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The bottom line is that the effect of placing a quartz disk on a power transformer ranged from subtle to rather dramatic. The primary effect was that the music became more musical and less electronic. I also placed a pair of quartz disks over the output transformers of the Leben CS-660P. The effect was more noticeable than on the power transformers. With a clear quartz disk above each of the output transformers, the high frequencies became more detailed and spacious while at the same time more natural tonally and less electronic. The differences between the smoky & clear quartz disks were now readily apparent: the clear disks provided more effect in the upper midrange and highs by providing more detail and presence, lending a silky quality to the music. The smoky disks were similar to the clear disks in the upper midrange but slightly more laid back and less detailed, with less presence. They smoothed out vocal sibilance on poorer recordings more than the clear disks and tones had lengthier decay. In the lower frequencies, the differences were more profound with a greater sense of tone differentiation to the smoky disks, more sense of space and greater articulation and definition.


The quartz disks were a rather powerful tool for system voicing when applied to the output transformers of my Leben CS-660P amplifier and offered quite a range of voicing options depending on whether the smoky or clear disks were used. Stephæn later reported that the quartz disks had a greater effect on the power transformers than the output transformers of his amplifiers - the opposite I observed with my Leben CS660P where I favored a combination of smoky quartz as resonators over the output transformers and a clear quartz disk over the power transformer. This combination provided my favorite balance of musicality and sonics by sounding more natural and less electronic, making the illusion of real music being played being more believable.


Overall I found the smoky and clear quartz disks to have the greatest magnitude of effect when used as isolators between equipment footers and the walnut surface of my equipment cabinet. With the solid-state Pass XA30.5 amplifier, I found that the quartz disks made no difference at all when placed on the power transformer.

QR-8 Quartz Resonators
The QR-8 looks like a miniature version of a RIQ-5010 smoky quartz disk, being about the size of an aspirin tablet. The QR-8 come eight to a package, have a thin adhesive film on one side and are to be used as resonators by sticking them strategically on vibrating surfaces. "There are places that resonate a lot and sticking a QR-8 on them will change the vibrational mode and eliminate the resonance. Hence there is no need to use a large size like the insulator." The instruction sheet suggests all kinds of potential applications for the little resonators: on the top, bottom, front or rear panels of equipment, positioned either in the center or in each of the four corners; positioned on the surfaces of loudspeaker cabinets; on driver mounts of loudspeakers; on listening room walls, ceilings or floors; on CD transports; on power switches; and inside electronics on vibration points like transformers, capacitors or even DAC chips. The take-home message is that only your imagination is the limit as to where to apply QR-8 resonators.

I decided on my loudspeakers first: one went in the bottom of the port, one on the super-tweeter mount, two on the tweeter mount and two on the midrange/woofer mount of each Harbeth Super HL5. Somewhat contrary to my expectation, I heard a difference: the sound took on a subtly more natural, less electronic overall character, with tone that was subtly deeper and note decay that trailed off longer. All in all this was a worthwhile though subtle improvement and the little QR-8 disks are staying on the Harbeths!


Next I decided to try the QR-8 as room treatments. I placed one QR-8 on each of the glass front panels of my McKinnon Bellevue Symphony walnut media cabinet and one on the walnut rail on the front wall behind the cabinet that holds up a wall hanging. I also placed one on the front face of my glass-enclosed gas fireplace on the left sidewall of the listening room. I have to confess that I find it rather bewildering that these little quartz disks could make any difference at all but they do particularly at louder volumes. At louder volumes the room was less likely to overload and become harsh sounding, giving the music a more natural and 'live-in-the-club' feel. The fireplace QR-8 didn't work out so well: I forgot the QR-8 was there on the glass and cranked up the fireplace on a cold winter morning. As the glass was heated up by the flames, the QR-8's sticky backing melted, causing the little CR-8 to leave a gooey trail down the front of the glass as it slid down and fell to the floor. Oops.

