The AXPONA 2023 Chronicles: Part 12
The one, and only, 1st Floor.
Audio Expo North America 2023 Show Report By Rick Becker

Synergistic Research And Scott Walker Audio
Journey Creation Complex is another room that is easily missed as it is off by itself on the right side just before entering the Expo Hall & Café. They had even put red velvet stanchions leading up to the door to channel attendees into their room.

I had visited this room near the end of the day on Saturday to be sure to meet up with Ted Denney and Andy Weiderspahn as they sometimes leave the shows early. I've put the coverage of their room in the geographic sequence of the AXPONA Chronicles, coincidentally saving the best for last... well, almost last.

First off, the room is co-sponsored by Synergistic Research and Scott Walker Audio which is the largest Synergistic dealer. I've often overlooked Scott's participation, but he is a major dealer not only in Anaheim but in recent years in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. The gear in this room all comes from lines they carry.

Entering the Journey Creation room might be a little confusing or disappointing. In the outer reception area are a couple of tables filled with Synergistic products. The "big stuff" on the table above included grounding products, an Ethernet switch, a Network Router, Linear Power Supplies, a Tranquility Pad, the big PowerCell SX power conditioner, the little PowerCell One, the Atmosphere tower and the Black Box that seems to show up in a lot of rooms at shows.

Another table featured small stuff like the HFT doobies that you stick on walls to tune the room, three levels of MiG footers, the very effective carbon fiber outlet covers, USB and Ethernet cable filters, cable jumpers, and their outstanding fuses. Much of this gear I've reviewed over the years and much of it still resides in my system.

Walking deeper into the office complex you come to the listening room where all the action is. In the past, Magico speakers have been presented, but Scott Walker has picked up the Estelon line from Estonia, a Baltic country that is standing strong against the invasion of Ukraine. I've admired both Magico and Estelon for many years and while they both sound great, visually they appeal to different people. The speakers here were the Estelon XB Mk II in Blue Cobalt Liquid Gloss ($49k) .

The room this year seemed particularly neat and tidy, given the complexity of the Synergistic Research additives. In the rack, starting at the top right and working clockwise were a pair of Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference, Series 3 ($28k ea.) with Synergistic MiG SX footers, along with the Berkely Alpha USB Module ($2k ea.). On the bottom in silver was a Soulution 511 amplifier ($38.5k).

Moving to the bottom of the left rack was a Soulution 725 Preamp ($60k). The black component above was likely the power supply for the preamp. The small boxes above that were likely an Ethernet Switch, a Network Router, and a linear power supply. And on the top shelf were the Synergistic Galileo Active Ground Block Mk II ($7,495) and the FEQ Carbon ($1,695).

The racks themselves were the Synergistic Research Tranquility Rack ($25k), utilizing a lot of carbon fiber.

In front of the racks was an SR Black Box ($2k), and behind it on an SR Tranquility amp stand was the SR Galileo PowerCell SX with an SRX power cord ($28k). The power conditioner was sitting on a separate Tranquility Base Carbon SX ($3,495).

The Galileo Active Ground Block Mk II ($7,495) was filled with High Definition Ground Cables ($395 ea.) running to all components — and there were a lot of them. The ground cables alone totaled more than $8,000.

Ted Denney is famous for doing active demonstrations of the efficacy of his often controversial tweaks and I highly recommend taking the opportunity for such demonstrations at shows, particularly those of Synergistic Research. At AXPONA 2023 Ted had set up identical Berkeley DACs to demonstrate the benefit of his new Master SR Quantum Fuse ($595).

My world premiere Synergistic Research Master Fuse review had just come out in the April issue. It's a rave, and you can read it here.

But there is nothing like hearing the difference for yourself. The good news is you will likely only need one of these expensive fuses in your system as they are most effective in the front-end components. And the effect is powerful.

As it turned out, I had missed Ted's demonstration of the SR Vibratron (gold & silver) at the Capital Audiofest last year, so he offered me a private demonstration. I listened for a minute. He removed the Vibratron from the room and I listened again. The result was immediate and obvious. Then he reinstalled the Vibratron and I had another listen.

It was one of those instances where a fish doesn't know water until he's hooked and removed from the lake. If he's lucky, it's a catch-and-release situation and he gets to appreciate the lake once again. Before the demonstration, I thought the room sounded really good. It should, after all, with all the top-shelf gear and the Synergistic SRX interconnects ($7.5k), SRX Slimline speaker cables ($17.5k), and SRX power cords ($10k ea.). But like Joni sings, "You don't know what you've got ‘til it's gone." Howard Kneller shot a video of the demonstration last year that is up on the Vibratron page of the Synergistic Research website.

I listened through headphones and only experienced half of what I did in person at AXPONA. Without the Vibratron the images of the singer and musicians became two-dimensional. They lost tonal color and dynamics. But most dramatic was the collapse of the space the music occupied in the room. With the Vibratron the music included not only typical space beyond the plane of the speakers but also the space between that plane and the plane of my listening position — the whole room in front of me and beyond the walls. Music was coming from the space directly beside me, though not from behind. Still, for a two-speaker stereo system, this was an addictive experience and once you've experienced the effect, you can't un-hear it.

In the video, Ted talks about the compression experienced without the Vibratron. I thought he was using the term "compression" as in the compression of dynamics in recorded music. What I experienced was a physical "compression" of the soundstage back to the plane of the speakers and beyond. With the Vibratron in place, the music fills the space of the room in front of you and it is more like the performers are in your room, or you are in theirs.

Looking back, the effect is not unlike what I experienced from the Bach-SP unit in the Theoretica Applied Physics room, 1102 on the 11th Floor, though I didn't have an A-B-A listening opportunity.  But instead of an expensive electronic manipulation of the music signal with the Bach-SP, you have an acoustic physical solution from a Zen master. Very impressive.

---> Next Page.