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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
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Radio frequencies are like Chicken Man. He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere! RF is coming in through the windows, coming in through the walls, rf is entering the unused wall outlets throughout the house or apartment. Radio frequencies (electromagnetic waves) are produced by electronic components, especially microprocessors. Since radio frequencies are photons and travel at light-speed, directing them away from one object simply allows them to go and affect something else, no? Does carbon absorb photons in the rf spectrum? Carbon seems to be rather good at absorbing visible light.

A comprehensive program of radio frequency shielding, absorption and suppression is required to effectively deal with the pernicious and tenacious problem of rf interference. A couple of suggestions are Machina Dynamica Flying Saucers 🛸 for Windows and Flying Saucers 🛸 for unused wall outlets everywhere in the house or apartment. There is a 3M rf absorbing product that can be easily cut into rectangles or squares and stuck onto the tops of microprocessors but the name of the product escapes me.
whostolethebatmobile
290 posts
 
For emi coming into cables or any equipment from anywhere/everywhere, there would seem to be 2 ways of dealing with it. Absorb or reflect. If it is absorbed, surely it must be dealt with (preferably converted to heat) before it is allowed to interfere with the audio signal. If it is reflected it might arrive somewhere else undesirable. Unless all equipment and cables were treated to reflect. There must be some good reason why the Belts preferred white cables. Perhaps a substance with an extremely high refractive index might be useful.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
The interesting thing about white cables is that while it’s true that the color white reflects all visible colors, the radio frequencies we are talking about are much higher in frequency than visible colors on the electromagnetic spectrum and are not (rpt not) reflected or absorbed by color per se. by the same token, objects that are the color black may or may not absorb all EM frequencies. They may (most likely) only absorb frequencies in the visible light portion. So, the white cable thing is more mysterious than it might at first appear. 😬
whostolethebatmobile
290 posts
 
It would be quite useful if the outer layer of a cable absorbed EM frequencies, then a sub-layer reflected them, back into the outer absorbing layer.

For the inner surface of the same cable coating, you would have an absorbing layer, but not a reflecting layer. Instead you would deal with the internally emitted EM by direct conversion to heat, via one of several well known mechanisms.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
An absorbing or reflecting layer on the cable jacket exterior would probably not accomplish any more than “proper shielding.” RF comes in on the line and generated by the electronics. Now shielding is being raised to an art form by Audioquest and others, including but not limited to rf filters. And there are many other ways to help deal with the rf problem, including robust wall capacitor type filters, speaker terminal attachments (filters), power line conditioners, Bybee doohickies perhaps, Quantum Corp. devices which I think are now extinct, Tice Clock, and a host of other things audiophiles hold dear. You could move to a remote island somewhere. Or, you could turn your whole house into a first order Faraday cage, which is what I’m attempting to do. 🤗
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