What is the Silliest Accessory You Have Ever Seen.

The latest fuses ,from stereo times best of 2020 awards
$2200 for -1 fuse ,no matter how good it is who would spend on thst ,Not me .

It all sounds very good, @theaudiotweak , but why use proper acoustic design and things we know work well, and somewhat universally and will substantially reduce or diffuse reflections when we can use an acoustic toy that looks cool with a far out story?    Again, I have no doubt it does "something" but if someone understands acoustics and how sound interacts with objects, even fancy ones, you can quickly get a feel for what it can do and over what frequencies. That makes the claims rather ludicrous. For the price, you could implement actual acoustics that will do something necessarily substantial.

theaudiotweak,

Those patents, at least in their implementation, do not seem to have anything to do with Hallograph.

It is very clear which way whatever wave would be transmitted in those patents, but Hallograph is, for the lack of better word, remote and waves from the wall material would have to find the coresponding area of the Hallograph they would match for proposed effect. If, maybe even better to say when, they hit the non-ideal (for their material) area of the Hallograph, the outcome could, in theory, be detrimental rather than desired.

If different wall materials interact with different Hallograph materials in some ideal situation proposed (that is why there are different types of wood, apparently), it would be necessary to aim waves accurately. How it is done is still mystery. Once we figure out how waves get to Hallograph in the first place, we can expand to what Hallograph does then.

And that is not even touching "activated" and my other questions about how long it stays that way and if it needs reactivation.

Speaking of patents, what is your guess why patent is pending for 17 years?

glupson and all..

Look here US Patent 8,735,702 and here US patent 9858903
These methods reduce and or remove a polarity of shear mostly thru  dissipation, some with geometry.. The reduction or removal of a polarity of shear lessens "interfering energy" a term my friend Debbie coined. Interference left unchecked can return to the source.. to then again become a part of the signal or the music. For instance vibrating strings can become polluted with energy that is reflected back from the floor thru the endpin..(an adjustable monopole stand) this reflected energy partially becomes 1 with the next note. Debbie can now analyze both mine and her devices when used with a cello and soon for violin.

I have been working with others in the audio field for years and we are now trying to unpack all of this "Interfering Energy" Because of my more recent work Debbie has come forward to decipher her own work and what we the group have been doing for many years. There is a whole lot to unpack with all of these observations and collected  information. The hardest thing is to be able to describe to others the why and how and to record and measure the spectrums so we can make further improvements over time. Tom

The Hallograph is a design method to dissipate energy more so than damp energy. 
 


 

I know an informed opinion is really offensive to some people who are unable to make one. I apologize for having a fairly strong background in acoustics. I guess I should be apologizing for my audio privilege and work harder to provide a safe space for disadvantaged audiophiles.

I will go back and play with my 200mpg carburettor, who cares if it violates the laws of thermodynamics, and when I am bored of it, I will go back to playing with the $200 black box that will reduce my electricity usage 30%, again, who cares if it violates the laws of thermodynamics.

If you will note above, I did suggest that I could possible measure its presence (with/without), something I suspect the people who "designed" it have not done. However, for $1500, you could actually buy some real acoustics that make a significant measurable and audible change that truly could make a dramatic improvement.

These are the right questions to ask.... Judgement without trials or by the book are not enlightened process....

"Like any boundary intersection the Holographs will react differently to drywall, plaster, glass,wood,book cases,record jackets. They all have a varied shear velocity and shape or contour that will react differently to the varied shape and shear velocites of the Holographs."

Wouldn’t it be better to make them from one wood/material depending on the wall surface one is placing them next to?

Even if four different woods are used, how does it go if a person has a plaster wall with a painting hanging on it? Or two paintings, one covered with glass? It may end up in any number of combinations. How to assure that whatever shear wave from a certain material will hit the right area of the Hallograph? How does that work?

Do, let’s say, GIK room treatments increase or decrease the perceived benefits of Hallographs?

What scientific methods could be used to verify this performance? Where does one even start with that?

By the way, Shakti website mentions "patent pending" which is about what reviews from 2003 mentioned, too. What happened with that?

Between these two main things this thread suggest to me:

1-The rethorical often non sensical marketing discourse associated with costly audiophile products, which may or may not be effective to some degree, which only a listening experiments can determine,

2-The sarcasm created around a product that someone has NEVER use in his own setting,but nevertheless condemn,

between these two elements, i myself hesitate to choose which should be quantified as being the highest on the scale of stupidity...




