What is tuning your system?Tuning your system is when all of the parts of your setup are passing the same signal through the entire audio chain. You may have the greatest system in the world but out of tune it will not compete against a setup that is in-tune. Tuning involves the 3 elements of audio, electrical, mechanical and acoustical. We call these the audio trilogy. All 3 of these have one thing in common energy (vibration).
How does tuning work?Everything that vibrates is orbital (spherical). There is a support system of motion (energy) that keeps this orbit in tact. As this system forms a growth pattern it too is spherical and is called a wave (signal). As waves multiply they develop an even larger support system called harmonics. Harmonics are what keep the wave (fundamental) in-tune and able to interact with similar waves.
Your audio system host over 20 thousand fundamentals (frequencies). These frequencies are part of a music language called notes. The notes are captured in the recording process and replayed in playback. Your audio system and the music playing on it both require a mechanical pathway that can reproduce the entire music scale structure. When the harmonics are not supporting the fundamentals properly this is called distortion. Distortion is the taking away from or adding to the audio signal without being in-tune.
How do Sonic Cones and Bells help my system stay in-tune?Sonic Cones and Bells are designed to allow the vibrations of components and speakers to make a full range transfer to the next level of mechanical grounding with the harmonics and fundamentals intact and in-tune. Because they are themselves tuning devices they act as beacons for energy to gather and send allowing the dissipation of the audio signal to broaden and complete their cycle of natural decay. This keeps the harmonics vibrant so that the fundamentals can be delivered with less distortion. The more we fine tune the fundamentals and their harmonics the more real the playback becomes.
How do I start tuning my components?Lets start with your electronic components. First, remove the feet. Even if your not going to put cones where the feet are located take them off as they are and will throw your component out of tune. While your doing so tap on the bottom of the component and listen how different it sounds when you tap on different areas. Unless your component is dampened (a bad thing) on the bottom you will hear how the different parts inside the unit change pitch depending on where they are attached, how much weight and mass they have, and how tight they are mounted.
We recommend you de-torque as many screws as you can get to (including inside the chassis). When screws are too tight it forces energy to gather around them and causes distortion. Your parts need to vibrate as freely as possible to give an open, life like sound.
Your components sound like what they are sitting on or touching. Is your component in-tune with what it is sitting on? One way to tell is the size of your soundstage.
If your soundstage is not going past the boundaries of the room chances are you have signal blockage. Same is true if you stand up and move to one side while the music is playing and the sound goes into the speakers. If you have wood shelves (solid wood, particle board, MDF) your sound will complete mechanical grounding. If not you should place a piece of wood (we have recommendations for this) between your component and shelf. To view extreme mechanical grounding
https://tuneland.forumotion.com/t71-mga-platformsWhich cone do I use?Each model is harmonically tuned to respond to weight and material type of both the component and the surface it is touching. They are all full range transfer devices, but have different harmonic responses. You might compare their sound characters to that of different tube types, ranging from more analytical to open air sounding. Because they are made distortion free they can help eliminate other distortions the system has developed.
The inside of your component will give you clues as to which cone to use and where. The heaviest mass draining area usually host the highest frequency transfer (cluster). In this area you will probably choose the AAB1X1SBS or SBSR. Why? Because your frequencies are running together and need opened up. The SBS is the most open of the cones.
Lets look at the placement and why. The Transformer is the dullest sounding part in the component and the heaviest. This would get the most open cone AAB1X1SBS. Heatsinks usually add a hard sound, but not bad unless they are too big. This would get a AAB1X1SBR or SB. And lastly the circuit area which needs to be stabilized after the vibrations running away from it to the other areas. So here we are looking at the AAB1X1.
Of course this is just an example to give you an idea of a starting point. Most placement decisions are pretty common sense but for those who have tricky configurations we recommend having a complete set and experimenting till you hear the harmonics lock in to your liking.
How do you know when harmonics are getting in tune?When harmonics are in-tune you will have an increase in volume at the same level setting, and a larger more full soundstage. As you shed distortion this will continue till you have the sense of being in the room with the recording instead of looking at a soundstage from a distance with undersized instruments. You will also notice that your sound is tonally balanced without fatiguing. Fatiguing comes from the lack of harmonics your system is able to produce. Harmonics are not distortion, the lack of harmonics is.
