October 1, 2009
Harmonic Resolution Systems SXR Audio Stand, S1
Isolation Base, Damping Plate, Nimbus System
Category: Cables &
Accessories
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Just about every American male whos survived high
school knows that the behemoth and anchor of a football teams defense is the nose
tackle. The nose tackles job, mostly in the stylish 3-4 defensive scheme, is to
occupy two offensive blockers, maintain his two-gap assignment (spaces on the field
in relation to the distribution of offensive players), and stay on his feet. The coach
needs him to stabilize the entire defensive approach of his other ten players, so
that the rest of them -- primarily the linebackers and safeties -- can then read the play
and "fly to the ball." The nose tackle is not supposed to bring down the
ball carrier, pursue the quarterback, or defend the pass, necessarily, but to hold
position and occupy the two opposing players who are trying to push him around.
Usually the heaviest man on the team, the nose tackles attributes are strength and
stoutness. He uses his weight -- nowadays well over 300 pounds -- to maintain the center
of the field and to fix the offense to it so it cannot spread. In other words, the nose
tackle is a brick shithouse that cannot be moved.
But this analogy, ready though it may be, is entirely
inadequate to describe the complex assignment executed by the SXR audio rack system
recently released by Harmonics Resolution Systems (HRS). It acknowledges only the brutish
"heavy lifting" -- something all racks do -- and not the geometric ballet of
mathematics applied to mass and resonance that its claimed to achieve. No, the SXR
is no burly nose tackle, but a powerful dance cavalier like Rudolf Nureyev, whose
attributes are strength, balance, and isometric grace without strain. Such a dancer is the
ballerino who lifts and poses the delicate ballerina by the base of her
pelvis, her arms blossoming in a winglike stretch, and holds her aloft in a gorgeously
slow pirouette of mechanical precision, as though a muscular black swan were lifting an
angel above its head. This choreography of mass and resonance is exactly what I heard from
the SXR: a delicate maneuvering of mass, a precise control of resonance, and the
near-erasure of airborne, structural, and inner mechanical noise from my audio system.
Distortion and the choreography of isolation
Mike Latvis, primo ballerino of audio resonance and
Chief Engineer of Harmonic Resolution Systems, came to our hobby as a trained mechanical
engineer, having worked on a variety of military and commercial aircraft projects,
including the rotor systems for the Black Hawk helicopter. His résumé is deep in the
science of vibration control. But hes also a music lover whos long dabbled in
things audio, applying the experience and insights gained in his years in industry. After
custom-designing audio isolation devices for himself and friends, he eventually, some ten
years ago, founded HRS.
Though Latviss approach is scientific, it reflects a
natural instinct for artistry. Its a choreography of isolation in each of three
critical domains where resonance can corrupt the clarity, purity, and aesthetic impact of
an audio system: the structural, via the external environment; the internal,
arising from mechanical noise in the audio components themselves; and via airborne
vibrations. The HRS SXR racking system addresses all three of them in an interlocking
narrative suite of technologically deliberated mechanical "dances" of resonance
control.
In this script, the foulest villains are loudspeakers,
which cause structural vibrations. They literally shake the floor, which trembles the
rack, which stirs your components, which causes distortion in playback. That distortion is
then sent around, through speakers and room and floor, and back again through your system,
stealing watts, muffling bass, robbing the sound of dynamic articulation and clarity, and,
in extreme cases, doing even worse. Speakers also cause airborne vibrations -- after all,
thats what their audible output is -- that directly strike your rack and
components, exciting their hard surfaces, causing mechanical noise thats then picked
up by the audio signal, and causing more distortion that masks detail, smears transients
and decays, tizzes the highs, and raises the noise floor, obscuring much of the musical
performance in a haze of nonmusical information. Finally, theres the energy
emanating from within some components themselves: the common culprits here are noisy power
supplies. Like airborne vibrations, this energy is transferred to the outer chassis, then
back into the audio chain.
