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

Showing 4 responses by unfairlane

The biggest jawdropping tweak I`ve stumbeled upon happened way back when I was searching to replace my old Denon DCD-3560. Tryed out a Wadia and a VAC discrete tube dac but I could not just leave that mighty Denon behind. 
  Got me a service-manual and started wondering. "What if I tryed to take out a true balanced signal directly from the four opamps instead of the quasi-balanced they`ve ended up with after the complex analog filter?" 
  So I tryed it, and WOW what a difference! Later I`ve came to know that there is no need for any filters after multibit converters like the BB`s in the 3560. And off course, one DC-filter is enough for a system, no need to duplicate.
  Later on I`ve upgraded trafo`s, clock (at least twice) internal wiring, shielding and damping in the old Denon. It outplayed both the Wadia and the VAC dac back then and is still today in my system. Have two extra 3560`s for parts and two new lazers still.
The use of chrystals and "magic" stones are known to be closely related to shamanism. Wonder if any off your "tweaks" would have survived if I should have visited your system.
 You can add as many magic stones as you want mahgister, you will never come close to what I can do with one simple diyèd conductor.