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...
This thread of mine is the "desert of Gobi" of audio thread... :)
I cannot resist this metaphor...
I sell nothing, literally and figuratively, and it is perhaps the reason why this is so quiet except for the hot wind....
I think I am only eager that someone will dare to try the " golden" plate and report here...It is frustrating to be the only one to enjoy a cheap tweak so potent that most upgrade are now pointless...
If it is absolutely necessary for some, send me 100 dollars, I will send you 2 plates with a warranty of 60 days... :)
I am joking, I dont sell anything and my ideas are free to use... My very best to all of you...
Update: After one hour listening, I add one small tourmaline stone to the H.D. on top of one of the plate behind each speakers... Now it is all perfect, imaging and timbre....
It is not surprizing at all for me after 2 years experiments with stones... The 3 more potent stones that act very good in synergy with one another, is tourmaline, Herkimer diamond and shungite… Behind my speakers they make perfect harmony between imaging, timbre, tonal equilibrium...
Keep adding different stones and before you know it you’ll have a Mini Brilliant Pebbles. 💥 Mini Brilliant Pebbles contains sapphire, quartz, ruby, black tourmaline, aquamarine, among other stones. 🎅
I already had try all these stones one by one ( except the aquamarine that must be very good); You must add malachite to your list and chrysocolla....
My favorite, impactful trio, is hard to beat : (((Shungite+ copper tape, the so called "golden" plate)+Herkimer diamond, ) +tourmaline)))...It will be interesting here to try malachite or chrysocolla in place of tourmaline...Depend of your speakers, if too bright, malachite or agate; if already warm speakers, tourmaline would be better... Very amazing behind speakers, I had 4 already of these modified "golden" plates, 2 behind each speakers, one aligned with the electronic component of the speakers, another aligned with the bass driver and the tweeter ...
I know for sure that it will cost me around 15,000 dollars of very wisely choosen audio parts to really "upgrade" my under 1000 dollars audio system...
(My system is now so good that I does not consider an upgrade not only for money reason but really because of his actual refine musicality)
For sure if the photos in the "virtual system" gallery gives me an idea of the average audiophile here, most people are there already, and many way more farther on the road...
Is it necessary in those system to use " golden" plates for example?
I will say yes, behind the speakers, with convenient stone for these speakers choice, and mostly on the central electrical panel, the modem-router, the interconnector, the power conditioner....If you had the money buy whatever will correct that, nevermind the cost....If you had not much money to spend, think about my "golden" plate and try them at low cost with parts easy to find on Ebay… But please report here...
Whatever their cost, speaker correction, acoustic treatment of the room, cleaning and decreasing the noise floor of the house, room, and audio system, are mandatory measures....
Then dont laugh, dont even smile at my wonderful now low-cost system, think twice, and think a third times... :)
For those of you curious about my future upgrade, modulo my loto winning numbers :)
To beat my actual dac, Starting Point Systems Nos dac, tda 1543, internal battery by C. Mariac designer, powered by Ifipurifier,
I will need at minimum the Denafrips Terminator...( my actual dac is so good that it is a guess on my part about the Terminator)
For my Sansui Au-7700, a very good vintage, the Berning tube amplifier will do...( I had no doubt about that, it suffice to read about Berning design)
For destroying the Mission Cyrus 781, the Tannoy Harbeth will do … (No doubt either because of my past experience with top Tannoys)
Total cost around 15000 dollars...
I will accept donation of a rich benefactor, in the mean times, I enjoy too much my audio actual system to be bothered anymore by the silence of this absent benefactor...
No but I think it will be a good idea to give a try, after your " flying saucers" success , I think that it will do something...
For now I cannot try, my money supply is dry, and the shungite thin plates I wait for are already choosen for another job...But I will try this in the near future... Thanks and Merry Christmas...
General Custer: You're advising me to go into the Coulee?
Jack Crabb: Yes sir.
General Custer: There are no Indians there, I suppose.
Jack Crabb: I didn't say that. There are thousands of Indians down there. And when they get done with you, there won't be nothing left but a greasy stain. This ain't the Washite River, General, and them ain't helpless women and children waiting for you. They're Cheyenne brave, and Sioux. You go down there, General, if you've got the nerve.
General Custer: Still trying to outsmart me, aren't you, mule-skinner. You want me to think that you don't want me to go down there, but the subtle truth is you really *don't* want me to go down there!
