Resonator

[jostber]

These Resonators look like quite cool stuff:

http://www.needledoctor.com/Finite-Elemente-Resonator-1000Hz-Resonance-Dissipator

Anyone tried these, and are they meant to just be placed on top of the audio unit?

They have an advanced soundbase platform as well:

http://www.finite-elemente.de/en/accessories/soundbase

[tannoy man]

They seem very keen to be Millionairs:rolleyes:

[Reid Malenfant]

:whistle:

If you want to try damping something I'd suggest bituminous pads (covered so you don't mark your precious equipment). I can't recall the last speaker enclosure I saw damped by ceramic balls & aluminium :lol:

Back to planet earth :cool:

[jostber]

A review from Stereoplay is here:

http://www.finite-elemente.de/en/infos/testreviews/resonator/stereo/09_2007

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Jostein, trust me ;) Go to your nearest builders merchants & purchase some lead sheet used for waterproofing, remove the lid of whatever component is vibrating & glue the lead sheet to it internally. Make sure you leave all ventilation holes clear ;)

For the price of one of those magic things you'll sort out your whole system & then some & you won't get people laughing at you because it'll actually work ;)

[bobbasrah]

Priceless....
"The critical resonance range between 200 Hz and 1000 Hz becomes effectively damped"
That is some claim to make, but prettier than the McIntosh brick, and has the backing of scientific research..... Amazing considering the wavelengths in question...
Prettier than lead Mark, and at a truly cost-effective price point. Vibrating balls? Yep, ceramic or otherwise.....
Next year, transparent aluminium?....

[YNWaN]

Actually, it's quite an interesting design. Unfortunately, the technical value of it is somewhat watered down by the technical psycho-babble associated with it - generation of vacuums etc.

Looking at it the design seems to be a form of parasitic damping - essentially a kind of tuning fork. The star structure inside it is designed to actively resonate at a frequency, as it resonates (vibrates) it dissipates energy. The problem with such devices is ensuring that as it vibrates it does not pass that vibration back into the component. It is very difficult to make a one way filter for vibration.

A similar technique, but a different method of application, is used by Naim to damp their speaker cabinets. At the point of greatest excitation, a lead weight is glued to the cabinet but with a foam block between the cabinet and the lead. The foam block acts as a spring, tuned to the resonant frequency of the cabinet wall and the mass of the lead weight.
________________________

This bit from the review made me laugh:


Opening Pandora's Box has often been compared to opening a can of worms

you might as well say, counting your chickens before they hatch has often been compared to not looking before you leap :)

[bobbasrah]

Agreed on the pscho-babble (sorry Alan Parsons), which seems all too common these days. Perhaps we are now so PC we tolerate this bullshit lest we offend.
I read your assessment/analysis, but still fail to understand how the "critical resonance range between 200 Hz and 1000 Hz becomes effectively damped" is going to be accomplished with a 21st century tuning fork.... ie - How can oscillation over such a bandwidth be accomplished?
Pandora's worm-box perhaps?

[hifi_dave]

I have tried many 'resonators' over the years, some costing many hundreds of Pounds. At best, they have changed the sound slightly but nothing we could say was an improvement - just different.

Definitely a suck it and see thing in your own system.

[YNWaN]

I read your assessment/analysis, but still fail to understand how the "critical resonance range between 200 Hz and 1000 Hz becomes effectively damped" is going to be accomplished with a 21st century tuning fork.... ie - How can oscillation over such a bandwidth be accomplished?
Pandora's worm-box perhaps?

Oh, you are right, it can't - at least not to an equal extent. I guess it could be configured so that each one of the internal petals resonates at a different frequency (not difficult to do as such), that would increase it's operating range significantly.

A similar technique (but different application) to this is used in their equipment stands. There is a lot of bollocks spouted/promoted in the hi-fi accessories market and a lot of performance claims are associated with pseudo-science (at best). However, the finite-elemente designs (whilst expensive) are genuinely based on real and accepted engineering principles. They also do an equipment rack that has an element that actively resonates at the inverse of the natural resonant frequency of the rack, to suppress it (I don't know how they control the amplitude or time domain issues though).
_________________________

I've looked at the Soundbase too. Again, it's not rubbish but I'm less convinced - it's very hard to convert energy from one form to another - vibration to light, or heat for example - I don't think much in the way of actual energy conversion is taking place. The foamed aluminium stuff is an interesting development though. To be honest, I think most of the advantage is from being a low energy storage support, i.e. stiff and low mass. Arthur used to sell Aerolam as a shelf material and I use Fibrelam myself (a laminate of Nomex honeycomb with glass-fibre skins).