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Can a tiny silver bowl affect music reproduction

I am speaking of the Ziplex one half inch wide silver bowls, but the same questions apply to the Synergistic Research ARTs.

About two weeks ago I had four audiophiles in my listening room. We were listening to the impact of the Tripoint Troy Signature. I was standing and noticed that one of the eleven Zilplexes in my room was laying flat on the three silver support rods on the wall. It was the one that is about midway down the left wall and about seven and a half feet off the floor. It is supposed to be at a 45º angle facing the wall. As unobtrusively as possible I stepped on a foot stool that I leave there as this is a common happening and carefully inclined the bowl into a proper condition. I then returned to where I was standing.

Someone asked what did I just do, and I stated the above. They all were in disbelief about how it could have such an effect. I told them that Zilplex had been at CES and at the RMAF about a year or two ago, I repeatedly did their demonstration of removing all eleven Zilplexes. Always those in the audience said exactly what my four friends had said.

Having stumbled onto these a couple of years ago, I said that the inventor and owner really didn't have an explanation for the effect that it was all a trial and error process, which, of course, had taken countless hours. Synergistic Research also has a comparable bowl device, which Ted Denny attributes to his hear Tibetan monks and their bowls. There are of course Tibetan bowls. Syn. Res. ARTs are bigger than the Zilplexes but neither is the size of typical Tibetan bowls.

Tibetan bowls, of course, resonate when struck or rubbed at the rim. SR ARTs ring when knocked together. Zilplex don't ring. I asked Zilplex about this and was told they ring but at a frequency we cannot hear. My question is why would ringing bowls located variously in a room, greatly improve the apparent size of the rooms and the realism of the reproduced music?

All I can say is that they do, and I have heard no real explanation.
tbg
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
My basic assumption would be that sound pressure levels would largely determine the magnitude of the bell ringing effect of gadgets like these bowls. Placing bowl on top of OHMs would be interesting to try, if nothing else. SPLs above teh Walsh driver are probably greater than most speakers designs but still much lower than horizontal plane, where most of the sound is directed.

IT would be a unique configuration and test.

Otherwise, I could see where prime reflection points on rear wall relative to primary listening position might be the best spot in most cases and still relevant even with omnis/OHMs.

OHMs + tibetian bowls.......truly going perhaps where no man has gone before?

Or maybe best to keep such things and stereos apart from each other for use on the more typical terms of each?

Dunno. When I scap up an extra $60 bucks for a pair of bowls, I'll provide an update.
tbg OP
5,263 posts
 
Mapman, so you are going for a shot in the dark. I would rather depend on Zilplexe's efforts to deal with all of this. I would love to have back the countless wasted hours when I tried quartz in various applications, isolation feet of various materials, power cords, cartridges, etc. Even in retirement my time is worth something and, of course, limited.
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
"Mapman, so you are going for a shot in the dark. I would rather depend on Zilplexe's efforts to deal with all of this. "

Maybe, but its so much more fun this way.

I'll read up on Zilplex though just to be as well informed as possible.

Bowls are not top of my list of things to buy yet. I have a wife and two kids (one in college, one still to go) to deal with.

Fathers Day is coming up though, so maybe I'll put in a request.

I just like the idea of having them. If they can help my sound, that's icing on the cake, but frankly, I am very happy with the sounds I currently get through various channels around my home, not to mention headphones.
tbg OP
5,263 posts
 
Mapman, I will virtually guarantee that you will be amazed by the Zilplexes. I was utterly amazed when I put them into my room in NM. It is only 13 x 10 x 8'. I had been playing Diana Krall's A Case of You. It was okay in that small room. When I installed the eleven Zilplexes and sat down to listen, what I heard before me was the room where she played, not the ten foot wide and eight foot high room in which I was sitting. I should note that the one ceiling Zilplex is vital, as is the 45º angle toward the wall on all but the ceiling one.
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
"what I heard before me was the room where she played, not the ten foot wide and eight foot high room in which I was sitting"

That's pretty much what I hear already in both of my OHM rooms currently.

But one can always aspire to do even better though I would agree. At this point, no doubt I think I have to be willing to think out of the box a bit to accomplish that in any real meaningful way.

We'll see...
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