Krissy Tetrault's products (HeartsoundAudio.com) seem to be a conundrum of confusion. WTF perhaps the best thesis statement to describe them. Some have wires and plug into your system, others do not. Where adding more in audio usually results in a diminishing return, these products seem to increase their potency when doubled. The quality they impart has been described as "immersive sparkle." In this review I hope to reveal some benefit to any curious audiophiles, as well as answer the question of what's inside.
How I heard about Holostages. (Edit note: this paragraph has been edited for more accurate historicity.) I first heard about these from a friend of mine that I met through a classified ad. A few years ago he was teasing Krissy on the old emat thread so she offered him some to try. In his words, he said there was "no way" those products could do any good for anyone. Krissy reached out to him and basically said, "Here, try 'em." In his words, "They make no sense whatsoever, but just put these suckers on your amps, and its like, what the heck?" Today, he is still a fan of Krissy's current products and several people know about Krissy's current products because of personal recommendations and word of mouth. While the old emats are no longer in production, I have some of those and believe the Holostages are better all around. My point of all of this is that there is something going on here, and it is worth investigating.
Products. Krissy Tetrault at Heartsound Audio (also called Tetrault Audio) makes the Holostage, a little box about the size of a hockey puck, which sells in 4-packs. She also makes a ground box (which I don't yet have). The Holostages can be placed on top of components, preferably above the transformer, and they can also be placed around the room for different effects. I am using holostages on top of my speakers, four on each of my amps, one on each of my power supplies and audio components, two on top of my ground bus, one on my little music hard drive, four on my Shunyata Denali, four in the corners of my listening room, one in the rear center of the listening room, two on my breaker panel, and one on my modem & router.
Women actually do perceive color 30% more vivdly than men. First off, its no secret that there are very few female audiophiles, and even fewer who have started their own businesses. I know of a couple audio companies whose founders have handed over the keys to women for leadership, but Krissy started this company herself, and she is obsessed with great sound. I just thought that was worth mentioning. It isn't a prejudice to say that women hear better than men. That extra X Chromosome we're all missing has 30% more color receptor DNA in it, and it also contains the DNA for better hearing. Statistically speaking, most women perceive colors and sounds better than most men, as measured by objective scientific methods. Anecdotally, I've always found it frustrating when I'm listening seriously to evaluate a change in my system, struggling to solidify my opinion on it, and Lady Halydean who has been walking in and out of the listening room just casually says, "the second one is better." It seems that the best human hearing is wasted on women, because so few even care about audio. No so with Krissy! She worked baking away in her kitchen trying different recipes and listening to each result with those woman-ears. She developed the current Holostage by a tournament of hundreds of different designs, and like my wife, she doesn't have to sit and listen for days to hear which ones she likes best. So with Heartsound Audio, you're getting Krissy's favorites, and unless you've got an XX chromosome, yes she does hear better than you do. But that's good because she's serving up a batch of holostages fresh from her kitchen and they're available to all (maybe with a bit of a wait).
How does it work? Krissy's technology reminds me of a couple of other designs, but it does seem to be more powerful. Shunyata has patents on their AC filters, which use copper pipes filled with their secret receipe of salts or sands and the conductor passing through the middle of them. The piezoelectric materials surrounding the conductor absorb RFI as the electrical field radiates around the conductor into the materials. You can read all about this in their patents. The funny thing about this is that in order for it to work, the electricity doesn't have to actually tough the material, it just has be near it for the electrical field that surrounds the conductor to mess with it. Inductive phone chargers don't have wires either. If you're an engineer and can explain how this works, thats great. Another company making filters like this is Bybee. I have some Bybee devices in my system, and they are very nice, but nowhere near as powerful as Heartsound. It was sad that the founder and genious behind Bybee products passed away, but his spirit of trying things new for product development lives on with Heartsound Audio. If old man Bybee was still alive today, his products would have evolved a lot further. Krissy has carried the baton and has and done it quite well. I have a Shunyata Denali power conditioner, and it sounds fantastic, but dollar for dollar, Heartsound is more bang for the buck. Krissy's design is just easier to hear, more impactful, and she has different products. So the short answer: My guess is that the devices absorb inductive field RFI, and convert it into heat via piezoelectric crystals,... but I could be wrong. This is still relatively new technology and it would be hubris to assume we won't learn more about it in the future. After hundreds of different designs, the current iteration is Krissy's favorite of all of them, and her circle of customers that give her feedback as well agree. Krissy has patiently listened to each design in extensive trial and error testing to find the right one for the desired effect and a tonally neutral balance.