Do all components need to be tuned?Chances are, unless you have the identical conditions in your home as all of the component's manufacturing facilities that you are using and the identical system they use, your system is at least some what out of tune. We have witnessed systems more than double in performance just by tuning the bottoms of their components.
Do Sonic Cones & Bells work well with speakers?It's a speakers job to vibrate more than any other component in the audio chain. It is after all where the sound meets the room in two areas: one acoustically, two mechanically. If the mechanical part is not in-tune it is impossible for the speaker to deliver a pure sound wave. Voicing your speakers with the floor is one of the most important parts of the music connection.
It's a huge mistake in audio to assume that a loudspeaker is supposed to make up for a bad sounding floor. Let's be very clear here. If you have a speaker and it is sitting on something it is coupled to that something. There is no such thing as de-coupling speakers from the floor. Want to hear how musical your speakers really are? Couple them correctly to the rest of the room and tune them in. You will have an entirely new respect for loudspeakers and their capabilities.
All of the AAB series work extremely well on speakers. The AAB1X1SBS worked so well at opening up the soundstage that it was given the code S for Speaker. We have found that speakers develop different patterns of grounding from top to bottom that changes depending on what the speakers are sitting on and what the environment is like. Speakers respond to the world they are placed in, and there are a ton of factors that dictate how they sound. Your speaker may sound open in one room and closed in the next. To remedy this you can change the mechanical connection between the speaker and the floor with the AABs and put the speakers linear alignment back in to tune. Look back and study the differences of the cones to determine your plan.
What is sound, and how does it work?To understand why it is so important to put and keep a system in tune we should take a look at what sound is and how it works. Read more on sound
https://tuneland.forumotion.com/t80-what-is-sound .
Harmonizing tube components!The AAB series of cones and bells are fascinating to listen to under tube electronics. The sense of air is redefined as clean and more full (less distorted). It would be hard to pick out a favorite as all of them gravitate toward different tube attributes. The "R" give a full relaxed sound and expand as you go from AAB1X1R to the AAB1X1SBR, and then extremely open with the AAB1X1SBSR. The Pointed cones sound more direct and analytical. If you love trading tubes your going to love it even more with the AAB series as they take the sound of tubes to a whole new level.
Tube gear is said the be the sweetest sounding of all high end audio electronics, but one of the down falls is an apparent rolled off high and bass. This is do to the fatness of the harmonics in the mid-range. The AAB series does away with this problem as the Audio Alloy has a more board frequency range than other audio materials. There is more balance between the 2nd, 4th and up in the harmonic scale which is vital for a full spectrum of musical information.
Special note to tube lovers: be very careful not to set your tube gear too close to metal, glass, or stone shelving. Your tubes will pick up harmonic distortion off of these types of materials. Tubes need a long dissipation rate to achieve their correct tonal balance and because of their physical make up need wood and open air to develop a balanced resonant field. We will be happy to help you find the correct balance for your components.
Digital Components.This is the most understudied topic in audio, as far as vibration goes. Your digital components are far more subject to instabilities than you could even imagine. Chips are highly vulnerable to over shielding, over dampening and under tuning. We have been stunned quite frankly at how tunable digital gear really is. Because they are usually far lighter weight than the typical audio component the resonant factor is much better than that of heavier components. Once tuned it's shocking how musical these new age audio components can be. We recommend before you over build your DAC or other components listen to what it can do in-tune. With these units the line between out of tune and in-tune is a fine one. If you mechanically ground them old school with weight or typical cones or pods you will find yourself listening to noise. You will probably blame it on jitter without realizing that it is a mechanical problem. Jitter is a vibration problem at all and any roots. If it has energy it has vibration.
https://tuneland.forumotion.com/t79-vibratory-code#1167The AAB series will allow you to find the vibrational combination to your digital components and restore your clock's performance to it's maximum potential. They will also align the surrounding parts to mechanically drain properly eliminating some field interference. The results are a warmer presentation, increased volume, and bigger stage.
