ericarjes
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REVIEW: Synergistic Research - Acoustic Art Room Treatment System
Buddha
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That was a fun read.

I relly appreciate the pictures.

I'll give your review a 10/10 to make up for the one listening trial you "missed!"

Well done.

David_L
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Quote:

I was not able to do this test in my own system, as I am awaiting a part from France for my amp (I think they are still manufacturing it for me...). I set it up at my older brother's place, but I know his system very well. ( I was the system consultant. Not only the one who chose all of the components and assembled it for him, but I spent many hours in that room, tweaking, listening and tweaking some more).

My brother is by far, not the first person I've demonstrated the ART system to. And so far, nobody attending a demonstration had any difficulties hearing its effect. Which tells me that for most people, the effect of the full Acoustic ART system is not a subtle one.

CONCLUSIONS

There is no way I am going back to using traditional bass traps, room traps, triangular pillows and sculptured foam, that ended up destroying too much of the music. The cost of my Acoustic ART system was half of what outfitting my room with conventional traps cost me, and yet the ART system produces a degree of quality that I was never able to obtain from the traps I used to have. There is also no way I plan to continue listening in an untreated room. I consider good room treatment an essential component in a serious music system. The Acoustic ART was one of the best purchases I've made in audio.

THE BLIND TEST

Even after hearing the effect with his own ears, my brother still seemed to have some doubts about whether something this small was really having an effect, or whether he was being influenced by the idea that it could. Then I remembered the challenge that Buddha, on the Stereophile forum, made to me about doing an SBT (single blind test). (He suggested I wasn't "curious" enough, if I hadn't done any. And I explained I didn't need to, because the effect of the resonators in the room is not something I felt I was in doubt of). So I suggested doing an SBT, with me as the test subject. A natural choice, since I was very much more familiar with the sound of the ARTs.

Obviously, this would mean I would have to do the test blindfolded. So the entire time, I had a t-shirt wrapped around my head to use as a blindfold. The idea was that my brother would exit and come into the room, and either leave with the resonators and bring nothing in, or simply leave, and then come back, leaving them in place. Although I already couldn't see, to ensure that I couldn't hear any cues, we had loud music playing from tracks on the test CD, in between playing the test track. I got 9 correct out of 10, over the twenty trials. The one I got wrong was the last one, and I think my ears were just tuckered at that point.

Again I call bull shit from Ted's advertising agency "Eric". So which is it "Eric, you first tested them at your brother's or you tested them somewhere else first? Make up your mind.I really love how you infer how all those traditional room treatments just absolutely destroyed too much of the music I guess those recording studios have just got it allllll wrong.Gosh you saved so much money spending $3000 on Ted's magic bowls You couldn't build your own bass traps yet you spend so much time doing tweaks. You must be all thumbs.
That SBT is just you and your "brother" and more subjective say so.
Nice try at writing an advert for Ted I give your advert 10/10 for effort but 0/10 as proof of anything.........awaits the resultant rant from "Eric"

Orb
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Sorry but I just had to post in response.
DavidL it is rather poor of you to piss on someone's personal review like this.
You rightly argue it is wrong and stupid for you to be called out and named Ethan, and yet your doing similar posting that is just as bad in return; Calling Eric Ted's advertising agency/insulting his lack of building/going on about SBT when this is an anecdotal and personal review by a forum member.
Keep the SBT/DBT where it belongs in the other thread or threads relating more to validation.

Attacking someone for bothering to post a personal review is rather petty.
IMO anyway

Thanks
Orb

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Quote:
Sorry but I just had to post in response.
DavidL it is rather poor of you to piss on someone's personal review like this.
You rightly argue it is wrong and stupid for you to be called out and named Ethan, and yet your doing similar posting that is just as bad in return; Calling Eric Ted's advertising agency/insulting his lack of building/going on about SBT when this is an anecdotal and personal review by a forum member.
Keep the SBT/DBT where it belongs in the other thread or threads relating more to validation.

