DENVER (PTA) — With Synergistic Research’s Ted Denney functioning as ringmaster, Scott Walker Audio assembled one of our favourite system experiences of the Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest 2019 weekend. Showing with nearly the full complement of brands offered at Scott Walker Audio in southern California, Ted Denney’s demonstration was one for the record books.

The Story

I decided to stake out the Synergistic Research / Scott Walker room on Friday afternoon instead of doing lunch. Figuring the Magico and Gryphon components might deliver the requisite sustenance my body was seeking that day.

At the center of things, not a component, not a blue suit, but a man. Ted Denney of Synergistic Research helmed the room, the system, and our attention. Moving around, installing and uninstalling, activating and deactivating Synergistic Research components from the system.

The remarkable thing to note is that this was an introduction for many attendees, and a first listen to, the Foundation series of cables by Synergistic Research. My first interaction with the Foundation series was at CanJam SoCal 2019 in Los Angeles. There it was just headphone cables, but this RMAF 2019 experience was an entire flagship system of components that was outfitted completely with entry level Foundation series cables (sans the power cables).

The Foundation series are Synergistic Research’s take on affordable interconnects and speaker cables, each incorporates Ted’s highest performance cable technologies like pure six nines silver in a handmade Air String geometry with UEF Matrix Shielding taken directly from their Atmosphere X Series cables and a full Blue Fuse. For our demonstration, a six-figure stereo system shown them the Foundation series cables well.

Ted’s classic A-B demonstrations are not to be missed, as he moves both passive and active acoustic treatments in-and-out of the system, numerous times, to hammer home the impact these devices can make on a system, and ultimately your listening experience. In truth, these particular acoustic treatments take into account all aspects of listener, components, and the room.

Most dramatic to witness going in-and-out of the system were the new cable risers that were debuting at RMAF 2019. These cable lifters come in quantities of four at a price of only $350 set USD. Typical systems will use eight, so for $700 USD you can take the Foundation series to truly unbelievable heights. For my money, there is likely no competition for a simple component like these cables and risers from Synergistic Research.

Also shown both in-and-out of the system was Synergistic Research’s HFT Speaker Kit, which come with (2) Standard HFT’s (2) HFT 2.0’s and (2) HFT X’s or enough to treat (1) speaker. The combination of the 3 HFT types is ideal for most speakers. With easy to follow placement guidelines you will dramatically improve your speakers ability to disappear in your room with tighter bass, improved mid-range clarity, and smoother more articulate highs.

During our listening session various HFT pairs were removed from the system, yielding results that delivered as advertised. No surprise to be honest.

Lastly Tranquility Base, which made noticeable differences even when only one component in the system had its active circuits deactivated. The Tranquility Base is an active isolation base engineered to eliminate the Electromagnetic Distortion of each component as it is used underneath each component. The EM fields created by components do interact with one another resulting in a distorted music signal through interference. The Tranquility Base UEF neutralizes these interfering EM fields through an inductive Active EM CELL to balance and stabilize EM fields within and around components.

The Sound

Ted Denney might have more than his fair share of skeptics and detractors, but the proof is in the pudding. The in-room results we experienced with Synergistic Research’s various system components, both active and passive, made more than noteworthy changes to the system. Though some were less noticeable than others, and depending on subjectivity those changes may have been improvements. You know what they say? Some noise is good. Otherwise, for one example, the Foundation series did impress largely on their own in this mega-buck system. However when introduced with the new cable lifters, the sound bordered on surreal and heavenly. Good show Mr. Denney!

The key take-away is this: If you’ve made a substantial investment in your system, you’re not done. The Synergistic Research bevy of products take the music out of your head and widen the whole experience. For that, I wholly approve.