Matt The Funk Firm and Houdini the latest offering from Funk.

[matodono1]

Hello All,

At Marco's request (advisement) I am on here to reintroduce myself to the forum.

I was a regular on the Yahoo Spendor users group for some years and have been into audio since my early teens.

For years I was a close friend to Amar Biswas (before he went rogue) and Glenn Croft of the then Eminent Audio.

After an accident I was encouraged to learn something new (as it was no longer possible to pursue my career as an electronics engineer).
So I retrained as a web and graphic designer and produced websites for Eminent Audio, Classique Sounds, Icon Audio, The Funk Firm and later Croft Acoustics.
Also I formed a company adapting cars for other wheelchair users working under a franchise with a supplier of adaptive driving aids Techmobility based in Colchester.

A few years ago a serious illness meant that I had to give up all of my business interests as I was hospitalised for the best part of a year.

For the last two years I have been heavily involved in a disability related charity Flying Scholarships for Disabled People and last year was awarded a scholarship to attain a light aircraft pilots license (LAPL). For me a lifelong dream to learn to fly was accomplished.

Recently I have been working again with my long time friend Arthur Khoubesserian on a very exciting new project which I recently introduced to Marco and which I see has already been announced exclusively here on A of S.

Full disclosure! I am a cable guy (don't shoot!) For years I have been developing and manufacturing my own range of interconnect cables, mains leads, digital and speaker cables.
Which are currently branded Pink Triangle (although that might change), so far I sell via personal contacts and word of mouth. Discussions are IP with Marco who may be kind enough to review some time in the future.

Mainly I am here to promote and discuss Funk's new offering and the latest revelation from the mad scientist himself Arthur Khoubesserian the "Houdini" which is truly magic and the cause of great excitement on our part as it truly delivers great sound.

Some more about the Funk Houdini in the magazine ad which I have produced earlier today. Also visit http://www.thefunkfirm.co.uk for latest news and product offerings. We are currently very busy with everything that a new product launch entails.

Also please join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189164577798708 for all latest news and updates.

Houdini_Ad.jpg

Over to you for any comments or questions.

Best Matt.

[Marco]

Hi Matt

Welcome to AoS!

Nice to see you back mate, or rather here now representing Funk and focussing on your exciting new project! As you know, I'm using the Houdini to great effect, and am absolutely delighted with it

Anyway, hope you enjoy it here and get stuck into discussions, especially about Funk... In that respect, could you ask Arthur to access his 'FunkArt' account and come and join the party! And also one of you populate your (now opened) dedicated trade room, see here: https://theartofsound.net/forum/foru...hp?132-FunkArt

You can open the room by posting a new thread there about anything you want

Marco.

[matodono1]

Thanks Marco,

I will try by best with Arthur but as you can appreciate he is a man with a lot on his shoulders.

Thanks so much with all your help and support and I am happy you are enjoying your Houdini and what it does.

Thanks also for the link I will post something very soon.

bye for now, Matt.

[Marco]

No worries, mate. Look forward to it!

Marco.

[RobbieGong]

Hello All,

At Marco's request (advisement) I am on here to reintroduce myself to the forum.

I was a regular on the Yahoo Spendor users group for some years and have been into audio since my early teens.

For years I was a close friend to Amar Biswas (before he went rogue) and Glenn Croft of the then Eminent Audio.

After an accident I was encouraged to learn something new (as it was no longer possible to pursue my career as an electronics engineer).
So I retrained as a web and graphic designer and produced websites for Eminent Audio, Classique Sounds, Icon Audio, The Funk Firm and later Croft Acoustics.
Also I formed a company adapting cars for other wheelchair users working under a franchise with a supplier of adaptive driving aids Techmobility based in Colchester.

A few years ago a serious illness meant that I had to give up all of my business interests as I was hospitalised for the best part of a year.

For the last two years I have been heavily involved in a disability related charity Flying Scholarships for Disabled People and last year was awarded a scholarship to attain a light aircraft pilots license (LAPL). For me a lifelong dream to learn to fly was accomplished.

Recently I have been working again with my long time friend Arthur Khoubesserian on a very exciting new project which I recently introduced to Marco and which I see has already been announced exclusively here on A of S.

Full disclosure! I am a cable guy (don't shoot!) For years I have been developing and manufacturing my own range of interconnect cables, mains leads, digital and speaker cables.
Which are currently branded Pink Triangle (although that might change), so far I sell via personal contacts and word of mouth. Discussions are IP with Marco who may be kind enough to review some time in the future.

Mainly I am here to promote and discuss Funk's new offering and the latest revelation from the mad scientist himself Arthur Khoubesserian the "Houdini" which is truly magic and the cause of great excitement on our part as it truly delivers great sound.

