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...
128x128mahgister
I have proved you wrong many times. The difference between me and you is I will admit when I am wrong.
In your dreams. 😴 How can I admit I’m wrong if I’m never wrong? It doesn’t make sense. 🤗

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 

Michael Green

My conclusions are the same as yours M.Green...I wish you the best with my deepest regards...
I concur with the following comments:

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

- Cheerio