Sound. My system is in a room with extensive acoustic treatments from a variety of manufacturers, including several diffusers and acoustic panels on the ceiling and all walls. The room presents a fairly balanced overall room decay. My main speakers are big Maggies, so I've got a lot of room treatment on the back walls. I've also got a set of Wilson WATT / Puppies but I usually listen to the Maggies. In my past experience, many audiophile products result in the sound being different but not actually any better. In fact, I think most power conditioners deaden, compress, and smear the sound. Krissy developed her products via a lot of trial and error, and listening to her customers' requests for a more open and tonally neutral sound. In my opinion, the Holostages, when placed on top of all of your components, improve the noise floor and give an impression that the music is less smeary and better focused. I think this tighter focus is what opens up all of the tiny details that one's brain can now perceive and interpret as spacial information. This is, in my opinion, what creates the immersive effect. My big Levinson monoblocks sound more dynamic and have a better sense of pace, rhythm and timing. I tried a single holostage on my Naim Uniti Atom and Magnepan Mini Maggies, that are all on my office desk. The effect was substantially less noticeable, but this may be due to the fact that my office is noisy and has no acoustic treatments. Overall, the Holostage devices seem to have more effect when they are used in groups, and the more one adds the greater the difference. In audio I'm used to seeing less and less benefit the more I spend-- but with these things they seem to provide a counterintuitive performance boost when more are added. I have no idea why this is, and I have no way to explain it. After removing the holostages from my system during some rearranging of my room, the soundstage sounded flat, less holographic, and smeary. Removing all of her products sounded so obviously lifeless and smeary that it troubled me and made me rethink system design. I felt as though I could not enjoy my system without all of my Heartsound devices. Needless to say, my Holostages are back in my system to stay.
Looking forward to hearing anyone else's listening experience with these Holostages!
How I heard about Holostages. (Edit note: this paragraph has been edited for more accurate historicity.) I first heard about these from a friend of mine that I met through a classified ad. A few years ago he was teasing Krissy on the old emat thread so she offered him some to try. In his words, he said there was "no way" those products could do any good for anyone. Krissy reached out to him and basically said, "Here, try 'em." In his words, "They make no sense whatsoever, but just put these suckers on your amps, and its like, what the heck?" Today, he is still a fan of Krissy's current products and several people know about Krissy's current products because of personal recommendations and word of mouth. While the old emats are no longer in production, I have some of those and believe the Holostages are better all around. My point of all of this is that there is something going on here, and it is worth investigating.
Products. Krissy Tetrault at Heartsound Audio (also called Tetrault Audio) makes the Holostage, a little box about the size of a hockey puck, which sells in 4-packs. She also makes a ground box (which I don't yet have). The Holostages can be placed on top of components, preferably above the transformer, and they can also be placed around the room for different effects. I am using holostages on top of my speakers, four on each of my amps, one on each of my power supplies and audio components, two on top of my ground bus, one on my little music hard drive, four on my Shunyata Denali, four in the corners of my listening room, one in the rear center of the listening room, two on my breaker panel, and one on my modem & router.
