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Miracles in Audio, by luck, by good choices,by design or by tweaking...

I owned a low cost headphone for many years, the Fostex TH7B, first version( a new one close version exist Fostex TH7BK), semi-open headphone...I was never completely satisfied by any headphones I ever owned: Hifiman 400, Stax basic lamda, Stax 5 gold,Akg 340,Akg 701, beyerdynamic 990, and T150... Because in each of them with all their qualities I never listen to at the same times, a confortable headphone with natural timbre and voicing, with a good imaging and a realistic soundstage(not too close to my ears)...


For the last days I tweaked this Fostex, to damp his internal resonance I used sorbothane, I put some shungite stones at the exterior part of the cups and I use some Herkimer diamond in the interior pads( 3 at 120 degree) … Now this low cost headphones crush all my others if I sum all his qualities... For example his mids and voicing cannot beat the AKG 340 but among all my other headphones it is the best that is near that mids and it is more confortable, and with longer cable than the 340...His imaging is better and more realistic than the 340 etc etc...It is the same if I compare with the others...


His most important qualities is natural timbre and clear imaging,very precise pinned point accuracy and natural, so clear it crush for that ALL the others to dust...In the French audio circle the reviews were more than very positive few years ago...Diapason d’or and choc Classica...I am not the only one impressed buy the ratio quality/price... But remember that thesae reviewers dont tweak their headphone...The difference between before and after the tweaks are staggering...


Yes Miracles happens in Audio: cost is under 100 American dollars... Few years ago they cost me 50 bucks new... I never dreamed that I will go back to headphones...


I will enjoy your miracles stories of any kind ….My best to all...
128x128mahgister
denverfred's avatar
denverfred
252 posts
 
Want to report that adding a shungite brick above my mains panel and putting 5X7 tiles on my AC power distribution components (among the source component connectors) has lowered noise levels considerably. It is particularly noticeable on my TV, which shares AC distribution (through a cheap old Shunyata cable) with my source components. Enabled me to take all picture controls to off or neutral--especially black level, which is now excellent without additional boost.
Initially, I tried shungite tiles stacked between my DAC and my Apple TV. The sonic result was a great improvement in both sound and picture on youTube classical music sites with slight softening in the upper mids. I'm running all digital (Qobuz) and thought at first that I had solved the occasional digital hash problem for good. At Magister's suggestion, I moved the tiles to treat AC only and was able to regain detail without losing most of the smoothness that I was looking for.
Now experimenting with shungite pyramids upside-down under my CD player using pre-1982 pennies (95% copper) as feet under the pyramid peaks. Hard to tell what comes from the materials and what comes from having the unit up on points.
Ain't placebos great? (Easy Magister, I'm being sarcastic.)
Film at 11:00.
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
12,987 posts
 
Thanks for this almost "unique" confirmation of my experiments....

You must put a copper tape on the external side of the shungite plate to optimize his impact and works with less negative effects....

A pyramid of shungite is not very practical most of the times...( except for feet good idea!) I prefer plate...Thin one for connector and big one for the different locations all along the electrical grid....

I use "golden plates" all along my electrical grid with great success ( 30 plates perhaps)... I wait for 12 more in the next weeks...." 2 plates for example behind each speakers electronics and connectors)

I appreciate your feed back....

My deepest regards....

I apologize for my lack of patience with sarcasm.... :)

My only excuse is english is not my first language....Sometimes i miss some clues...  :)
denverfred's avatar
denverfred
252 posts
 
Magister
Thanks.

I'm thinking on the whole concept of "placebos." Must do some reading to get into the mix of opinion/research.

Horrors! Can one become a "placebophile"? Hard to define something that, by definition, doesn't exist.

Happy listening!
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
12,987 posts
 
My ultimate Cable connections of all my grids

I was using very thin copper telephone cable and i connected my grid of stones and crystals, some grids of cones bells, the grid of Schumann generators, the " twin fans" to the central "Bell of Bells" dangling from my ceiling and in the middle of the room....

All is now connected, it was not the case before....

And wow! improved imaging and separation and especially better dynamic, all music are better....

I now had create for myself the proof that ACTIVE acoustics controls exceed the effective power of transformation of the S.Q. than the controls used for the 2 others embeddings, the mechanical, and the electrical...

Passive acoustical controls cannot be replaced by active one, but passive materials will never gives to the sound the living quality of real sound... A perfect accurate sound reproduction in a room is not synonymus with "living" holographic sound quality.... Passive controls work toward a more perfect sound, diverse connected active resonators work toward a more "living" sound... A greek theater for example enhance the sound and his ends was not to gives first more perfect sound but more living one....

Non connected resonators like my Helmholtz bottles or my singing chip metal resonators are passive resonators .... Cones bells with herkimer diamonds. connected to 10 Schuman generators are active one...

I hope this is clear for all...

I will go back to music.....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
12,987 posts
 
Next experiments coming soon:

Springs for my speakers, keeping my sandwiches in place under the speakers, i will put the springs directly on the sandwiches and under the speakers, then i will be able to take off the 70 pounds of concrete that was damping the speakers... I think the springs will made them no more useful.... Springs will controls the resonance better....

And last but not least, 12 new "golden plates" for the electrical grid....


:)
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