I don't see much on the AudiogoN Forums about the Shakti Hallograph's. This is the BEST, a Five Star world class room treatment device...."it works" is an understatement. It addresses,.. no "solves" the wall behind the speakers reflections and comb filtering distortion and cancellation. A Wonderfull piece of Acoustic Engineering. Simply Excellent and most Highly Recommended. Jim C. Audiophile/ Musician( Electric and Acoustic Guitars and Oboe ).
Elizabeth, I can't seem to understand your position on these halographs, could you be more blunt and expressive? There is no need to candy coat your thoughts!
Personally I have heard them at peoples homes and didn't know what they did for the sound. A lot of members of my Audio group were very impressed. As it was this over the top set up using Black Diamond Racing carbon fiber shelves, just as a start. It didn't appeal to me and I am not an anti snob at all. When I first saw them I thought they were for some kind of religious purpose and was quite surprised to learn that they were supposed to be helping this mind blowingly expensive set up to sound even better.
Yikes! Not terribly surprised to see knee jerk reactions to the Shakti Hallographs and the Tice Clock. You can't judge a book by looking at the cover. Mpingo discs, VPI Bricks, Bybee filters, tiny little metal bowls, Lessloss Blackbody, Ultra Tweeters, SteinMusic Harmonizer, Schumann Frequency Generator, the list goes on and on. The Hallographs are no more just two pieces of wood than the Mpingo disc is just a piece of wood or than the Bybee filter is just a capacitor. Hell, they even bellyached about the original Intelligent Chip - and it only cost 16 bucks! Hmmmm, one wonders if there's ever been a tweak, expensive or not, that did not elicit outrage, angst and suspicion?
The people who were discussing them spoke in reverent terms of happiness with product. I just didn't get it so I never lusted for them and many others. I do like the sandbox platform I put together with a memory foam filler a floating top plate and Edensound Super Fat Bastard custom Brass feet. So don't call me an anti tweaker. Love those heavy weight wooden platforms for my amps as well. I really don't know if it helps but 4 inch thick Maple boards look cool.
"I own three VPI bricks. Got one for free, and two for the single price of $25."
So, if you get them at a low enough price you'll buy just about anything.
"One VPI brick is usefully on top of a BIG old square transformer for the (separate) power supply of my VAC Standard. The other two are in case of intruders... wacking them on the head with one of the VPI bricks WILL cave in their skull, easy."
I play a recording if a Rotweiler barking, put it on repeat.
"Now Geoff You KNOW i can accept most tweaks..."
Right, if they're cheap enough.
Just the Stupidity of the PRICE of the Shakti Hallograph is what irks me."
Of course, because they're not cheap.
"They are charging for the idea. Not to great an idea IMO."
Actually they are charging for the clever way they are constructed/machined and the somewhat expensive materials. What do you think the idea is? Do you think you could knock them off?
"So, as i said, if the gizmo had been a hundred bucks Hell, even $200 i would not be carping, But forget $1,700 it is for morons with way more money than brains."
If you engaged a woodworker to make a pair, how much do you think they would charge?
"I could MAKE the thing for $5 retail wood."
I'm sure you couldn't.
But i never will... it is stupid.
Why stupid? Do you know how it works? The Hallographs are one of the most reviewed devices extant, as far as I can tell all glowing reviews.
" How did they think a small gizmo with parts cost of $35 was worth $4,200 except to born a minute RICH suckers. No poor fool would waste his/her money on it."
I'm pretty sure Bybee doesn't market to po' folks. Does Bryston?
"So was the Tice clock, as i mentioned. Another PT barnum device."
You don't like the idea or the price. Mostly the price I suspect.
"Your chips?... you seem to have stopped selling them."
The original chips weren't mine. Surprising, huh?
"I can go for crystals, and various nearly free crazy stuff, where I pay materials cost to fiddle around. It's fun. No problem. I just hate folks taking these simple ideas, adding a HUGE dose of BS theory and metaphysical crap, then selling it to wealthy fools."
I'm not sure I understand your position with respect to wealthy fools, as I recall your system wasn't exactly a drop in the bucket. And I don't think Shakti or Bybee employ metaphysical explanations, unless you believe quantum physics is metaphysical. Lol. Neither do I unless absolutely necessary. Lol
"(the big word is Quantum, lately..) Why i should care? I don't know. If the idiot rich want to throw away money on garbage, who am I to complain?"
Well, if truth be known there have been quantum mechanical devices in high end audio for a long time, at least 15 years. The CD Laser itself is quantum mechanical, fer crying' out loud. Quantum mechanics was born almost a century ago. It appears to basically all come down to cheapness. Lol
i have a pair and used them until my room did not need them anymore. They absolutely have a strong impact on the soundstage and i think they were worth the investment. like so many things on this forum, people offer strong opinions with no experience with the product.
"Bybee How did they think a small gizmo with parts cost of $35 was worth $4,200 except to born a minute RICH suckers. No poor fool would waste his/her money on it."
I guess that makes the U.S. Navy a bunch of suckers and poor fools for getting Jack Bybee to make our nuclear subs the quietest on the planet! Ever hear of 1/F noise Liz? (thats pronounced one over eff)
BTW..Im a very happy poor fool/sucker audiophile thanks to Jack Bybee.
""Our stand, which is 4 feet in length, is also asymmetrical and does produce some audible improvement in bass clarity. Again, the goal is to push the room's enormously distorting effects further into the background with a far more neutral ambient soundfield. The reflector material in the Hallograph consists of several types of wood that all have different resonant signatures. All the wood lengths are staggered on the three reflectors. Each reflector has a flat surface that gently curves into a round-over section. These interlaced but geometrically different surfaces have a striking effect. The Hallograph's own direct return energy (from the flat portion of the reflector) and its ambient signals (from the curved reflector area) impact the sonic envelope one hears. This ratio of direct to ambient surface tuning, just as is the case in a concert hall, restores a more natural hall acoustic. So, the inherent differences from recording to recording are no longer stamped with the listener's room signature. Instead, the various original venues are heard far more realistically. Behind each reflector is a chamber that modifies the frequency response, amplitude and most importantly, the time signature of the reflector. This creates a complimentary interface between the speaker and the room."