When Latvis looks at a traditional equipment rack, he sees
what he calls "a pass-through mechanism for distortion." The materials from
which these racks are made inevitably amplify their own native frequencies; e.g.,
maple emphasizes the midrange, slate plinths and shelves the highs. They suck energy from
the floor, pulling it in through air transfer and multiplying the inner mechanical
resonances of the audio components themselves. In a recent interview, Latvis told me that
the HRS approach is to disconnect the components from such vibrational influences,
decoupling and isolating noise structurally via the SXRs rigid frame and S1 bases,
using specific materials in mathematically designed shapes scientifically proven to be
effective at isolating noise through all frequencies, and resulting in what he
calls "complete broadband noise reduction."
Latvis feels that, sitting on his SXR rack system, an audio
component is subjected to a lower level of energy interference, thus preserving the audio
signals proper phase, and accurate timing and pace in the music. "We drop the
noise floor and try to lose as little sonic information from the audio system as
possible," he said. The result, he claims, is a substantial drop in broadband noise.
"You can place an accelerometer on an unconditioned audio shelf and on one of ours
and compare them," he said. "Its measurable."
The components of the SXR rack system address the three
domains of unwanted resonance: 1) the SXR stand is a large, structurally rigid frame that
decouples the entire mechanism from the floor; 2) the S1 Isolation Base is designed with
an inner core of proprietary nonresonant material and is itself decoupled from the rack by
four cupped, radial, elastomer-suspended footers; and 3) the Nimbus System and Damping
Plates control the airborne vibrations striking component chassis and the internal noise
generated by the chassis themselves.
SXR
The foundation of the HRS SXR system is the stand itself
($4995 USD for four shelves, $5995 for five shelves), which Latvis derived from the same
design philosophy that created his reference-level MXR stand, already established as a
leader in the field. Latvis took over two years to develop the SXR; and, even more than
meeting a lower price than his MXR stand, he wanted the SXR to be versatile in
configurability, minimalist and open in design, and expandable. "You can build it
three-high and two-wide," he said, "or you can make it a five-shelf with most of
the same parts!" He also pointed out that the SXR can be built "one shelf at a
time," starting out as an amp stand, then a two-shelf, a three-, etc.
The modular SXR has six removable (and interchangeable,
level-to-level, so long as maintained as a set), tubular side-struts per level. The struts
are of anodized aircraft aluminum, silver or black, in three stock lengths to achieve
different vertical component spacing: 6", 8", and 10". Custom lengths are
also available but my review sample had: from the bottom shelf up, half-dozens of the
standard struts to achieve 10", 8", 6", and 6" of actual component
space in my stand, to create room for my all-tube electronics. Also part of each level is
a beefy, 1"-thick aluminum support brace that looks like a Rorschach of a crossbow,
on which rests each S1 Iso shelf. Six large aluminum cones, looking like four-bore shells
for an elephant gun, provide the footing on which the entire stand rests. Built within the
SXR frame itself is a series of mechanical chokes and other anti-resonance devices that
resist structural vibration, providing another line of defense. Latvis and his staff have
calculated which precise geometries and densities of material they think work best
together to ensure that vibrations dance away from the audio signal in your components.
The MXR has the look of elegant furniture, especially in
the premium wood finishes, and can easily be placed in a living room. The SXR has a more
functional, industrial appearance thats perhaps better suited to smaller spaces --
such as my study, its crannied walls lined with books and LPs. My review sample, an SXR-5V
blacker than a starless night, looked stunning with my all-black components.
S1 Isolation Base
The center of the SXR system is the S1-1921 Isolation Base
($1695), a 1.5"-thick, 19"x21" (hence the model name), 40-pound,
multilayered piece of industrial ingenuity that looks as if it could shield you from
uranium. It also comes in a slightly smaller model, the S1-1719 ($1650). At its core are
HRSs proprietary isolation materials crafted to specific geometries; Mike Latvis
wouldnt divulge its makeup. These are jacketed in trim and inlay, both machined from
billets of aircraft aluminum. Lifting an S1 and loading it on the stand takes muscle.
