Miracles in Audio, by luck, by good choices,by design or by tweaking...

That’s not too bad, but how can they - the acoustic resonators - affect the person if they’re acoustic resonators? Acoustic waves are mechanical as opposed to electromagnetic. The SF thingamabob is electromagnetic. Furthermore, not all electromagnetic waves are suspected of affecting the individual, if it’s even true that the SF does. It is difficult to prove. Generally speaking, they - electromagnetic waves - RFI/EMI - are known to affect the audio signal or power signal. The 7.8 Hz SF wave is a special case, like Alpha waves. 😳

Because like my tweaked S.G. they affect the room but also the body that listen to the room...I experiment the same thing in my headphones surprisingly...

Moving right along, I checked out my new system this morning with Kraftwerk’s Man Machine. O...M...G!! We are zee robots, etc.🤖 Uncompressed original CD. Oh, I almost forgot to mention my six (count em!) new wood/crystal/brass tiny little bowl acoustic resonators in the room.

A free tweak for anyone who can answer the pop quiz correctly - Why would I put them in the room if I’m listening to headphones? 🎧 

Every thread needs to have an 🍑🧢 and you just got tagged. 😀

Love to add you to the stalking list, but my dance card is already full...

Whatever you say, pal. I can always use more stalkers. Step right up!

@whostolethebatmobile, I must say, they look really cool! Also, very generous of you to give them out for free.

Geoff, he's recommending products he doesn't sell. You on the other hand, are consistently squeezing your wares into many a thread, including this one. Not saying it's wrong, I'm saying that giving away what he makes and at the same time recommending something you pay for are mutually exclusive. Don't be a cube, Rube!

I jes knew there was gonna be a sales pitch in there somewheres. I jes knew it! So much for the cheap DIY concept. 😛

mapman said

Some pictures of the miracles might go a long way towards convincing others that they are real.

Here’s a photo of the sample packs ready to go out tomorrow, and a Chrysocolla CrystalTop on my Kuzma tonearm headshell. (Tonearm wires treated with PPT Total Contact).

http://www.g45central.com/posts/CrystalTops20.jpg
http://www.g45central.com/posts/CrystalTops21.jpg

blue - azurite
pink - aventurine
orange - carnelian
dark green - chrysocolla
light green - turquoise

The CrystalTops are not available for sale anywhere. It’s a hobby, I make them for fun. If you want to buy products that can be used in a similar way, I suggest Perfect Path Technologies e-Mats, Alpha cards and Stop-It plugs. I use them and they are incredible.

He'd be less elliptical if he had a gym membership....

It is the least detailed and more convincing review I ever read.... A bit frustrating for the reader tough but difficult to doubt it... But someone from the future need to be elliptical I imagine? 

That’s my reaction to the first time listening to my new set up, with two BLACK SR USB devices, new treated and burned in SONY MRD-V700 headphones, new isolation stand for my portable SONY Walkman CD player, new PWB color scheme for the CD, my Mystery Tweak for the CD, and New Dark Matter on the CD tray. 

Some pictures of the  miracles might go a long way towards convincing others that they are real.   

Geoffkait is this your  review of the S.G. ?  

What if she won't come out to play?

Next, Dear Prudence and Glass Onion off the Beatles’ White Album.

Wow! Wow! Wow! 😮

First up...The Moody Blues, A Question of Balance

After he had journeyed,
And his feet were sore,
And he was tired,
He came upon an orange grove
And he rested.And he lay in the cool,
And while he rested, 
He took to himself an orange
And tasted it,
And it was good.And he felt the earth to his spine,
And he asked,
And he saw the tree above him,
And the stars,
And the veins in the leaf,
And the light,
And the balance.And he saw magnificent perfection,
Whereon he thought of himself in balance,
And he knew he was.

