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Blackbody v.2: "An unusual sensory experience"

July, 2020, author: Srajan Ebaen
"The concept isn't as outré as it might first read."

"Subtle stuff? If the Firewall for Loudspeakers was anything to go by, far from it."

"Hearing differences isn't that hard. Explaining it when it's so unfamiliar is."

"Imagine air getting more humid. Decays linger longer. All tones seem bathed in a subtly golden glow. The overall sound gets softer, creamier, heavier and a bit slower. Strangest of all, the air-as much as we're usually entirely oblivious to it by virtue of its being invisible and tasteless-feels more involved in the business of conducting sound waves. As bizarre as it reads to certainly not be taken literal, it's a considered attempt at translating an unusual sensory experience into words. In general, the sonic gestalt expressed the now familiar LessLoss house sound. In particular, it added an unfamiliar viscosity which had me more aware of the airy medium as the transmitter of sound all around me. I'd not come across anything else that did this, exactly."

"Again tone/texture grew more honeyed. Pace mellowed, timing gained elasticity. Again contrast made me conscious of a peculiar action whereby sounds didn't just passively rise between and behind the speakers but rushed toward me. Physically I sensed the BBs' radiating effect in my belly as a slight warmth. Once they'd become the new normal, I expected that sensation and the 'more active air' perception to recede from awareness. Right after the switch, their otherness still registered."

"Are you sensitive to energies which prayers over many centuries even millennia install in cathedrals, mosques, temples and other places of mass worship? Then such perception is a bridge. It relates to the Blackbody effect in your understanding without yet having had its experience."

"Or, you must be familiar with silence so deep that it has its own sound. It's simply not heard with the ears, just felt elsewhere in the body. Once music commences, the LessLoss parts are very much heard by the ears. The feedback mechanism of critical listening clocks their effect in that arena. Might they affect other areas as well? It'd be strange if they didn't."

"It'll shift emphasis from leading to trailing edge. It's as though a pianist's use of the sustain pedal increased; or your room enlarged for lengthier reverb. Tone richness fluffs up like shaking out a feathery pillow. It changes compactness to plumptuousness. Its textural give creates the sensation of slightly lazier timing. Quantitatively it's a subtle thing. Qualitatively it shifts gestalt. Having a suspicion, I deliberately drained the Soundaware D300Ref's ultracaps overnight. Next morning I recharged them under full BB-imprinted power. The next listening session did suggest that the effect had increased again. This connected to why the very first upstairs session had been most potent. There I'd used a reclocker and DAC both on pure battery power; plus an autoformer volume control on ultracaps. Apparently such DC reservoirs magnify the BB effect."

"Either way syndicates the Firewall for Loudspeakers flavor; that of the Firewall'd Echo's End DAC; of Louis Motek's C-MARC cables. It's why I earlier called the Blackbody another example of the LessLoss house sound. If you've come across it already, you'll recognize it."

"That shows design consistency at a high level and by very different means: with cables, electronics and tweaks."

"The colors on the TV seemed more saturated; fine detail of a fleeting landscape shot from inside a fast-moving train clearer and less blurred. The main draw of course was the omnipolar sound. That bloomed in the now familiar ways."

"I'll be curious to see how other listeners relate to then describe their effect."

"... LessLoss Blackbody v2. For the audiophile who already has everything else?"
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