OMG! I never said that. You must have screwed up the cut & paste. Same story, different day. 🤗
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...
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...
Showing 50 responses by geoffkait
Recall I have two usb Schumann devices the size of your little finger. The way I figure it the shungite doesn’t do anything, heaven forbid, the mass of thin shungite 2x3 plates will lower the resonance frequency little bit on the VERY elastic suspensions I have the usb dojobbers on so it’s all good! 🤗 🤗 🤗 |
Jack Crabb: General Custer: Jack Crabb: General Custer: Jack Crabb: General Custer: |
Tip on speaker location. The only 100% way to achieve absolute speaker locations on a given room is using a speaker set-up track on the XLO Test CD or similar Test CD that has the out-of-phase track. All other methods such as “move a little/listen a little” or lasers cannot find the absolute ideal locations. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can never know when you have found the absolute best locations. As one progresses in his system tweaks and room treatments the ideal speaker locations can often change so the XLO speaker set-up track should be used every once in a while to reestablish the correct locations. All other methods are like trying to solve x simultaneous equations in x + n unknowns. |
You said earlier today that two shungite plates on the USB SR were too many. So that is a case where golden shungite hurt the sound. So, maybe there are other cases where shungite hurts the sound. I want to believe. By the way I spoke to a customer in Italy yesterday, a recording engineer who told me he heard a lot of buzz about shungite, maybe it was right here on Audiogon, what are the chances?, and that he tried it but it didn’t ring his bell 🔔 I am determined to get to the bottom of it of course. Also I took some of the copper foiled shungite plates to my customer no. 1 two days ago who promptly observed the sound didn’t breathe with the shungite in the room. The breath of the sound returned when I removed the Golden shungite. Nevertheless I’m keeping an open mind. But not so open my brains fall out because that’s messy and hard to clean up. I’m sitting right on the fence for now. I’m baking some Cards and a Mat in the breaker box for several days and I will hop right back on the shungite project afterward. |
Next up, perhaps: isolate the Black USB SR AND obtain correct minimum height of 1m50cm (53 inches) above floor by using a 2m USB cable suspended by string from a hook on the wall without letting the Black USB SR or the USB touch the wall. All SR should be at least 1m50cm (53 inches) high. Also, as I’ve oft counseled try using your crystals for resonance control - on glass windows and sliding doors, on top of power cord plugs, on top of or INSIDE speakers, on top of CD player, on top of RCA connectors on interconnects, on top of any tube trap or output transformer. |
Thank you for the comments but actually I’m referring to having to deal with so many changes and tweaks going on almost all the time. Frequently it isn’t really feasible for me anyway to do things one at a time as you suggest, as nice as that would be. As the little mice in the movie Babe say, that’s the way things are. 🐭 🐭 🐭 |
I just reinstalled one Mat and 4 Cards in the system after giving them two days in the breaker box to “charge” them up, as it were, as suggested in the threads on such products. The charged up Mat went under the Sony Walkman CD player, which is on a special spring based iso stand, Fr circa 2 Hz. Two Cards went on my Sony DMR-700v headphones and the other two Cards went on my two BLACK USB Schumann devices. I also attached a Golden shungite plate to each BLACK USB device for good measure. The BLACK USB devices are isolated mechanically via suspension and are located at height of 60 inches. Better safe than sorry. I should mention I also recently treated all contacts of the BLACK USB device including wall outlet with Total Contact, the Graphene contact enhancer, so those contacts are still breaking in. Nevertheless all these recent changes have wrought a big boost in dimensionality, dynamics, resolution and naturalness. I shan’t attempt to ascribe effect to causes however, although the charging of the Mat was an obvious big effect. |
mahgister OP OK.... Perhaps if you add one tweak at a times you will give to yourself and others some assessment about each one effects.... >>>>Thanks for the tip. But life is too short. 😢 At the same time good luck to you and best wishes for the Gnu Year! 🤗 |
I’m very happy for you, I’m confident you are light years ahead of where you started out. Of course it probably goes without saying everything is relative. A lot of early settlers in America who traveled across country in covered wagons looking for Xanadu, enduring great hardships along, the way decided, “What the hell, Enough is Enough! I’m settling here in the Midwest.” No one can blame them. We all have different futures. 😁 Happy Gnu Year! 🐃 |
Beware the Last Tweak Syndrome! This ironic and paradoxical syndrome oft occurs when audiophiles believe they’ve discovered a secret pathway to the stars such as Dr. Ellie Arroway found with the alien transported that bypassed ordinary time-consuming space travel by utilizing the services of a wormhole. The Last Tweak Syndrome seems to occur for tweakers who, after a X number of tweaks believe they have suddenly arrived at Heaven’s pearly gate or have at least arrived at a good getting off place. This feeling of self-accomplishment and the feeling that all future attempts will prove fruitless 🍎 🍉 grows stronger with each successful tweak. Beware, gentle readers, this Is a trap! The Last Tweak Syndrome is akin to mountain sickness, preventing you from climbing higher and higher. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead! Remember the little train that could. I think I can, I think I can. Toot! Toot! 🚂 |
My new addition, well, one of my new additions, is Double-sided adhesive *highly conductive* metal-cloth tape. The tape is copper/nickel + high-conductivity acrylic. A Big roll, free shipping from China, from eBay. I lost confidence in the adhesive backing that comes with the shungite plates. Of course, the adhesive for the shungite needs to be highly conductive. In any case, the metal cloth tape seems to better than the rubbery adhesive - I.e., more conductive. I removed the original adhesive with isopropyl alcohol, then apply a one-inch section of tape. Voila! My new configuration for 2 BLACK Schumann doohickies is one eCard on one side, one shungite plate with Flying Saucer on the other side, using the metal-cloth tape for attaching to the SR. All isolated with 1 Hz suspension. I’m also using stacked eCards, two per side, all of which are charged for 2 days on breaker box, on my Sony MDR-700v headphones. As usual, I have a bunch of simultaneous experiments going on so I’m not 100%, maybe only 92%. I return you now to your regular channels. |