China 2006

Down the street, we found a store running an active demo that had these strange devices flanking the loudspeakers. Seated on their own speaker stands, they had thin wires connecting on the positive inputs of both loudpseaker and super tweeter.

"What do they do?" I asked.

"They are soundfield enhancers."

"How do they work?"

"They are passive."

"If they are passive, why are they connected in line to the speaker inputs?"

A long explanation in Mandarin followed, which my translator declined to translate. I think it was, in essence, "Run along kid, you're bothering me."

They're made by Just Standard Audio Video Co. Ltd. and, I'm guessing, jigger out-of-phase info to expand the soundfield—but what do I know?