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Number
10
Weird!
“Weird science.” Much to my amusement, I
first came upon the term in email exchanges
with Derrick Moss, the no-nonsense
designer-manufacturer of my Integris CDP (AurumAcoustics.com).
Derrick was instructing me in acoustic
isolation’s many misdirections. Weird
science reappears in spades in the audio
goody under scrutiny here, Acoustic Revive’s
RR-77 Ultra Low Frequency Pulse Generator.
I own three Acoustic Revive audio
accouterments: a digital-disc demagnetizer,
a digital-disc negative ionizer, both
free-standing, and a virtual ground that
links to the CDP. It was Derrick who put me
on to the demagnetizer. The other pieces I
explored on my own, reviewed and bought from
the American distributor, Lotus Group USA. I
recommend checking out the Web site,
LotusGroupUSA.com, for Joe Cohen’s Acoustic
Revive comments. You can also link directly
to AcousticRevive.com. Be prepared for
pungent English (a lot better, withal, than
my Japanese).
My Acoustic Revive adventures have not been
a total success. With respect to AR’s quartz
dots and silk wool, I was unable to hear a
difference, which may have to do my age.
Perhaps younger ears can detect what I
couldn’t.
In any event, if demagnetizing discs for
which magnetization would seem to offer no
sonic difficulties or bombarding said discs
with toasty-warm negative ions strike you as
peculiarly extravagant behavior, then how
does bathing the listening room in subsonic
pulsations grab you? We’re not discussing
some enormous woofer pumping out 7.83 cycles
per second but rather a small, unassuming
box weighing next to nothing producing
inaudible and impalpable impulses of the
same frequency, the wherefore of which
arises from a German physicist’s mid-century
discovery, the eponymous Schumann Resonance.
(The Schumann Resonance! I do so love the
sound of that! – right up there with the
Calgary Stampede and Armageddon. “Knock
knock.” “Who’s there?” “Armageddon.”
“Armageddon who?” “Open the goddamn door!
Armageddon real tard o’ waitin’ out here!”
Couldn’t resist.)
And now a mute word from our planet….
 Raise
your sights, we’re going global. The
Schumann Resonance relates to Earth’s
magnetic field. Briefly, its practical
effects, said to be salutary, are much
diminished in the domestic setting by EMF,
RFI and whatever other clump of vaguely
sinister initials I’ve neglected to list.
There’s a ton of stuff about SR on the
Internet. Has it any more validity than UFO
or Sasquatch sightings? Not for me to say.
All I do is listen and report.
In my online Schumann Resonance perusals, I
did note one health-related entry that
engaged my interest. I diagnosed myself long
ago as having chronic fatigue syndrome, and
a blood test some time later detected the
presence of the Epstein-Barr virus, relating
to mononucleosis. I’ve had what I thought
are rather mild recurrences lasting,
usually, no more than a day or two.
Wondering whether the RR-77 would prove
beneficial in the way of well being, I set
it up in our bedroom one evening to see what
I’d feel like the following morning.
Succinctly put, like shit in a skillet. I
thought I’d go out of my skull. Anxiety,
jitters, you name it. Enough of that, thank
you! I intend to restrict investigations to
the listening room. (A subsequent spell of
maybe-CFS suggests that the RR-77 may simply
have been an innocent – and ineffectual –
bystander.)
Onward!
Midway through my sweet-spot scrutinies, I
invited a skeptical scientific type to a
listening session. He validated what I’d
been hearing. (I decline to bore you with my
listening saga.) With respect to a wide
range of recordings from grand to intimate,
the RR-77 does rather wonderful things to my
audio system’s stereo image. Dimensionality
and texture improve. A well-produced
recording becomes more lifelike and
therefore more engaging – a whole lot more
engaging in fact. When I turn the unit off
(as often as not to convince myself I’m not
imagining things), the sound, still
excellent by any measure, becomes less
convincing. To put that another way, I’m
more aware of listening to a recording. It’s
as if the experience has become a tad more
abstract. With the unit on, an illusion of
“thereness” dominates. Canned music achieves
a more lifelike presence.
A better sense of “air” likewise strengthens
one’s impressions that the music occurs in
three-dimensional spaciousness. (I listen
mostly to classical and some jazz.)
Normally, when I report on an improvement, I
mention resolution and transparency.
Differences in resolution seem not to apply
here, but transparency, yes, if by that one
means a better perception of air, space,
harmonic rightness, and dimensionality. (On
looking again at this sentence, I also
appear to be describing resolution. “A rose
by any other name….”)
In terms of comparison, with the RR-77 off,
the image recedes and flattens somewhat.
With the RR-77 on, the image moves forward,
broadens and, as mentioned, takes on a more
three-dimensional character. Of the Acoustic
Revive components I’ve been using, the RR-77
impresses me, at least for the present, as
making the greatest contribution to better
sound.
And of course it’s staying here.
Acoustic Revive is not alone
 My
scattershot Schumann Resonance search via
Google brought me to a similar product,
which is to say, a small box emitting
ultra-low-frequency pulses, called EarthSafe
Whole House, available from Less EMF Inc.,
809 Madison Avenue, Albany NY 12208. Less
EMF graciously lent me the unit with the
understanding that it was never intended as
other than a health aid. But I did try it
out with the sound system, with inconclusive
results. The RR-77 is smaller, better
looking, quite a bit more expensive, and
audio / video specific. The leaflets that
come with the cute l’il thang make no
mention of health benefits, at least not the
stuff in English. I can’t vouch for the
Japanese.
I look at it this way: because I heard
something good happening to the sound
system, I concluded that the RR-77 is on the
level, which of course leads me to believe
that Acoustic Revive’s application of the
Schumann Resonance has validity. That, or
I’ve been doing some really fancy
hallucinating. (Not unheard of in our tight
little circle. If I had a crisp, new twenty
for every report of knock-your-socks-off
amelioration an audio product brings to the
mix, I’d buy a yacht.) The EarthSafe product
operates differently. For one thing, a knob
increases or decreases the ultra-low
frequency. To find the setting that best
suits your feel-good index, you’re required
to do an arm-strength test with an
assistant’s help. I did not pursue this
avenue of investigation lest my wife
consider having me committed. (She has
reason enough as is.) If what I’ve mentioned
about the Schumann Resonance’s health aspect
piques your interest, call for Less EMF’s
catalog: 888 537 7363, or check out
www.lessemf.com.
The System
Speakers: Wilson WATT / Puppy, Series 8
Amps: NuForce Reference 9 SE, Version 2
CDP: Aurum Acoustics Integris
Cables: Nordost Valhalla balanced
interconnects, Nordost Tyr speaker cables
Power cords: Nordost Vishnu and Brahma
Line filters: BlackNoise (an Italian product
distributed in the US by NuForce)
Acoustic isolation: Aurum Acoustic steel
points and a Golden Sound Pad under the CDP;
Nordost Quasar Points under the NuForce
amps.
***
Acoustic Revive RR-77, $425US
www.acousticrevive.com
American
distributor Lotus Group USA
415 897 8884
info@lotusgroupusa.com
www.lotusgroupusa.com
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