We ever underestimated the negative impact of resonance and negative mechanical vibrations on the gear...Even those like us that are conscious of the fact... I added sorbothane (compressed with tapes because sorb must be compressed to works better) to separate more the 2 cups linked by the headband... After adding band of sorb along the plastic arms that pivot on the cups by 2 points, the results are more 3-d holographically organic imaging...I was amazed already by these cheap Fostex TH 7 , I am more amazed...This low cost Fostex are the best headphone ever relatively to the ratio quality/price...i will not upgrade this... The akg 701 dont have an organic 3-d imaging... Only an incoherent big soundstage, and mids frequencies more artificial than the Fostex… The Akg 340 is better for the mids frequencies, almost king there among most of the headphone, but his good imaging are more artificial than the Fostex, his soundstage smaller on all count...And this AKG is too unconfortable for long use...The Hifiman 400 is no match nor the Stax i owns for naturalness of the timbre musical or voice except the Stax SR5 very good on this count but less amazing in the imaging and soundstage...Fostex TH7, semi-open; the last version is completely closed, improved, but is the fantastic imaging the same? I will buy one for sure this year...


For me except the imperative necessity of the natural voicing of the timbre, the most important feature of an headphone is his capacity to mimic speakers, for that the sound must not be only around the brain, but must seems to come from at least outside the head with an atmospheric distance between instruments (imaging)...Almost all headphones lacks these 2, and those that posess the first quality 9like the AKG 340 or the Stax SR5) lack the second (many headphone like the AKG 701 are a compromise between these 2 qualities but they excel at none)...It is the reason that i try many headphones, and after all these trials conclude that headphones are not from me...I decide then to try at last the cheaper one, with many modifications, and the results is there : they sound better now, on par, but differently than my speakers...I enjoy headphones now very much... Is there better headphone than this Fostex ? Hell yes ! But probably over 500 bucks is my guess, perhaps more, because natural mids frequencies coupled with perfect organic imaging is probably linked to the TOTL line of headphone...Dont forget that new they sell them now 100 bucks at most...

I always assumed it was a technical term. Like doohickey. And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with chicken bones.

This word is not in the Oxford dictionary : «thingamabob»... Is this the cadaver of a mummified  golden Egyptian beetle? I think so but...

It will be soon. Very soon. I am in the final stage of burning in my SONY MRD-V700 headphones. Both BLACK SR USB devices are suspended by a sub 1.0 Hz thingamabob at a height of 5 ft. All systems go. 

By the way Geoff, we wait, at least me, for your impressions using the S.G. ?  You are silent for that and you are not a silent man usually...?

Yes, that was a close call. 

I have no idea which phrase...English is not my native tongue.... I am saved...


« if all is relative, the absolute is by itself the relation»  Lanza del vasto 

We have another phrase for this sort of thing. Penny wise and pound foolish. 😬

Everything is relative. A. Einstein 😛

:)

In this business there is such a thing as "your ears are your best friend"... No offense to anyone wanting to be deaf. But it is a risk reward-situation.

In this business there is such a thing as being too cheap. No offense to anyone living or dead. It’s a risk-reward situation. 

I surely will buy these wood blanks and try them to tune something … Good idea to experiment with...Thanks Geoff...

I put piece of sorbothane inside the speakers around the woofer and tweeters, with success too at much less cost...

I just ordered an 8 pack of Marigo VTS Dots for my SONY MDR-V700 headphones. The VTS Tuning Dots are constrained layer dampers of various sizes and colors - 2 mm up to about 1” depending on application. Larger VTS Dots are for walls and windows, sliding glass doors, back panel of TV, speaker cabinets, the small ones which vary in size and color go on speaker frames, circuit boards, power cord plugs, chassis of preamp and CD player, CD tray, what have you. Tony the Tiger 🐯 says, Grrrreat!

Speaking of hardwood blanks a good experiment to do is get several different types of the longer hardwood blanks 12” x 1” x 1” and lean one of the blanks up against the wall behind the speakers in between the speakers and see what that does to the sound. Try different locations behind the speakers. Also try room corners lean the 1 foot blank up against the wall. Other locations to try these blanks are against the side wall out in front of the speakers and at rear corners. Gabon ebony, rosewood, maple, almost any hardwood. Experiment. You are zee controlla. 🤗

Placebo Domingo 

Thanks to everyone who responded to my CrystalTop giveaway offer. The sample packs are all taken. A few went outside Audiogon, nevertheless to good homes. Best of luck with them when they arrive.

Thanks very much Elisabeth... It is cheap and more than promising.... I will try that one day ...My best to you...

Thanks Elisabeth... Another question,  for example do yo use the pen blanks, 4 of them, under an amplifier instead of  a butcher block?

I know a thing or two about modding a Sennheiser HD-600.