Attacking someone for bothering to post a personal review is rather petty.
IMO anyway

Thanks
Orb

Just giving my "hypothesis" as to why Ted's magic bowls "work"
Hey Eric's agenda on here is pretty obvious from the start and he hasn't let up one bit "hip hip hooraying" Ted's bowls. Anyone who can't see he's just on here to advertise Ted's products needs a reality check......just my opinon of course

ericarjes
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"David"... In this rant of yours:


Quote:
Again I call bull shit from Ted's advertising agency "Eric". So which is it "Eric, you first tested them at your brother's or you tested them somewhere else first? Make up your mind.I really love how you infer how all those traditional room treatments just absolutely destroyed too much of the music I guess those recording studios have just got it allllll wrong.Gosh you saved so much money spending $3000 on Ted's magic bowls You couldn't build your own bass traps yet you spend so much time doing tweaks. You must be all thumbs. That SBT is just you and your "brother" and more subjective say so.
Nice try at writing an advert for Ted I give your advert 10/10 for effort but 0/10 as proof of anything.........awaits the resultant rant from "Eric"

...when you say to me "Again I call bull shit from Ted's advertising agency "Eric" ", by "again", are you referring to having written this about the acoustic art on Stereophile last year, under the name "Ethan Winer"?:


Quote:
Ted, I would have ignored your obviously BS "data" if you didn't bump this thread. I'll be as direct as possible: I call bullshit. That data is clearly fabricated. Made up. Fraudulent. Outright lies. Rigged. Photoshopped.

http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/printthread.php?Board=rants&main=76055&type=post

I guess that would explain why you wasted no time in jumping upon my review thread, with a series of very nasty, dirty personal attacks against me, in order to deliver up this hostile rant against what is obviously a competitor of yours.


Quote:
Anyone who can't see he's just on here to advertise Ted's products needs a reality check......just my opinon of course.

Okay. Here's your "reality check":


Quote:
Reality Check
written by Joe Bonello , May 24, 2010

This video explains why sound quality sometimes seems to change even when it didn't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ

This probably explains why people believe the sound changed with these small devices.


http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/accessori....html?showall=1

Written by a "Joe Bonello", on a thread reviewing the acoustic art, from Stereophile's Jason Victor Serenus. That is, another thread that appears to be trolled by one person assuming many different names. Someone who sounds exactly like you by the way, trolling against the acoustic art for a full year. Just like you did on Audiojunkies, but not quite as long. Tip: If you're going to troll against Synergistic for a year Ethan, don't post unidentified links to your own video.

You've been trolling this forum for 7 months with the same act you appear to have been trolling other sites. On Stereophile alone, you have 185 posts, nearly all of which attack anyone saying anything positive about the acoustic art. Or any product from Synergistic. Every single one of your posts I have read is an excercise in negativity, and appears to be intended to kill any productive discussion on these devices. I think that anyone who thinks you are not a competitor of Synergistic Research and don't have a clear agenda against them, after some pretty strong evidence that you've been shilling against the company from this site to many others, is the one who needs a "reality check".

Elk
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Hey, Eric! Great review!

Wonderfully done, and as Buddha mentioned, it's great to have pictures.

I also appreciate your efforts to describe both the devices themselves and their individual affects.

Nice job.

Freako
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I agree, very nice job

ericarjes
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Thanks Elk, Buddha and Freako. There was a lot of ground to cover, it took a lot of time to put together, and I almost wasn't going to see it through. So I really appreciate that you appreciate the effort. If I all I got was attacks from David L. in this thread for my effort, that would really have been a bummer. I wouldn't mind seeing other people post reviews of whatever they want to cover. I think that'd be a great way for me to find out what's around, and what people think of their gear. (Doesn't have to be as long or detailed as I went into here! )

Elk
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In this case however the detail was great. You are describing trying out gear that most of us have no exposure to. Thus your descriptions and information were exceedingly helpful.

I appreciate the effort you put into this.

smejias
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Quote:
"David"... In this rant of yours:


Quote:
Again I call bull shit from Ted's advertising agency "Eric". So which is it "Eric, you first tested them at your brother's or you tested them somewhere else first? Make up your mind.I really love how you infer how all those traditional room treatments just absolutely destroyed too much of the music I guess those recording studios have just got it allllll wrong.Gosh you saved so much money spending $3000 on Ted's magic bowls You couldn't build your own bass traps yet you spend so much time doing tweaks. You must be all thumbs. That SBT is just you and your "brother" and more subjective say so.
Nice try at writing an advert for Ted I give your advert 10/10 for effort but 0/10 as proof of anything.........awaits the resultant rant from "Eric"

...when you say to me "Again I call bull shit from Ted's advertising agency "Eric" ", by "again", are you referring to having written this about the acoustic art on Stereophile last year, under the name "Ethan Winer"?:


Quote:
Ted, I would have ignored your obviously BS "data" if you didn't bump this thread. I'll be as direct as possible: I call bullshit. That data is clearly fabricated. Made up. Fraudulent. Outright lies. Rigged. Photoshopped.

http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/printthread.php?Board=rants&main=76055&type=post

I guess that would explain why you wasted no time in jumping upon my review thread, with a series of very nasty, dirty personal attacks against me, in order to deliver up this hostile rant against what is obviously a competitor of yours.


