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In Reply to: REVIEW: Herbie's Audio Lab Black Hole Accessory posted by Quint on March 30, 2007 at 11:26:29:
I loved the G2 until I realized that I was losing some HF information. Thought maybe it was a balance thing or that I was mistaken. So I took it to a friend's place with a truly revealing setup capable of nuances I only dream of.He loved it at first too. Then we did the test on those HF sounds and it had the same disappointing end result. So I stopped using them.
We're not talking big time loss here, just a very subtle thing on some recordings. Overall they're an improvement over "raw" discs. And I'm not dissing the folks at Herbies, who are really excellent to work with, BTW.
So I'm going to ask you enthusiasts of the BH version to test it out on the more refined and nuanced recordings and listen very very closely to the HF. Tell me if this one rolls off anything or is a clear winner all the way around.
Not being a wet blanket, here, just asking for your experience in the real world of your own homes, which is faster than sending off for these things in the mail.
Follow Ups:
Without measurements its hard to say for sure, but, in my opinion, there is no roll off on the Black Hole; however, I do think the the highs are recessed a bit. Its easy to confuse the smoothing of high frequencies with a roll-off of the frequencies. On the other hand, it well could be that when I hear the smoothing and slight recession of the highs that there is a roll-off. Without taking measurements, neither of us can be certain. All I can say is that I hear all the shimmer of cymbals and the highest of high notes on vocals with and without the BH mat, but those notes are smoother and not as dominant when I use the BH. I'm sure this doesn't answer your question, but its the best I can do.
I had the same HF criticism with the original GB, but I don't hear it with the Black Hole. The highs are definitely smoother with the BH, but I don't see it as a problem. Whether it's rolling off or not, only measurements can tell, but to my ears, it's removing some kind of distortion product that tends to accentuate the high frequencies on many CDs. Different people will see it differently, though. Most of the CDs I tested it on are very well recorded, BTW.
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