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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
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,029 posts
 
I place a shungite "elite" variety piece on the usb connector of one of my S.G. and the sound begins to be more "fluid"...(it replace the tourmaline piece I remove for my jack Fostex T10 headphone and the T10 is so good already that it best all my other headphone even before adequate damping yet)

This change only is like the audible change when I add a very good cable interconnect in my system, the same order of magnitude change... Why placing only one piece shungite noble variety (the priciest shungite) on a S.G. passively connected to my grid of stones has a so great effect?


All my audio system is so sensible now that if I change the location of a piece of stone or crystals it is like changing the tube in a tube amplifier to choose the delicate, more pleasurable, "distorsion" of the sound... This is exactly so...

Or it is like my grid became a sort of "potential equalizer", but a super equalizer that can add for example a third dimension imaging power to an headphone or a speaker and not only modifying the frequencies...It is exactly that effect which I make in taping around the jack end of the cable of my T10 these stones together: tourmaline, shungite, Herkimer, chrysocolla beads , lava beads...All that together produced a metamorphosis of the imaging power of the T10 and a better natural timbre so much, that this T10 became my dearest best headphone now before even I complete yet the upgrading with some damping methods...


Nobody knows why, but my ears are glad even without explanation...
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,029 posts
 
Indeed it is more fun to play with stones , and more impactful on a variety of attributes of the sound than buying a 10,000 dollars tubes amplifier, because I can also fine tune the sound, like changing tubes, but at very low cost...

And I am sure that the effect is more impactful...Because you know, I already own a TOTL amplifier, the vintage sansui AU 7700, and this Q-TRON amplifier that I dream about some years ago will crush it perhaps but not by a margin so large to overshadow it completely especially if i compare this change with the upgrading effect of the grid of stone in my audio system and on my actual amplifier potential revelatory quality...


I am fond of geology now it seems... :)


I hope some of you will think about, room treatment, vibrations controls, and cleaning the electro-magnetic grid of your house before any other expanses, this is the only justification for my rant here... I apologize for the feverish metaphorical rhetoric of my audio obsession here, but you will pardon me if you go with my advice...
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mkgus
324 posts
 
My experiment with tourmaline has made me wonder. If the electrical “signal” is affected by mere proximity to certain objects, what is already affecting my system that I’m not aware of? Does running your power lines in steel conduit sound different than in-wall Rolex? How about buried power vs. overhead? Etc, etc.
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,029 posts
 
All electro-magnetic field of not only your house but near your house, all RFI interact against your audio system elevating the noise level... Even if your amplifier cost thousand of dollars it is affected by that and most people dont listen to the true potential of their gear... There is people who know that, and the others that underestimated that completely... It is the samething with vibrations-resonance...But I am no electrician and dont know all about power line...My only one means for the last year was to put on the principal electrical line of my house some 45 bags of aquarium peebles(cheap) with results very audible...On the principal electrical panel I put shungite, tourmaline, chrysocolla, lava beads etc with great results... The best would be to buy a PS conditioner regenerator, but the price exceed my purse... The other solution would be to buy a lithium battery generator but that will cost minimally 1000 bucks...For sure even if I bought all that I will use the magic of stones and crystals on them...But cut-off fron the house electrical line would be best solutions... For the meantime the 45 bags of peebles gives improvement and lower the noise level at the cheap cost of one bucks for a bag...My best to you MKGUS and I will be here if you want to discuss other problem with stones...And thanks for your participation in experiments...
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,029 posts
 
Do you have a conditioner MKGUS? Do you listen trough your computer? if so you have a router...

Place a shungite plate behind or in front of this router and listen to your music...You will know first hand how interference are anywhere...If you had a conditioner or a power strip, place on top of them shungite+tourmaline or beads of chrysocolla ...All other stones are possible, not one is filtering the noise the same manner, all stones act complementarily, particularly efficiently if cabled connected together...Each stones has his own effect on the sound very audible and different than the others...I learned how to use them with experiments...

These experiments are the beginning of a process where with each stones near your gear or on top, and on the interconnect cable or many cables, you gained incrementally, small addition with a next one, some great improvement... After that I cabled all my stones... I know, this seems silly :) but that works...

After that I use 6 cheap usb chineese Shumann Generator cabled with stones on them connected to this grid...

Remember that room treatment is imperative  and various materials and means to couple-decouple mechanically all your gear from vibrations-resonance... ( i use 20 Helmholtz homemade bottles also +my room home made treatment)
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