What do you mean when you talk about the time coefficient? "This is also known as the time signature; how long a given material goes on ringing once it is activated by sound waves striking it. In the chambers behind each reflector, we 'treat' the time signature so it has a much shorter ring than the material a room's walls are made of. This treatment also affects the frequency response, which has a direct correlation with the time signature character. Amplitude is manipulated by the choice of wood, diffusion geometry of the design and additional treatment that will be explained in the patent."
Additional treatment? Hmmmmmm......
See the entire 6 moons review of the Hallographs at:
I own a pair. Of course I don't consider myself a "sucker, idiot, or rich ", since I only paid $500 for mine---had I paid full retail, I guess I would have metamorphed into one.
Before I bought them, or were even interested in them, I had a chance to hear a system with them installed. The system owner become intimately familiar with what the adjustments would do within his system. He demonstrated what the changes would do. I heard considerable differences for the better . To date he has one of the finest sounding systems i have heard. He eventually became a writer for Stereophile. His current system has all the tweaks people bemoan, for good or bad, his system far beyond any system I have heard. His system is the basis for where I try to get my current system to.
I found my pair off Audiogon for $500. If anyone is in the Bay Area, I'd be willing to demo them for you to see if you can see what a difference they can make.
08-30-12: G_m_c i have a pair and used them until my room did not need them anymore. They absolutely have a strong impact on the soundstage and i think they were worth the investment. like so many things on this forum, people offer strong opinions with no experience with the product.
Agree with this post. I don't use them but have heard them demonstrated at audio shows and they are absolutely audible. Worth the money? That's up to the buyer.
Unless Elizabeth's remarks are based on using Shaktis in her system they can be easily ignored.
I have had Shaktis in my system for quite a while and would not be without them. They are an essential room treatment. Even Ted Denney at Synergistic Research has recognized their sonic value and he has pretty good ears. So if anyone is going up against the Shaktis, or other tweaks, without having listened to them in their system, they are going up against some very professional ears -- besides the ears of us normal folks. IMO.
Making a statement that A or B did not work in my system is one thing. Making a statement that A or B is an unworthy product -- without having tried them -- has no value. IMO.
.... the sound of one pair of Hallograph is salubrious, exquisite, stunning, glorious and dazzling and the sound of another pair is superlative, smashing, magnificent, superb and impeccable...but it can be improved dramatically, when a Vibraplane is below them...so airy...this nailed "nothing" focussed in the soundstage must be heard to believe.
"Clearly I am in a tiny minority here so i apologize to all the rich fools, OOPS! i mean wealth investors of these marvelous products. Great to read glowing reviews of them. Glad the economy is good for some folks. For me, on my pittance i get as a handout for having worked for 30 years, i cannot dream of affording this shit."
Hey, Eliz, just curious, have you given any consideration to going back to work? Or maybe selling off the $5k Bryston preamp.
Has anyone compared the Hallograph to those little resonanting bowls? Or what about the dots you stick on the walls? Does it matter if your ear canal hasn't been irrigated in the past decade?
If you're going to run with the big dog, first admit you're just a dog.
Originally it was designed as a Chips Bag Holder, Coke on floor ... then it became an Object for High End Marketing ( like a piece of cheap wood, painted and sold as Amp Stand ...)
paulsax, i have played quite a bit with them. you move them around and hear pretty radical changes to the soundstage. i have had lay people sit with closed eyes hear the changes. these are room treatments, and they served me well until i got my room in order.
I used a pair a friend loaned me for about 10 days. Tried lots of different placements. What a bunch of shit. I wouldn't give $8.50 for them. My friend agrees, but unfortunately he's the one that paid for them. He felt guilty even listing them let alone selling them to someone, but did what he had to do.
I dont know about the Shakis,,but I think the ,,stuff that Geof and Coconut Audio sell is pure dogcrap.I have to admit that I would take someones money in a heartbeat,if they sent me good money for a powerchord with modeling clay slapped on one end ,or a little jar full of pebbles.
I am demoing these and must say they work with very high positive results. The price for them is where it should be with all the different woods and skill it takes to build these.
Eliz - maybe you can rob Geoff K. since he must have bags of $ given his quality products and genius marketing. Short of a high risk target like Fort Knox, GK seems like a no-brainer to me. Just kidding, of course. Far be it from me to encourage a career in crime.
I would hope that those smearing this product at the very least has seen and heard them. I can understand the skepticism if you are ignorant of the scientific and engineering technology behind them but to call them $20 worth of wood is silly.
I have heard (experienced) the Shakti at CES (the alternate show at the Hilton) and at others homes. They do make a very audible difference that even Elizabeth could hear. Is it better or worse, that is up to the individual.
Many of us have fallen into the trap that we believe that different is better. It's like saying one artist is better than the other. Subjective.
Would I buy them? No. Would I ever say that they are a scam because I don't understand the technology? That's ignorant.
Do we know what profit margin is for the Shaakti Co? Bet it's less than a majority of the cable companies. A balance sheet would be a good start before accusing an otherwise reputable company of being a high priced scam preying on the uninformed wealthy. The net is turning into my drunken uncle that has lost control of the filter between brain and mouth.
Don't like them? Don't understand them? Don't buy them! It's irresponsible to trash something that you maybe have seen a picture of and certainly never experienced first hand. Always the same cast of narrow minded characters.
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