Describing the sound of each AAB.To describe the sound of an AAB it might be best starting with what it doesn't sound like. AABs do not sound like Zinc, Aluminum, Copper, stock Brass, Bronze, Tin, Titanium, Lead, Steal, Carbon, Nylon, Polymer, Stainless, Silver alloy, Gold alloy or many others we tested. Why? I needed a material that was sonically neutral and full range. After testing these and coming back to the drawing board, we began to make our own. Baking a sonic cake is not the easiest thing in the world, but after a ton of listening we developed a brass blend that was spectacular. This material made the other cones sound out of tune and phazy by comparison. Thus the name Audio Alloy.
One of the secrets to the sound is how it machines. Your tooling is as much of shaping the sound as the material. You can hear this while the material is spinning. Here is where the sonic testing starts. The tooling is tempered to a full range speed and pitch while cutting. This makes a huge difference in the end result. If it's out of pitch on the machine it will be out of pitch in your system, and out of pitch means distortion.
The shape is one that we have used for years with some refinements. Some see a cone for the finished product, we see the cone as a process in range and delivery. Our earliest models 20 years ago did a fine job for what they were, but they still had a fixed character to the sound and if you used them outside of a particular mass range the pitch would shoot up and stuck out in the music as an upper mid peak and tonal thinness. The remedy came in an outer bell design that is far more linear and harmonically balanced.
AAB1X1The AAB1X1 is extremely stable and a great work horse in transfer. It tells you exactly what is going on in the system from 16hz-28Khz. If you are not going to be experimenting with tuning your components by mixing the cones and their placement this is the cone to use. It is musically dynamic in all the right places and is suitable for the most analytical of listeners. The AAB1X1 gives excellent attack and pace. Get out your air pencil cause you will be able to draw your instruments in mid space.
AAB1X1RYou might be tempted to say the R is the same cone as the 1X1 with a round instead of a stable point, but this would not be entirely accurate. The AAB1X1R is very entertaining to listen to. If you like the sound of fingers rolling over the strings and the wood of the violin this is a good cone to look at. It's also a great mix and match cone when wanting to add a solid yet full round punch to the performance. Digital distortions have met their match with the very smooth upper end. Great for floors that you don't want to put a point in. The round also comes in handy for those who are using hard shelves. We do not like the sound of brass disc, but instead much prefer the round.
AAB1X1SBI don't know if you can call this my favorite, but it's the one I use the most. The Sonic Bell has a small voiced port (the inner bell) machined in the flange and bell. What this does is takes the 2nd and 4th harmonic and fortifies them, giving more to the fundamental or maybe even correcting the fundamental from being surrounded by too mechanical sounding parts. There's a freedom given to the notes as they play and an ease of dynamics that remind you of tubes but without any floor noise. It's like someone opened up the stage into a new dimension, a realism. The SB mixes fantastically with all the other cones allowing the listeners to go a little one way or another when voicing in pitch and character of the transfer. As I said when shaping the sound I use this cone more than any other.
AAB1X1SBRTake what I just said and add smooth on top of it. A great cone for tube gear and for those who know how to use wood in their systems. A very easy on the ears type of cone. Great on hard wood floors with speakers or big amps.
AAB1X1SBSIf the SBS doesn't open up the sound of your component it is dead or dampened beyond reason. The SBS is the most open of the cones casting huge sound stages and big slashes of beautiful music. If you want inside the hall and can't get a ticket the AAB1X1SBS will bring the concert to you. They will make most speakers disappear in the room and make a piccolo sound marvelously airy. I love this cone on classical and space music. If you look at music from the side of air and subtleties this might be the cone for you. Again the SBS mixes well with all the other cones and even gives a surprise sparkle when mixed with the 1X1. If you want a closed shut down sound this cone is not for you.
AAB1X1SBSRRounding off the sound of the SBS is hard to describe unless you are wearing your 3D glasses. Warm, fun, but not fuzzy would be a good way to describe this harmonically rich music producer. If your really into tuning your system this is a cone you will want around. It can make a big transformer sound light as air and remove grunge from heavy chassis and heatsinks. I love using one of these with 2 AAB1X1SB for a very open and balanced sound.
Distortion free!Removing distortion from a system can be tons of fun and give you much more music to listen to. The AAB series of cones and bells will take your system to a new level of enjoyment while taking away the headaches of not being able to get the sound you want and deserve. I invite you to look at tuning step by step to see just how far you can go in opening up your system. Please feel at home and start a thread on your system.