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...
Patent law clearly states that people are within their rights to make an example of the given patent, for investigatory purposes.
Discussion is also not forbidden nor curtailed.
When it is made by one, and for another... that is when patent law, be it process or device that is patented... that is when patent law steps in and protects the patent holder.
Intellectual rights on an idea.... is a bit more slippery than that.
Oregonpapa, actually it’s not just copper tape. Are you pretending to be dense? It’s a whole concept, an IDEA. MY IDEA. But I’m not going to explain it to you or argue with you. Because you wouldn’t understand anyway. Too many Dean Martin records or whatever. You’re on notice, though. All of you knuckleheads are.
Somebody put crazy powder in your blue plate special?? Anyone can use copper tape for any purpose they wish without fear of legal retribution within the limits of the law. I really don't think taping it to your speakers and windows qualifies as an illegal act or (ridiculous) patent infringement.
I really value your opinion. 🙄 Actually, he was stealing all of my ideas. From crystals to Schumann frequency generator to unused wall outlet covers to window foils. You are not smart enough to think of it by yourself. That’s what China does, and Russia and North Korea, they steal it.
Damn, and just a day or two ago it seemed Geoff was leading @mahgister down the path as he was “going off the rails on a crazy train!” Two points for a reversal! Grasshopper 🦗finally snatches the pebble (uh, copper tape) from master......oh the humanity! Lawyers schmoyers, you simply cannot make this stuff up! Well worth the price of admission, and not a penny more! Encore....👏
If you go to the "explore" section, and clic on the mahgister systems you will see a photo and a description of my latest experiment, the "singing resonators" made with cheap metal buckets, one stone and some copper tape...The acoustical impact for the money invested on it is astounding...But this tweaks does not replace all other methods implicated in a room treatment... It is only a low cost miracles that add to the imaging way much for his cost...Feel free to try it...
I just finished 8 sets of "singing resonators" made with tin metal buckets, and a tourmaline glued at the center+ a 5mm copper tape crossing the aperture of the bucket vertically...
I must say that if I ever had the money I would go for brass...But the results with these cheap buckets is so astounding that I am totally amazed by the sound in my room...That boost the imaging in all 3 dimensions, in all position for my usual listening, be it nearfield,or normal distance...
Most will mocking my " ingenuity" or ignorance, because yes, these resonance would normally they say destruct the integrity of the sound, but no, in actuality, not at all; I keep the natural timbre I had before adding to it an imaging now out of this world, like some company advertise for their costly resonator products that I would not be able to buy ever in my life... Lack of money sometimes engender creativity... For the student, or poor audiophile, all miracles are possible, be wise, read, study, experiment...It is more fun than buying with blind faith...
One of my friend here suggest to me an interesting experiment in tuning the speakers with wood cigar boxes...A low cost tweak indeed... I already planned to experiment with ebony wood small plank bought from alieexpress at low cost... My best to all...
The "singing resonators" are of my own design with vertically glued copper tape and some amethyst or tourmaline in the center.( I had 9 sets now composed of 5 or 6 metal buckets small or bigger) And yes! with more money at hand I would have designed them with brass but they work marvel even made by the cheapest metal buckets bought in the one dollar store and I dont understand why, but my ears dont want to understand...This is by far the most impactful room treatment of my owns and the cost relation to the imaging sound quality is astounding...If you dont have money and dont fear ridicule try it, I have completely transform my room in sonic heaven with this last tweaks at almost no cost... This will deliver to your room the sonic qualities that only big money only is supposed to be able to afford...Dont thanks me...:)
The secret that was revealed to me by my experiments is this one, then be careful beginners:
Buy used very good amplifier, and speakers or new if you cannot makes otherwise, for sure my dac was bought new for example...And if you are not a beginner, probably each of your audio links are already very good, but you had never listen to them with their true potential revealed ….
Then if you had already good link in your audio chain, clean and controls the vibration levels and the negative resonance, with methods that will suit you ( I use sandwiches plates of my own design)...
Next clean the electrical grid of the house,after that of the room, and finally of the audio grid (dont forget the computer and routers etc)... by the methods that will suit you the best...( I use stones and crystals for that)
Last but not least treat your room with a good balance and equilibrium between reflecting surface and materials and absorbing one... I used also Schumann generators(cheap one) and homemade Helmholtz resonators...
And if you listen with speakers in near listening field or at regular distance, try my cheap "singing resonators" , easy to make and the imaging of your speakers will expand and you will be able to controls and directing it...The cost is ridiculous, the effect is like the advertisement about very costly products...I cannot promise you it is the same upgrading, I cannot compare, but it would be enough to say that it is night and day effects... They look so cheap that many will smile and back-off...But poor beginners will go on and will smile and thanks me.... My best to all...
