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
Second UPDATE about my 3 Helmholtz tubes and about my Helmholtz-Fibonacci room tuner....




I made some experiment with a few Helmholtz pipes and tubes... I add one directly in front of my speakers 3/4 inches diameter, 3feet 3 inches high....The bass in the room suddenly bloom more and i never enjoy so good bass ever... The room first node is around 43 hertz, my speakers dont go under 45 hertz, and i enjoy now more of the very clear 45 hertz and the upper bass frequencies...

Some miracle happen when i decided to glue a straw on the plastic sheet closing the mouth if this tube centering this straw on the toothpick hole made on it....WOW! It was like 2 helmholtz tubes glued together , the straw is on top of the pipe....

Better imaging and better clarity....


ONE STRAW can change completely the sound of a room.... Think about that.....

WHY?

Because the air in the room is a pressurized heteregeneous complex distribution of springs cells acting on the waves and the Helmholtz tubes are pressurized engines that are able to make the room an ACTIVE participant in the sound perception and no more a boucing sets of passive walls... The S.G. also and the ionizer modify the array of air molecules that act like springs for the waves.... Remember that the waves cross a small room near hundred times each second, in my case 80 times each second....Then the air is like strings of violin under compression...

Acousticians who sells acoustic materials sells you half of the solution only....The passive materials treatment...

The other half are less easy to install and organize like passive acoustic materials can be but they are what make the room an ACTIVATED  part of the sound perception synchronized with the speakers : my grid of S.G. and especially the Helmholtz pipes and tubes grid  with the ionizers....


The room is now active like the speakers are for the creation of the sound experience....ANY small room on par with the speakers are the SOURCE of the sound experience....

Presenting the room like passive walls to be treated is NOT acoustic science it is marketing of easy to install ready made solutions for the acoustic company....

It is my conclusion after this powerful S.Q. increase with ONE straw.....

For sure the mathematical formula to calculate the set of frequencies affected by a particular H. bottle or tube use the neck length and diameter in a crucial way... But this formula was no more an abstraction for me but suddenly a powerful audible modified sound in my experiment, a living experience.....

Like usual the improved S.Q. is sensible and audible in my 2 listening positions, nearfield and the more regular one.....


My best to you all....
LAST UPDATE about all my 18 HELMHOLTZ PIPES and TUBES...


I added one straw for a neck to all my pipes and tubes even to the Helmholtz-Fibonacci room tuner sets....The identical length of the straw on all devices dont change the golden ratio between the pipes...

What i can say?

The relation between the volume of the bottle or of the pipes and tubes to the neck volume and diameter is the KEY....The equation said so.... But listening to the equation by experimenting is a true sckocking experience, the equation is no more dead signs on paper, but suddenly a living animal in the room.... This is the power of acoustic....

You must experiment in your own room...Myself i stumble on the right proportion...

No change of dac or amplifier can replace ACOUSTIC control ever and never in audible impact.... 😊 Save for a very bad gear upgrading to an higher level totally.....The acoustical embedding new control is powerful like that...

After this addition of one straw on all devices, eliminating past shorter neck on them, the results were so amazing....

When you listen to an entire orchestra of brass the timbre differences between, tubas, trumpets, trombones, and the french horns cannot lie....

Astounding, this Gabrielli music by the Empire brass ensemble, which i know by heart, was revealed for the first time in all hues and variation of the brass timbre of each instrument....

Orchestral music and the timbre of each instrument is the BEST test for an audio system....On a single instrument piano is....

I cannot exagerate the huge impact of this longer neck addition to my pipes and tubes used like Helmholtz bottles...


My room is now ACTIVATED, and it is no more to the speakers sound only boucing on the passive walls i listen to, but to a pressurized complex set of engines in synchronisation with the speakers...This is what i call the activation of the room, to make understand the enormous difference between a passive room/walls and an activated atmosphere in the room....

Material passive treatment is important, but active controls by Helmholtz principle exceed it in impact because it is with them that the room is fully activated, with the S.G. grid and the 2 ionizers....


This fact is so much underestimated that if we read acoustitian articles about small room controls, they rarely insist on their importance.... In fact they even dont mention it most of the times....

I guess i am more creative than even some pro..... I have all my time for sure, i no longer work..... 😁

Listening to music is for me life or death.....With no money to spend i just discovered the universal lies in audio about costly gear being the MAIN high-quality source of the experience.... It is completely false, embeddings controls are the key, especially the acoustical one....



I pity all those who spend money on costly dac and amplifier...... 😁😊😎

I best them with 18 straws.....Nobody will ever believe me, i dont believe it myself.....🤑😋🤐😊

Be creative, listen to your ears only, not to reviews or audio consumers....


My best to all.....



Remember that all my audible effects are tested in my 2 listening position, nearfield and regular in my room....
UPDATE on my ionizers grid....





I replaced the costly moskitoefree french device (i will spare it for waiting rooms in pandemic zones) by a low cost very efficient car ionizer , a second one, because my room is like the space volume of at least 3 cars...

Complete audible success... Even if the french device did not ionize with the same internal mechanism than the more regular 20 bucks chinese device, the chinese device is very good, sturdy, in solid aluminum,low noise, but what it give in S.Q. increase indeed  compensate easily the slight borderline audible DB noise of his internal mechanism....

The one i bought are USB powered... It is more practical than battery powered because they work 12 hours a day in my listening room....I listen music a lot indeed....Even reading.... 😊


Here is the exact one i bought and the dealer was very efficient....


https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001278990095.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.4b524c4dlOeQmk


For 40 bucks these 2 are very good and i cannot listen music with them "off"....

But if you suffer asthma or respiratory problems, beware, these are ionizer.... Inform yourself before buying...

Another acoustical simple controls for me , and one i could use without modifying it.... But i have a crazy  idea about some addition to it....To be continued later... 😁😊😎😉
Do you prefer listening to music with the ionizers
"on" or "off?"  The tradeoff is the enhanced effect
versus the slight internal noise they generate.

Do you notice a difference in SQ when
you leave them running all the time EXCEPT for
the times you are listening attentively?
Do you prefer listening to music with the ionizers
"on" or "off?" The tradeoff is the enhanced effect
versus the slight internal noise they generate.
The noise is very low and i forget it easily and the improving effect exceed it for me...

Do you notice a difference in SQ when
you leave them running all the time EXCEPT for
the times you are listening attentively?
Yes the difference is at the same times subtle and different from anything else and unmistakable...It is like the music in my near listening position were more definite and the atmosphere of the recording event is better reproduced...Same effect in my regular position but more spectacular in near listening...The effect is like the polish on a copper cup, this is the same cup but more clean now because polished well....

I open them "on" when i listen music and put them "off" if i dont listen...

For 40 bucks for the 2 it is very great addition....