I will ask for help M. Carlo Cipola, an italian economist, that has written the best book ever about stupidity...
(You can read it free on the internet )
A very brief summary coming from wikipedia:

«These are Cipolla’s five fundamental laws of stupidity:

1. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.»

Then with the help of my clairvoyant economist friend, i will suggest to all to read attentively many times point number three...


i will myself said only that: we cannot judge a product only by the marketing discourse around it, or from his seemingly "exagerated" price, we must try it to be sure...

Concluding to the uselessness of a product in spite of our own ignorance of the product on the basis of our lecture of his marketing text and price is unfair...Extrapolating this to ALL other "strange" audiophile products is more than unfair...


I am sorry, but i dont like crowd unanimity toward a victim of choice, being it an individual, or a trade mark product...Except for recognized murderers or recognized pile of trash product....

I concur with the OP that the price of some product are ridiculous or seems so to me also and the explanation around the product non sensical in many case...

Anyway, i never buy them, in some case tough i replicated or inspired myself with them with astonishing success....

The question then of the real value of a product is ANOTHER whole other thing than the publicity explanation around it; confusing the 2 is misleading to say the least...Acoustic in particular is very complex subject...I know it by my own experiments in my own room...

Trying to be wise myself i will not judge without trying...Or i will say: i dont trust this product by my "hunch" BUT i dont know it really ....This will be wise....Bashing all products indicriminately together without knowing them in a thread is not my politic in an audio forum...

By the way i tried myself at peanuts cost many acoustical devices of my own, and i am almost sure that this too costly product called Hallograph can gives results... Is it worth the price? It is another question, the same amount of money does not have the same value for 2 people....

Judging too swiftly and unwisely can produce someone else losses, this company losses for example, but mocking a product without knowing it ourself by experience can be OUR lost about something important in acoustical embeddings controls that we will miss to learn about by the force of our own prejudices......


All seemingly "silliest" audio products are not all of them scams....

My best....

No nays from me. I do have an understanding of how they work though  different than the 3 Argent Room Lenses I still use.
I would love to have a set or 2 of the Hallographs. Tom

So many naysayers on this thread....question is how many of them have actually heard what the Shakti Hallograph’s can do and have had them in their system? My bet...none of them..:0(

I dont have any problem with folk who have actual experience with this product and have formed a subsequent negative opinion, but to draw conclusions simply by looking at the product on the web...and then come on a forum to denigrate it....not cool~

Like any boundary intersection the Holographs will react differently to drywall, plaster, glass,wood,book cases,record jackets. They all have a varied shear velocity and shape or contour that will react differently to the varied shape and shear velocites of the Holographs.  Tom

If the Holographs are made of 4 different types of wood then they will have 4 different shear velocities.
The twisted bodies have multiple angles from which they will both receive and relaunch compessive and shear wave energy to and from the hard angles and into the air of the room. Tom

The Shun Mook record clamp.. Not the silliest in that some folks like clamping records. $5000.

From that 6moons article...

What do you mean when you talk about the time coefficient?
"This is also known as the time signature; how long a given material goes on ringing once it is activated by sound waves striking it. In the chambers behind each reflector, we 'treat' the time signature so it has a much shorter ring than the material a room's walls are made of. This treatment also affects the frequency response, which has a direct correlation with the time signature character. Amplitude is manipulated by the choice of wood, diffusion geometry of the design and additional treatment that will be explained in the patent."

Priceless.

Still no word about how these Hallographs know what material the walls are made of. And the meaning of word "coefficient" is at least somewhat confusing.

@mijostyn, obviously you can fool some of the people all of the time.

On the Shaktis, if you think the claims are silly, check out the review, https://6moons.com/audioreviews/shakti/hallograph.html  where the reviewer repeatedly quotes respected physicist Feynman, while not even realizing what Feynman was generally talking about (he was talking about people like the reviewer).

Of course, someone without a basic understanding of how sound waves behave could believe many things, once the seed is planted. However, if you understand how sound waves behave you know that many of the claims are over the top, though I expect with my measurement equipment, there is a slight chance I could detect their presence, though I highly doubt I could hear them in a blind test though perhaps, in the one instance in that review where put directly behind the listening chair, I would expect you could pick up reflections given how very close they air.

But then again, look at that listening space in the 6moons review. That's not the listening space of a professional reviewer. I would object to calling that listening space to be that of an audiophile, no matter the equipment. It would be hard to tell the difference between anything in that room.

