CES & THE Show 2014 • Hot Product

While its core products remain interconnects, speaker cables and power cords, Synergistic Research's line of accessories grows with two additions. First, the HFTs ($299 per pack of five) are, for lack of a better way to describe them, small metallic nubs that attach with blobs of Blu Tack. They are placed in strategic spots on walls. . .

. . .and speaker cabinets, as shown above on the front baffle and sides. As he usually does, Ted Denney was demonstrating the HFTs in quick A/B fashion, and they seemed to increase the sense of air and blackness in recordings, or so we thought.

Also new from Synergistic are the XOTs ($299 per pair), which attach to the terminals of speakers and had an even greater effect than the HFTs, removing a fine layer of hash though the midrange and the treble. What's inside? Ted Denney wasn't saying, and there is no easy way to open one of the cylinders to find out.