I use the Synergistic Research ECTs in all of my systems. They are quite effective and allow you to tune your system to how you want it to sound. Each system will vary in how many and where the ECTs are placed. But that is part of the fun and satisfaction of experimenting with them. You will quickly learn where they sound best. They are easy to place and remove. Their effect is immediate and so there is no break in time. I give them my highest recommendation. David Pritchard
+1 First ECT went on my turntables motor pod. Not anything like where SR recommends. Yet I heard improved detail and dynamics, a bit less grain, better image focus with more air and greater depth. Not by a huge amount but impressive for just one. ECT are supposed to be Electronic, but I have two on my tone arm because they work even a little better there than on the motor. It might seem the best location would be inside components and even directly on things like transformers or caps, but I did not find that to be the case. Some I left inside because its such a hassle moving, opening up, reconnecting, hardly worth it when by then I know its going to work either way. Which is the main point. As Pritchard says you do learn where they sound best. But the differences in most cases are pretty small, or at least the difference between where is small compared to the difference between using or not.
They are so easy to place and remove, and the changes are so immediate and easy to hear, that I’ve tried them all over the place. The only two places I couldn’t hear a difference was on my iPod, and on the HDMI input on my projector. Well, in fairness SR recommends locating them on the output not the input.
Which leads me to the most amazing place ECT works. We often watch movies with my MacBook Pro connected to the system. When I placed one ECT close to the HDMI and audio outs on the Pro my wife immediately- and I mean immediately like before I could sit back down- said WHAT DID YOU DO???!?!? The already good picture took on an almost 3D appearance it was so clear and detailed!
Yes, just one ECT did this.
Oh yeah, highly recommended.
Ditto PHT, and all the different versions of HFT. All are additive, there seems to be no wrong order to do them in, and together they will transform your system, especially in terms of helping your speakers and room to disappear.
I thank you very, very much for your kindness and detailed opinion about my doubts. This is why this forum is a good experience for audiophiles, and serious audiophiles. People like you make this be true. I'm happy with your help.
You mean the opinions are distorced? OK, I know how to filter and probably I will use my own ears. Somewhat it's good to have opinions from all of you. Thank you very much;
I'd like to be known for everyone that all themes which envolves Audio specially in "hi-end world" is covered of passion analisys and so on..... But I don't believe that certain themes have to be put on the trash or something like this, before a studied analysis. So, let the things like they are. Each one will find his own decision. No barbar exchange required.
Everywhere. Like my post above says there are only 2 places they haven’t made a nice improvement. All the other places they work about the same. This includes being stuck somewhere on the outside vs being stuck on a cap or board inside. It seemed logical that directly on a board or cap or transformer would be better than just stuck on somewhere outside. But not that I could tell. Sticking them inside seems a lot of extra work for no extra benefit. You can try it, you never know.
There are three on my tube integrated, one between the rectifier tube and the power supply transformer can be seen in images #2 and #3 here https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 The other two are between the output transformers and power tubes. Tried directly on the transformers, this (between transformer and tubes) was slightly better. Tried them inside, huge amount of work to realize it was slightly worse.
Also nice having them on the outside you can move to another component. Like as noted in my post above the improvement watching video off my laptop is pretty obvious. So for movies I pull one off my turntable motor and stick it on the laptop.
In your system it looks pretty obvious to me, five components, five ECT, one each.
I am getting a set of ECTs, GCTs and Mig SX footers sent this week. I already use 32 HFTs...in my system with 10 on the speakers and 22 in the room added to two pair of Hallographs. I use the recommended set-up for the room but had to make a big change in the 2.0s on the speakers. With dual 12" woofers and a rear 12" subwoofer, instead of placing them in the middle of the side panel as recommended, they now reside between the two front woofers on the side panel. Otherwise, pallid thin sound at the middle length of the panel. David Weintraub recommended experimentation and it worked great. Also, do not put more white tack on the bottom ONLY and don't let it run over the sides. Too much white tack results in dulling the HFTs results (vibration).
I intend to use the ECTs on the top of the power amp trannies and on the two VPI turntable motors. I intend to use the GCTs at the amp fuse and IEC grounds. The footers are going under the EAR 890 amp which currently sounds best using it's short rubber feet on a 1 1/4" thick HDF platform (I tried other footers and various Stillpoints as well as granite platform but they all robbed the sound of bass, dynamics and tone-thinned the sound out). The SXs have two positions, hope one is best.
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