Lifting five of them, as I did, was a workout.
Attached to the S1 Iso Base is what Latvis calls the
"primary isolation stage" of the SXR system: four proprietary, inverted
saucer-shaped, elastomer-supported feet that support the S1 shelf and the component
sitting on it. More important, these feet decouple the S1 from the SXR frame, dissipating
residual vibrational energy and controlling structural resonances. Prominent in the HRS
literature and in Latviss conversation is the fact that these feet provide "six
degrees of freedom isolation," which results in a near-zero geometric surface area
that interfaces with the outside world, for broadband isolation on all axes. Each foot has
a clever, piston-like elastomer shaft that compresses to a specific degree, depending on
the weight its designed to bear. Each set of four feet is calibrated to bear
specific loads in three ranges that roughly conform to the standard weights of various
component types: 0-45, 45-75, and 75-135 pounds. The feet also add another 1.5" of
height to the S1 base, making each S1 3" tall.
Setup
My older son, Alex (24), and I (58) had a lot of fun
assembling the five-shelf SXR-1921-5V stand. I enlisted him because Im not
mechanical, and hes inherited the skills and zest for that sort of thing from his
grandfathers, weekend tinkerers both. Alex is a bicycle enthusiast whos assembled
several touring bikes from scavenged parts, fixed them for his friends, and is now on a
cross-country cycling tour with 41 others. Late this winter, though, when the SXR system
arrived -- as a wooden pyramid on a pallet, offloaded into our carport -- from Buffalo,
New York, Alex was in Eugene, Oregon, where we live, and I called him over to get the
party started.
We tore off the shrink-wrap and snapped off the blue ties
holding together the seven-piece wooden ziggurat, and, like hod carriers, toted everything
inside the house. We stacked crates in the entry parlor according to their labels or lack
of same: Iso Bases here, two unlabeled boxes there. Each box containing an
Iso Base was clearly marked -- Amp, Preamp, CD, Phono, Nottingham
TT -- according to the list of components Id sent Latvis a few weeks
before. Two unlabeled boxes contained the framing and the tools for assembly.
Alex got a big kick out of the ten-page manual and its
military-style title: SXR-IV Audio Stand Field Assembly Instruction. I wanted to
quit right there, but Alex studied it, then unpacked each box, sorting them by shelf order
and categories of assembly, just as instructed. He laid out all the little bubble-wrapped
packets of parts (bolts, O-rings, nuts, etc.), the paper-wrapped struts, the five big
cross-braces, and the six elephant-bullet rack feet. For each stage of assembly, the
manual had clear advice, a photo, or explicit and sequential instructions, dos and
donts: a wise and patient Virgil guiding his Dante through a purgatorial labyrinth
of metal bits. So much was illustrated, so much made sense, that Alex exclaimed laughingly
as he successfully completed each stage of assembly, delighting that the tools did exactly
the jobs theyd been designed to do, and ecstatic over the process of putting the
whole thing together, which he described as a "logical, mechanical meditation."
I watched and documented it all with notes and photographs, my major role (besides writing
about it) being that of Designated Unwrapper. Ninety no-sweat minutes later, the five
stages of the SXR stand stood in my parlor like a rockets black gantry. Per
instructions, Alex had assembled it upside down, from the top cross-brace first.
Using furniture sliders, Alex and I carefully pushed the
SXR frame, still upside down and minus the S1 shelves, across the pile carpet and into my
study. We righted the SXR and walked it back to its spot, where it just fit. The frame was
a snap to level, its large footers spinning easily. Then, with some puffing, I inserted
each shelf, taking care to place each footer, centered in its cup, on the cross braces
(this careful maneuvering is a one-man job). I then placed each of my components in the
SXR: amps first, on the bottom shelf; then, moving up, my preamp, CD player, and phono
stage; and finally, on the top shelf, my 45-pound turntable.
