Shun Mook

Having briefly experienced and liked the resonators, a chat with Roberto galvanized me to further explore Shun Mook. Played around with the shun mooks at the dealers today. These are by far the most musical and effective tweaks I have heard, and I am a guy who struggles to enjoy the benefits of other isolation products.

The mpingo discs are small round discs that you can place on you various components and around the room. You place 3 discs on your say, CD or pre in am equilateral triangle. As you move these in or out, you can change the width and spaciousness of the sound stage. If you turn them around, you can make the sound more forward and focused or more laid back. The dealer had a large number, say 30 around the room, and even taking 3 off made a difference. The sound became muddied and fell flat.

The giant diamond resonators are supports under the components. Same thing, you can get so much centre and focus if you bring them in, and so much spaciousness if you move them out.

That big thing in the middle did nothing for me though the dealer loves it.

In the corner of the pic you will see a fork-like thing with three prongs. That's the Shakti haliograph. You need 1 in each corner behind the speaker. Just simply turning them in or out changes the width of the stage.

You don't need you struggle to listen to any of these changes, they were immediate, easy to notice, musical, and took away nothing.

ATCs and Gamuts?

I'm not going to believe a word of this extreme foo peddling... don't even go there with the science behind it:ROFL:

Shun mook speakers and gamuts. Nothing special. For the above foo, Roberto will confirm, and I can put you in touch with a guy in the US who has 100 discs he bought for his vandy 7s and extreme high end well thought out stuff. You can get a free demo, and this is the most fun I had in a while since discovering planars and horns. I would get these in before changing an amp or source

Incidentally, Justin, this is the same guy who sold Jim the acapella violons, who some rate as the best speaker they have heard, though I don't rate it much. Interestingly, when this guy heard I liked the animas, he did say it's tough to beat those, so he is pretty straight shooting. He also distributes the gamut which in my system sounds better than the AR ref 110 as it does the same thing better yet had the pinch if a solid state. He is also bringing in convergent amps. So good quality though expensive, so am not buying anything else from him but will definitely get these

And Justin, who said it's science?

Oh yes, Peter had the mpingo discs and he showed them to me when i went over to listen to the analysis audio omega, and he is a firm believer, so maybe that will make you believe more

Those discs are just bits of ebony... and a lot of the other similar stuff they do is just designed to resonate. So their gear appears to be the opposite of using isolation.

"When his disc is excited by any external acoustic energy, it will resonate throughout the entire audible spectrum, thus overriding unwanted harmonic distortions and at the same enriching the musical reproduction." Complete BS if you ask me. Anti-science

Gamut amps are good - I like the D200 - have done for years. I wouldn't buy one though. The Shun Mook speakers look like they are using ATC drivers superficially.

Not sure why use this logic when you can have a listen. Because maybe the logic is based on partial information. Roberto, Peter and I think it makes a difference. So do demo

I'm not saying they don't make some difference in certain situations. If I shove a telephone directory on top of my DAC with some slightly microphonic valves in it I think it makes a difference.

Loads of stuff "makes a difference". Bits of (expensive) wood all over the place just doesn't appeal to me. I think the best place for ebony is on the fretboard of a nice acoustic guitar. I'd rather pay money for that.

Massive difference. Not some. And an extremely enjoyable difference. You can have fun and play around. I would doubt they are just bits of wood, that's where I think we have imperfect information and like with everything I prefer to suspend disbelief till I demo. Decision making and logic comes in only after the demo,

Good philosophy, Kedar. Everyone has their own though.

Mine is usually right

Bernard is the man. He's always right. After a glass of port

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...isc&1105809080

I found one of the comments insightful:

"Hi Chris, everything has a sound of it's own. Most damping devices don't damp linearly across the spectrum (0.5Hz- 20kHz). Most damp out certain frequencies effectively leaving many other frequencies undamped. Sometimes this can cause more harm than good. Just like an EQ with certain bands pushed all the way down.

IMO, resonance reduction is only effective if you get rid of them all or reduce it across the spectrum. A vibraplane or the Minus K platform achives this effortlessly. I have my TT on one of these devices and they do a great job.

Harmonix and Shun Mook work on the principles of tuning the resonant frequency just like a musical instrument. If you can't get rid of it all, may as well make it work to your favour. Both have advantages. "

User211 said:

Bernard is the man. He's always right. After a glass of port

Click to expand...

I guess that's my cue to step in, right or not, without any port.

While I was at Roberto's he made some changes to the location of the Mpingo discs, and we listened to the before and after. I heard subtle changes, not the dramatic ones that Roberto heard, but I suspect that Roberto has a more discriminating ear than I do. I had taken to his place a CD I made of a piano recording that I had transferred from an LP; he immediately pointed out a speed variation I had not noticed before. He also pointed out changes while playing with the filters on the Audiolab MDAC; I did not hear them.

I would require an extensive audition in my own system before plunking down money for those discs at $80 a pop.

$80 - probably enough to stop you from wanting to saw one in half and discover it's chipboard with an ebony veneer

Apparently they are all ebony with a crystal inside: http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/t.mpl?f=tweaks&m=186634

I think Roberto listens with his acoustic guitars in the room. For serious listening mine get taken out. For me, they ring & resonate way too much esp. with loud start stops in the programme.

DAC filters - pretty subtle if you ask me, Bernard. Not tried the Audiolab ones though.

User211 said:

....with a crystal inside

Click to expand...

Aye, there's the magic!

RUR said:

Aye, there's the magic!

Click to expand...

Now, now, Ken

My shun mook thread ended up with some 300 odd replies, tracking 25 pages and going on Pink Fish media. At the end of all that crap, only 3 people on that thread including me have tried it and noticed the difference, and 1 tried with 1 disc and obviously concluded it didn't work. All others based on logic disagreeing that wood can resonate and certain wood with a certain shape and certain weight when placed in a certain way around the room can produce a delightful sound

Yeah I read quite a bit of it.

The problem is such products insult people's intelligence because they can't be understood. That simple, I reckon. That and the BS used to support them.

Whether they are effective or not is another, rather irrelevant matter, I'm afraid