Women actually do perceive color 30% more vivdly than men. First off, its no secret that there are very few female audiophiles, and even fewer who have started their own businesses. I know of a couple audio companies whose founders have handed over the keys to women for leadership, but Krissy started this company herself, and she is obsessed with great sound. I just thought that was worth mentioning. It isn't a prejudice to say that women hear better than men. That extra X Chromosome we're all missing has 30% more color receptor DNA in it, and it also contains the DNA for better hearing. Statistically speaking, most women perceive colors and sounds better than most men, as measured by objective scientific methods. Anecdotally, I've always found it frustrating when I'm listening seriously to evaluate a change in my system, struggling to solidify my opinion on it, and Lady Halydean who has been walking in and out of the listening room just casually says, "the second one is better." It seems that the best human hearing is wasted on women, because so few even care about audio. No so with Krissy! She worked baking away in her kitchen trying different recipes and listening to each result with those woman-ears. She developed the current Holostage by a tournament of hundreds of different designs, and like my wife, she doesn't have to sit and listen for days to hear which ones she likes best. So with Heartsound Audio, you're getting Krissy's favorites, and unless you've got an XX chromosome, yes she does hear better than you do. But that's good because she's serving up a batch of holostages fresh from her kitchen and they're available to all (maybe with a bit of a wait).
How does it work? Krissy's technology reminds me of a couple of other designs, but it does seem to be more powerful. Shunyata has patents on their AC filters, which use copper pipes filled with their secret receipe of salts or sands and the conductor passing through the middle of them. The piezoelectric materials surrounding the conductor absorb RFI as the electrical field radiates around the conductor into the materials. You can read all about this in their patents. The funny thing about this is that in order for it to work, the electricity doesn't have to actually tough the material, it just has be near it for the electrical field that surrounds the conductor to mess with it. Inductive phone chargers don't have wires either. If you're an engineer and can explain how this works, thats great. Another company making filters like this is Bybee. I have some Bybee devices in my system, and they are very nice, but nowhere near as powerful as Heartsound. It was sad that the founder and genious behind Bybee products passed away, but his spirit of trying things new for product development lives on with Heartsound Audio. If old man Bybee was still alive today, his products would have evolved a lot further. Krissy has carried the baton and has and done it quite well. I have a Shunyata Denali power conditioner, and it sounds fantastic, but dollar for dollar, Heartsound is more bang for the buck. Krissy's design is just easier to hear, more impactful, and she has different products. So the short answer: My guess is that the devices absorb inductive field RFI, and convert it into heat via piezoelectric crystals,... but I could be wrong. This is still relatively new technology and it would be hubris to assume we won't learn more about it in the future. After hundreds of different designs, the current iteration is Krissy's favorite of all of them, and her circle of customers that give her feedback as well agree. Krissy has patiently listened to each design in extensive trial and error testing to find the right one for the desired effect and a tonally neutral balance.
Sound. My system is in a room with extensive acoustic treatments from a variety of manufacturers, including several diffusers and acoustic panels on the ceiling and all walls. The room presents a fairly balanced overall room decay. My main speakers are big Maggies, so I've got a lot of room treatment on the back walls. I've also got a set of Wilson WATT / Puppies but I usually listen to the Maggies. In my past experience, many audiophile products result in the sound being different but not actually any better. In fact, I think most power conditioners deaden, compress, and smear the sound. Krissy developed her products via a lot of trial and error, and listening to her customers' requests for a more open and tonally neutral sound. In my opinion, the Holostages, when placed on top of all of your components, improve the noise floor and give an impression that the music is less smeary and better focused. I think this tighter focus is what opens up all of the tiny details that one's brain can now perceive and interpret as spacial information. This is, in my opinion, what creates the immersive effect. My big Levinson monoblocks sound more dynamic and have a better sense of pace, rhythm and timing. I tried a single holostage on my Naim Uniti Atom and Magnepan Mini Maggies, that are all on my office desk. The effect was substantially less noticeable, but this may be due to the fact that my office is noisy and has no acoustic treatments. Overall, the Holostage devices seem to have more effect when they are used in groups, and the more one adds the greater the difference. In audio I'm used to seeing less and less benefit the more I spend-- but with these things they seem to provide a counterintuitive performance boost when more are added. I have no idea why this is, and I have no way to explain it. After removing the holostages from my system during some rearranging of my room, the soundstage sounded flat, less holographic, and smeary. Removing all of her products sounded so obviously lifeless and smeary that it troubled me and made me rethink system design. I felt as though I could not enjoy my system without all of my Heartsound devices. Needless to say, my Holostages are back in my system to stay.
Looking forward to hearing anyone else's listening experience with these Holostages!
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