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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...
mahgister
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,985 posts
 
It seems my idea for cheap isolation platform for my speakers, amplifier and dac was good...


"Sorbothane sandwiches":
quartz feet, granite plate, sorbothane sheet, cork plate, granite plate, quartz feet, bamboo plate, sorbothane, speakers..... My idea was precisely coupling- and decoupling the resonance and breaking it using different property of different resonant densities materials...

It was audibly good for my ears and the cost all in all for my 4 platforms around 100 dollars for all of them ... read that design idea from a polish company :

«

The FOS-70SXL platform is based on the FOS-7SXL model. It consists of two separate bases. The lower one is made of multi-layer MDF, veneered with ebony wood colored black. It is decoupled from the ground with double carbon steel spikes. The upper section is a metamorphic stone with a specific, irregular structure, enclosed in a wooden box, combined with MDF (upper layer) veneered with ebony in the same black color. This part is decoupled from the bottom platform with spikes.

The idea behind this model, as well as other designs of my firm, is isolating from external and internal vibrations by breaking them in many directions from side to side, along with simultaneous absorption by appropriately selected materials.»

http://highfidelity.pl/@main-970&lang=en


I dont doubt that they are good, but:

The price for 2 would be 750 dollars x 2 = 1,500 dollars

I need only 4 of them.... Then 3000 dollars versus my 100 dollars :)

I dont think that their platform is thirty times better than mine tough...The problem is also they would takes way too more space than mine on my desk... :)



Someday I will try the springs idea of Geoffkait and a bed of quartz sand....And compare that to these platforms of mine...





geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Sometime we should sit down and have a nice long talk about the difference between damping and isolation. This is not to say I don’t like your idea of throwing everything at the problem except the kitchen sink. 🤗
taras22
412 posts
 
The ideal would be something that combined isolation and critical damping, eh.( Btw damping is most often not your friend, unless you are a big fan of phase shift strongly related to the applied damping material/system ).
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,985 posts
 
Remember that I am not a scientist, I applied some imagination and very rudimentary knowledge to the problems with the judgement of my hearing... At the end my sound quality relatively to my ears is increasing big way, what much can I do? I even listen to some like you for better understanding...

By the way sometimes you are right I even try to throw the kitchen sink at the problem... Like with my many different kind of resonators, but at the end without being perfect or optimal, my solutions worked... :)

Perfect solution is for science, imperfect but working homemade one for the pleasure of my ears...And sometimes I cannot wait for science to improve my sound quality.... :)
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,985 posts
 
I think that the sandwiches I use+ some load on my speakers makes precisely that a relative damping with a relative isolation and a kind of passive filtration with different structural densities materials... Not perfect at all in any way, but very clear improvement, and if this phase shifting is there I dont hear it...My best to you Taras and thanks for your participation...
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