Miracles in Audio, by luck, by good choices,by design or by tweaking...

First REAL headphones were a present from my long deceased friend.  We were room mates at military school, and we always spent and have overly asinine presents for years, til his passing many years ago.  
   Bought me a amazing pair of Koss, or kloss?? Headphones, I still use them.

  I reciprocated a 21 year Bushmills single malt Irish Whisky,
     We always spent and gave strange presents on holidays.
        The last present he bought me before his passing was a Sherwood 5 CD carousel, which still works and sounds great.           The tray acts up a wee bit, I press close, and it closes, and immediately opens up again, sometimes 2X, but always plays great, I baby this player, a little Mobil 1 synthetic In a dropper to innards, tray slide, moving parts.  Still rocks.
mist be since very early 2000’s when I received this spinner.
     Minimal use, but, just to keep her in use.  
       Cd box sets, music, he bought me odd music, and I did same for him, to share music, I would buy hm Malmsteen, napalm death, record old NWOBHM to cd for him, and I bought him an Autechtre? Cd

    Also post passing, I acquired all his old vinyl, ‘s to latem90’s techno,  dance, rave music.
    Great stuff!


  I miss my friend!

   Only 36 or 37 years old.  

      F death

Thanks for this moving story ...

My sympathies for you lost...


My best to you...

Before talking about my last upgrading of the H.M.E. i will say three important facts and signs about any room acoustic done right, even if some will not believe me at all because it is a so incredible transformation to live through:





You know you have some great acoustical settings controls in place,





(A)- You know that you are done or almost done when none of your 7 headphones can compete anymore with your room....None of my dynamics, hybrid, electrostatic nor planar magnetic headphones...There are all in a drawer...Few years ago the same speakers were no match for them.... 😁😊

Why?

Because AN HEADPHONE SHELL IS LIKE A ROOM but like an uncontrolled room , with vibrations and resonance problem plaguing it, the electrical noise floor is there also waiting to be decreased and the acoustical volume of this shell is like a room with his untamed pressure zones...... They need total controls like any room.... But it is very difficult to install the three embeddings controls in a shell....I know it, i modified with some success ALL my headphones when i begins my journey 7 years ago... At this time i believe that it will be impossible for me to create a very good speakers system that will beat a good headphone, especially with 50 bucks used speakers like the one i use now .... They are vintage one and very good one, Mission Cyrus 781, BUT i believe with the knowledge i had that they will be under par with any good headphone...It was true in the beginning BEFORE i created my own solutions to the three dimensions working embeddings controls.... Then i bought 9 pairs of headphone and keep 7 of them with the passing years....Things begins to change a little 2 years ago....And change seriously with the H.M.E.







(B)- You know that you are done or almost done when your regular listening position became better than even the nearfield position, on par with details but more LIVELY and more natural with a soundstage encompassing you in the 2 positions...





(C)- You know that you are done or almost done WHEN your 2 way stereo system in some case, relatively to some well recorded cd, sometimes will give you the total illusion that you have listened to FOUR SPEAKERS not 2...Voices or instruments comes directly sometimes in each one of your ear or inside your head or coming from your back while the 2 speakers are all this time however in front of you....






When these 3 experiences are yours.... You are done with acoustical settings or almost, because there is always a small or not so small improvement possible for sure.... Like the one i will speak about in my next post....


😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

FIFTH UPDATE:

THE HELMHOLTZ MECHANICAL EQUALIZER or H.M.E.




The H.M.E. is a snake whose body is an array of 30 tubes and pipes now.... I added a last one made of cardboard paper toilet rolls 😁 21 inches high with a 12 inches neck with a diameter of the mouth of the neck 1/3 of a straw diameter, and put it on top of the damping load which are on my speaker.... I added this one to my right speaker only, the TAIL of the snake...I move the long very thin neck made of 2 straw parts in the direction of the corner where the speaker is recessed in the wall corner.... Result: better dynamic and improvement in the balance between LEV and ASW... This last tube is near another one on this speaker with their 2 necks at 90 degree of one another....









The " tail speaker" is activated with 3 tubes near the bass driver.... The " head speaker" is activated by 2 thin tubes near the tweeter.... This difference separate the 2 direct wavefronts coming from each speaker, these 2 wavefronts reflect on the walls of my room early and lately, but differently for each ear, this difference help the brain to recreate spatial cues of three dimensionality and also the right balance between the listener envelopment factor LEV. and the relative source width ASW. The timing between late and early reflections and the reflections coming from behind my head are crux of the matter in creating this balance but also the distinctive voice of the 2 direct frontwaves coming from the speakers...This distinction between the head and tail speakers is the secret of my H.M. E.


The long neck of my tubes and pipes can be turned around 360 degree angle than sometimes it is useful experimenting with the change of pressure in the right zone of the room....

The effect is audible like usual in my 2 listening position....








What a journey! How fun it was! and at no cost.....

Someone asked me if i think that my system is better than some costly one.... For sure not, theoretically, practically it is very relative to the room where the good system are working.... But trust me i trail the best system and i am behind for sure, with my 500 bucks system, how could it be otherwise anyway? BUT NOT far , far behind, nearer than i never think possible in my wildest dream....And when the music is there in the room no one think about a costly upgrade anymore....

I will love that someone with a very costly system would listen to my 500 bucks system....The surprize would not be for me....For sure my system will be probably less performative but not so far behind for peanuts costs... 😎

That was the point i wanted to made: "audiophile experience which is not poor at all for the poors"....

Hi mahgister
Thank you very much for your inspiration. I am following your suggestions. Bought shungite, ataxite, tourmaline, malachite, chrysocolla, Herkimer crystals, and other stones, also copper foil... I used shungite with HD on my SR and on the electric panel in the basement, I used shungite with tourmaline. I will do more experimenting for sure. It is sometimes not easy to keep track with what you do, and I am still a Newbie:-) But I can certainly replicate your findings.
My next move will be hang the loudspeakers from the ceiling by four wires. This will allow them tree horizontal movements and realizes Sven Boenickes swing base for cheap. I will also dig into these Golden Strings of yours.