System
My system consists of a Cary CD 303/300 CD player; a
Nottingham Spacedeck turntable (with Heavy Kit), Nottingham 9" Spacearm tonearm (with
Pete Riggle VTAF), and Shelter 501 Mk.II (0.4mV) and Zyx Airy 3 (0.24mV) moving-coil
cartridges; a Herron VTPH-2 phono stage; Thor TA-1000 Mk.II and deHavilland Mercury 3
preamplifiers; deHavilland KE 50A monoblocks (40W, class-A); and Von Schweikert Audio VR5
HSE loudspeakers (91dB/6 ohms) on plinths of 5/8"-thick MDF. I use Cardas Golden
Reference and Herron interconnects (RCA), and Verbatim speaker cables with jumpers. During
the review period, I also used two other turntables: the Artemis SA-1 with Schröder DPS
tonearm, and a TW-Acustic Raven Two with Jelco SA-250 arm.
I use Balanced Power Technologys Clean Power Center
passive line conditioner for the phono stage and preamps. The Cary CD player goes straight
into the wall with a Fusion Audio Predator power cord. The power amps were plugged into an
Isoclean 104 II power strip with Cardas Golden Reference AC cables, the strip itself
plugged into the wall with another Golden Reference. Other power cords were Thor Red,
Fusion Audio Impulse, and Harmonix XDC Studio Master. I have two 15A dedicated lines, both
with Oyaide R1 duplex outlets. I used PS Audio Critical Link fuses in the Cary player and
the deHavilland preamp and mono amps.
My reference equipment rack is a five-shelf Finite Elemente
Signature Pagode E15/110; when its in use, I place Finite Elemente Cerapucs under
the Cary player. The SXR-1921-5V takes up more real estate and airspace (27"W
x 51.5"H x 19.5"D) than does the Pagode (21.625"W x 43.33"H x
19.625"D) -- the HRS is nearly a foot taller, 5" wider, and, loaded with all
five S1 Iso Bases, weighs a whopping 360 pounds! Nose tackle territory, indeed.
My listening room is treated with sound panels from
Acoustic Sciences Corporation; bookshelves line the right wall, shelves of LPs the left.
Also my study, the room is fairly small (12W x 15L x 8.5H); I listen
both in the nearfield, and on a couch about 8 away from the plane described by the
front baffles of the speakers. The Von Schweikert VR5s are toed in about 3"; the
tweeter axes fire slightly to the outside of my ears when I sit in my standard listening
position.
First impressions
I tried digital recordings first -- orchestral music with
lush violins -- and at first blush, the sound was disappointing. I heard a gray glare when
the first violins dialed up the volume on the "Red Book" layer of Paavo Järvi
and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie-Bremens recording of Beethovens
symphonies 4 and 7 (SACD, RCA 88697-21418-2). I then tried analog. It sounded
better -- warmer, a bit sweeter, more tolerable, I told myself -- but I still heard
that graying of the sound in the upper midrange, the violins glossing over on Herbert von
Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonics recording of Beethovens Symphony 6 (LP,
Deutsche Grammophon 2531 106). I went back to digital and listened to choral music, opera,
and Baroque ensembles, and all sounded the same: a gray gloss or sheen masked the upper
midrange and roiled the clarity, setting me on edge. What was wrong? This could not be
the HRS sound, I thought.
Many audiophiles -- even reviewers -- might be inclined to
buy only the SXR rack and S1 shelves, thinking these the major components of the HRS
approach, and the Nimbus System and Damping Plates mere "tweaks" and, therefore,
optional. Nor did I use them at first, wanting to hear what the frame and shelves alone
would do for my systems sound. However, in my four months with this system, I came
to understand that employing the entirety of the HRS approach had merits beyond any
I could have anticipated. Still, it took me a while to understand what Mike Latvis had
been talking about.
I was perhaps the perfect test subject for the HRS
approach: not only keenly interested, but in dire need of help. My listening room has some
serious deficiencies. Not only is it small, it has a suspended wooden floor so springy
that, two years ago, when I first installed the Von Schweikert VR5 HSE speakers, they
suffered severe woofer excursion from acoustic feedback building up in the analog chain.