I had covered another chunk of shungite with copper ...Another "golden" pyramid this times, connected to my other stones, only the basis exposed without copper... I place the shungite basis toward the amplifier belly... The "golden" pyramid being under the amplifier, near the transformer... Improvement on imaging, better timbre etc... I place an Herkimer diamond in the center of the shungite basis connected with a cable to my stones grid...
It seems that my audio system increasing quality is amazing thanks to the plates...
Its good mahgister that you figured out what a waste of time he is. Many think its harmless fun. But its not. Malevolent word-salad jokers like him make it easy to dismiss and hard to take seriously when sincere audio investigators like you come along. Which I know, because it happened to me. Thought for a long time you were just another nut job. Well this site has more than its fair share of them, for sure. So many I hardly ever come back to a thread after posting. Even scanning post after post of nonsense and dreck is just too soul-sapping.
But I tried one of your ideas. Put my hand around the speaker cable and the amount of vibration was shocking! Was playing a demagnetizing sweep track and the vibration dies out quick above the mid-bass but the way it was shaking below about 100 Hz was unbelievable! Never would have imagined....
Haven't had time and not that keen on getting tape stuck all over my expensive Synergistic CTS but your idea has been on my mind. SR Atmosphere interconnects have ground wires. When connected to ground they really lower the noise floor. Which got me to thinking....
Got some hookup wire. Very thin gauge wire with very thin insulator, very much like the wire used in transformer windings. Wrapped around the cable it should help control vibration. Being wire it would also conduct, and connected to ground might even work like the SR ground.
What do you think? Have you done anything like this?
I think yes that cables crossings, power cord with interconnects for example generates a lot of noise...I have not tried all possibilities about cables but I experiment a little and they generates noise if not isolated and in contact with floor or one another.... But there is more to add to that tweak, try my "golden" plates, they are cheap to buy, easy to made, and you will be pleased by the impactfull effect on the noise level... especially on the central breaker panels, behind the speakers rear face and with thin and small plate on top of interconnect...
Merry Christmas to you and your family...
My best to you and to all, like always and forever...
The " golden" plates behind speakers add not only separation imaging to the sound... I already got that in an increasing way with all improvement I got from the beginning...
But behind the speakers the plates added some " 3-d many layerings " to the sound, a more perfect separation… And a biggest sound stage in near listening field.... In regular listening also... When you have it going back is no more an option...
Your kind words are very appreciated.... I wish you the best now and forever... And if possible report here some of your experiments.... Merry Christmas to you ...
Under my amplifier the "golden" pyramid, upside down because the shungite side must face the gear belly, all copper tape covered except for the basis, where I glued some Herkimer diamond cable connected to my other stones, gives me an improved layerings of sound, evident after few minute listenings and more so after few hours... I put some photos in my "virtual systems" audiogon thread...
I had the same audible dividend, less spectacularly evident, with another "golden" pyramid placed the shungite basis on the power cord of my Panamax surge protector and power conditioner....
By the way, plate or pyramid, or cubical shungite, the geometrical form is without importance for the audio effect...Only the placement orientation of the shungite face, and the location of the "golden" shungite , mainly, on the breaker electrical panel, on my router-modem, on interconnectors or mains cable, on top or under my S.G. on power conditioner, on unused duplex wall plugs, and perhaps the windows( that I must try)...
Merry Christmas to you all , I wish to you celestial music experiences, awaked or in dreams...
The most difficult effect to gain for me was the improved dynamics, the natural timbre and the holographic layerings imaging soundstage the second elements....The dynamics being the first and easy to degrade....It seems the "golden" plates, help a lot for dynamics and not only for imaging...
My stone grid tweaks, S.G. tweaks, and vibration-resonance controls tweaks, help a lot for timbre, and imaging, less so for dynamics...The room treatment help tough... But the "golden" plates help on all counts dynamics included....
For the last 2 years, all my modifications and tweaks were always cumulatively improving, except for the moment of normal trials and errors with each one of them… The success of my "golden" plates is manifesting on top of that...
It is impossible to perceive an effect coming from a tweak, or some modifications, at the same level, in a completely different environment and system...This is the reason why some people experiment little effect using a S.G. for example...
I will repeat myself here, but the only reason for my thread is giving hope to some who dreams about Hi-Fi without the money to afford it...
It is possible to give that to ourselves with relatively little money, if we think about what can be done and must be done...
