Shakti Hallographs about to be in house

A good a'phile friend is going to let me use a pair of Shakti Hallographs in my system. While my room is well treated with acoustic treatments already, and doesn't seem to lack for imaging etc., I will be very interested to see if these unusual looking tweaks can have a positive effect.
Some a'philes on other forums have insinuated that the Shakti's actually do modify the sound, but do so by coloring up the image and therefore give a false sense of improvement. We shall see.
I am highly interested to see if they do as advertised, or if they simply add another coloration to the sound that upon first listen fools one into thinking an improvement has occurred, but in reality a coloration has been added.
Shakti users and ex-adherents, weigh in here! What say you?

 

I am very curious as to how these will perform, or if at all. I am actually a fan of the Shakti Stone. I used it previously on CD players and it def. works
on my DAC.

Very tempting to call it snake oil, except, Shakti is a serious company. Their technology is used in other industries that are mission critical.

Please report back!

 

Have a look at my profile page...love them wish I didn't as they were expensive $1200 for the pair, bought direct from the Mfg. in California.
Once place in my system I could tell right away, much better soundstage, imaging, focus, depth...so much depth. Wife says it keeps the sound contained in the soundstage area. Plus I have always liked the look of them!

sean

 

Thanks. It is hard to find people who have taken the plunge due to the price etc....!

 

I've been using Shakti stones for years. Discovered that if I place them on top of transformers (for example, on the preamp), it lessens the background noise. I'm also using them on my DAC, same improvement -- lesser noise. I did not notice any added coloration, merely that the noise drops when placing Shakti stones on top of components, and after removing them, the noise returns. That's all.

Tried to place them on the left channel and right channel transformers of my power amp, but discovered that the stones block the air flow which makes the power amp overheat (blew the fuse with that experiment), so now I've dialled back on using it there.

In general, once you build a semi-decent audio chain, the real battle boils down to lowering the noise. RF and dirty electrical power are the enemies, very tough to deal with. The struggle continues...

 

I'd be interested in your impressions. Your system must sound amazing, do you have any other room treatments?

 

Excellent point. Thanks for mentioning that. I am wondering how much space the OP has with his set up.

 

Luckily, I have quite a bit of space behind the speakers. Since I listen in the near field, I have the speakers pretty far into the room...about 3' off the rear wall and about 19" from the sides. I have placed the Shakti's behind and to the side of the speakers ( as per the white paper recommendation) . However, I will take some time and try and optimize their positioning.
As to other room treatments, I utilize two Real Trap Mondo Traps behind the speakers and a Real Traps Mini Trap behind the seating position. I am also lucky, as my room has a vault ceiling that extends to 13'. The room is also independent of the rest of the house structure and sits on its own slab. A 20amp dedicated line feeds the amp and the preamp.
I will re-post once I have had a chance to listen to the Shakti's.

 

Well, I had a chance to listen to the Shakti's last night. All digital front end. I can say for now that they do indeed make a difference. Still a little too early to say the extent, so I will next try them with my analog front end...which is far more resolving.

 

"Different" or better?

If your analog front end is far more resolving, which I am sure you are correct about, the odds are you have invested little in digital.

 

Actually, I have what sounds to me to be a decent digital rig. Although you are right, it is a fraction of the price of my analog rig. Oddly enough, I find the digital rig to be quite satisfying, even though it consists of a couple of 'classic' digital pieces...the Philips CD80 player ( used as a transport only) and a EAD 7000Mk3 DAC. The DAC can decode HDCD and sounds best when it sees a HDCD signal. Even though this set-up cannot do hi-rez, I feel in some ways it still competes with some of today's high-rez gear! The standard red book player does seem to me to be amazingly competitive with many of the multi-bit players.

 

Ok, but what about source material? CDs vs 180g audiophile pressings? HD remasters? DSD?

 

No worries actually...the OP was the one who broached the subject so I think it is ok.

 

Ok, so here's where I am so far....and I have still not yet heard them with my analog set-up.
Having placed them in the room behind and to the side of the speakers, I had turned them in as you suggested before any listening. So at this point, I think that the difference they make is:

Freaki'n Huge!!!! Yes I know what I said above, but I wanted to be sure that I wasn't crazy, so another listen tonight with just the digital.

Now whether this plays well with my analog set-up I don't know, but trust me, these are a major eye opener!!!!
Onwards on the journey.

 

Wholly smokes!!!

You have my attention! I trust your findings...please keep updating.

 

Thank you. I will continue to post once I have had a chance to listen with my analog rig.

 

I had a brief listen last night with my analog rig and the Shakti's in place. Well the improvements were there, but interestingly, less obvious than with my digital rig. I suspect this is due to the fact that the analog sound I was getting before was very well resolved and imaging was greater to begin with than my digital set up. Nonetheless, the system was still wall busting wide sounding and the overall tone was just excellent. The Hallographs are certainly an asset to my system. I think with a little more experimentation they will be even better.
More to come.

 

Interesting, thanks for update.

One thing though..I think you are being a bit rigid in splitting "digital" and "analog" listening. Your system and the Shakti's have no preference,
and don't know the difference, they just produce sound. It is your divisions of digital/analog, probably learned dogma from other audiophiles.
Not bashing you, just pointing out preconceived notions. I would also bet you have almost zero overlap in your digital and analog libraries.

 

All true. However, I do have some overlap with my analog and digital. The same piece played back on my analog rig does sound a lot better though.

 

I don't doubt that at all. But with current server set up and the properly mastered title, you would hear far less of a difference..that is my guess.

 

The Hallographs are pricey, for sure, but if coloring up the image introduces a sense of improvement for the listener, however that improvement arises, that's a good thing, innit? Sometimes it seems that audiophiles run from some vague notion of "coloring the sound", by using x gear, when it very well might enhance the listener's immersion in the music.