Finite Elemente – The Resonator

I’m a big fan of Finite Elemente creations. I had or still have Spider and Master Reference Pagode racks, Ceraballs, Cerapucs, Cerabases… All of them brought a great deal of enhancements in dynamics and resonance dumping. So I thought that The Resonator will definitely not hurt and hopefully bring me closer to There. The idea was to use it on top of the Transporter, which is known for its thin ringy tincan case. But considering the price (319-400EUR in Europe, $550-745 in the US) I decided to audition it first and borrowed one from my dealer.

From the description and ad campaigns:

  • Diameter: 120mm
  • Height: 30mm
  • Weight: 370g
  • Material: anodized aluminium (silver or black), stainless steel insert
  • The Resonator converts the resonance energy into heat across a broad band, instead of relocating its spectrum or generating new intrinsic like conventional attenuation of component cabinets, using mass blocks, for example.
  • Strategically placing the Resonator in a resonant zone on your component’s chassis, can reduce vibration by more than 20dB

This is what it looks like:

And what about the sound?

Here came the biggest disappointment. I tried it on all my equipment, in all recommended and not recommended by the manual places. The result is – nothing. I heard no difference. Even worse, in a couple of cases I thought that I heard deterioration in sound (I’m not sure that it actually sounded worse, I THINK that I heard the difference). A thick book, a kilo of rice or a heavy door stop on the Transporter work much better.

Probably the resonances in my system (featuring Finite Elemente Master Reference rack and full set of Cera-stuff) are already dumped and the light weighted Resonator could not do anything, I don’t know. A guy from the distributing company seconded my experience. He also heard nothing, but suggested to try it on chairs and sofas πŸ˜‰

The resume? Try before you buy. It may work in your case.

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