My new acoustic resonators employ a base that is quite similar to pen blanks, only fatter. Oh, and it uses a slab of agate under the tiny bowl resonator.

I’m like Chickenman. He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere! 🐔 

desktopguy thanks very much for this interesting story ...You are right about mods. I think the same My best  to you...

I'm a big headphone guy these days. Until a couple years ago, I somehow hadn't heard the legendary Sennheiser HD650. Then a friend developed a comprehensive series of mods for this headphone. I purchased his next-to-last version of the mods (Jupiter Audio Research JAR650) and compared that to a stock HD650, then posted a review on Head-Fi. I really liked the stock HD650, wished I'd heard one sooner. The JAR650 bettered stock in every way. Evolutionary sonic differences, rather than revolutionary: but still, very welcome & pleasing. Later that year my friend updated my JAR650 further.

It remains one of my favorite headphones. The sound of that modded headphone is superb IMO. 

Mods can be very good, indeed...

Elisabeth what is pen blanks? 

Quick interrupt! The Backfire Effect in so many words.

Some think the backfire effect is due to a cognitive deficit: people view unfavorable information as being in agreement with their beliefs (Lebo and Cassino 2007). Nyhan and Reifler, however, interpret backfire effects "as a possible result of the process by which people counterargue preference-incongruent information and bolster their preexisting views." That seems like a roundabout way of saying that people dig in when confronted with evidence contrary to their beliefs, but it doesn't seem to explain why they do so.

Another explanation involves communal reinforcement and the assumption that there is more information you don't have that supports your belief. If one knows that there is a community of believers who share your beliefs and one believes that there is probably information you don't have but which would outweigh the contrary information provided, rationalization becomes easier. It is possible that the rationalization process leads one to give more weight to reinforcement by the community of believers. How much play one's belief gets in the media, versus the play of contrary information may also contribute to the backfire effect. If messages supporting your belief are presented far more frequently in the media than messages contrary to your belief, or presented repeatedly by people you admire, the tendency might be to give those supportive messages even more weight than before.

Oh, geez, not him again! This is rapidly becoming my favorite thread. 🤗

edstrelow
These things (Brilliant Pebbles) have been around for quite a while I believe, and still not even a hint of what principle of physics is supposed to be involved. The statements about them are just meaningless generalizations.

>>>>Pop Quiz - which one of us took atomic physics in school. Three guesses. The first two don’t count.

Salutations Edstrelow, I participate on your thread and this get me on my journey, thanks to you my best...

I can certainly see why you would like the effects of adding sorbothane to headphones.  I have been pointing this out for some time.   https://www.head-fi.org/threads/damping-mechanical-energy-distortion-of-stax-and-other-phones-with-sorbothane-and-other-materials.744839/

If you check my later posts in that thread you will find that I report that the type of sorbothane, size and manner of fastening make a large difference. In brief,   you want to use small pieces of dense (70 duro) sorb. Fastening is tricky, my best results are using a Lord commercial glue recommended by Sorbothane but which is expensive, and has a short shelf life after being opened.  

The theory of sorbothane is that it gets rid of vibrational energy by converting it to heat.  Probably all the vibrational energy  in your phones or speakers  ends up as heat in a fairly short period of time (milliseconds possibly.) The problem  for audio, I suspect is that this doesn't normally happen quickly enough,  so that this energy sits around in your headphone or speakers system long enough to end up back in the drivers, messing up the sound.    I see many suggestions that this energy causes the walls earcups etc to vibrate making audible sound.  I find this unlikely for most frequencies because wooden/plastic/metal cabinets or earcups  are going to need a massive amount of energy to start behaving like speakers themselves so as I say I think the problem is the energy messing up the drivers. 

 The discussion in this thread quickly shifted to the use of crystals which I have never tried.  But I do not understand what the physical principles are supposed to be operating here. 

I think any pro skeptic who talks placebo effect does not know what he talks about....At the most  basic fundamental level of perception there is placebo effect in play...Without that how human can transform sensation in an individualised and personal perception be it of our own internal organs and body or any object we are linked to by intimate sensation...The line between objectivity and subjectivity is fractal like and created by collective consensus figuration and configuration... I apologize for my foolish rant... :) 

Exactly! Me, too! Right up there with self hypnosis. 😳

If it was a self fulfilling prophecy, I’ll take it. I like those even better than placebo effects.