Without this being addressed, the stylus can jump the groove in an LP -- Ive seen
it. Ive since shored up the floor under the speakers and audio rack, and placed
those MDF plinths under the speakers, but even so, acoustic feedback remains a problem,
always waiting to reappear. On top of that, the rooms smallness means that the right
speaker must sit just next to the component rack, in a kind of well or nook beside a row
of bookcases. Severe structural noise comes from the speaker cabinets through the
floor and up the audio rack, and extreme airborne noise arrives from my right
speakers four front-firing drivers (two 7" SEAS woofers, a 5" Audax
midrange, and a 1" SEAS dome tweeter). The metallic skins of the phono stage, CD
player, line stage, and monoblocks -- each almost cheek-by-jowl with my right speaker and
its attendant reflections -- all pick up airborne vibrations. Finally, the SXR racks
surfaces themselves are all metal, which also contributes to airborne reflective
vibrations.
Enter the Nimbus System and Damping Plates
HRSs Nimbus System, a set
of four freestanding feet, works together with the SXR stand and S1 Iso Base to eliminate
component chassis noise -- airborne from without, mechanical from within. Each Nimbus
System footer comprises a central, 3.4"-diameter Nimbus Spacer of the ubiquitous
billet aluminum, available in three heights (0.3", 0.8", 1.3"), and
sandwiched by two coffee-coaster-sized Nimbus Couplers of proprietary HRS polymer. These
address resonances radiating from below the component. My review set comprised four
0.8" HNS-080 Nimbus Spacers ($43 each) and eight Nimbus Couplers ($32 each).
The Nimbus footers replaced the stock, metallic feet under
my Cary 303/300 CD player: two along the players rear edge, just inside the empty
housings of the Carys stock feet, and, at first, one almost directly under the CD
tray. Later, I introduced the fourth Nimbus, and then placed one to either side of the
tray. I found this produced the cleanest, most balanced sound -- much better than no
Nimbuses at all.
For the chassis top, HRS makes
available the tidy Damping Plate, which comes in three sizes: 5.5" x 4.5" (1
pound), 9.5" x 4.5" (2 pounds), and 14.5" x 4.5" (3.1 pounds). All are
0.7" thick and made of aircraft aluminum, but with only a single layer of the HRS
polymer affixed to the bottom. The Damping Plate, too, addresses internally generated
mechanical noise, but in my experience was dramatically effective in reducing airborne
vibrations from loudspeakers and room reflections. HRS provided me with two 14.5" x
4.5" Damping Plates ($195 each), which I found so useful in clarifying the audio
signal that I shuttled them between my turntable and CD player, depending on which I was
using.
The airborne noise, produced mainly by my right speaker,
that had been exciting the metallic skins of the components, particularly those of the
Herron phono and Cary CD player, was stopped dead in its tracks by the HRS Damping Plates.
The gains were audible across the audioband, improving the extension and expressiveness of
the bass, clarifying and opening up the midrange to its natural sweetness, and purifying
the treble.
Whats an isolated system sound like?
The first LP that grabbed my attention was of
Beethovens Violin Concerto, performed by Arthur Grumiaux and the New Philharmonia
Orchestra, conducted by Alceo Galliera (LP, Philips Festivo 6570 051). Via the Nottingham
Spacedeck turntable and Spacearm, the first movement, Allegro ma non troppo,
sounded much more anchored and solid than it had on my Finite Elemente Pagode Signature
rack. The solidity and focus of the performance now compared favorably with that of the
Artemis SA-1 table; on the SXR, starts and stops with the Nottingham were sharper,
images more focused, sonic timing more precise. The difference in some ways was subtle,
yet ultimately profound -- I heard the bass viols and their throbbing mournfulness, their
rumbling, timpani-like tones that Id thought were pizzicati but now realized
were sautillé -- bows bounced jovially against strings. The gain in detail was
such that each instrument seemed much more brightly lit and timbrally delineated from the
rest: solo violin from string sections, timpani from bass viols, cellos from woodwinds.
