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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
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mahgister OP
13,214 posts
 
"Golden Plates"  UPDATE :

I add 4 all along my electrical line: one under the Hard drive bank which have only a little one, 2 on the router of the house(total of 3 now), and finally another bigger one on the electrical main panel of the house(which has many of them) and the results is easy to hear: more refined bass and better timbre and bigger imaging ...I was so enthralled with my Bell of Bells and my other little grid of bells(on speakers, on the walls and on my computer screen) that I had forgot the impactful "golden plates".... :)


What a journey!

Improvement for peanuts and each month passing the acquired  experience  that made me think that what is very illusory in Audio experience are the different electronic components upgrading effects versus the underestimated and more powerful effects created by the controls of the 3 embeddings... Today it was the electrical field acted upon with my "golden plates", yesterday it was the little cones or bells + Herkimer diamonds( on 20% of them)...

The only embedding I had not modified  in the last 2 years  is the mechanical resonance dimensions... With my heavy load on speakers +my sorbothane +granite+quartz+bamboo+cork plates... That is already so good I dont add anything more... In the years to come I will add a bed of quartz sand....But for now the heavy organ sound dont even give me any sensation at all with my finger on the desk...Not perfect at all, but good indeed...

My dear fellows think before buying anything.....Thinks twice....
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mahgister OP
13,214 posts
 
If I was reading my own thread, like any stranger, for the first times, I will think that the OP of this thread is, if not crazy, certainly right... But how to decide?

I will think that I must try by myself some of these controls tweaks about these 3 embeddings...

But I speak about myself, a man at the same time gullible, naïve, and sceptic and investigative....Yes I am a paradoxal man, but wait, in the first time it is better to believe, and in the second time, it is better to investigate, then creating some alternative dynamic movement ...Gullible persons only and sceptics only, are all at the end of their journey STATIC dogmatic minds ….


Believing and doubting at the same times is acting and experimenting, and is it not also real thinking ?


« Why do you think we have 2 cerebral hemispheres?
- One for believing and one for doubting i guess?
- Right, but know that you are neither one of them yourself... » -Groucho Marx speaking with himself.


« I think in spite of my brain...» Groucho Marx
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,214 posts
 
The "Golden Stick"
6 inches by 1/4 inch wide shungite stick with 3 sides masked with copper tape...

I cannot put a "golden plate" near my dac, then I solved the problem with the golden stick....Guess what : improvement in clarity....Cost 15 bucks...

I will put a photo in the next days on my "virtual system" page....

I am amazed by these continuous streams of improvement.... Most of us dont know at all their own audio system potential....Before blindly upgrading think about this....



The first and the most fundamental audiophile law:

" Dont upgrade before embedding it"
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,214 posts
 
I forgot to say that there is a tiny Herkimer diamond completely filling a hole in the "golden stick"...That equilibrate the overall effect....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,214 posts
 
If I want to resume the lessons of this thread in a few words:

The first law,
which is the most fundamental audiophile law:
" Dont upgrade before embedding it"

Second law:"
There exist 3 embeddings dimensions" : MECHANICAL(resonance-vibrations), ELECTRICAL (noise level of any links and general noise floor of the house), ACOUSTICAL ( the known passive standard way and the underestimated active ways)

Third law:
"The more uplifting upgrading effects are most of the time linked to the controls of the embeddings dimensions, except most of the times if you go to a higher rung with a purchase of E.C."

Fourth law:
" All electronic components (E.C.) roughly are distributed on a 3 rungs scale of ratio quality/price, and the S.Q. ratio decrease or increase in a non linear way with these 3 steps, (low, medium, high or a Gaussian with a non normal distribution if you wish)"

Fifth law:
" Any upgrade with a new E.C. on the same rung as a past E.C. will result most of the time in a low increase of S.Q. only, compared to a more rightful way to embed the components"

Sixth law:
" Then dont upgrade before rightly embedding them"

then this circle of laws is closed....

All that is only my experience and I tried to communicate it clearly....You can criticize... :)
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