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Flame On: My Experience with Clever Clocks and Magic Pebbles

I have a feeling that I'm gonna get burned more than William Holden in "Towering Inferno," but here goes. Those of you who've read my posts over the years know that I'm into tweaks. Sometimes they've worked, sometimes they haven't. But I've been on a winning streak lately: Extreme SST, Herbie's Grungebuster2, RealityCheck, and, perhaps most controversal of all, Machina Dynamica's Magic Pebbles and Clever Little Clock. Let me cut to the chase--the much-maligned Pebbles and Clock work as advertised, at least in my system. Lest you think I'm some disciple of Geoff Kait, I'm not. I don't own, nor have I owned, any of his isolation platforms, and I had absolutely NO luck with the Intelligent Chip, which he also sells. I'm the furthest thing from a techie, so I have absolutely no clue how these things work, but they do in my system. I auditioned two clocks and two bottles of large Magic Pebbles. First the clock. My reference track of late has been "Water of Love," off Dire Strait's impeccably recorded first album. Burned onto a CD-R using George Louis' RealityCheck, it sounds as good as I've ever heard it. Enter the clocks. After listening to the track sans magic timepieces, I placed the clocks in my listening room, one on a windowsill and the other on my computer desk. I then replayed the track. Damned if I didn't hear an immediate improvement--and I mean an IMPROVEMENT, not a change. At the beginning of "Water of Love," there's a very low-level percussion part that lasts for about 7 seconds. With the clocks in place, I could more easily discern the rhythm being played. In addition, Mark Knopfler's vocals became clearer and weightier. Dynamics improved as well. Again, don't ask me how these wascky things work, but they did. And I'm not imagining it, either. I pride myself on having pretty good ears--maybe not golden, but at least burnished copper :)--and I know what I heard. And it was repeatable. Next, the Magic Pebbles. Per Geoff's suggestion, I tried them in the rear corners of my room first. Nada. Then I tried them in the front corners, next to my tube traps. Mas nada. Frustrated, I moved them to 3 feet behind my speakers. Bingo--bass response improved across the board, getting more "powerful" and seemingly even quicker than it was. To test what I was hearing, my wife and I simultaneously picked each bottle off the carpeted floor. As soon as we did, the bass lightened up. Putting the bottles back in position restored the added weight. I know this is REALLY hard to believe, but I know what I heard. Like that of the clock, the effect of the pebbles was repeatable. The liberal arts major that I am, I can't explain ANY of this. But I trust my ears, implicitly. These tweaks worked for me, but that's no guarantee they'll work for everyone, especially since no one is seemingly able to explain why they do what they do. Anyway, I fully expect to get flamed Human Torch style, but that's OK. My system has taken a nice step foward with the addition of the Clever Little Clock and Magic Pebbles. As long as I know that in my heart--and I do--I don't care what anyone else thinks. Color me a believer.


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  Kimber Kable  


Topic - Flame On: My Experience with Clever Clocks and Magic Pebbles - Quint 19:52:12 11/04/05 (79)


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