Some more about the Funk Houdini in the magazine ad which I have produced earlier today. Also visit http://www.thefunkfirm.co.uk for latest news and product offerings. We are currently very busy with everything that a new product launch entails.

Also please join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189164577798708 for all latest news and updates.

Houdini_Ad.jpg

Over to you for any comments or questions.

Best Matt.

Thanks for the interesting introduction and information Matt

[matodono1]

The pleasure is mine. Thank you.

[willbewill]

Interesting, a new take on the cartridge isolator/decoupler/enabler etc.

"Suspension and a "torsion tether" - isolation and anti-twisting?

Two things to bear in mind with these devices is that they also change arm geometry between bearing and stylus and also effective mass - both can, potentially, alter the sound.

There was an interesting interview with Pierre Lurné on TNT Audio a number of years ago that discusses the cartridge/headshell interface.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/intervis/lurne_arms_e.html

[matodono1]

Interesting, a new take on the cartridge isolator/decoupler/enabler etc.

"Suspension and a "torsion tether" - isolation and anti-twisting?

Two things to bear in mind with these devices is that they also change arm geometry between bearing and stylus and also effective mass - both can, potentially, alter the sound.

There was an interesting interview with Pierre Lurné on TNT Audio a number of years ago that discusses the cartridge/headshell interface.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/intervis/lurne_arms_e.html

Thank you for your input.


To be honest you have lost me!

I will refer your comments to the Mad Scientist AK himself who will reply in due course.

But may I just say... all complex variables aside. The music just sounds so right! Sublime in fact so whatever is happening it must be good!

Kind regards, Matt.

[matodono1]

Interesting, a new take on the cartridge isolator/decoupler/enabler etc.

"Suspension and a "torsion tether" - isolation and anti-twisting?

Two things to bear in mind with these devices is that they also change arm geometry between bearing and stylus and also effective mass - both can, potentially, alter the sound.

There was an interesting interview with Pierre Lurné on TNT Audio a number of years ago that discusses the cartridge/headshell interface.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/intervis/lurne_arms_e.html

Hi Will,

Arthur has compiled a response to your question but may be having trouble logging on.

I have it but want you to get a reply from the man himself in person.

So please come back and check periodically, your question has not been forgotten.

Thanks. Matt.

[FunkArt]

Interesting, a new take on the cartridge isolator/decoupler/enabler etc.

"Suspension and a "torsion tether" - isolation and anti-twisting?

Two things to bear in mind with these devices is that they also change arm geometry between bearing and stylus and also effective mass - both can, potentially, alter the sound.

There was an interesting interview with Pierre Lurné on TNT Audio a number of years ago that discusses the cartridge/headshell interface.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/intervis/lurne_arms_e.html

Hello Willbewill

Matt has brought your question to my attention and I wish I could say that there was a short answer. But alas no. So here goes...

“Houdini...Magic, or The art of making the seemingly impossible, plausible.
This decoupler has been the most difficult product to name of any product I’ve been involved with in 40 years. Normally, naming a product is to me really easy. I can’t explain it, it just is – Little Pink Thing. Little Super Deck. DaCapo. Even Preference (P.ink-Reference)
But Houdini? It started out life as Layla. The intention was correct. The product was too good to need over-playing, so aim for: understated and enhance it with a soft and friendly overtone – a female connection. It seemed a good match. The problem came with “What to do with that name?” It went no-where. So began a new trawl. Nothing settled happily. Akorn? (Big oak trees from little acorns)? Akhora? - A totally meaningless word. Name after name...
The problem came just by listening to it, and it wasn’t just me who was being blown away with this new device.
My search, to reflect the product’s somewhat extraordinary capabilities, continued
Kameleon? Sonic rainbow colours but even that, somehow missed the mark.
Play another record. I was achieving what I set out to do 40 years ago:
To better create the illusion and get closer to the master tape. I’ve been banging on about the “Master Tape” for 40 years. Why? Another quick digression.
I’m in a fortunate position...I know what a master tape is.
In fact, it’s a curse...I know what a master tape is!
At school, I was trained (hastily actively avoiding using the term “groomed!”) by my math master John Shuttleworth. He was a pro reviewer. (In fact he reviewed the original Spendor BC1).
He was also a pro recording engineer and owned Meridian Records and I went on recording sessions where I learned what good recorded sound was. Once pressed, he replayed them on what he somewhat disparagingly termed his “Groove Grinder”. The trouble was, he was right!
That’s how it began. I wanted to figure out what went wrong, from master tape (which sounded “Wunderful”) to, well, we all know what records sound like. Even if you’ve not heard a master tape, records are never quite right. Strangely that can also apply to digital, perfect as it is, and Pink Triangle have made the world’s best DAC, but that’s for another day.
I’d actually developed the theory for the decoupler some 18 years ago but then along with one or two other little gems that may or may not see the light of day – well, I am 66 now...I popped in in a drawer. There it languished till earlier this year when I started actually playing with it, productionising and refining it. The stylus hit the groove and there it really was. I likened it to having a disc version of the master tape. The same balance, the same “feel”, the same sense of scale – And I defy anyone who hears it to disagree.
One day, I realised I had the holy grail that overturned the disquiet I’ve experienced all these years.
It was “magical”. The “illusion” was there. “Houdini”. As a name it is as honest to this product as I can muster. It is left it to others to agree or not...but I’m happy.
It ticks all the boxes, the goals I set myself, oh, so many years ago: Affordable, music for the masses.
Houdini delivers and does so in spades. For 40 years, I’ve had to navigate a wretched, bitchy malicious, self-serving industry of greed that cynically brain-washes the public to feather its own nest, feeding on people’s insecurities, creating in them doubt and fear.

