Audio Imagers. Does this work??

[wooly]

I came across this site for audio imagers. A ring you place around this outside of your speaker. Is this for real? Does this actually work? Here is the link.

http://www.audio-ideas.com/tweaks.html

 

[stratman]

Sounds like a Turkey Of The Year nominee.

 

[Alex2507]

They claim to have sold 5000 of these things without a single complaint. I can't imagine 5000 people all being satisfied with the same anything. That turkey of the year remark is brutally funny.

 

[MDS]

Speaker designers already take into account reflections from the tweeter. How could one oval shaped piece of rubber be universally applicable to all speaker designs?

At least it doesn't have an exorbitant price like most 'tweaks'.

 

[f0am]

They claim to have sold 5000 of these things without a single complaint. I can't imagine 5000 people all being satisfied with the same anything. That turkey of the year remark is brutally funny.

I could fit about 200,000 of those things in blister packs into a shipping container and send it to India. Then claim 200,000 were sold no complaints.
I bet these are actually rubber gaskets for a/c ducts on cars. 5000 were sold to the concept car department of Diamler Chrystler, no complaints.
Heheheh
Some one link the clock!!

 

[Oguard]

Well before you parumph!

Totem manufactures a device made from aluminum that does the same sort of thing. It takes that small percentage of sound that follows laminar flow around the cabinet and breaks it up preventing the second or even third order harmonic from creating a, albeit, subtle distortion.

When these aluminum devices were used on a speaker there was a definite measurement difference that showed up on the osiloscope. Is it audible? Possibly. Tannoy and others have proven the value of hypertweeters which are ostensibly above the range of human hearing but do sound like they make things 'better'.

Compared to other devices that cost 100's of dollars I think $19.95 for enough to do a typical home theatre set up is pretty benign. If it does sound better to your ear then it is worth the money; if not you did not spend much.

The idea is sound from a physics and wave propagation stand point.

Gobble gobble all you want but it is not often that a device that tweaks for so little may actually work.

Cheers.

 

[stratman]

I'm putting on a helmet........the rock throwing will start in 1 ,2,3,.......

 

[MDS]

The idea is sound from a physics and wave propagation stand point.

...and speaker designers take all of that into account when they design their drivers and cabinets. Now if such a simple 'waveguide' (that's what it would be) would make a substantial difference, wouldn't they include it in the original design?

 

[skizzerflake]

Got to give them credit for not being too greedy. At $9.99 per pair they're pretty cheap. They would probably work better if they charged as much as some $200/foot interconnects or $1000 speaker wires. Cognitive dissonance helps with things like this...tell yourself that you would not have paid so much if it didn't work, but at 10 bucks, you don't have much dissonance.

 

[Tomorrow]

These things undoubtedly affect sound a teeny bit more audibly than jars of marbles in the corners of your room. About the same price, too. I think Totem ought to include four jars with every pair of speakers, by the way.

In another hobby I once had, turbulator strips were used to delaminate airflow over wings. Maybe those could be used on speakers. They were lots cheaper...like 25 cents.

And where can I get some cable risers? LOL.

(Cognitive Dissonance?! That's a great name for speakers. "Get your pair of 5-way Cognitive Dissonance Speakers here at 1/3 price!" )

 

[highfihoney]

I'm putting on a helmet........the rock throwing will start in 1 ,2,3,.......

Here borrow my helmut,this is what i wear when listening for differences in tweaks

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

And for those of you interested in the upgraded "super model" helmut here it is for a limited time only!

http://www.stopabductions.com/

 

[mtrycrafts]

...and speaker designers take all of that into account when they design their drivers and cabinets. Now if such a simple 'waveguide' (that's what it would be) would make a substantial difference, wouldn't they include it in the original design?

Actually, M&K THX speakers have something similar on their tweeters, not oval but horizontal ones above and below the cones:

http://www.mksound.com/s150thx.htm

So, it is part of their design.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Totem manufactures a device made from aluminum that does the same sort of thing. It takes that small percentage of sound that follows laminar flow around the cabinet and breaks it up preventing the second or even third order harmonic from creating a, albeit, subtle distortion.

When these aluminum devices were used on a speaker there was a definite measurement difference that showed up on the osiloscope. Is it audible? Possibly. Tannoy and others have proven the value of hypertweeters which are ostensibly above the range of human hearing but do sound like they make things 'better'.

Compared to other devices that cost 100's of dollars I think $19.95 for enough to do a typical home theatre set up is pretty benign. If it does sound better to your ear then it is worth the money; if not you did not spend much.

The idea is sound from a physics and wave propagation stand point.

Gobble gobble all you want but it is not often that a device that tweaks for so little may actually work.

Cheers.

Totem is not the only maker
M&K in their THX line has something similar, not oval or round, but horizontal strips for reduced vertical dispersion compared to the horizontal pattern. That is the THX desired patterns of high frequency dispersion:

http://www.mksound.com/s150thx.htm

 

[mtrycrafts]

the rock throwing will start in 1 ,2,3,.......

No, you have it backwards...3, ...2, ...1

 

[j_garcia]

You can make those yourself for about $0.50 with some foam from home depot. This type of mod has been around for years. As mentioned, M&K I believe is responsible for the proliferation of it as a "tweak" (that's where these guys probably got the idea), as they have used it in some of their speakers for years.