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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
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,094 posts
 
My new active controls method for room acoustic
is a continuation of my "twin fans combing sound room enhancer"....

I will not speak in details about it for the moment....
Many new readers will think i am crazy, after many past readers think that already anyway...

I will describe it later for sure, i dont fear other’s opinion....

But even for me it is difficult to imagine that change and how it works....

If so, acoustic is not what acousticians think it is, It is way more than they think....

One thing is sure my adio system increase in S.Q. another notch today...

It is very easy to verify for me, it takes almost a minute of listening.... I verified after this first amazing minute for many hours with many files i know perfectly well and files which i know how they are supposed to sound in my room....

i am amazed ....

Acoustic active devices are almost half of my S. Q. now...

The rest is passive treatment of the room, + the 2 other embeddings...

I will post photos in the near future to describe my "twin fans" modifications....

I am too old to start a career in acoustical audio.... :)

Alas!

But i can treat myself at least.....

Enjoy music....

«Life is shorter than the long dying breath of a dragon .»-Groucho Marx


mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,094 posts
 
UPDATE:

My new active controls method for room acoustic
is a continuation of my "twin fans combing sound room enhancer"....


I am not a scientist at all....
Only an ordinary guy who listen carefully with "ordinary" hearing capacity for my age , but with learned hearing abilities over the mean population, being a lover of music and an audiophile for the last 7 years, and consciously so for the last 2 years....

My last experiment is so successful that i discover truly amazing facts...

In a word, i connect with very thin phone cable the 2 twin fans, with their cones grids of 2 different size on the enclosure with Herkimer diamond at their center...

After connecting the 2 twin fans and the 2 size of cones bells on them with cables, i connected the 2 twins fans cones bells grids to 2 Schumann generators, themselves connected all around my room to the other 8 one....

The upgrading S.Q. was an increase of all factors and aspect of sound qualities...

I am flabbergasted indeed...

Now what this means?

This means that PASSIVE room acoustical controls has some limitations to correct the room , especially irregular and small room...

ACTIVE acousticals controls are revolutionary in S. Q. terms ...

The human ears not only read direct and indirect sound coming from the speakers and the room, but we can use some connected active resonators to help the ears/brain to free themselves from the limitations of the room itself...

The ears/brain not only PASSIVELY READ the room but can ACTIVELY TRANSLATE the limitations of the room and transmutating them in some other space totally....

Wow! i will repeat that:

The ears/brain not only PASSIVELY READ the room but can ACTIVELY TRANSLATE the limitations of the room and transmutating them in some other space totally....




This is my last discovery.....

denverfred's avatar
denverfred
252 posts
 
Want to report that adding a shungite brick above my mains panel and putting 5X7 tiles on my AC power distribution components (among the source component connectors) has lowered noise levels considerably. It is particularly noticeable on my TV, which shares AC distribution (through a cheap old Shunyata cable) with my source components. Enabled me to take all picture controls to off or neutral--especially black level, which is now excellent without additional boost.
Initially, I tried shungite tiles stacked between my DAC and my Apple TV. The sonic result was a great improvement in both sound and picture on youTube classical music sites with slight softening in the upper mids. I'm running all digital (Qobuz) and thought at first that I had solved the occasional digital hash problem for good. At Magister's suggestion, I moved the tiles to treat AC only and was able to regain detail without losing most of the smoothness that I was looking for.
Now experimenting with shungite pyramids upside-down under my CD player using pre-1982 pennies (95% copper) as feet under the pyramid peaks. Hard to tell what comes from the materials and what comes from having the unit up on points.
Ain't placebos great? (Easy Magister, I'm being sarcastic.)
Film at 11:00.
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
13,094 posts
 
Thanks for this almost "unique" confirmation of my experiments....

You must put a copper tape on the external side of the shungite plate to optimize his impact and works with less negative effects....

A pyramid of shungite is not very practical most of the times...( except for feet good idea!) I prefer plate...Thin one for connector and big one for the different locations all along the electrical grid....

I use "golden plates" all along my electrical grid with great success ( 30 plates perhaps)... I wait for 12 more in the next weeks...." 2 plates for example behind each speakers electronics and connectors)

I appreciate your feed back....

My deepest regards....

I apologize for my lack of patience with sarcasm.... :)

My only excuse is english is not my first language....Sometimes i miss some clues...  :)
denverfred's avatar
denverfred
252 posts
 
Magister
Thanks.

I'm thinking on the whole concept of "placebos." Must do some reading to get into the mix of opinion/research.

Horrors! Can one become a "placebophile"? Hard to define something that, by definition, doesn't exist.

Happy listening!
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