a record, but a lot. I've got a full review around here somewhere, and I heard of HFT from David Pritchard on here a couple years ago. There's pages and pages of positive feedback. 

In terms of design, construction, and how they work (the effect they produce) HFT are very similar to ECT and PHT. They all attach wherever with little dabs of Blue-Tack. They come with more than enough. Some guys like Pritchard use hot glue and say that is better. Don't know. Haven't tried.

They all work as advertised which is to say, awesome. Check out my system https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 I use all this stuff, and a lot more. I know what costs what, and how big and what kind of benefit, all from actual experience.  

About the only thing I don't know is how much if any different these would be if introduced in a different order. In other words, and this is just something you will hear a lot but not something I believe, maybe these improvements are easy to hear because my system is so doggone highly resolving. I seriously doubt it. I am quite happy to say you can do these things in any order and the incremental improvement each time will still be there. In other words they are additive and independent. No one of them counters or works against the other, nor is any of the others required to gain the benefit of another. You can do them in any order. 

I say this because the same one who turned me onto HFT advised doing them in a certain order. Of course I did not. Deliberately. To test the idea. Didn't take long. You can do this stuff in any order.

You can even take one HFT Speaker Kit and split it between 2 speakers. That's what I did. To test it out. Then added the second kit.  

If you are starting from zero and looking to get the most bang for your limited audio dollar: 

1. Schumann generators. The last 2 I just got were $9.91 incl shipping. These brought me to ten. The last 2 seem to me just as big a deal as the first 2 were. These are so cheap I would get at least 4.

2. Nobsound springs. Not as good as Townshend but so cheap and so much better than anything else they are a must-have. They are not plug and play. It is a fair amount of work experimenting to get the right amount of springs. But the improvement for $30 is hard to beat.

3. Now we get into a whole slew of things that are all quite good but vary a lot in terms of cost. HFT, ECT and PHT are all extremely effective and well worth the cost. Ditto Blue and Orange Fuse. Ditto Cable Elevators. Ditto Townshend Pods and Podiums. But some of this stuff starts to depend more on the particulars of your situation. Like Cable Elevators really are effective but might not work in your room. Or springs are good but if you have the budget Pods are way better. 

If you have a room that is difficult to treat I think you will be shocked how much better it can be with several sets of HFT room and speaker kits. Not exactly cheap but highly effective.