Quote:
Anyone who can't see he's just on here to advertise Ted's products needs a reality check......just my opinon of course.

Okay. Here's your "reality check":


Quote:
Reality Check
written by Joe Bonello , May 24, 2010

This video explains why sound quality sometimes seems to change even when it didn't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ

This probably explains why people believe the sound changed with these small devices.


http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/accessori....html?showall=1

Written by a "Joe Bonello", on a thread reviewing the acoustic art, from Stereophile's Jason Victor Serenus. That is, another thread that appears to be trolled by one person assuming many different names. Someone who sounds exactly like you by the way, trolling against the acoustic art for a full year. Just like you did on Audiojunkies, but not quite as long. Tip: If you're going to troll against Synergistic for a year Ethan, don't post unidentified links to your own video.

You've been trolling this forum for 7 months with the same act you appear to have been trolling other sites. On Stereophile alone, you have 185 posts, nearly all of which attack anyone saying anything positive about the acoustic art. Or any product from Synergistic. Every single one of your posts I have read is an excercise in negativity, and appears to be intended to kill any productive discussion on these devices. I think that anyone who thinks you are not a competitor of Synergistic Research and don't have a clear agenda against them, after some pretty strong evidence that you've been shilling against the company from this site to many others, is the one who needs a "reality check".

EricArjes and DavidL: You two are now giving me reason to believe you don't belong here. Any future posts like this will be deleted without explanation. End it now, please.

David_L
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Quote:

EricArjes and DavidL: You two are now giving me reason to believe you don't belong here. Any future posts like this will be deleted without explanation. End it now, please.

No problem Stephen, just glad at least you can see what some people are doing on here No further posts to this thread from me

ericarjes
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No problem here either, Stephen. Except 3 minutes after responding to your "end it now" directive, he's already started the personal insults toward me again in another thread I started here, then 8 minutes after that, posted another dig at me here. This time, he even took the liberty of using my personal photograph of my Arts for use in his incessant attacks of mockery and ridicule. Without my permission, and with no respect for my property. I think this makes it clear he has no intention to stop trolling me.

Which is something he's been doing from the beginning. Since I could see there was no way to have an honest or civil debate with him, I have asked him to ignore my posts, and have mostly ignored his. Avoiding a relentless series of personal attacks by this person in the Acoustic Art or Science? thread. He entered my Sugarcube thread, in which I was merely trying to share a free tweak, only to crap on it by directing an insult at me. Not to discuss the tweak or anything. Then after I worked hard to try to contribute an informative review, he immediately came to my thread here to crap on it. Hurling yet two more rounds of outrageous personal attacks and defamatory accusations, all of which were totally unwarranted and unprovoked. I kept wondering why, no matter how destructive this person's behavior was, he seems to get away with acting in such a disruptive and anti-social manner for so long. I don't see how allowing this is conducive to having productive or civil discussions on audio. But I had had enough by then of David L.'s cyberbullying, and fought back a couple of times.

I'm trying to contribute positively to the forum, and he's trying to contribute negatively, and anger his enemies enough to get them banned. So I hardly think our behavior is comparable here, but that's not my call. I would just like to know what the rules are (so far I can not find anything on this except an unrelated TOS), and that they will be enforced on David L. As much and as fairly as anyone else, including myself. Thank you.

Jan Vigne
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SM, I know you don't want my opinion on this subject but I do have the right to express it, no? I have to agree with eric, you have reposted quotes from myself and eric and you never seem to have much if anything to say to DavidL or the other shouters on this forum. Honest to god, Stephen, didn't you see DL come into this thread with nothing but negative input? Loud, nasty negative input? DL puts his rant against eric in bold no less!!! And you say nothing to him?

Try reading it again ...


Quote:
Again I call bull shit from Ted's advertising agency "Eric".

Why? What's that going to do to promote the discussion? DL doesn't care that eric finds favorable benefits form anything other than the fiberglass panels DL understands? That's "bullshit"? "Again"? How long has "DL" been "calling bullshit" on Ted's products? Certainly ever since he appeared as "DL" on this forum.


Quote:
So which is it "Eric, you first tested them at your brother's or you tested them somewhere else first? Make up your mind.

So which is it, eric, you have mayo on your burger or mustard? How can we believe someone who is so inconsistent?

SM, how can we believe someone who has nothing to post but slams against Ted and his products? Aren't you getting a little tired of this? Aren't you getting a little suspicious? Have the Stereophile forums ever before had anyone with such a clear cut agenda?


