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
I am conscious that my experiments are too unorthodox, and not so much esthetically acceptable to be  for all...By the way i am very creative but not very skillfull with my hands....

But my point was not esthetic but sound quality...

And this is complete success...

I am conscious that people believe that was is costly has value, fishing cone bells for 1 dollars has no value....

But forget the money and trust  your ears, the rest is without any  importance....

What is the goal?

 A very beautiful audio system in a beautiful room?

Forget my thread then...

A  low cost audio system in a low cost  acoustically treated room rightfully embed?

Read my thread....

:)
My last and one of the more powerful creation to change the negative acoustical obstruction of a bad room’s topology....


" The Golden Strings"

I put 2 ribbon of copper self adhesive tape (13 inches long) with 40 micro Herkimer diamonds on each ribbon, glued them on each side of my Bell of bells each one dangling from the ceiling in the center of the room ....Each ribbon is centered face to the speakers...

Astounding increase in soundstage and better high frequencies difffusion in all the room, then NO MORE link between the sound and the speakers location, and no problem with my bad room topology and the bad location of one speaker near the wall and in a corner...

I am so flabbergasted that if i was reading my own thread i will not believe it myself...

In my 2 positions of listening the sound encompass me...

The reason is that the direct waves from the speakers are now so reinforced in comparison to the indirect waves coming from the room walls and furnitures, that i created a more"informed wave" for the brain to decode and more easily decoded, because of the Bell of cones in the center of the room, and the grid of cones on my Twin Fans enhancer, that work like stable BEACONS with the "Golden Strings" on the flowing waves of sound in the room....These fixed points or beacons made easy for the brain his Fourier analysis of the waves....The Herkimer diamonds also transform the waves by resonance with them....

This is a description of what i experience not an explanation, nor science.... I could not wait for an engineer to say what i must do to create sound heaven, and i could not pay him anyway... And no acoustician i know of advise his customers to do these ACTIVE acoustical room controls by far.... But it is a total success...Passive treatment are different and necessary but way less powerful....They do not reinforce the direct waves in relation to the indirect and reflexive one and this is my explanation....

Speakers design is most of the times if not always secondary to acoustic controls .... This is very well proven for me now....

I dont know if more than 2 or 3 people read this completely insane thread of mine, but i hope to be useful to at least one....

Cost of the "Golden String" : under ten dollars for the 80 herkimer diamonds from China (3 gram)

If i say peanuts cost no one will contradict me..... :)






UPDATE  :   " The Golden Strings"

After one hour of listening this time at nearfield i have the same powerful transformation...

Incredible.... Two 13 inches copper ribbons with forty stones each....

 I cannot stop listening my very well known files....

I now can affirm with total certitude that the most powerful controls embeddings is the acoustical one passive+active...

The 2 others together cannot give the same amount of spectacular audible effects on soundstage, imaging, dynamic.... The 2 other embeddings work greatly for tonal timbre accuracy  and in a lesser way for the soundstage, and imaging and dynamic... But the acoustical controls affect also the timbre accuracy for sure but much more the 3 other characteristics....

It is normal if we think about it, because mechanical embedding controls and electrical one affect the integrity of the signals but the topology of the room play with the aspect of the signals coming from the speakers that will be affected  most by a bad synchronisation between direct waves and indirect one, and a bad translation of one into another.... The good translation make possible by active controls i call  that a better "informed wave" which is easily and better decoded by the brain's Fourier analysis computer....

I go back to heaven listening  for the night ...

My best to you  friendly ghosts....    :)
UPDATE : Upgrading the " The Golden Strings"


Guess what?

I now connected the 2 " Golden Strings" with the thin phone cable to the "Bell of bells" and then to the Schumann resonators grids and to the "Twin Fans" by the same token... All is connected...

The increase in the extension of the high frequencies was audible on the spot...

No negative impact at all.....

The ACTIVE acoustical controls of the room is the SECRET of Audio.... Save perhaps in a totally acoustically designed room and i am not even sure that this will be better, except perhaps by the best acoustical engineer in America... :)

Active acoustical controls create an autonomous space in the room, out of the walls absorbtion or reflective obstructions of the furniture or other conendrums , the results cannot be improved except perhaps if PERFECTLY treated by a competent acoustician...I am not one, i am only creative....

Active acoustical controls is my greatest discovery, and i called the new sound: "informed waves" because the balance between the direct and reflective waves seems to be in synchronisation, thanks also to the powerful resonance passive feed back controls by the Herkimer Diamonds grids....

The same components i did not like so much 2 years ago, i am in love with now and listen to in extasy...My Mission Cyrus 781 speakers, my Starting point systems NOS dac, and my Sansui AU 7700....Changing any of them seems to me useless.... For sure i can buy something better but at a cost that will be ridiculously high compared to this system cost.... And the music is delivered holographically, inhabit my room like the speakers did not exist...

My motto is the truth in AUDIO:

Dont upgrade anything before rightfully embedding everything......

I dont know what i can say more than that , then i will go back to heaven....

:)



I realize searching the internet that NOBODY seems to know about ACTIVE room controls...

All acousticians speak about numbers acoustic wave equations and how to treat a room with passive materials... They like their model too much to change it .... :)

Anybody reading my posts will think that i am nut....

:)

Ok i am....

:)


« You cannot crack a nut with another nut»- Groucho Marx