Next I tried sticking a QR-8 inside by the laser assembly of my Sony PS1 SCPH-1001 used as a CD player. Same result: a subtle but positive improvement in naturalness, with a more organic and less electronic overall character. For those who have an RR-77 signal generator, you might be interested to know that mine came with two CR-8s strategically positioned within: one over the blue power light and another where the power cord comes in at the rear. Stephæn's RR-77 didn't come like that and when he later added QR-8s, he reported he didn't hear a difference. I ran out of QR-8s to try in more locations. Had I more of the little buggers, I would have tried them in my Leben preamp and power supply too, and perhaps one or two strategically positioned on my Eastman arch top guitar pickup and tail piece. So consider the QR-8sa continuing experiment as I can get my hands on some more of them.

Summary and Conclusions
The Acoustic Revive products continue to boggle my mind. First the RR-77 signal generator and now the RIQ-5010, RIQ-5010W and QR-8 quartz disks as insulators or resonators. With each of these products, I went into listening trials not expecting much and came out scratching my head wondering how they could have so much influence.


My listening pals Stephæn and Pete are no doubt getting a chuckle out of my reaction to these various Acoustic Revive devices. With them I have somewhat of a reputation for not being impressed by tweaks in general. But the Acoustic Revive products have made me a believer in the power of tweaks to optimize the musical performance of a system. My HiFi rig has never sounded better than with the Acoustic Revive products in place.


Sidebar I: Having spoken with Jerry Ramsey of Audio Magic repeatedly while still living in the US, I learned that he was a believer in the effects of semi-precious stones and crystals to eliminate haze and hash in powerline products, hence certain of his conditioners at least at the time contained some. If there is something to this -- Jeff's findings certainly suggest there is -- then it also suggests that placing the Acoustic Revive devices between stacked components (such as they will be if you put them underneath component feet or on top of chassis while other components sit above and below on shelves) will create a shielding effect between each component's radiated electromagnetic energy field. Carbon fiber is said to have similar effects so anyone using carbon fiber shelves enjoys not only resonance control but also shielding properties to isolate component interactions on the radiation level. The resonator discs meanwhile recall Franck Tchang's acoustic resonators about which we have written extensively and which find themselves installed in Marja & Henk's and my home. Particularly the delay or outright avoidance of room overload is one now well-documented effect of a competent resonator installation. - Ed.
At $625, the RIQ-5010 or RIQ-5010W quartz insulators are more expensive than I would like to see for a set of four. This will ultimately limit the number of people able to try them. Natural quartz crystals of the size and quality needed to machine the RIQ-5010 or RIQ-5010W quartz disks are expensive so there's no getting around the cost
issue. I don't even want to know if diamonds, rubies and sapphires have similar properties! If you live in the USA, the rapidly devaluating dollar doesn't help either. However, a set of eight QR-8 quartz resonators are a wallet-friendly $125 and no-brainer for your tweaking entertainment. Essentially the effects of the RIQ-5010, RIQ-5010W and QR-8 quartz disks are similar after you find the sweet spot in your system or listening room: They make the music sound more natural, organic, life-like and less electronic to get you closer to the sound of real live music. There is a cumulative effect too, so the more of them you use in your system, the greater the magnitude of the change.
Quality of packing: Excellent.
Condition of components received: Perfect.
Completeness of delivery: Complete.
Quality of owner's manual: Owners manual is a small pamphlet written in Japanese but it includes helpful and easy to understand diagrams.
Website comments: Decent website. It's a little hard to follow some of the Japanese to English translations but I got the idea.
Warranty: No warranty information included.
Human interactions: Yoshi Hontani (Acoustic Revive exporter) is the best person to work with I can imagine. He is expedient, courteous and helpful. The same goes for Aki Monobe of Acoustic Revive and US importer Joe Cohen of the Lotus Group. A class act all the way around!
Acoustic Revive website
US importer's website