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...
I just completed a 2 hours headphone listening and wow!... The sound in my headphones was dramatically improved like with the speakers by my last move : only one more connection to my grid with a thin copper cable from a nephrite sitting beside 2 S.G.s and connected also to them... The nephrite is a marvellous stone imparting always a velvety touch to any musical timbre and last but not least always increasing the imaging in the headphone also like with the speakers....Only one connection added and a dramatic effect... The reader must know that I have around one hundred cables connected to perhaps 50 different stones of different kind...I am amazed that only one connection made a so strong effect...Audio is pleasure but also mystery...Science is only scratching mysteries...
My cheap Fostex are now King of my heaven...Incredible for a 50 bucks headphone bought new many years ago...All this years I dare not to use them because I think these are 50 bucks cheap Headphone...How would I have dared compared this cheap gear with a TOTL legendary AKG K 340 or the legendary Stax SR-5 gold ? Or an orthodynamic Hifiman paid many times more....Or the impressive all rounder AKG K701...I dont listen no more to any of them now...None of them owns an holographic speaker like imaging with a large and tall soundstage not even the 701 because his soundstage is large but incoherent...
We are human indeed and if we pay more we think this must be better....:)
For more clarity I use the Schuman Generators in a non conventional way, I use a passive (passive: non electrically linked to the audio system) multiple cabled connections from the S.G. to my powered battery stones grid around the listening room... Then I use the S.G. like a stone and crystals enhancer, the effect is so great that cheap 13 dollars usb powered S.G. have an impact unbeknown by most...
People usually use way more powerful costly S.G. with linear power supply,(costly) and feel some improvement... I feel the same amazing change with my cheap S.G. and perhaps more...
Then the S.G. is a guenine audiophile component but way more potent then usually admitted when used with crystals and stones linked by cable to a battery powered grid... For example i have cabled stones even in my speakers. :) The S.G. is the center of my stones powered grid and his emitted frequency plays also all along the cable connecting the stone placed near it or on top of it to the grid(without touching the embedded antenna of the S.G.tough) ... I know nobody who has experimented with these kind of stones battery cabled powered grid...
(a remark: the grid except for batteries is passive, non linked to the audio system, the stones are near the gear, the connectors, around the room, that's all. the batteries with magnets are only there to "dynamise" and activate the crystals)
A note: I feel the effect not only in nearfield, but also on normal distance hearing from the speakers, and also surprisingly for me in the headphones...
Today miracle for me is amazing... I connect one of the S.G. at my right in my room to some powered stone that is before my window glued on a plate and that’s added some symmetry to another connection I had made some time ago with a symmetric stone on a plate at my left in line with my listening near field position and also connected to some S.G.
The result is an impressive increase of the sound image in holographic 3 d dimension...
I dont know why I forget to make this cabled connection already....I called my grid the Stein Harmonizer for the poor...I read about this device and all people are unanimous and their description of the effect on the sound perception mimic my own... For sure my device is primitive and lack the sophistication of the real thing but the change and improving factor is also for me spectacular, then I called my grid an harmonizer for the poor … :)
He already know that I apologize...I dont ask for an answer from him, I just want to apologize because I was a bit rude, he knows that already now and that is what I want...He is a grown man and can decide to participate here or not by his own free will without insistance...Thanks for your kind concern Thecarpathian by the way, my best to you from my rude heart...
Dont play with the breaker road and place please... Just put the tiles where I said...The action of the shungite will be the same, and there will be no obstruction of the breaker...I dont want to be indirectly responsible of something bad...My best to you... Each shungite piece has a range of action, then your piece will be on top of the panel very near the line, under one feet, then the action will be perfect...
Please Thecarpathian dont antagonize the situation ..I appreciate your support and participation and your generous opinion of me but I am not perfect in anyway, no more than Geoff, and my Ego is no less...I miss his explanation too... :) I am very curious...
I react perhaps too swiftly yesterday, I think I hurted Geoffkait, I apologize to him for that...I am often too quick ill-tempered...He is not always easy to deal with, but I like his originality and experience ...I officially apologize to you Geoffkait, I know you read everything...
For now I think to create a thread about my cabled stones and crystals grid powered by batteries, using also 4 modified Schuman Generator to project the power of some crystals and stones in this grid and room space... The Stein Harmonizer for the poor... With this grid I can modify and improve the soundstage of the speakers, make them more spacious in the room...
