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Product: The Holy Family Audiophile Lamp by RegPlex
Manufacturer: Regplex - Italy
Ebay store: RegPlex - Italy
Approx. price: €24, shipping included
Reviewer: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT-Audio Italy
Reviewed: December, 2023

Foreword

We all know the sad situation very well: we buy expensive HiFi equipment, perhaps even with excellent reviews, we take it home and...it sounds horrible. Immediately, our anger against the reviewer makes us shout, “He's a sellout! This component doesn't sound like he described!” Or we turn our ire toward the HiFi dealer, since the same component sounded divine in his listening room. OK, I know, not in HiFi Shows, as everything sounds bad in those planes of audio Hell. Amen to that.

Until now there wasn't much else to do beyond following instructions to make your room that looks like a house of mirrors sound good and positioning the speakers in a different place relative to the air conditioner outlet. However, if such good advice, which you can also find in our magazine, has no effect, we may have discovered a way out. It may seem unusual to you, but I guarantee that audiophiles have tried much more bizarre and useless accessories than this.

A closer look

I'm talking about a plexiglass lamp, with an effigy of The Holy Family. The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. On request it can be customized or, if The Holy Family doesn't suit your needs, you can try some saint you may prefer. For Italian audiophiles, for example, there's a version of the lamp depicting Padre Pio. The Holy Family lamp is claimed to use a triode, but I didn't dare to dismantle it.

The esoteric device, made in Italy by RegPlex, consists of a modern style lamp in laser-cut plexiglass, mounted on a natural wooden LED-backlighted base with warm light (if you want to obtain that warm and embracing sound). The plexiglass has a thickness of 4mm, a size decided after a certain number of experiments in the listening room, to make it resonate exactly at the Schumann frequency. It has shiny edges, and it guarantees excellent transparency and high light transmission. The low consumption power supply is provided by a USB cable which, if desired, can be replaced with another of audiophile quality, to have electrons always ready to move with precision, articulation, and self-control.

In use!

Its use is simple and intuitive: place it at the center of the listening area, between the speakers, turn it on and...wait. Spending a few days kneeling may maximize its performance, although such results are not guaranteed. Sometimes the beneficial effects are felt immediately; other times you have to wait for a bit of running-in.

In general, with a little faith on your end, the eventual results are...miraculous: that mixed and compressed sound comes to life and hovers in the air, becoming ethereal and almost supernatural. Yes, really supernatural. The low range, which was confused and blurred, resurrects and acquires rigor and control. The most obvious benefits, however, are all in the medium-high range: it feels like being in Heaven, literally.

Diana Krall, who categorically refused to materialize between your speakers (despite claims to the contrary by the reviewer, that a$$hole!) will appear in a pure white dress surrounded by a crowd of angels, all with Elvis Costello's face (oh well, who did you want?, it costs just €24!). That damned The great gig in the sky track by Pink Floyd - to which you listened over and over again ad nauseam in a multi-mega-remastered-blended-homogenised, bio-compatible and GMO-, gluten- and lactose-free edition in the vain hope that it would really levitate in the sky, instead being confined to the depths of your basement - will deliver sound with a previously unknown grace. Divinely. The height of the 3D soundstage will reach up to the high heavens.

Does the lamp have limitations? Certainly it does! Songs of Faith and Devotion by Depeche Mode, which has always sounded a bit artificial and metallic...will continue to sound like that, because this is not Aladdin's Lamp. In certain cases, nothing less than Father Amorth's good soul would be needed. Similarly, despite the name of the band, there's nothing to do about the Jesus and Mary Chain's debut album. Faith by George Michael...oh well, do you really need to know?

Once you have recognized the extent of the improvement, you can indulge yourself with the complete and intuitive remote control: you can choose the level of performance, the background color (I know you like it black), one of the four DSP effects available: SMOOTH, FADE, STROBE, FLASH. I would leave the first two for jazz and classical music, while I think the last two are just perfect for disco and rock, respectively. However, feel free to experiment with combinations of different effects and intensities, as each system has its own story and behavior (now, how many times have you heard this one?).

Conclusions

When everything fails, and our system does not react positively to any upgrade or tweak, let's go supernatural. This lamp works almost miracles, but if you don't follow at least some basic rules for setting up and installing a HiFi system...prayers are useless! ;-)

P.S. The lamp with the remote control does really exist...but claims for its audio benefits are fabrications of the author.

© Copyright 2023 Lucio Cadeddu - direttore@tnt-audio.com - www.tnt-audio.com

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