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
I just place another thin "golden " plate that was on the connector of my external disk from there on top of the 4 capacitors of the S.G. the one with the biggest power supply... The dynamic was enhanced ...Better location for it...
Today I read an article about a top of the line dac, with a price in the many thousands...My reflexion was, how in the world can I have faith in any description of any reviewer comparing dac ? For sure he was right about the dac, this is a good one, but how to be sure of any comparison when no system is the same, and most people, even reviewers, trust any costly gear more than their own capacity to modify the audio environment with their own ears for their privileged measure apparatus...Need nothing else...

I know for a fact in my own journey that controlling vibrations, treating the room, and cleaning the electrical grid of the house and decreasing the noise floor of the audio system has more impactful effect more than any upgrade, be it a dac or an amp, or even new speakers... My system is good without any of my homemade tweaks, but like I already said I did not loved him in the beginning, but my dac, my amp, and my speakers were carefully choosen by me and are very good gear (mid-fi for sure but very good)… The transforming effect by all these homemade tweaks made me falling in love with them...


Then my reflexion is truly this: Most of us already own very good gear, trust me what is lacking is not an upgrade piece, but only the methods, means, tweaks, knowledge which made us able to transmute our own audio system...All that was unknown to me 7 years ago when I begins to buy pieces of audio, and i was always unsatisfied all the way long till I takes things in my hand...


I apologize to the reader for repeating that, but if I can help one to change his way taking the right direction, without spending thousand dollars of money in upgrade I will be happy...

wow! Definitely the way to go for my thin "golden" shungite plates are on the S.G. …. a small piece has an amazing effect on details, and dynamic then a way better imaging... I must lower even the sound volume pot....I listen in nearfield for the time being :)

5 of my 6 S.G. has now a "golden" plate of shungite( around 10 grams) and the effect is in the same level than with my 5 "golden" tiles of shungite on the central breakers panel (250 gram at least each one)...
The last "golden plate" on the last Schumann Generator has been installed...

The results: a more ethereal, dynamic, clear,imaging, with no negative effects whatsoever audible by me at least...

I dont know the scientific explanation for that, the S. G. are all linked together and to my stones grid but there is no cable linking the stones to the audio system, except the near location of the stones themselves...

The shungite+copper tape is the most potent of my tweaks, it is more an instrument to decrease the noise level than a tweak...On top of each of the 4 capacitors on each S. G. the "golden" plate push the sound toward a sublime road if I compare to the same system of mine in the beginning not even 2 years ago, when my direction of action and research begins to be more systematic because my hearing understanding was better...

Learning the way of a discrimating hearing attitude is simply that : listening for yourself without putting faith in any other thing that your ears...No apparatus can coordinate all elements, including the vibrations controls methods, with the room acoustic, with each pieces of the audio system in itself, with the electrical grid of the room and of the house and all that together... All this must be remedied or corrected gradually each steps at a time simultaneously...

No instrument exist that can make all that in one fell swoop... In some way everything happen as if your ears must learn to replace the electrician, the audio engineer, the acoustician, and their costly products by simple improvised and inspired creative gestures transformed with the help of your ears in practical simple homemade solutions...If I had the money I would had consulted these 3 specialists and the photos of my system would have looked like very different than what you see now... But audio is not about looks, but about sounds quality... And my thread is not for the people who can pay anything for themselves, but for the "relatively poor" who think they cannot afford true Hi-Fi heaven... Or for those simply who wanted the fun to play and experiment at low cost...

The last question is how my system is being compared to others?

This is not the right question even if it is a good one...

The right question is :

Is your audio system nearer now to his true potential top qualities?
The answer is firmly YES...The questions answered themselves from the beginning to the end of this evolutive correcting process...

My best to all...
The last question is how my system sound is, being compared to others?

To answer that I will say that my actual system is mid-fi at most...

But at this level, favorably compare probably because of this implementation of his actual potential...I had listen to other system I like less that are slightly better theorically... But they are too many factors to compute to fairly compare many systems, essentially the particularities of these 4 factors: vibrations controls and resonance including the cables, electrical grids of rooms and houses, and acoustical atmosphere of the room, plus the embeddings particular to each link of the audio system with the others...


If I dream about my ideal  affordable system  and compare with my actual one  in price :


 Sansui Au 7700 amplifier versus Berning ZOTL integrated amplifier ( 150 dollars versus  6 thousand dollars for the 20 watts integrated)


Dac Nos tda 1543 of C. Mariac ( paid 25 dollars new bought on ebay versus the Denafrips terminator for 4 thousands dollars)


 My Speakers  Mission Cyrus 781 paid 50 dollars versus Tannoy Harbeth M30  4 thousand dollars....


My actual system cost was so low I dont want to add the numbers versus  14 thousand dollars...

I am sure this  will be  an upgrade...
But think about it, I would reinstall almost all my actual tweaks and controls methods, not exactly in the same location... But the room , the house and the connectors, the resonators, the Shumann generators, the vibrations controls, the homemade room treatment, even the grid of stones  with modifications linked to the particular sound quality of  this system would go on...