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
Tip on speaker location. The only 100% way to achieve absolute speaker locations on a given room is using a speaker set-up track on the XLO Test CD or similar Test CD that has the out-of-phase track. All other methods such as “move a little/listen a little” or lasers cannot find the absolute ideal locations. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can never know when you have found the absolute best locations. 

As one progresses in his system tweaks and room treatments the ideal speaker locations can often change so the XLO speaker set-up track should be used every once in a while to reestablish the correct locations. All other methods are like trying to solve x simultaneous equations in x + n unknowns.

I will use the Foobar 2000 Mathaudio room EQ in the next months...

For now miraculously my ears "inconsciously" solve this x simultaneous equations in x+n unknowns.. :)


And I said "miraculously" because a very little displacement gives a big reward...


Geoffkait I wish you the best from my heart for the year to come and thank you for your dedication to answer questions from me or from others....
How much chocolate and cherries can you mix with ice cream before it is too much ?

I dont know, I only know that my 7th Schumann generator, a more costly one black type from Ufeel company in Hong-Kong, is very good indeed... When I sandwich it between 2 "golden" plates, the improvement increase... The sound quality of the imaging increase a notch, more organical linkage between the clearer separation of each voices and instrument, I am amazed...Without the "golden" plate that work well but with less audible intensity...


And I made a simple test, I disconnect 3 of my 6 cheaper chinese usb S.G. and the decrease in the naturalness of timbre were audible immediately.... Then the cheap one work also...Less forcefully than this black Ufeel one (70 bucks versus 10 bucks) but they work indeed...

How much chocolate and cherries can you mix with ice cream before it is too much indeed ?


In the "virtual system" section i put a new photo of that new S.G. with the Plates...




Update:

After 1 hour break-in the imaging transformation for the better is increasing...This new S.G. is the deal... My audio system is now at another quality level.... Thanks Geoffkait for the tip about this fabulous S.G.
Second update:

It is better with only ONE  "golden" thin  plate on one side of the USB S.G., there is a slight loss of details otherwise....With one plate the improvement is very astounding....I will modify the photo in my "virtual System 2 section today...