Energy Resonant Patterns and How They Affect Our Systems

As I have continued to “open” up and free the energy flow through my system, some very interesting things have happened from a sonic standpoint. Energy can be freed up in one part of your system and it will affect the entire system and also affect energy flow through other parts of your system because your system is one “whole” series of parts that is inseparably linked together.

In another forum here on TuneLand, Michael talked about our experiences on the phone while he was in Michigan where I would actually hear his voice resonate at the frequency of a train whistle (part of his voice sounded exactly like a train whistling), as he spoke on the phone, even when there was no train passing by. I had heard this train and its whistle many times in the background, but was quite surprised when I heard it when there was no train present. It was explained how everything in our surroundings, over time, will resonate in tune with other things in the immediate surroundings. This includes entire buildings and, in this case, Michael’s living quarters and the phone itself. Well, the same phenomenon happens in our systems. When we place anything in our system, it will affect the resonant pattern of other parts of our system, especially those parts in close proximity to the change. For example, as I continue to free up the energy in my system to “open up” the sound more and more, I find that there are changes occurring, to the resonant patterns of different parts of the system that must be retuned.

When I first started using Magic Wood on my Magnavox player, I found that for any particular CD playing required a unique sized block or piece of Magic Wood at various locations in the clamping process. For example, if you open up the sound of a component by loosening up its parts and then start out by just using MTDs on that component, the component will develop a resonant pattern similar to that described above about the building and the train whistle. In other words, everything in your system will affect everything else within its proximity because air is a conductor of energy and energy will be transmitted between components whether you like it or not. So, when you remove MTDs from a component and replace them with, let’s say, Harmonic Feet, there is already a resonant pattern set up in and around that component which the Harmonic Feet will now interact with in addition to just the component itself and its resonant pattern from the past. The same phenomenon happens when you insert Magic Wood, or any other material for that matter, into your system.

When I recently inserted new power cords which allow energy to flow more freely from the wall to the components and from some of my components to my power strip, I had to retune everything because everything was in an energy resonant pattern created by the previous power cords. But, when you use lightweight, tunable components, and loosen them initially before you insert them into your system, your components can easily adapt to new changes which will allow the component to open up the sound even more. As I have continued to open up and free up the flow of energy through my system at various points, I have found that I have, for any given recording, had to adjust the size of the pieces of Magic Wood on and around a given component and I have gone from larger pieces to smaller pieces in direct proportion to the freeing up of energy flow through the system and components. This is a generalization that I found to be true, but keep in mind that certain recordings will require going back to larger pieces if you want to play them back as accurately as possible.

So, there are energy resonant patterns all throughout your systems and as soon as you make a change or add a new part to your system, you will change, but not totally remove the previous energy pattern. Our systems, over time, become an accumulation of energy resonant patterns that have existed previously in addition to newly added ones. This is why it is so important to start out using the right components in the first place. Once these patterns are “set”, you cannot totally remove them but must learn how to tune around them. That’s what variable tuning is really all about and why it is such a valuable tool in making our listening experience such an enjoyable event right in our homes.

Variable tuning allows us to variably tune all these accumulated resonant energy patterns that have accumulated in our houses, our room, our walls, our floors, our racks, our components and our furniture – in other words, in our total listening and living environment. The key to good sound is how to synergistically tune around and/or “tune in” all these accumulated energy patterns and make them work for us instead of against us. That’s what the Tune is really all about. It’s about how to start developing the “right” energy patterns in your system and why our systems are going to keep changing sonically, as time goes by, all on their own. So, as you make changes to your system today, over time, your system will continue to change sonically all on its own as new energy resonant patterns settle into your system and accumulate with the old energy patterns already existing in your system. This is also why it is important not to make snap judgments on what you hear when you introduce a new change, part or component into your system. What a new component or accessory sounds like “out of the box” cannot be “categorized” with a label as to its sound because that part or component has yet to make its effect known on how its individual parts will react with your living and listening environment. So, learn to be patient when making changes to your systems. This is why the process of “reviewing” components is so difficult. Our systems are always in a state of constant flux and so are components. But with using components which are easily “opened up” sonically, it gives us the ability to have our systems adapt to environmental changes much easier. For this reason, variably tunable speakers, racks, and acoustics will never be surpassed in performance by fixed tuned products of similar categories, regardless of their cost.

You must continue to “open up” the sound of your system. This is not a “one time” event, but is a continual process as your learning curve on tuning speeds up and grows. And, you will find that this learning curve is as infinite as the universe itself.
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Jim Bookhard