I read very few things about the harmonizer and only know that there is some battery internal to powered something that activate some stones and crystals...I thing that I manage on my own something similar but cheap cost... The results are amazing... My system cost the price of the crystals and stones, this is around few hundred bucks if I eliminate the trials and errors...Anyway I dont have money and can only dream about Audio, this is the fact that start my inventive journey...It is better to be poor at the end, that's make us more creative. :)
Forget Ataxite for now... it is too easy to damage the sound using it...Use shungite tiles on the top of the main central panel not in contact with the breakers (be cautious not to play with the panel, it is dangerous) on top of the metal case of the panel ou fixed under it or on the side... Use also black tourmaline 2 big chunks between 100 or 200 grams (China providers on ebay or aliexpress)...For the source of shungite use " shungite club" on Ebay…. Buy shungite ONLY from Russia or Ukraine... I had three tiles and wait for a fourth to put there with great results...
Well mahgister, it appears no answer is forthcoming from geoffkait. How will I ever sleep tonight? Oh, I know how! I don’t care.... Have a good night, my friend.
I discover a sacd of great audiophile merit... I speak about it a little because it is very useful to have an exceptional files or cd that registered holographically the texture of timbre not only accurate imaging... The 4 seasons of Vivaldi :
This " tube only" Tacet sacd is a marvel to listen to and will give you the means to take the audio pulse of your hi-fi system...
In a good system you will hear the colorful texture of the violin to an extant that is not possible with another files or cd...Hearing high frequencies accurately is one thing. Hearing the fractal colorful many complex interlocked textures of the timbre of a violin is another...
I test all my tweaks with this cd because it has no defects at all and this cd propose almost all sound challenges that a system must translate and solve to be called hi-Fi...
And the musical interpretation is at the same times very orthodoxically "classical" and totally unique and original...A feat in my musical best interpretation of all times...
A final note about Tacet: all Their "tube only" cd are marvels to listen to... I listen to Haydn quartet now with Auryn quartet... One of the best sound possible...Velvet timbre and perfect holographic imaging...Impossible to put the audio files to "pause" even for dinner...
First :you say that I react too much swiftly, forgetting what you have said about me that I am "cheap".
Second: You say from your own frustration that the conversation serve no more purpose...
Third: You switch the subject without even giving your own idea that seems, after your reaction to mine, contradict, or at least oppose, or go on another direction than the fact that I speak about...Even if this fact I speak about go on the same direction at the end than what you want to speak about... If it not comes from you it is not good...
Fourth: Perhaps I am "cheap" I cannot negate that after all, it is a genuine perception of your own, but you seems to have some "ego" problem in a discussion that was only between amigos tough I remind you...
Fifth: Now forget all that and give to us your explanation...
Ridiculous idea ? This is a science fact established by experiment directly linked to the conversation : the resolution power of the ears... By the way I am not cheap, I am poor...Not the same thing...
«The backfire effect is a name for the finding that given evidence against their beliefs, people can reject the evidence and believe even more strongly»
By the way I am not the only one subjected to this law, if you read the scripture, that is called the parable of of the straw and the beam in the eye... :)
And I dont doubt that your own explanation, of which I know nothing now and then which I cannot reject nor react to it the way you said I reacted to it anyway; I dont doubt your own explanation will be better than the facts I suggested taken from some science article ...But dismissing these facts I suggested the way you did is not fair... To say the least...The"backfire" is yours my friend not mine...If you mind to recall I am always interested by your ideas...
Thanks for the excellent example of Backfire Effect. Anyone can always find something to support some ridiculous idea if you search the internet hard enough. Good luck in your quest for cheapness.
I am curious to say the least, because I cite an article in science establishing the fact that the ears resolution of sound is a fraction of an atom...This is done by an organ that is solid but act like a fluid with ciliae adjust to frequencies perception to this level of accuracy: the tectorial membrane, discovery published few months ago... It seems the judge has not read much of my post...But we know the judge :) it is a friend and friend are bad judge it seems …
Beside of that the antenna of the body extended this resolution power of the ears to a greater extent than what seems possible...Than any modification in the acoustic of a room may be perceptible to an extent that was very difficult to understand before this discovery...
