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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
mahgister's avatar
mahgister OP
12,527 posts
 
Save for the difference active acoustic controls could make with a grid of Helmholtz resonators, located in a specific way and tuned in a specific way for the speakers/room versus the necessary and usual passive material treatment ...

 Save for that, my greatest discovery in acoustic is, in the 2 cases, passive material treatment and active controls, the ratio between diffusion and absorption.... This is the KEY....Then to my 40 Helmholtz resonatorsgrid, ( my mechanical equalizer) i added 6 Helmholtz diffusers in the last 2 months...

This ratio of absorption/diffusion, with the rightful use of timing and reverberation time, is the more important cause of my actual very high S.Q. for the price paid....

The cause is NOT primarily my successful choices of electronical gear as good they were well chosen....It is the opposite experience which is all over the audio threads where miracles comes always or mostly from costly upgrades of electronical pieces...





Acoustic is the sleeping princess, all electronical pieces are only the 7 working dwarves....
johnh
22 posts
 
Hey Miracle Workers, I got a big 1 pound bag of shungite rocks (cost $15).  I have been placing them on my amps, cables and such.  I do hear a difference, whether that difference is positive I am unsure.  It does lift the treble significantly.   Lifted treble though can be a sign of increase EMI though, so I am not sure of it so far.  

Has anyone tried Elite Shungite vs the regular?  Looks like it might be just more compacted/compressed shungite. Being more compressed might hold forms better and polish better. Also since it is compressed more it has 'more' fullerenes as it simply has more mass. So the elite might not be worth the 4x cost it typically has. 

Since it is not a crystal, whether it is in powder form or solid pieces, is there a difference in its effect?  I would suspect that shape/size of particle might be much less influential in its effects.

Also, I think its important to remember that shungite is essentially coal from another source. Instead of coming from prehistoric plants and animals that have liquified and transformed, shungite comes from another unknown source that is much older, perhaps extraterrestrial. And because if its age (billions of years vs 300 million years), might have absorbed or transformed into more fullerenes than regular coal has had the time to do.  But regular coal might actually the same effects as shungite.
digitalviper's avatar
digitalviper
123 posts
 

@mahgister 

So basically.

YOU used lots of tweaks on the headphone....but what about the headphone engineer who made it??

how come they did NOT tweak with your mods??

seems a little bit fishy. how is that possible???

 

- viper

holydean's avatar
holydean
29 posts
 

Miracle audio improvement: There are several YouTube testimonies that hearing acuity is greatly improved with the use of psychedelics. 

 

@geoffkait @mahgister 

Any conductive flat surface will act as an RFI/EMI barrier. Placing shungite on or around a Schumann Resonator (which just produces dither, not new science or magic) is akin to placing pieces of aluminum foil around a TV antenna to achieve different results. Any ham radio operator can confirm that placing pieces of tinfoil around any radio frequency device will have an effect on its performance. You could probably have the same effect* by using any conductive material.

*DISCLAIMER. Halz has not tried SG's in the listening room and doesn't have an opinion, but may buy a few for kicks. Offer void where prohibited. Discontinue use of reading Halz' comments if irritation or redness results. 

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