(HP) - Here's a weird one to bust out at your next dinner party: A new machine says it can make your wine taste better by blasting it with sonic energy.

The Sonic Decanter recently reached its $85,000 goal on Kickstarter, with more than 700 investors jumping in to support the project. (There are still a couple of days left for others to nudge their way in for a discounted rate on the product.) It purports to use ultrasound energy to change the molecular properties of non-carbonated red and white whites, making the drink "smoother" and more flavorful.

Wine connoisseurs may wonder exactly how this is superior to a normal decanting process, which involves pouring wine into a separate bottle to remove sediment. According to a video on the Kickstarter page, the Sonic Decanter removes oxygen from the wine -- the opposite of what normal decanting does -- which supposedly helps preserve flavor for longer.

We found the Sonic Decanter to be something of a mixed bag, at least in its current, pre-production form. The makers sent The Huffington Post a prototype unit to put to the test. Editors from HuffPost Tech and HuffPost Taste teamed up for a blind tasting: We poured eight cups of "pre-decanted" white wine and eight cups of "post-decanted" white, then did the same for the red. Here's what we discovered.

First of all: The process takes a bit of time. You have to wait 20 minutes for the Sonic Decanter to operate on a bottle of red, and 15 minutes for a bottle of white. During that time, the prototype made a bit of noise, but Mike Coyne -- CEO of Dionysus Technology Concepts, the company that will make the Sonic Decanter -- told HuffPost via email that the final product will be sound-engineered and quieter.

By and large, our testers seemed to enjoy the red wine after it had been through the Sonic Decanter process. We didn't tell them which cups had been through the Sonic Decanter and which hadn't, but we did take note of their comments. Our tasters didn't mention any dramatic differences, but a couple of people said the non-decanted wine seemed "more acidic," and someone else noted that it seemed to be "missing something." One editor added that the non-decanted wine had a "harsher aftertaste."

The white wine fared considerably less well in our taste test. Before starting the Sonic Decanter, you pour in two cups of cold water for the bottle to rest in. But remember, the process takes a full 15 minutes -- enough time for a drink to warm up a bit, even under normal conditions -- and we also noticed that the machine itself seemed to warm both the water and the wine bottle during the decanting process. That's not great for a glass of white.