SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH Black Box Carbon

MJ02.01.2025

Subwoofers

Featuring significant improvements in mechanical resonance control of the chassis and resonator itself, placing a Black Box Carbon in your room will audibly deliver greater resolution, tighter, more textural bass, and a more natural presentation than ever before. Even better, the Black Box Carbon is now optimized for stacking and works well with additional Black Boxes for a more profound impact. Simply said, with the Black Box Carbon, congestion is eliminated, allowing for nothing but pure music to be headed your way.

Function and form

100%

Ease of use

97%

Sound

100%

Appearance

The first paragraph was taken from the Black Box Carbon introduction as presented on Synergistic Research’s website. I’m a huge fan of the Black Boxes and I use two original versions (aluminum) in my reference system. To be honest, not only does removing them make sound collapse, also moving them an inch makes music sound less enticing and incomplete. The Synergistic’s Black Box is a powerful thing. For how it works please refer to the review of the original Black Box version here on Audiodrom.

Bass management

Weight

Slam

Articulation

100

The new Carbon version follows the same form factor, yet it is much lighter and manages to look sexier in its carbon dress. The crisscross woven structure of carbon lends a hi-tech appearance to it. Similarly to its aluminum sibling, the Carbon Black Box’s internal element resonates when the box is tapped or shaken. It is felt rather than heard, although it emits very faint and muted vibrational sound. I am not 100% sure, but when I compared the two (Carbon and Aluminum), it seemed that the Carbon is a bit up-tuned. It might be my imagination, however.

As noted, I have two Black Boxes in my room, none of them placed conventionally (i.e. the way it is suggested in the manual), but they sound their best in their placements. One is diagonally to the side behind the listening position, the other is diagonally to the side toward the front wall, behind a left speaker. As I only had one Carbon, I replaced the Aluminum versions one by one, as well as I tried to stack two atop each other in Carbon-Aluminum combination.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail

Air

Transparency

When the Carbon version replaced the original Black Box behind the listening spot, the difference was easy to hear. The transients of finger-tapped strings of Dean Peer’s bass guitar (Lord’s Tundra, Stereophile) were more accurate with better contoured peaks. So far so good. The bass is detuned to 37.6Hz from more typical 41.2Hz and the recording is taken live to a DAT recorder for Redstone Records. With full dynamics and no compression, it is one of the finest, if not the finest, recordings of bass guitar ever. Yet, the more I listened to the track, the more I heard the guitar pick rather than the guitar amplifier. No doubt that the Black Box Carbon improved the guitar’s articulation, but it also robbed it from weightier and punchier sound that I was used to with the Black Box aluminum. As a result, the sound of the Carbon was less dimensional and had lesser dynamic impact. Not the thing you’d want.

Tonal accuracy

Timbre

Dynamics

Temporal resolution

As mentioned, I tried to stack the boxes atop each other. In this case the Carbon version was below the Aluminum version, for there are bronze insets in the top plate of the Black Box Carbon that accommodate super-sharp spikes of the box that are rather merciless in their penetration power. Synergistic Research mentions that the bronze had been chosen after extensive listening tests.

In my golden era of Black Boxes, I had up to five units in my system. You bet I tried stacking two or even three, but with mixed results. I was not luckier with the Carbon. The doubling of the units changed the way the system sounded, but I had (again) an impression that the two boxes fought against each other, rather than played in unison. Can that be that the resonant elements inside resonate out of tune? If yes, then how to sync them? So, the result was alike a sub that was not perfectly in phase. This may not be an audible problem in a big or acoustically untreated room, where reflections will overlay the problem. Quite contrary, the doubled boxes may be needed for the stronger bass correction effect.

Replacing the front Black Box with the Carbon implied a similar change in sound as it had happened with the rear unit. The sound got more articulated through better delineated transients and sharper focus, but once again it also git flatter with less developed harmonics. The weight was about the same, but the sound was less bloomy, as if the instrument was cut off too early in decay.

Spatial resolution

Holography

Soundstage width

Soundstage depth

The things always need to be viewed in the perspective of relativity. Although the new Black Box Carbon (to my ears) has not outperformed the original Black Box Aluminum, it has been an improvement over a system without any Black Box. On top of that, my findings cannot be generalized, and your findings might be completely opposite - the Carbon version may be a clear winner for you. For I understand that the original Black Box may be discontinued, I suggest - until the stocks last at dealers - to act fast and loan both versions and compare them side by side in your system and decide. I guarantee that at least one of them will not leave the room.

Price as reviewed:59 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

CZ: Roth Audio, Praha, +420 777 674 381

SK: Platan Audio, Hlohovec / Bratislava, tel. +421 905 409 802

Manufacturer's website: http://www.synergisticresearch.com

Associated components

Sources: Accuphase DP-720
Amplifiers: TAD-M2500
Interconnects and speaker cables: Ansuz Signalz C2, Krautwire Numeric Digital, AudioQuest Dragon Zero | Bass
Loudspeakers: TAD Revolution One
Power conditioning: Shunyata Research Denali, Stromtank S-1000, Ansuz Mainz C2, AAI Maestoso, AAI Assoluto, Synergistic Research Atmosphere Level 2, Nordost Qv2, QWave a QSine, Diamond Sound E2 Grounding

Gallery

BOWERS & WILKINS DB-1

The DB-1 subwoofer is a simple monolithic cube finished in flawless piano lacquer. It extends ca half a meter to any side and is incredibly heavy. I had to pull the 50 kgs of the sub upstairs and it was not an easy job, rather an ...

Recommended resellers

Eurostar Ostrava, Dobřejovice u Prahy, tel. + 420 323 606 877

Platan Audio, Hlohovec / Bratislava, tel. +421 905 409 802

Sound

99%

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