Schumann Resonator

Schumann resonator

Science or fiction?

When Damien approached me to try a Schmann resonator kit, I hesitated. How the h*ll could that help to improve the sound in my setup? First the rainbow strip, now the resonator. This is SOME room tuning device.

According to Wikipedia, Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth’s electromagnetic field spectrum. Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances, excited by lightning discharges in the cavity formed by the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere. I still don’t see how this could affect the sound in my room.

Hmm… With just RM80 at that time, I gave it a try and bought a PCB to build the resonator myself. The Acoustic Revive version costs U$425! There’s very little to lose here, isn’t there?

Schumann Resonator

Above are the 3 units of resonator PCBs that we bought, together with the components needed for the project. Power supply is from wall wart, regulated with an on board voltage regulator.

Schumann Resonance 7.83Hz

A short trip to the local parts supply shop got us all the necessary components. I wired up all 3 units in a short time and got them all working within no time.

Schumann resonances appear as distinct peaks at extremely low frequencies around 7.83, 14.3, 20.8, 27.3 and 33.8Hz. The resonator we bought is made for 7.83Hz. Tuning took quite some time as the resonator took quite some time to settle down to the 7.83Hz frequency desired. I left the 3 units to run-in for an hour or so before I do the final tuning and closed the box.

Listening results

Unbelievable! Damien and I actually heard the difference when it is switched ON and OFF! With the resonator in place, imaging is more focused, vocal gained more body, and it has tilted the system to a slight warmer end.

Changes are not very significant but noticeable, and on the positive side as well. I would recommend this if the price is not exorbitant, or your system has nothing else to upgrade except to go for tweaks like this.

Next steps: DIY a tunable Schumann resonator!

Get a tone generator
Tune it to the 5 Schumann resonances
Connect it to a power amplifier
Connect power amplifier to a coil
Play and plot a graph with the 5 resonances with different power levels

This experiment will analyze the effects of various power and frequency combinations towards the sound. That would be something very interesting, wouldn’t it?

Till then!

Another Resonator.

Ken 6/27/2011