[Review] Getting animated

Getting animated

http://www.phonosophie.de/International/eraumanimator.html

I heard this unit at several shows, and have wondered quite what it would do in my own system. So I contact the nice chap at Uberphon..who offered to send me a demo unit. This arrived yesterday , but came without operating instruction. I had a long conversation about placement, setting up and deactivation.

I shalln't describe it as a visit to the above web page show all you need to know.

So is this snake oil ......

the answer is an emphatic no !
it does exactly what it says on the tin .....but don't ask me why or how .....

I would have said it was impossible to "stiffen up air" to improve sound conductivity ......but hearing is a possible proof.

So today I pop over and demoed the unit for Uncle Ants ....
I told him very little about the unit till we had played a series of tracks with and without the unit....

it was obvious that there was an effect ....neither of us were disagreement over that. It was more which was the better ...this of course is subjective I though it was always better, whilst he was mostly convinced 7/10 times.

The down side is the cost ....the unit is £750 but if I upgrade my speakers [that was the equivalent effect] it would cost three or four times that.

If you are at all intrigued by this review, then contact uberphon for a demo .......give it a go, you've got nothing to loose but your preconceived ideas


ps.....the unit is currently sitting next to a jar of smoke and seems to be causing a lamination effect .....stranger and stranger !

 

It is. The only thing that changes the speed of sound is temperature - atmospheric pressure has no effect, because the density changes in inverse proportion (Boyle's law etc). Going from 15 to 25degC makes a difference of <2% - not a lot, and much smaller than tolerances almost anywhere else in the playback chain componentry/matching. Humidity-related changes are even smaller - negligable in comparison with this temperature change

So whatever may be going on, I strongly suspect it's not down to some kind of homogenisation effect as claimed in the link provided.

 

yep ...can't argue with that ....

just got the unit back into my system.... the sound is just lush layer upon layer of depth ..the normal sound is definitely more 2d than when the blue light is on .....


still no the wiser....

 

I don't suppose it drives dogs and cats out of the room while running, does it..?

Not entirely a joke BTW. If the smoke thing is repeatable, and the layers appear at constant intervals measure the distance between 'em - maybe it's some kind of ultrasonic oscillator and whatever you're hearing could be some kind of heterodyne / result of nonlinearity in the ear.

 

could be risky at 750 notes a pop!

 

I think thats unlikely as.....the chap at uberphon says theres a liqiud and small loose quartz crystals [you can hear them when you move it round] plus what ever electronics to " energise " the unit.

I visited Uncle ants ...who tends to be a good reality check ....he was in no doubt the unit was functioning as advertised ....but where not certain of it modus operandi....

and to be honest you really don't need to know why or how ...just it does !

 

Not quite enough for some of us, that

 

Now, now..that's just uncalled for.

 

What has that ..to do with the review ?

unless of course your taking the *iss....

this can of course be very dangerous without having had first hand experience of a product.
!

Just bear in mind that I never post without having first hand experience...that is both repeatable and positive.

 

In my experience and opinion, the Audio Animator does nothing whatsoever to the sound of a system or room. It works on the placebo principle. Sorry.

 

Aren't we in May?

 

That would be my first guess.

Maybe it acts like tape bias. If you try to record an audio signal onto a tape, the result is dire with distortion and loss of frequency extremes. If you add a bias signal (usually between 50 - 100 kHz) then as we all know, tape can sound great.

Maybe this device biases the air in some fashion enabling it to more readily convey the audio frequencies.

Or maybe it biases the ears.

Following from Simon's post, there's some great stuff on that site. I love this one:

http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/rgc24/rgc24_01.html

Bananas (but then I haven't tried one )



Oh... and there's no way it's worth £750. You can probably buy it as a cat/dog deterrent for $10




Hehehe...yep!...http://www.thegardenersshop.co.uk/index.asp?function=DISPLAYPRODUCT&productid=250

 

Snake oil. No question about it. And no, I haven't tried it, I'm not that daft.

-- Ian

 

My only comment is that I'm a little dissapointed by the lack of information available on the product - what it does and why it's doing it.

Without that, I fear they are asking a lot of the general public to audition this item.

I found this similar looking item on the web, but it's in german. Anyone care for a rough translation?

http://www.phonosophie.de/International/Downloads/animator.pdf

Products such as these I do find curious, and fascinating. Rather like antique's of unknown purpose, you can't help but be fascinated by what may be happening.

Not as fascinated as I am with keeping £750 in my pocket, but you know what I mean...

 

pete it's a box with a blue light in it.

learn to expect improvements in your set up for no reason at all every time you switch it on and you'll be amazed at the results.