That it is not necessary to have money to afford HI-FI was my astounding personal discovery...
Using the "singing resonators" will ask for experiments in your room, to devise an optimal singing resonators grid ( I had 10 sets of 5 or 6 buckets of varied width and depth) by trying different height levels,and orientation in relation to your speakers and ears, and inclination angles between the roof and the ceiling...This is fun and very gratifying...My best to all...
Important note: there is no degradation of the tonal quality of voices or instruments by using these resonators, if your room is already treated minimally or optimally for a natural timbre results, before introducing the singing resonators...The resonators will gives you a way to controls the imaging without degrading the timbre...
At the question, why this is so ?, with cheap metal buckets, I have no answer, being like most of you incredulous, when something almost free of cost to make is giving great results, especially when the results relatively compare probably to highly costly products...My ears listen without any understanding and my brain is the brain of a normal guy without background in any acoustical engineering whatsoever...
The greatest error we beginners commit is that we think that buying a more costly cables, or amplifier, or speakers or dac, will give us a truly better or TOTL HI-FI audio system... This is not always the case , especially when most of the times your stereo system is already good...
Think about that: Your speakers and the room where they are posited are ONE system, And you will never listen music from speakers whithout room nor from a room without speakers, and your ears are immersed in the acoustic synergetic field constituted by this polarity speakers-room, and with this duality your ears form a resonating UNITY...
Then treating the room is the ONLY absolute factor to elevate your gear and hearing capacity to his optimal potential...Nothing else will give you that, being a cable, or any new other electronic component...
When a speakers-room system sound on par with details and with a better imaging and soundstaging than your best headphones, the goal is in sight... This is my experience.... My system compared to almost all system photos here look like shit, but at his ridiculous price does not sound like shit at all... Then we must experiment by ourself before buying...
Having the advantage of coming from the future I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the statements such as the room is a component or the room is part of the system don’t go nearly far enough. They are truisms, I don’t think you’re going to get too much argument about those statements. But, hang on to your hats 🧢 - in reality the 🔜 entire world 🔙 is part of the system. The sound of a system is influenced by obvious external factors like time of day, day of week, weather, traffic, radio and tv and cell phone signals AND by 🔜 information fields 🔙 that - unlike radio signals - do not (rpt not) attenuate over distance. Thus, some classes objects around the world affect the sound of YOUR system. And connections to external sources of communications themselves are BAD for the sound as well as books, magazines, your CDs and LPs themselves are BAD for the sound. Ironic, no? Yes, I realize these ideas are new and maybe weird but remember, I’m from the future.
I think that you are right G.K. but we must begins somewhere and addressing smaller problems than the " all external factors" that’s are at play in sound perception... And beginners like i was not long ago dont know this truth that is self evident for you about room-speakers-ears...And last but not least I can speak only of what I experiment myself to begins with like any beginners...My best to you...
One remark about my "singing resonators" grid set of ten quincunx or sextile buckets...
My room is relatively small 14 feet by 14 feet and 11 feet high...I think that in a way bigger room my metal buckets resonators would be less efficient to controls the imaging and way less spectacular if working...Then take that into account in the equation...My best to all...
The trouble with resonators like crystals and tiny little bowls is that you can get lulled into a sense of security. In fact, it’s very easy to damage the sound with incorrect placement of a single resonator, much less a boatload of resonators. That’s why I oft say beer bottles and wine bottles lying around in a room at CES hurt the sound, because they’re not in the right locations. We oft times buy into a concept a little too much before it’s too late. There is probably a psychological term for that but it escapes me right now. Some kind of prophecy. Perhaps expectation bias.
The only real way to find correct locations for resonators is using a test tone and sound pressure meter to determine where the offending pressure peaks in a given room are. This SPL method is accompanied by listening tests as you proceed. Any other method will not produce maximum results because it’s like trying to solve x simultaneous equations in x + n unknowns. Do the math!
Another tip. Don’t bring all the resonators into the room at the same time, even if they’re just sitting on the table. Bring them in one at a time.
For sure you are right, my methods by ears, one set at times is not optimal without SPL meter...But it is an improvement anyway across the board...
And by the way I have all the rest of my life to play with a SPL meter to optimize these location... It is fun to play whatsoever, with or without SPL meter, and except for the half-deaf it is simple to place them and look for a location where the sound improve anyway...