The bass foundation was wider and bloomier. Inner phrasings of all string instruments were
clearer, more nuanced, more expressive. Grumiauxs violin was sharper, sprightlier,
without losing any sweetness. His trills, vibrato, and cadenzas were more sparkling,
flavorful, and tactile, contrasting wonderfully with the orchestras fuller timbres
and equally enlivened harmonics. There was, overall, more to listen to -- details not
spotlit, but the whole gaining a wider, more articulate palette of orchestral sound.
Comparing the Nottinghams sound when sitting on the Finite Elemente rack, all the
organic thrill of flow and most of the timbral richness of the orchestra were there, but
there were also serious gains in focus and verisimilitude with the SXR. The SXR brought
the Nottingham closer to the performance level of the Artemis SA-1 in terms of weight,
solidity, and clarity, while extending the soundstage a bit farther into the room, all of
the instruments sounding more up-front than with the FE rack.
Turning to CDs, I wanted to explore complex harmonies and a
rich tonal palette, so I chose Miles Ahead, the first of Miles Daviss famous
collaborations with Gil Evans, who wrote and conducted the arrangements for jazz orchestra
(Columbia CL 1041, from Davis and Evans The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings).
Here, I noted that the Damping Plates dramatically improved clarity, impact, cleanness,
tone, and bass extension, and that the impact and bloom of the horns was much more dynamic
and precise. On "My Ship," the orchestras coherence, tonal colors, and
explosiveness were reminiscent of the tonal saturation and dynamics of mono on a good
system. The room was gorgeous with music cool as a sweet lime gimlet as I listened to
aching sonic lamés and chiffon decays of Daviss flugelhorn, rumbling sweetness from
the bass clarinet, and was startled by coordinated, harmonically complicated blasts from
the horn section.
Wishing to further test the systems purity of
resolution of complex harmonies, I went to a recording of late medieval choral music --
Ockeghems Missa Mi-mi, sung by The Clerks Group, directed by Edward
Wickham (CD, Gaudeamus CD GAU 139). This choral ensemble from Oxford, England, comprises
11 singers: two sopranos, three altos, two tenors, and two basses. On Sanctus, what
I heard was especially sweet, clear, and harmonically satisfying. While such polyphony is
challenging for any audio system, the tenor line on Sanctus stood out as especially
sweet and clear. As with so much of my music, once I had the full SXR system in place, I
was able to notice little nuances, vocal shadings, and expressions of verve in the tenor
performances that I hadnt before. It wasnt so much that these stood out crisply,
outlined by attack and decay transients that lived beyond their organic temporality;
instead, they felt less lost in the mix, perhaps more fully revealed by a consistently
lower noise floor -- so much so that I could discern inflections in vocal lines that might
have simply blended in before, however naturally. With the SXR rack providing a foundation
for my system, listening to choral music was more like slowly viewing an embroidered
tapestry -- my eye taking in the lavish gestalt of the whole even as it leisurely picked
out recurring motifs, dawdled on the purity of a single image, or followed a line of
development all the way to its culmination.
For a pure voice in our time, though, I can think of no
better than American soprano Renée Fleming. "Casta Diva," the famous bel canto
aria from Bellinis Norma, on Flemings eponymous CD (Decca 289 467 049
2), begins with a long introduction from the flute, which carries the theme that builds
slowly and somewhat languidly until Fleming takes it up, commanding it like a Siren from
Shangri-La. The London Philharmonics strings sounded warm, open, and completely deft
in support, but this selection is all about the voice. The vocal part begins at the lower
end of the soprano range, creeping quickly to a high note that Fleming spins with the
lightest vibrato. She then increases the volume even as she multiplies her interpretive
shadings -- more volume and vibrato with each measure, until she nails a gorgeously
dramatic series of roulades before the London Voices join her with airy sotto voce
singing. Through my system, Flemings top notes were completely pure -- no distortion
even when orchestral strings rose in crescendo, and Flemings volume along with them.