The reason why is simple: an already good amplifier at low cost, used or vintage will gives you already a very high potential quality, ready to be tap into, at the necessary condition to optimize the audio environment, the electrical embeddings, and the acoustical atmosphere of the room, and the mechanical embeddings of the gear...We, most of us, even the poor one, owns already minimally good amplifier... Even good dac, and good speakers, relatively speaking...
Remember that the most important factor being not the gear by itself but the conditions of these triple different embeddings ….Remember that the upgrading moves must be directed to these 3 embeddings environment treatment more than buying the hype...
For sure in these 2 last years the improvements were there, but even if each one appears big to me at the times, in reality each change were small but very audible.. And always cumulative...
It is only now for the last 2 months, mostly with the "golden" plates that the improvement begins to be staggering...My musical files were no more bad, each one of them sounds now like 3-D music. And my taste are changing in the exploration direction, because I dont have to protect myself, being exposed to a flawed stereo system no more...It is the same low cost stereo system tough, flawed no more, the way it was... Then the gap between my stereo system and any high cost one is big indeed, but trust me, it is no more an abyss...Only a normal gap , if there is one.... Because some costly system makes precise sounds, not always very good music indeed...And most of the times this costly gear potentials is very good ,musically, the triple embeddings of these system, unbeknownst to the owner, not always so much... :)
I think that you are right, and I completely forget this "choice" made by my baby... :)
And you are right also on the remark about heaven and hell...It is all our choices, conscious at one level or not... We owns the heaven and the hell, we must make our choices, at this level, or if not at this one, at another level...
You are right and I wish you the best...Merry Christmas...This is the day...
I winned the jackpot with this idea of the "golden" plates, more than with all my other efficient tweaks, this shungite plate + copper tape+ herkimer diamond or other stones, act like an absolute enhancer of the speakers and decrease the noise level if placed near the breakers central panels... At other places they play well their function also but not so strongly that at those 2 places... They cost peanuts to makes and by the way I dont sell them or anything...
But the interest manifested here for this experiment seems to be near zero and almost 2... :) Because they are no report here.... Perhaps it will takes more times to had some...Never mind these ideas are yours to experiment with... Or go on, and spend tons of money, I would have done the same if I had been able to, instead of painfully thinking my way to heaven ... :)
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.
How much chocolate and cherries can you mix with ice cream before it is too much ?
I dont know, I only know that my 7th Schumann generator, a more costly one black type from Ufeel company in Hong-Kong, is very good indeed... When I sandwich it between 2 "golden" plates, the improvement increase... The sound quality of the imaging increase a notch, more organical linkage between the clearer separation of each voices and instrument, I am amazed...Without the "golden" plate that work well but with less audible intensity...
And I made a simple test, I disconnect 3 of my 6 cheaper chinese usb S.G. and the decrease in the naturalness of timbre were audible immediately.... Then the cheap one work also...Less forcefully than this black Ufeel one (70 bucks versus 10 bucks) but they work indeed...
How much chocolate and cherries can you mix with ice cream before it is too much indeed ?
In the "virtual system" section i put a new photo of that new S.G. with the Plates...
After 1 hour break-in the imaging transformation for the better is increasing...This new S.G. is the deal... My audio system is now at another quality level.... Thanks Geoffkait for the tip about this fabulous S.G.
It is better with only ONE "golden" thin plate on one side of the USB S.G., there is a slight loss of details otherwise....With one plate the improvement is very astounding....I will modify the photo in my "virtual System 2 section today...
You are funny Geoffkait, it is you that suggest to me to place 2 on the USB S.G. (remember your photons trapping idea ? ) I try that thinking that it would be a good experiment to try and it is not so good at the end , one thin plate is better.... :)
With 2 the imaging is compressed and we lost details...
I admit it’s hard to tell sometimes. Just don’t tell me tomorrow you took the one remaining Golden shungite off the Black SR and you got even more detail. 🤗
Dont beat me it is your idea that I had try … I never double before the "golden" plate anywhere for the simple reason that it was not possible to try that with my speakers, my central breaker box, nor my cheap S.G.... And on the interconnects I never sandwiche my connection with a double plates... I only wanted to try your idea with the new thin S.G. and find that it is better with one plate...
But if I think about that, your system is off the grid and without speakers... And all connections are internal to your walkman then I think that only one thin plate will be ok then the cost is very low (few bucks)....Not necessary to buy a lot of shungite… :)
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
