All the answers you need can be found here -- and yes there are benefits to more https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/synergistic-research-hft-s?highlight=HFT But you could make your own :-) |
audiosens: I use the Synergistic Research HFT's in my listening rooms. This is after trying to go the more traditional way of improving room acoustics with GIK acoustic products. For me the advantages of the HFT approach is: easier to install and to dial in the optimum location of the devices, they are not visually distracting, and if you move you can easily take them with you. Since they come with a 30 day trial, I think many audiophile rooms would benefit with an audition. and if you do not like them the cost to return them is under ten dollars. It is a fun and educational weekend experiment. David Pritchard |
How to make your own, try a search like this https://forum.audiogon.com/search/index?utf8=✓&query=DIY+hft |
DIY? Yeah, uh, no. Not even. And you know something is true when it comes from someone who really, really wants it to be otherwise. Because these things work so well, and I really, really, REALLY wanted to be able to make a bunch and save myself a few grand. Really. And its not like I haven't done stuff like this before. I've made my own active shielding, which on the speaker cables and interconnects works about as well as the SR, which I know because I have the SR Active Shielding too. Unfortunately with HFT's its a lot harder than the copy cats make it out to be. Having access to x-ray it is easy enough to see what's going on with these things without taking one apart. None of the DIY attempts comes even close to Ted Denny's design. All they do is mimic the shape. What they leave out is what's inside, what probably (near as I can figure) generates dither. So if you want what they do you just have to buy them. And lucky you, highend-electronics just started a buy one get one free special on HFTs. I know because I was just ordering some more and they told me about it. They seem to be one of the bigger SR dealers around. Not affiliated, just a guy who believes too many places today get by on getting by and make great customer service rare, so when I encounter it I like to spread the word. And Betty has provided me with some of the best. I would start with the regular HFT. You will find even just a single one front and center produces a noticeable effect. My suggestion, experiment with placement. Move it up or down a few inches. They work great and consistently anywhere near where they recommend. But if you listen carefully you will probably notice you are able to tune things like the sparkle on cymbals or the fullness of strings with very small adjustments. You can also try them on your speakers. If you do you may be surprised. One placed near a tweeter moved the whole sound stage back a rather dramatic amount! It was awesome! But unfortunately also lost a lot of presence resulting in a too recessed sounding presentation. Turns out this was NOT one of the recommended placements, and now I can understand why! Lol! Synergistic uses the same technology in their PHT for phono and ECT for electronics. Also in their footers. Haven't tried the footers but the PHT and ECT are all extremely effective giving consistently good results everywhere I have tried them. And I have tried them all over my stereo, laptop and video projector. Again, experiment. Only way to know. |
@millercarbon absolutely -- DIY is a fools errand but our OP seems constrained in the pocket book 😏 I just posted some advice on how to further improve the impact of your HFTs, ECTs and so on by optimizing the power to your Atmosphere’s and FEQs ... give it a try |
Everyone's on a budget. Given enough time and effort most of us eventually realize the biggest bang for the buck is a holistic approach that includes tweaks like HFTs and cones and interconnects and power cords right up there with the more traditionally recognized components like amps and speakers. The thing of it is, there are now so many different products capable of producing so much improvement so cost-effectively that the greatest challenge today is to develop the listening skills and evaluation experience to be able to make effective choices. I mean, look: BDR Cones, SR HFT and Blue Quantum Fuse are all incredible values for the improvement in SQ they deliver. But the only way of proving that, and the only way of knowing which is best for your system in its present state is to, as folkfreak said, give it a try. Just be sure to follow Audiophile Rule Number One: Never buy anything you haven't first auditioned, unless it can be returned no questions asked. |
btw oops my bad, I got the special above wrong. Its buy 2 get 1 free. The most cost effective then would probably be something like buy one HFT pack of 10, and one Speaker Kit, and get one HFT Wide Angle Kit free. The speaker kits are one kit or 6 per speaker, but I know from experimenting you can get really good results with half that, or 3 per speaker. Actually these things are so effective even just one or two is amazing and really makes the speakers disappear. Guess I will find out next week what a full kit treatment will do! |
I just wanted to post on this old thread the wonderful results I've obtained placing one HFT in the center of each of the four 7.5ft tall x3.5 ft wide glass windows that align side-by-side and make up much of the left wall of my listening room. Completely eliminated the glare. I use them in conjunction with standard placement of 10 other HFTs in the room and HFT 2.0's on my speakers. I also have traditional GIK and ASC absorption and diffusion in the room, however the glare remained until I added the HFT's to the windows. Tamed the glass resonance perfectly while enhancing the overall imaging and soundstage IMO. |
Ok, I'm one of the biggest skeptics when it comes to a lot of tweaks. When I was at RMAF last year and visited the Synergistic Research room, they did a real time demonstration of the effect of the HFTs. The room was treated with them and when they removed just a few of them and played the same track the sound stage collapsed and the definition of the instruments was more diffused. Yes they are expensive for a handful of "audio buttons" but they made a noticeable positive improvement in my system. The best advise I can give you is try them out for yourself if you can get a guaranteed return policy. I would recommend 10 to 15 or they have specials from time to time. |
@mijostyn Wait a few days. The glare will be back. I realize your comment suggests this may all be expectation bias or unfounded perception but I don't think that's the case here. For the past 4 months I had HFTs on only 2 of the windows which I felt were at 1st reflection locations. I never could hear a change and just assumed they were incapable of reducing the glare. On a whim I added two additional HFTs to the remaining 2 windows and bam, a noticeable difference that has endured a couple of days so far. I expected 4 months ago for a positive change and got nothing. I expected nothing this time and got something. |
#millercarbon wrote this further up in this tweet: "Having access to x-ray it is easy enough to see what's going on with these things without taking one apart. None of the DIY attempts comes even close to Ted Denny's design. All they do is mimic the shape. What they leave out is what's inside, what probably (near as I can figure) generates dither." @millercarbon are you able to share the x-ray files? - You are welcome to send me a PM with the file(s). I am still following the DIY-approach with quite some success, but I am not done yet 😎 Can anyone share some more light to what is inside the Synergistic Research HFT´s? As they are using a grid to the opening I suppose it must be something like granules (crystal granules, ??). I would be happy to know more about the filling. |
@hififuchs millercarbon was banned from Audiogon years ago. Not sure if he has ever come back under a different ID. |
@pinwa Millercarbon wasn't banned. He left on his own accord. He started his own website under his name and last I heard was having a blast. @hififuchs I doubt he would have this info from 5 years back but he might. You can contact him on his site. Jerry |