The system presented a complex musical tapestry full of layered shifts in dynamics and
exchanges of focus from orchestra to Fleming to chorus and back again to Fleming.
Throughout, what I appreciated was the authority, clarity, and cleanness the SXR system
brought to my system. It delivered all the transparency I believe my system is capable of.
The HRS motto is "Discover your systems capability." I think I have.
To check out the boogie factor, I played some good ol
boy blues-rock: the original edition of the Allman Brothers Bands At Fillmore
East (LP, Capricorn SD2-802), and its reissue, the greatly expanded and retitled The
Fillmore Concerts (CD, Polydor 314 517 294-2). What I discovered was that the SXR rack
brought out a huge difference, not only between the quality of these recordings in
different formats, but between analog and digital overall.
On Willie Cobbs "You Dont Love Me,"
guest Thom Doucettes harmonica honked on the LP with chromatic richness, bluesy
screeches and tweets. Duane Allman, on his slide Gibson Les Paul, snarled, screeched, and
moaned like a Pavarotti of the blues, sometimes letting the notes linger, at others biting
them off, damping them with the heel of his palm, then wailing swiftly into another rapid
run of blues roulades. At one point I thought I heard guitarist Dicky Bettss entry
solo just lag the beat for two or three measures before catching up. But when both guitars
played in unison, yawking and twanging together, it made me want to get up and move my
Macon.
And pace, rhythm, and timing! During the drummers
breakdown, Jai Johanny Johanson and Butch Trucks play in tight unison on the beat, with
light variations, the rimwork of one simultaneous with the snare rolls of the other,
producing a delicious complexity of well-timed, complementary strokes. The SXR created a
foundation not only for a lower noise floor and "blacker" silences, but also for
thrills of timing -- the simultaneous work of the two drummers produced a tapestry of
rhythm not unlike the harmonic complexity of a polyphonic choir, one drummers jazzy
polyrhythms against the others steady, bluesy thunk and chunk. From my
notes: Resolution, speed, and perfect timing.
My system was now so resolving of percussion that I cast
about in my collection for more. Listening to Valery Gergiev and the Kirov
Orchestras recording of Stravinskys The Rite of Spring (CD, Philips 289
468 035 2), what most grabbed me -- aside from the depth of soundstage and the clarity of
the woodwinds (never have I heard such nuanced shrieks!) -- was how articulate the
percussion instruments were now that my components were supported by the SXR rack.
Im no fan of marveling at sound effects or describing artifacts, but Ill make
an exception in the case of the SXR. I began to notice, during the Introduction,
that the triangle Id always heard providing sweet, chiming notes in the background
was no longer just a brilliant tinkle, but seemed to have morphed into sounds much more
organic, much more developed across time. The sound now had three stages: the dull impact
of the musicians stroke, then a mellowing inner note, and finally a sweet, metallic
shimmer that dispersed into the fabric of the music.
Furthermore, the combination of timpani and bass-drum
strokes at the first climax of Augurs of Spring: Dance for the Adolescents came
alive in a way Id not quite heard before. There is, near the outset of this section,
a discordant series of slashing pulses from the strings and horns, accents landing
irregularly and propulsively in a repeated series of rhythmic phrases. But at the end of
the first series of repeats, the timpani and bass drum are struck in a percussive sequence
as though a giant had swiftly tapped his foot three times on the earth, then given it a
good, resounding stomp that shatters the stone underfoot. In the weave of the
music, this thwack was magnificent, fully three-dimensional and organic, with both
velocity and articulation, beginning with a sweet, soft top that exploded into a hard,
nearly floor-busting bottom.
