Helmhotz resonators for audiophile at almost no cost and without calculus...


The importance to treat the room if you have speakers, even in nearfield listening like me, is imperative ...

Here is my advice: 

Buy some big  empty wine bottles, or drink them before, it is optional....Or use some carafes, the kind that some display at the center of a table....I use plastic  wrapping sheets to tightly seal the aperture of the bottles and the carafes after pouring in them around 10 % of water in their volume space...You must listen and experiment for your taste and room to determine the exact amount of water to boost the frequencies that will benefit….After that  I peirce the plastic sheet with a needle and I insert a  thin straw with only the extremity of the straw at the top...  That its! You know have an Helhmotz resonator... 

You now have one of the more astounding tweak for a room that will transform your listening space in sound heaven ...I use more than 15 of them in my little audio room and trust me that is one of a kind upgrading...

I wrote that for those who want to experiment, the others can stay silent...My best to all...
128x128mahgister

Showing 10 responses by boxer12

I agree, it takes many hours to dial them in. At first it was a bit frustrating, but after I got the basic formula figured out, it was a lot of fun. What a nerd I am. My wife just shakes her head :-) as we go through the local antique marts looking for the right containers. 
I have 10 total. 4 are the 500 ml flasks / 2 are 250ml / 1 is a 125ml pyrex boiling container / The remaining 3 are carafes with wide bases & long necks. I agree that the improvement is astounding. Never expected it.  
The glass 500ml volumetric flasks work great. They are a bit more sensitive than the other containers I've used. Filling them 16% full (with cutting oil) while using a .140 hole an inch & a half in length.  I bought the flasks on amazon at 4 for $32. I believe individually they are around $10. Pretty cheap tweek indeed!
I ordered four 500ml volumetric glass lab flasks yesterday to mess around with. These have very long thin necks & are about 4" at the base. I'll let you know how they work out. 
whitestix, It costs almost nothing to try this. Give it a try if you haven't. While you're at it, put some crushed quartz on your walls as well. That also helps clean things up.
mahgister,
I don't think there is anything wrong with your method, so I hope you didn't take it that way. My only problem with the straw was the hole diameter being to large for the results I was looking for. I have a small metal working machine shop in my basement so all I'm doing is machining caps (or plugs) for the bottles & drilling a .125 hole (1/8") in the solid cap then placing a chamfer on both ends of the hole. The chamfer is about 60 degrees and approx. .100 deep & should help the air move in and out of the bottle a little more efficiently. Total length of the cap is about 1.5" to 2" long. It also appears that the fat bottom long neck bottles work best, as you already discovered. Hope this helps.   
I think I've got the formula worked out for my room now. I'm at 8 of them right now & it's sounding better than ever. Great "tweak". It appears that the straw wasn't working well for me so I'm using a .125 hole (with a large chamfer at both ends) at about an 1 1/2 in length. I'm also using cutting oil (very thin) instead of water.

Geoff & Mahgistar, Thanks for bringing this one to the forefront!  


After reading your room dimensions, I can now see where you can use that many with good effect. My ceiling is only 8' (in a basement). The room itself is not ideal at 15 X15. You are correct, it's been already treated with panels, acoustic disks, etc. At this point I'm just trying to tweak it by eliminating a smidgen of the "bloom" (it's not excessive) to get more detail. I'm making some progress with a smaller opening on the resonator. 
I'm shocked you can put that many in your room. I put 5 in my room & it made the sound very thin. It provides better detail but sucks the life out of it. Yes, I've messed with location, opening size, throat length & the amount of water. I did find 2 spots in the room where it made the best difference, so I'm down to 2 of them with very small openings. I have several pounds of quartz on the walls & am thinking the 2 methods are not playing well together. Not done messing around with this yet though. No doubt it makes a difference, just not sure I like it...