@mijostyn   You were asked if you have heard the Shakti's? I know that you have not. I will ask you a question, is it ok to post an opinion on the value and the SQ of any item that you have NOT heard and yet feel like denigrating? If so, then please do keep going with these posts...it will hopefully show all of us where you are coming from.
And to answer your question..yes, I did buy them- and I very much feel that they are a MAJOR part of my system. 

I was hoping to see more ridiculous products and less opining. Here is another one,  https://walkeraudio.com/product/talisman-magnetic-optimizer/  Sad coming from this company. The turntable was the original tour de force of turntables not that I would ever buy one. There are aspects of it's design I personally do not like but, seeing this for sale on it's web site was very disappointing . 

The question is, are there that many rich people that are that gullible? We'll see how long Shakti Innovations lasts. They certainly do not have a long list of successful products.  

tomic601,
"Roxy, glad to help you better understand Hwy. Like SR, i offer a $ back guarantee on my posts. Send me the bill." 

Those sentences (?) are additional proof that most things that you say don't make sense.  

Not the "silliest" as it performs a needed function but the ClearAudio drill bit for enlarging the lp spindle holes.

$50 for a drill bit? Common'

Have you heard these in your system?


"mijostyn OP
1+ syntax :-))))
daveyf, did you actually buy those things? They are a complete and total rip off. They do not do a darn thing to improve the sound of a modern Hi Fi and probably make it worse rattling around on the floor. Stop trying to justify this s--t! I was hoping this was not a site for mysticism but I may have been wrong."

1+ syntax :-))))
daveyf, did you actually buy those things? They are a complete and total rip off. They do not do a darn thing to improve the sound of a modern Hi Fi and probably make it worse rattling around on the floor. Stop trying to justify this s--t! I was hoping this was not a site for mysticism but I may have been wrong.

All Linn LP12 „upgrades“

@daveyf 

Fair enough. I haven't heard them, so my skepticism is simply that. And building on your argument, how can someone charge more than a luxury sports car for a cube of metal that just amplifies music?

"The Hallograph contours the frequency, amplitude and time coefficients of the first reflections you hear..."

What does "contours the frequency" actually mean? Or contouring amplitude and time coefficients, for that matter. How do coefficients get contoured? Aren’t they just numbers?

Whatever it means, how does it contour the frequency when there are many many frequencies involved, as well as many many different room shapes and wall materials? How does it know what to do and to what extent?

"* Activated panels generate a musically complimentary reflective energy..."

What are "activated panels"? How are they activated and how long do they stay active? Is there a re-activation needed after a certain period? Where on the picture are those panels anyway?

These answers should be easy to obtain and verify as that would go with company’s goals...

"Our long-term goal is to continue to provide low cost, easy to use and scientifically verifiable performance enhancement products for the discriminating hobbyist."

Of course, if $1700 is low-cost is on each one of us to decide for her/himself.

About Us - Shakti Innovations (shakti-innovations.com)

EDIT: To make it fair, the cost on Shakti website is only $1500 so we may need to take that into account when discussing "why so expensive".

Hallograph Soundfield Optimizer - Shakti Innovations (shakti-innovations.com)

@simao One could ask the same question about what justifies the cost on numerous pieces of gear in this hobby!
If you look at how the Shakti’s are made and what goes into the various aspects of the product to get it to market, I can see where they are coming from with the price, certainly at least as much as a ton of other gear that carries pricing that at first look seems "over the top" ( and most times certainly is). The Shakti’s work well as acoustic treatment...more than can be said for a lot of other gear that is also pricey, and offers less for the $$.

"But then what justifies the $1,700 cost? For, in essence, a few pieces of curly wood on a stand?"

Someone's willingness to buy it?

@daveyf point taken. But then what justifies the $1,700 cost? For, in essence, a few pieces of curly wood on a stand?

I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I recently bought a Schumann frequency generator, albeit one of the cheap models.  
I’m always willing to be wrong, and hey, I bought it, but it does seem to me to be one of the more scientifically dubious tweaks.

But for less than fifty bucks, I have a nice little wood box with a red light!  And heck, maybe it does something...

Superglue bowling balls to the top of your speakers. Fingerholes down and forward facing of course. 

Roxy, glad to help you better understand Hwy. Like SR, i offer a $ back guarantee on my posts. Send me the bill.

glubson, it's the additional therapy costs afterward that get's ya. 

Everything works just fine...until someone actually listens to it.