Conclusion
Once all of the HRS SXR system was in place, I began
to enjoy a clarity, depth, nuance, and grandeur of sound. It was as though a painting by a
Dutch master -- Van Eyck, say -- had been taken down from its museum wall and carefully
cleaned by an academy-trained conservator, its layers of ague-colored varnish removed so
that its natural pigments, still inherently vibrant across the centuries, could shine
anew. I thoroughly enjoyed what I heard, be it analog or digital, and found that the SXR
rack system elicited from my system a far higher level of resolution and musical drama. It
also brought out the best performances Id ever heard from my Nottingham Spacedeck
and Spacearm, and more sweetness, nuance, and delicacy from the Artemis SA-1 turntable and
Schröder arm, which had already sounded solid and nimble. Both analog sources benefited
from the rock-solid stability of the SXR frame and damping of the S1 base, closing a large
gap Id heard between them when they were placed on my Finite Elemente Pagode
Signature rack -- a gap large enough that Id felt the differences were more of
character than of quality. Whats more, the HRS system seemed to increase the gap
between analog and digital play in my system, giving analog a quantum-leap advantage in
impact, richness, and bass -- not to mention naturalness of tone -- over digital.
If you feel your system has come together in a kind of
audio maturity -- a maturity in which each component seems the best and most sophisticated
you could have while still maintaining synergy with the others -- then you might consider
trying an HRS SXR rack system. For those interested in getting the most out of their audio
components, the high price of the SXR -- the system reviewed costs $15,292 --
shouldnt be much of an impediment, as the point would be to get as close to a
systems optimal performance as possible. I think the SXR will do that. As the
company motto states, "Discover your systems capability." Audition a
Harmonic Resolution Systems SXR rack, Nimbus System, and Damping Plates, and see what a
coherent, complementary, and thoroughly choreographed resonance-control system can do for
your components. A Nureyev of a nose tackle will suspend them aloft so that no foul noise
from earth or air will corrupt the purity of their song.
. . . Garrett Hongo
garretth@ultraaudio.com
SXR Audio Stand
Price: $5995 USD (five shelves)
S1 Isolation Base
Price: $1695 USD each
Damping Plate
Price: $195 USD each
Nimbus Coupler
Price: $32.50 USD each
Nimbus Spacer
Price: $43 USD each
Warranty (all): Five years parts and labor.
System price: $15,292 USD
Harmonic Resolution Systems
2495 Main St., Suite 355
Buffalo, NY 14214
Phone: (716) 873-1437
Fax: (716) 873-14
E-mail: info@avisolation.com
Website: www.avisolation.com
Harmonic Resolution Systems responds:
I would like to thank Garrett Hongo for his review of the
Harmonic Resolution Systems Inc. SXR audio stand, S1 Isolation Bases, and our Nimbus and
Damping Plate chassis noise-reduction products. I enjoyed Garrett's unique visual
description of his positive experience with the Harmonic Resolution Systems products. The
phrase "Once all of the HRS SXR system was in place, I began to enjoy a clarity,
depth, nuance, and grandeur of sound. It was as though a painting by a Dutch master -- Van
Eyck, say -- had been taken down from its museum wall and carefully cleaned by an
academy-trained conservator, its layers of ague-colored varnish removed so that its
natural pigments, still inherently vibrant across the centuries, could shine anew" is
just a great visual way to describe the substantial impact HRS products have on a
systems performance.
Harmonic Resolution Systems Inc. recognizes that our
customers have a wide range of components and system configurations. That is exactly why
we design a wide range of products that perform specific tasks allowing each of our
customers to select what products are required to obtain exceptional performance
regardless of the particular system conditions and personal preferences. Garrett put this
philosophy to an extreme test in his review system as the source components are less than
a few feet from one of the speakers. Under his particular system conditions he found that
a combination of our products provided the best overall performance. His final product
selection is very close to what we would expect to provide optimal performance given his
particular system conditions. I would also like to thank Jeff Fritz and Doug Schneider of Ultra
Audio for having Garrett review our complete system and use his exceptional command of
the English language to communicate his very positive experience with our products.
Best regards,
Michael Latvis
President
Harmonic Resolution Systems Inc.
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