Sistrum or Neuance or...?

I own a Sistrum rack and am very satisfied; in fact I have never been more impressed with an accessory, as they are beautiful to look at, completely neutral, and natural sounding.

Having gone through torture while experimenting with countless racks, and isolation device configurations over the past two years; which included names like: Grandprix, Polycrystal, Aurio pros, Still Points, Walker audio. Etc, etc. - not to mention endless
A-B-ing with all different types of combinations - I realized that this was no longer fun anymore, as I was becoming insatiable – and had begun to lose my compass north.

After talking with the - I believe - highly ethical and knowledgeable guys at Star Sound, I ordered a 36" rack, and have never looked back. Again-nice looking, large sound stage- opened up the sound dramatically, better dynamics, tighter bass, while remaining completely neutral and natural sounding; I could also turn my volume up 15-20% + higher on most CDs', as the background was so much quieter. Last but not least: I sleep better now not having to worry about tweeks that "might of been"..

Very happy with their racks, I decided to try their Sonora cable, having experimented extensively with Shunyata (Anaconda), and Virtual Dynamics (Nite series) power cords and interconnects - all with much of the same above frustration..Star Sound prevailed once more, while re-enforcing the above positive results I had with the rack - a no-brainer at about 1/2 of the price.

There appears to be definite synergy achieved when using their equipment together.

Sorry to go on about Star Sound products, but I feel that they don't always get the credit they deserve on Audigon. Considering that they are aurguably one of the highest technology based audio manufacturers out there - that also happen to sound good as well.

Lastly: Their new Caravelle Speakers –of course I had to try a pair.. and all the great things that Warren expressed have been basically my experience too, except that I haven’t received their Sistrum proprietary stands yet (a critical component).., and have instead been using my cheap lead-filled Target stands for now, so a little premature to comment. Though I will say that even without proper brake-in, and with the wrong stands, they were far superior to my Verity Fidelios – which are about twice the price.

These guys, and their technology at Star Sound - in my opinion “are for real”.

Associated equipment: Meitner front end and Jadis integrated amp.

Saffy, wait until you get those Caravelles on top of their dedicated stands. Fasten your seatbelt. You have heard nuttin yet. The upper end will blossom. Everything will improve. What you have now? Man, do have something to look forward to. Please share with us, your tympanic experiences after you get your stands. peace, warren

Gosh, these threads take a life of their own. Engineers, Physcist and Muscians! I guess it's left up to our ears to decide. I don't know the science or really care, but I have used Sistrum and still do. I notice more detail without brightness but more important more musicality. That's what I listen for. Energy is going to find the Earth to ground itself anyway, the Sistrum seems to increase the efficiency of this transfer which increases the accuracy of the read and lowers the vibration on the boards. Now don't take this as science because I prefer the PychoAcoustical approach as in reference to the 73' Hamm AES studies. I simply like what Sistrum does for my system. My only regret is that I don't have an infinite amount of $$$ to do it all.

I'm not sure that Star Sound needs to release every bit of its intellectual property to respond to routine debates by the same small subset of people who, I believe, even if presented a slice of engineering truth, wouldn't purchase the product because either they aren't in the market for a new audio rack, don't like the people who work at the company, or have a different opinion on what the truth should be.

Personally, I'm getting tired of this debate because its an endless do-loop. Before I purchased my SP-7 I read all the negative comments on the products because I often find that's where the real drawbacks can be found. What I read were critiques on marketing and questions about the design that were the result of lacking information. Almost 100% of these posters were people who never owned the Star Sound product they reviewed. Their argument made simply: Star Sound hasn't disclosed sufficient engineering data to support the fact that the product works and, as a result, it sounds like mumbo jumbo, so its not worth purchasing.

As I said above, I don't believe Star Sound has to post anything. Microsoft certainly doesn't post information on how its code works...and you bought it anyway. More to the audiophile point, the same debate occurs within upsampling vs oversampling conversation, and with DVD-A vs SACD vs Redbook. If you don't like what you hear, don't buy the product.

As a side point, those engineers or analysts who are asking so many questions about the products haven't called Star Sound, despite repeated offers to answer additional questions. These people should really, really understand that a detailed conversation needs to be had - not a white paper. This is because the nature of the conversation requires substantial agreement on terminology, discussion of formulas, and why those decision making tools are used. I'm not aware of too many companies that will make an executive technical designer available in response to fairly anonymous comments on a web forum. I'd pose the question to those who have been asked to call Star Sound: Why haven't you called?

However, I read many posts from owners of the products who said the products work. So, who should I listen to: the engineers who don't have the data to back their positions (because Star Sound hasn't given them the data) or the owners of the products? To me, the fact that Star Sound doesn't provide detailed information about how their products work, really doesn't impact my decision. This is partially because I'm sure whoever designs their equipment is better at it than I am, and partially because I accept that I don't need to see 100% of data to make a decision.

Based on the information that is public, and a 30-day moneyback guarantee, I had all I needed to try the Sistrum SP-7. I didn't return it - the product works.

Psychiccritter.. you in all of your one liner wisdom and your soup sandwich approach to hi-fi will never get it.. you, yourself and not I, have predetermined that...Tom