Therefore:
The silliest accessory is us, expecting perfection, or something akin to it.

"Got to admit the worst is the GeoffK phone call. At least it was only $60."

For $60 you get to chat with geoffkait? Not as expensive as some 1-900 numbers.

I own and have always been highly impressed by the Shakti’s! One of the best additions I have made to the acoustic treatments in my room. Why the OP has to ’assume’ that these do not work is interesting, perhaps because looking at them they do not look that impressive ( although once placed even that is debatable). BUT since he more than likely has NOT heard what they can do --it gets back to the old aspect about those that ’ass of u and me’..
There are a number of other mods that are questionable ( and yes, I have heard these!) , some of which have been mentioned already, but in the case of the Shakti’s...they are a bad example.

tomic601,
In comparison to your posts, oldhvymec's seem to make sense. 

What's worse, cheap stuff from Machina Dynamica or expensive stuff from SR. Usually the only thing more ridiculous than the product is the marketing claim. But audiophile pet pebbles takes the cake. So many of these products are just the result of someone with a questionable understanding of electricity and physics convincing people with even less understanding that they developed a perpetual motion machine.

ran the surface grinder a bit, nice old fashioned analog Brown & Sharpe, top secret ferrite base material, collected enough dust to built a couple of PHT gizmo, binder is Shugite and epoxy. The green one has some resin drippings from the Christmas tree ( fake aluminum tree so that step was arduous, the neighbors pet cat helped, ultimately ). The red version has ground red pepper added. I am waiting to go Bluefin tuna fishing to make the blue model. I have access to a million volts for the Quantum tunneling effect but since i work for a quantum computing company I just rubbed my business card along the edges..
The red is hot sounding and the green greatly interests the neighbors Labrador. Both have a profound effect on my Lyra. Your results may vary
we are taking deposits on the blue, they may require refrigeration 

I also appreciate all the tongue in cheek comments. It makes me happy to know so many of you feel the same way I do.

Millercarbon. sometimes you really p--- me off. This was not at all a comment on people who might buy these things. It is a comment on the people who make them and unfortunately sell them. My intent is to keep people from wasting their money on garbage like this.
Lewm, you are close. I could make them in this country for $25 in poplar
Labor, finish and shop time $200. $225 x 3 = $675. This would be the legitimate price if they worked not $1600. So, it is a rip off on all fronts and I told Upscale Audio exactly that. 
I do not see these things in any of the videos of Mikey's system. I would not think any better if he had them.
There are heavy psychological biases in audiophilia. It is just the nature of the thing. You always have to filter this when you make changes and evaluate new gear. Those of us with a scientific education have a responsibility to point things out and attempt to extinguish those who would take advantage of this to make money. In this case the whole thing was made up for just that purpose. I hate it when the pharmaceutical industry dose it and I feel no different here. hat kind of money would always be better spent on equipment, room treatment or flowers for the wife. Talking about the wife I just got sucked into buying new carpet for the media room so the price of my new speakers just went up 5 grand.

Children!

Everyone's a comedian. I just wish some of the jokes were funny...

jdanes---funny !!!

Green latex paint? Or can you use oil? Day glow? Yeah Day Glow put on with clockwise strokes with micro detail sable brush.

With some bit of seriousness over the years I have looked at some of the more far fetched looking "improvements" and come close...If I could I would build an out building and acoustically treat it.

Who’s to say if some of these things really do or don’t work? They all share the quest to dampen unwanted vibrations.

I'm pickin' up good vibrations
She's giving me the excitations (oom bop bop)
I'm pickin' up good vibrations (good vibrations, oom bop bop)
She's giving me the excitations (excitations, oom bop bop)

wsrrsw--Nice.  And you know the meaning of "denigrate", whereas MC seems not to know the meaning of the word "demean."   
But in terms of the specific accessory here, I'm told that listening to music with this in the room will be overly fatiguing unless you paint the edges green.

With sincere apologies to OP for going off topic.

@millercarbon From Wikipedia, Snowflake is a 2010s derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, or are overly-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.

Snowflake is especially used by hard learning politically right people to denigrate liberal people .

Ironically Albert Einstein would today be called a snowflake by those disagreeing with his liberal politics.

Got to admit the worst is the GeoffK phone call. At least it was only $60.

Some guy makes a parabolic-style reflector from thin laths of wood. It sits behind the speakers. It works much like cupping your ears. Not bad until you hear the price. $30,000+.