Along the way I have achieved it all. A turntable with the “Lowest wow, flutter and rumble of all time”. Arm technology that offers the lowest self-resonance. The best Dac in the world. The best pre-amp in the world and more...A list as staggering as it is ridiculous for one person to lay claim to.
Yet, all the while, and unbeknown to everyone, there was this one sonic element that I knew was missing. The bitch of all itches that had to be scratched, and it had been driving me nuts.

Houdini is in its very early days yet. Vanishingly few people have yet had the opportunity to see, hold and listen to it. Understandably, the claims seem Snake-oil. Smoke. Mirrors. Skills our industry excels at.
But time and again the following style of comments (this one an actual quote) are made:
“It’s now attached to a Hana ML. My word! To be fair, I was expecting an incremental change, but I seem to be getting more of everything while cutting out the “turntable” (Brand & model removed). I actually found myself turning the volume up – not because I couldn’t hear properly but because I could without fear of nasty little artefact becoming audible.”

Others are free to live their lives as they see fit but I am a theoretical and practical physicist. My life is defined by this. I have my personal line I don’t cross.
The author of the question is clearly intelligent and it is only from my misgivings about the industry, I understand when I hear people worry. The post “that they also change arm geometry between bearing and stylus” has, however, left me unhappy in its questioning. Why so?
Because I took great care in composing the text describing salient aspects of Houdini.
At this rather early stage to already start disseminating an intentionally concatenated word “torsion-tether” (and in quotes to boot), to focus on just one aspect, “torsion” attempting to draw a “potential” conclusion of “altering geometry”...How am I to answer it fairly?
Moreover, what does “Potentially” mean?
I could “Potentially” drop dead whilst writing this...
Potentially? 1 Reality: 0 (or is it the other way...hmm?)
Either the design allows geometry error, or it doesn’t.
The fact is I have gone to extraordinary lengths in the design, (then the costs to patent my ideas) to actually PREVENT such from occurring in the first instance! So to find myself defending what’s not there in ignorance of the facts is difficult.
Surely better the question: “Does it this or that?”

Another throw-away comment such as “effective mass can change the sound”.
Really?
Take the above Hana at 5g, vs a different design at, say, 13 g on the same arm. The effective mass having now been altered, do we now assign the change in sound down to this single factor? Of course not. But also there is no way we’ll really be able to dissect same, how would one ascertain this? Yet I don’t hear this of different arms or cartridges. Then, why me!
Nonetheless, I’ll attempt to answer that one as fairly as I can.
Houdini weighs in at some 2g, Increasing lump the arm sees of the Hana up to 7g from 5.
I would repeat with a standard setup add a dead 2g lump on the headshell.
Now compare to determine the sonic variation.
I put it to you that the illusion created by Houdini is somewhat different and somewhat larger than a mere 2g lump.

But what would I know? Others more talented (and certainly with far greater resources!) than me have spent the same length of time and determined, for example, that the microscopic clearances of ball races (which in fact in an arm act not as a race but a uni-pivot!) are the be-all and end-all of the sound of the turntable and arm. Or...
It is because of such “pronouncements from on high” that I despair for you the paying public.
You are utterly confused and with the prevalence of social media, Covid et al coming in thru 5G masts, does such pseudo-science find its fertile ground to germinate, with the ultimate goal of feeding the fat cats of the industry and the magazines chasing advertising revenue have been utterly complicit.
This has paralysed progress and development (Past tense. Gone.)
(What beneficial progress can you point to?)
What is left is a jaded, dissatisfied market.
That is not who I am nor what I want.

For now, how about we just forget the “potential” and simply just evaluate the “what is”, when hopefully, we might enjoy the “physical” itself? It is after all, as real as we can make the illusion.
Despite all the other achievements, believe it or not, if I only have Houdini to define my legacy, you won’t hear me complain.

Regards... A