No not worth $3500. Even Acoustic Revive is not inexpensive. However the improvement wrought is IMO worth every penny. Now if we can find a Shuman Resonater with same or similar coverage it is well worth the try. Besides the sonic benefits I feel much more relaxed in the listening room with device on. Using two oriented North and south. No going back for me ever.
charles
Before anybody decides that they think they know what Schumann resonators, or the “Schumann wave“ is about, they should research “Schumann resonator“ and its effects on audio. So take five minutes and please do that now before you read the rest of this. When I saw this demonstrated at an LA Audio club meeting a couple of months ago, it definitely made a difference, and a big difference in what I heard, I think I liked the difference, even though they couldn’t do a very quick A/B difference with the unit. It took maybe 30 seconds for the thing to ramp up when you turn it on, to have the effect. The guy who designed and built that $3500 (!!!) unit, from Synergistic Research, tried to tell what the Schumann wave did and got all sorts of blowback from people who said, no no no, that’s not what happens. What he should have said is, “just listen and see if you hear a difference.“. As an inventor I can tell you this, it doesn’t matter why thing works, all that matters is that it does work, how well it works, and how it can help you, and if it is worth the money they are asking for it. I can tell you for a fact that their Schumann resonator, and the one I just got (see below), in fact do work and it does have an effect. As to why it works, I don’t think anybody really knows, nor does that really matter.
After chunking maybe $50,000 into Audio gear over my lifetime that other people have recommended and I’ve read good reviews on, but really didn’t do anything for me at home, I decided not to invest too much at first to check this out.
I ordered a small, cheap and surely not as good Schumann resonator from Amazon.com for a little over $70, And prime at that; Amazon prime because if I didn’t like and I could return it – this one is not going back. And that surprised the hell out of me; I was skeptical, I saw this kind of thing as Audio voodoo, but it sure seems to work.
Power supply: this unit did not come with a power supply so I already planned to use something I already had. A big part of what people report on what gives better results in a Schumann resonator is a better power supply, and I have pretty much the perfect power supply, a 12V DC BatCap. Google “BatCap” and you will see what I mean. It is like a car battery that discharges as fast as a capacitor and holds plenty of juice. They are actually designed to assist car batteries in car audio competitions – this means they will deliver all the juice you need instantly on these systems that create 135 dB at a car audio competition. A regular Battery typically discharges relatively slowly; a BatCap discharges fast as lightning faster and will keep up with any transient you may have. My smaller BatCap is essentially an 800 farad (yes, farad) capacitor. I currently am using a made in England tripath amplifier (A little bantam amplifier from Temple Audio in England) powered by the larger BatCap, and this Schumann resonator is powered by the smaller BatCap. Charging after a few days use maybe takes half an hour.
Results of cheap little Schumann resonator plus BatCap: first my girlfriend and I listened to music without the Schumann resonator on. She has a less analytical but more direct sense of how the music sounds, Which is very useful in showing me a different way of listening and how my cable and Audio really are. When I turned it on (and she is a really tough sell in hearing a difference in things), she noticed right away that there was more good stuff to the sound; she couldn’t describe it analytically but it just felt like there was more. And I totally agreed, but I also heard that it sounded a bit louder, more details, deeper, and it reached me more directly. Pretty much what the point of this Audio stuff is all about.
But what we heard when I turned it off was even more telling. The soundstage suddenly became flatter, and the general effect of the music was less in all ways. Turning the power on to it, listening for a bit, and then turning the power off again gave the same results over and over. I positioned it behind us and above in the listening area at first, but when I moved it between the speakers the effect was more pronounced. Next step is to get a small shelf behind the speakers and get the big shelf out of there.
So what does this really mean? There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies. We think we know what is going on in Audio, but I don’t think we really do until we just start playing with stuff. And there is a lot of stuff that I haven’t talked about that I do that is completely different than you can buy in the Audio world.
So what is the next step? What is really important here? Obviously the sound is most important. But with the Schumann resonator and all things in Audio, I think the power supply is the most important thing. It did not come with its own power supply, thus the cheaper price, but I bet it would not sound nearly as good with a wall wart. So do I try a better Schumann resonator? Do I want even more audio bliss and Nirvana in my brain? Hmmmmmm...
Gary