It is like my design of Helmholtz resonator ,this homemade creation, without calculus ,created only with the help of the ears is not optimal either, but the results I had with only my ears, for designing and calculating the maths relation between aperture, volume, etc, is not optimal at all, but successful, because the improvement is evident for my ears...All are not physicist here or engineer...I want to keep all that simple and fun, and relatively efficient, and it is ok like that; if not, it will be too complicate for all normal people...All we are asking for is simple and fun experiments to improve...Mine are free, easy, fun and gives results...I will certainly use a SPL meter one day to improve my installation by the way... But it was not necessary to have one to begins playing... My best to you and to all...
OMG! Yet another Strawman argument from the King of Strawman arguments! Nobody ever said painting Graphene on things is supposed to improve conductivity. Hel-loo!
Wow. You are actually right this time GK. You had copied someone's text but it was not apparent initially what part of your message was their's and your's. You should use the quote feature :-) I will delete my posts.
Everything affects everything else, a simple truth in all things physics and all things audio. The better your system becomes (nothing to do with price) the more you will move from saying "Bad recording" to "I never heard that before".
Our systems are listening tools and we either learn how to playback recordings or we convince ourselves that our system, only able to produce one sound, somehow magically is the judge over millions of differently recorded pieces of music.
pretty funny stuff when you think that many call audio Hi-tech
Reality and physics are not (rpt not) the same thing.
One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small And the ones that mother gives you, don’t do anything at all Go ask Alice, when she’s ten feet tall
I read it....But I think faster than I can read....
And if the map is not the territory in classical physics where they are not continuously linked, in quantum physics, the maps and territory are in someway relatively continuously linked into one another and it is consciousness that seemingly separate them for being creative again...
But at the end my consciousness prefer harmonious relations, what you called "dreamy", and you are more creative than I am it seems... My best...
It seems that only me lives with low cost audio miracles after all....Because nobody report anything new except me... :)
My last discovery is astounding because of the improvement and the low cost...
My last improvement is with my "golden" shungite plate and tiles...
You take a shungite plate and you put on one side some thin auto-adhesive copper tape, and you put the plate with the adhesive out of the surface of the electrical panel, or router-modem, or cable, or unused duplex wall plugs etc and miracles happens: more imaging and more natural sound....This is low cost and simply magical...Enjoy it, it is almost free...(except the 10 dollars plate shungite 250 grams) For a cable or a unused duplex plug you can buy a shungite cell phone thinner and smaller plate for a few bucks...
I have 5 shungite plates of 250 grams on my electrical central panel in my basement, the shungite plate improve the sound way better with the copper tape on the side exterior to the applied surface...
You can see a photo of my modem-router with a golden shungite plate on it in my private system section here...
Enjoy the miracle...
Important note: Shungite "golden" plate work best in all location except directly on the dac and amplifier, better to place them on connectors, power supplies, power conditioner, router-modem, electrical panel ,unused wall duplex plugs etc...
This idea comes to me when I tought about the possibility of shielding the shungite plate on one side to improve the effect of the shungite in one direction of the magnetic field....It seems to works...I am no scientist and I apologize for my speculation.... The important fact is that works and in comparison with some audiophile products cost peanuts...
The improvement is there and in the same audible range than my best other tweaks...Imaging and naturalness of the instrument timbre is more, way more there... Is this tweak comparable for his positive effect to other audiophile more costly products? I dont know but for few bucks for each plate, the improvement is astounding, and astounding because very audible immediately, no other words come to me...
We are humans and we think something has more value if many people pay something more than peanuts for it.... I am human too and I dream to be able to purchase many audiophile products I cannot afford...
My "golden" Shungite plate cost peanuts and it works....But for sure even me I wanted to try the costly audiophile products one day, because it is costlier and despite me, I think that these products must be way better than my poor tweaks...Except for a miracle in my bank account this will never be possible...
But if you have already musical sound quality even at a low level experience and at low cost, you already enjoyed the music and can forget about the sound quality at least....... I thank God for this inspiration, i at least have a way better musical experience now.... And it is also rewarding to create, invent, experiment, and play, at least as much as only buying finished product designed by others, then I am grateful....
I forget to mention that my "golden" shungite plate improves also the details and the higher frequencies, not only imaging, and natural timbre....It is only some hours that I listen to my music after that tweaks I created during the last night and I am flabbergasted...
There is indeed plenty of cymbals and percussion in this excellent cd of Freddie Hubbard " First light", the mastering of sound in this pieces are very good...And it is easy to remember that the last listening session before my tweaks was never so detailed indeed...
I enjoy very much the discussion with ghosts, spectral entities, dead audiophiles, and silent friends here...No objections, no criticisms, no accusations, and nothing except polite and mute confirmation... Paradise indeed...My salutation and my best to all this crowd...
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