Editor's note: When Jonathan Scull reviewed the Shun Mook devices back in 1994, he unleashed a hailstorm of controversy that continues to this day. Below is his original report along with some of the follow-up articles and fallout.Shun Mook resonance-control devices
Jonathan Scull
Prices: Mpingo Discs, $50 each. Spatial Control Kit, $450. Super Passive Diamond Resonator, $400. Record Weight, $895. Approximate number of dealers: 5. Manufacturer: Shun Mook Audio, 618 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610. Tel: (510) 893-8403. Fax: (510) 893-3818.
Bong...bong...bong... A Taoist…
The two product groups are concerned with entirely different aspects of the audio signal, of course: The Original Cable Jackets effect electrical transmission (raw juice or signal), while the Shun Mook devices deal with resonances. The Jackets drain RFI and mechanically damp vibrations in the conductor. They do this well not only in RF-rich New York City, Andy Chow hastened to point out, but in all developed countries which are chockablock with TVs, radios, alarm systems, and other electrical pollutants. They're so effective that I couldn't consider my system complete without a full…
Kai insisted on opening the Avalons up completely with no toe-in, and told me to stop worrying and keep my cool---I'd still get that center focus I crave (and which I'd always foregone with the rad toe-in) while achieving a much bigger soundstage. I told the Mad Monks that I was surprised at first when Kai said we'd be using the Spatial Control Kit and other strategically placed Mpingos to change the system's tonal balance and soundstage characteristics. But what an attractive idea: no more calling on Hernias 'R Us to move these monster speakers. As they listened to my tale, the Monks smiled…
Their Monknesses also added the optional Quarter Disc Kit (a bracket with only one Mpingo Disc attached) about a quarter of the way out from the back wall to the speakers. "For really gigantic systems!" Dr. Tan informed me. I blushed, because that's what I do. How do you tune these things? As Andrew Chow is a master tool and die maker, I wasn't surprised when he asked me for a hammer and a sharp nail. He then took each Mpingo Disc in the system (save those in the SCK brackets) and marked them for directionality. According to the brochure, the orientation of the inscription is in line with…
Super Passive Diamond Resonators
A fully tricked-out Shun Mook installation would include a few sets of the $400 Super Passive Diamond Resonators. These unique, beautiful counterfeet (sold in sets of three), fashioned from African Ebony, measure roughly 2 1/2" in diameter, stand almost 2" tall, and include an embedded, diamond-tipped steel shaft which protrudes about 1/4" from the bottom. The Resonators also are directional; the hammer-and-nail trick works just as well for marking them as it does for the Mpingos. They're usually placed in a triangle under front-end electronics, with two…
Conclusion
After spending the day with these Not-So-Very-Mad Monks, I thought them very sincere and their motives pure. They're into all this for the fun of it---for the rush of beauty that great music and sound can communicate. At the end of the day I played a Columbia Two-Eyed Glenn Gould for Andy Chow and he was, like, gone, man---totally lost in the music: eyes shut with a beatific expression on his face as he followed the musical line. You can't fake true bliss. With a number of the synergistic Cable Jackets, careful attention paid to grounding, the Mpingo Discs on the front end…
Letters
Stereophile, Vol.17 No.5, May 1994 Whither Shun Mook?
Editor:
I'm really disappointed with Jonathan Scull's review of the Shun Mook Mpingo resonance-control devices in February. I had been really impressed with Martin Colloms's review of the Harmonix devices last July. I was just about to whip out the ol' checkbook when I noticed that the little buggers were "tuned to A=440." Well, I suddenly remembered that many conductors are moving to alternate standards of 441Hz and even higher. Until Harmonix makes sets attuned for these new standards (and CDs are clearly marked…
Las Vegas 1994
Stereophile, Vol.17 No.5, May 1994
Barry Willis Nowhere does pseudotech parade more brazenly than down the high-end accessory highway. I turned up my BS detector and went searching for interesting stuff. Did I ever find it...
Shun Mook Audio's offerings were mind-boggling. In a welcome departure from technobabble, Shun Mook's literature makes no pretense of invoking the Western scientific tradition. Instead, it refers to the I Ching and hypes the mystical properties of the exotic hardwoods of which their products are made. If I understand correctly---and I'm…
That statement is not as stupid as it may seem---it's at the very core of the audiophile's fascination with music and the perceived characteristics of the devices that reproduce it. Belief and perception are two mutually dependent interactive variables---they feed and influence each other, and neither can be wholly separated from the other. If a baseball player believes that not washing his "lucky socks" will improve his batting average, then it will; his belief sets up a series of positive assumptions and expectations which will have a positive effect on his performance. He will wear those…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The size and weight of the Resolution 1 worked against my being able to raise it high into the air for the acoustic measurements. I therefore had to window the time-domain data more aggressively than usual to eliminate the interfering effects of a reflection from the floor between the speaker and the microphone. As a result, the measured response will have less midrange resolution than usual, though this does not interfere with the reliability of the measurements.
The big Krell's voltage sensitivity came in slightly below the specified 90dB/W/m, at 88.7dB/…
