Wait just a second. How can you so easily dismiss this item? I know from personal experience it works wonders if you only believe. I dropped just 3 of these pebbles in my gas tank and my mileage seemed to increase! Just 1 in your toilet seems to reduce mildew. And, when I rub my arthritc left elbow with this thing for 1 hour, I can no longer feel my elbow.
You skeptics are missing out on the product of the decade.
This manufacturer is making a fortune when the DIY recipes are readily available on the internet. Everyone knows if you steal some pebbles from your neighbor's Koi pond, and polish them with squirrel spit intermittently over a period of two weeks, you can achieve a similar level of improvement as using the Brilliant Pebbles. Proper positioning of my old travel alarm clock yielded at least 1/2 the benefit of the Clever Little Clock, at no cost to me. Hey Mattybumpkin, I hear there will soon be a formula posted for audio paint that uses a mixture of Testers model paint and orange utility marking paint. I can't wait to try it out on my McCormack amp! DIY is the answer.
I believe that Fruity Pebbles are actually somewhat higher in fiber leading to increased flatulance intermittantly raising your listening position for improved sonic perception.
No "trolling" at all! When I saw these in the "auctions" section, and by the same company that offered the "clock" tweak from a past thread, my ribs tightend from the last laugh-a-thon session. Some entertaining responses, though.
The isolation devices(Nimbus, Promethean and Nirvana Base) are all fantastic. I have never tried any of his other tweaks, but am a big fan of his isolation platforms and strongly recommend them.
If you want a sincere answer, yes they have a modest benefit. It is not of the magnitude of raising your cables off the floor or of using better power cords, but I will neither sell the pair I have nor buy anymore. Of course, like most tweaks, speakers, or cables I have only a plausible explanation for why they benefit the sound.
Dopogue, like so many tweaks, resonances seem to be the explanation. The same goes for speakers and suspending wires; doesn't it.
I really don't know what is going on nor is our scientific explanation of much use. Trust your ears has always been my guiding principle. I bought these second hand having not heard a demonstration. The added and thus stayed. The same goes for the Intellegent Chip and in some applications the Shun Mook Mpingo pucks. I just cannot bring myself to try the Clever Little Clock, however, unless I hear a demonstration first.
Tgb - just wanted to mention, esp. as you apparently have not found the pebbles to be particularly effective in your setup, that all cooton and rubber seals should be removed from the bottles prior to placing them in the room/system; These materials are strictly for shipping.
In addition, as I don't recollect actually selling the Bottles (directly) to you (I could be mistaken on that point and please correct me if I'm wrong), you may not have the complete instructions/suggestions for use that I provide to customers. If this is the case, you might be interested to know that an especially effective location for one of the large or medium size bottles is on top of the Transport or Player directly over the spindle of the transport.
O.K. guys, here's the explanation to why they work:
The pebbles have both a mass and resonance structure that will affect some components sound, believe it or not. Are they "brilliant"...uh, NO!! not in my opinion.
Here's a much more effective solution that tweakers should consider doing instead of spending such a rediculous amount of money on some pretty looking pebbles in a jar. (Please note: my suggestion does not look as colorful though).
- If you place varying amounts of weight on any component, whether it be brass weights, baggies of sand, lead or even a bag of marbles or steelies you will hear a slight change in the soundstucture (provided your system is capable of conveying such mass add changes). I strongly suggest that tweakers should just buy 20 lbs of sand at their local home depot and 100 small zip lock baggies for a grand total of $12. It won't look as good, but you'll have enough variations in your "custom fill able resonance changing devices" to enhance your system (along with enough sand and zip lock bags left over for another 20 audiophile friends too!
BTW: I found that my CD transport likes 8 lbs of sand, my pre-amp none, my D/A converter power supply 5 lbs and my cat 14 lbs. (The first true are actually true, the damn cat still wants the "good smelling" real litter though. ARGH! Perhaps my cat is a "High End Litterphile"?
Geoffkait, you are right I did not buy directly from you. I have removed the rubber rings. What is the relative effectiveness of having them in the corners as they were demonstrated at CES relative to on the transport?
Tbg - Hi, the Large size are intended primarily for room corners and on top of tube traps and output transformers of tube amps.
The next smaller size (what I call the "Mini") is intended for top of transport/player, top of turntable armboard, top of DAC, and other somewhat unpredictable locations.
Some customers have had very (I mean very) good results w/ the Large size on top of transport/player, even tho Mini is recommended.
All sizes of bottles seem to be pretty room and system dependent in terms of degree of effectiveness. At CES last year we had "Mini" on SACD player and Large bottles in all four corners.
If you recently removed the rubber seals you might have noticed how much more open the sound became w/o the rubber seals. Also, it is unpredictable which two corners respond best to the bottles, sometimes the two behind speakers, in other rooms the two behind the listener. In many cases results in corners are big. Big big.
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