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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
12,987 posts
 
I am a bit awkwarded and confused right now... I have attached 2 black tie-wrap around the bottom of my 2 roof gutters...thanks for this "placebo tweak" the sound is, it seems, better.... You can now mock me to your soul content evil guy!


This is the proof of my complete insanity....


But wait a minute, the placebo effect is a real ,non cumulative, one time new biased perception, it is real, but NON cumulative in a repeated cumulative acts of tweaking, one after the other, toward a complete transformation of my audio system after many months or years.... Then I am a bit fool to wrap that at the end of my gutters, but the pacebo effect  is a real subtle change, tough non cumulative, it seems that the illusion is not a growing without mom ending improvement...At the end I am not completely nutty with all my tweaks it seems...I am nutty only with these tie-wrap placebo improvement.... :)
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I’m not the kind of person who mocks a placebo effect. I will try anything as long as it improves the sound. I would even get expectation bias a try if it helped the sound. By the way, if you live in an apartment building with many drain spouts falling down I strongly suggest you put the cables ties on at night with no full moon.
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
12,987 posts
 
it seems we are brother from the same unknown father,because like you I think about anything to change for the better even placebo tweaks...
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
12,987 posts
 
Anyway thanks Geoff for this tweak that nobody will try except myself here....

The strange thing is a better soundstage for my speakers... Or is it an illusion temporary? Why? Is there anything other than complete placebo effect? why black ties wrap? I dont trust my ears anymore and they are rather good to this day... :)

I am really happy that my wife dont read this thread....
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
I wish I knew the answers to your questions. 😩 Maybe it has something to do with information fields. Yes, I am going with information fields. Final answer!
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