Quote:
I really love how you infer how all those traditional room treatments just absolutely destroyed too much of the music

I really love the way DL out and out calls eric a liar. Geeez, this is a subjectivist audio magazine's forum! If someone hears a benefit or a detriment from a product, why do they need to be subjected to ... this ... how did DL put it? ... "bullshit"?


Quote:
I guess those recording studios have just got it allllll wrong.

eric never made such a claim. But, if you're shilling for a "traditional" acoustics company, you might use that argument, eh? I have to say, SM, you posting as a response to eric here sounds like you - as a representative of this forum and of Stereophile magazine - have got less than an open mind to what eric has to say. I came here to discuss audio, SM, and this is as close as it has come in many years. But you are telling eric to shut up without directing a word to the person trying to shut him up and discredit him. Why? Eric took hours to perform and correlate his tests and DL has nothing but streaming hatred for him and for Ted's product. And you are telling eric he has no place on this forum to post about his experiences wth audio components? What exactly do you want to see on this forum, Stephen? I am very confused about what Stereophile stands for.


Quote:
Gosh you saved so much money spending $3000 on Ted's magic bowls You couldn't build your own bass traps yet you spend so much time doing tweaks. You must be all thumbs.

What's the point of that? eric indicates he's tried absorption techniques and found them less preferrable than the ART devcices. That DL cannot move beyond what he "knows" and allow for someone to have an opinion other than what DL dictates is astounding when you consider this forum should be about sharing our experiences and not "calling bullshit" when a member does his best to describe what he/she hears. I'm really not getting just what you want to see on this forum, SM.


Quote:
That SBT is just you and your "brother" and more subjective say so.

Good grief! Now DL even accuses eric of not having a sibling! You don't find any of this strange, Stephen? DL obviously wouldn't be happy if they hung him with a new rope and he's not even content that eric made an honest attempt at his tests and his reporting. And who do you quote when you say neither belongs on this forum? Can you tell me why eric shouldn't be allowed to express his opinion without threat of DL's attacks?


Quote:
Nice try at writing an advert for Ted I give your advert 10/10 for effort but 0/10 as proof of anything.........awaits the resultant rant from "Eric"

What's with the quotation marks? You told me to "cool it" but, geez, Stephen, doesn't this sound like someone you know? Why the hell is DL so intent on attacking anything that has to do with Ted and Synergistics? This has gone beyond the typical naysayer BS to someone with an obvious agenda. And you tell eric he shouldn't be here? Eric has posted more positive comment to this forum in his short time here than DL has come up with in his many months of ranting and railing against Synergistics. I mean, when does "troll" finally enter your mind, Stephen?

Do me one favor, SM, and next time you want both parties to "cool it", at least quote the guy who started the fight - and maybe actually say something to him. OK?

'Cause I really don't care whether DL plays the cello or not. The guy has an agenda and part of it is to stop any real discussion of audio on this forum!

Call me disgusted!

Freako
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Sorry Stephen, but I fully agree with Jan on this one. EricArjes has done nothing whatsoever to deserve a reprimande or a ban.

Orb
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Agreed,
it does seem DavidL taunt is rather strong and personal.
It looks to be designed to cause hostility and emotion, which would result in a regretful response post or one that is poor to say the least from most forum members.

Cheers
Orb

Jan Vigne
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Quote:
It shouldn't be hard. Be mature, respectful, thoughtful. You know: Don't be an asshole.

--------------------
Stephen Mejias
Stereophile

RGibran
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What a lovely couple

SAS Audio
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Hi Stephen,

I agree with Jan, Orb, and Rubber Duck that Eric has done little if anything wrong.

In this particular instance he took the time to write a review, which has not been done in a long time, even doing a subjective audio SBT.

I would suggest keeping Eric as he has been contributing in a positive way.

Cheers.

smejias
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I'm not thinking about banning anyone right now. All I said is that if it comes to light that members are posting under multiple aliases, we're going to have to take some action, which may include suspending accounts. That sounds fair to me.

I suggest members find a way to get along, or use the Ignore feature.

SAS Audio
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Quote:
I'm not thinking about banning anyone right now. All I said is that if it comes to light that members are posting under multiple aliases, we're going to have to take some action, which may include suspending accounts. That sounds fair to me.

I suggest members find a way to get along, or use the Ignore feature.

That is what I was referring to. If it comes time for action, it seems to me, and apparently others by their posts, that Eric has been conducting himself in a positive manner.

Cheers.

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