I will wait around a while this morning for someone to answer my Pop Quiz correctly. Then, if the correct answer is not forthcoming I will reveal why tiny bowl 🍲 acoustic resonators work in a room with headphones. Fair enough? For those who did not win this time around or chose not to respond take solace in the fact there will be other pop quizzes. 😛
Kudos to me! Mahgister, I thank you for your kindness and generosity, but I must say you deserve the prize more than I. You have a kind soul. I am sure you can win the whole prize.
In protest with the "arguing charge" I award thecarpathian my half prize....And for a fair participation and contribution to this thread also for sure...
Hel-Loo! You are probably right for these metaphor about mechanical resonance... I dont know... I propose that the explanation is linked to the body-ears antennas...The ears is not only a passive instrument it is an active organ coupled with the body and this antenna is way more sensible than any standard apparatus... The resonator affect the wave sound and then the way it will be perceived and translated by the ears body antenna...This is with speakers... But with headphones even closed the sound wave affect the ears body antenna also, perhaps less directly but enough to be perceptible...
« You can hear some of your internal body sounds because your skeleton and inner tissues act as a conductor, guiding vibrations in the body to the inner ear. But oftentimes, inner-body sounds like this are picked up mostly by the outer ear in the conventional manner, says Dennis Trune of the Oregon Hearing Research Center. Try placing a ringing tuning fork atop your head, and your inner ear will pick up the sound, says Elizabeth Olson, an expert on hearing at Columbia University. The fork’s ring would be analogous, though exaggerated, to hearing inner-body sounds. » Discover magazine
«The human ear, like those of other mammals, is so extraordinarily sensitive that it can detect sound-wave-induced vibrations of the eardrum that move By LESS THAN THE WIDTH OF AN ATOM. Now, researchers at MIT have discovered important new details of how the ear achieves this amazing ability to pick up faint sounds.The new findings help explain how our ears can detect vibrations a million times less intense than those we can detect through the sense of touch, for example.» (majuscule emphasis is mine)
That’s way way off. There are no resonances from furniture or windows or anything else in the room that are of sufficient amplitude 🔝 to interfere with headphones 🎧 listening - especially given that my new SONY MRD-V700’s are uh, sealed. Not to mention that seismic type vibration that could possibly produce vibration in furniture or other objects in the room are generally below ⬇️ audio frequencies. Hel-loo!
Think of the room itself as the stereo cabinet, and the headphone speakers the drivers contained in the cabinet, albeit pointed directly into your ears. Just as you want to eliminate or control unwanted resonances within your speaker cabinets so they don’t interfere with the drivers, you want to control unwanted resonances within your listening room so they don’t interfere with the headphone drivers. And that is why you employ acoustic resonators in your room.
The answer is surprisingly simple. I was alerted to this by John Atkinson, former editor of Stereophile Magazine, some years ago. I like what you’re saying but you have only won half a prize so far. Will I have to cut it in half? Is there such a thing as half a Nobel prize? If time did not exist man would have to invent it.
These acoustics resonators dont reduce only the acoustic wave energy in the room, mostly they refine, retune it... They act like a pre-antenna for the antenna of the ears and body...
If I was able to explain that scientifically, and I am not, I would not even be proposed to receive the Nobel prize, because all that is too much advance science for our actual paradigms..Like anything linked to morphic resonance ...The body is by far the most efficient morphic resonator and translator...The body is the center of Life itself, and life is not locally reducible to a local origin and explanation, life is a cosmic global event, not even a planetary one only...For life to begins not only a qualitative information field is needed but also a synchronisation of all planetary clocks...All these clocks at all levels partake and constitute the dynamics aspect of the morphic field...That does not contradict relativity theory because these are qualitative clock in a qualitative time field...Not quantitative clock...Life secrete is own time and it not the time of the actual thermodynamic physics...In physics all direction are equal, for life they are not equal... This is the difference...
The internal ear is also a complex antenna not only a drum that is mechanically agitated by soundwaves...That smaller antenna perceive, translate, these frequencies into the vast antenna of the body...
So far, I’m not seeing how acoustic resonators can be “felt by the body,” especially given the fact that they REDUCE acoustic wave energy in the room. Besides, there is no evidence, at least that I’ve seen, that we hear acoustic waves with our body, with the obvious exception of low bass frequencies.
The ears are not only a drum but mostly an antenna in the bigger antenna of the body... We hear with these 2 antennas also...We hear with the body...The body-brain translate these 2 waves into one another … The acoustic wave and the electro magnetic one...What is my prize?
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