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 bid on some Herkimer diamonds from China. Better safe than sorry. 
They are cheap and enhance any stone, more potent than any quartz and less harsh in their forceful action especially coupled with the shungite or the tourmaline.... With the golden plate on my black S.G. they act so good that it is my best improvement to date almost , on par with the golden plates behind the speakers and the 5 golden plate on my breaker box....

I feel for the same impresssions that those that use the Omega mat if describing the effect of the golden plate....I cannot know the difference ...I have no comparison...And the price of the mat is too much for me beside the fact that my golden plate seems to act similarly on all counts... I will never know except if someone like you compare the 2 tweaks audible effects separately...


By the way I already put 40 Herkimer diamonds in my stones grid.... :)

They are particularly efficient with the "golden" plates...

mahgister OP
OK.... Perhaps if you add one tweak at a times you will give to yourself and others some assessment about each one effects....

>>>>Thanks for the tip. But life is too short. 😢 At the same time good luck to you and best wishes for the Gnu Year! 🤗
Indeed and sometimes shorter than we think....I understand you, it is better to feel the music than the sound …. :)


I wish you the best year of your life and the health to be going on....Thanks for your words...
Thank you for the comments but actually I’m referring to having to deal with so many changes and tweaks going on almost all the time.  Frequently it isn’t really feasible for me anyway to do things one at a time as you suggest, as nice as that would be. As the little mice in the movie Babe say, that’s the way things are. 🐭 🐭 🐭