My second maxin in audio is now:
ONE straw kill or ressuscitate a room....
The first maxim was:
Dont upgrade before embedding everything right
The first law,
which is the most fundamental audiophile law:
" Dont upgrade before embedding it"
Second law:"
There exist 3 embeddings dimensions" : MECHANICAL(resonance-vibrations), ELECTRICAL (noise level of any links and general noise floor of the house), ACOUSTICAL ( the known passive materials standard way and the underestimated active controls ways)
Third law:
"The more uplifting upgrading effects are most of the time linked to the controls of the embeddings dimensions, except most of the times if you go to a higher rung with a purchase of E.C."
Fourth law:
" All electronic components (E.C.) roughly are distributed on a 3 rungs scale of ratio quality/price, and the S.Q. ratio decrease or increase in a non linear way with these 3 steps, (low, medium, high or a Gaussian with a non normal distribution if you wish)"
Fifth law:
" Any upgrade with a new E.C. on the same rung as a past E.C. will result most of the time in a low increase of S.Q. only, compared to a more rightful way to embed the components you already owns"
Sixth law:
" Then, dont upgrade anything before you have rightly embedded all of them"
then this circle of laws is closed....
All that is only my experience and I tried to communicate it clearly....You can criticize... :)
my thread contains more details not about a bunch of "tweaks" but more about a minimalistic and costless méthod of controls for each 3 embeddings:
The embeddings of your audio system are way more impactful in your experience of Hi-Fi than the upgrading purchase of only one electronic component in general most of the times (speakers, amp or dac).... This is the upgrading myth....
The only thing this audio hobby have teach me is that what we already owns is able to reach a potential sound quality unbeknownst to us, sometimes a very high level...Never mind the price....
The most important lesson I learned was that it is not the so called hi-cost quality of the electronic components of an audio system that makes great audio experience, it is the careful controlled preparation of the 3 embeddings of any audio system : mechanical, acoustical and electrical....All the marketing audio industry mostly does not say that, they must sell their carefully researched products and tweaking is only a small "niche" products that you added at the end of your endeavour...
The truth is inverse of that, tweaks and preparation must be first, and my rule is : any electronic components that is already good will takes cares of his function without any needs for a so called upgrades necessity and will work at his peak potential only in a such rightly prepared triple embeddings... Then when some company affirm something about their electronic new marvels they are right, often their product is better than the one you owns already... But if you had never listen to what you already owned in the first place at his peak potential quality, because you had not installed your electronic components in a qualitatively carefully prepared embeddings, what is the need to upgrade a product which you dont really know ?
All electronic components are on a 3 level of quality/price ratio.... Low, mid, high....Any upgrading changes in the same rung of the scale is a waste of money and not necessary, and will be deceiving in giving to you only a small improvement at best.... The triple preparations of the embeddings will gives you hi-fi, even sometimes with some low components in the scale, more with the mid elements of the scale, and you will think: is it absolutely necessary that I pay now for high priced elements in the upper end of the scale ?
I smile now and say to some beginners, trust yourself, and create heaven, that will not cost necessarily much money...Only basic good components, playful mind, listening experiments, homemade stuff most of the times, and at the end a real hi-fi experience will surprize you...
One thing is obvious to me, i am not envious of any of the beautiful system, all of them more marvellous to look than mine, not because my sound is better, probably not most of the times, but trust me not too far behind, then I can enjoy my music without dreaming to other gear... That speaks volume when you consider the ridiculous low cost of my audio system, compared to all the others one here.... :)
( GENERAL UPDATE:
There is 2 way to act on the acoustical field of a room:
1-The PASSIVE way with some different materials absorbing or reflecting one at different locations... Most people use only this way...I use homemade materials or low cost one at strategic locations...
2- There is the ACTIVE way that is more complex but very rewarding...
a- I use a grid of active metal resonator (30)
b- I use 20 Helmholtz bottles of different sizes
c- I use a grid of connected stones and crystals
d- I use a grid of cheap 10 Schumann Generators modified with crystals and stones...
e- I use a grid of 90 little bells or cones of 2 different sizes(7mm or 9 mm) with some nano Herkimer diamonds in 20% of them for their compensating effects...This grid of cones stabilize for the brain the recognizing process of complementing sounds waves coming with the competing obstructing distorsions created by the topology of the room accidents...This is not science only my way to convey my understanding...
The embeddings on an audio system in his mechanical resonant field is 20 % of the S.Q.
The embeddings of an audio system in the electrical field of the house is 25 % of the S.Q.
The embeddings of an audio system in the acoustical field of the room is 55 % of the S.Q.
The % varied relatively to the methods used, but these indications gives an idea of the general results after my experiments ….
The final results are a very high S. Q. for a ridiculous cost....All my materials are homemade created or bought for peanuts....But the result is in no way cheap.... :)
You can compensate for a modest audio system relatively to a very costly one with the controlling methods linked to these 3 embeddings ,especially the acoustical one....
A vintage low cost amplifier but good product of the past for example, in a controlled room, may sound way better than a way more costly one in a non treated room..... This is the only thing I know for a fact about audio....
Upgrading is most of the times only a game , but if you dont have money, it is not necessary to spend any great amount to buy Hi-FI…. The contrary opinion is "mostly" a marketing myth.... :)
In 2 words:
The acoustician is more important than the electronical engineer.... :)
After many experiments, I must conclude that the "golden" plates (shungite+copper foil) are at their best used in these locations:
On the exterior electrical meter of the house
On the central breakers panel of the house
On the peripheral breaker panel of the room
Behind the speakers
On unused wall plugs
On some interconnections ( not all of them) determined by listening experiments
On the computer router or modem
On some of the computer connectors (hard drive, optical convertor etc)
On the power conditioner
Total of big and small "golden" plates in my system : 30, half are of bigger size.
They works optimally where they are not too much near the audio system except thin "golden" plate on some connection which location are determined by listening experiments...
I decide to remove the thin "golden plates" and keep only Herkimer diamond and tourmaline on some of the Schumann generators... Sound is more balanced with some of the S. G. with the "golden" thin plates +tourmaline, but some S.G. with only Quartz or Herkimer Diamond or tourmaline...
On my small usb S.G., 3 had a "golden" plate with tourmaline or H.D. now, and the 5 others had tourmaline or some other stones only...These varieties and variations create a more harmonious and balanced sound. )
Liliputian H.D. (around .150 of a gram ) are very powerful and better than regular H.D. on top of tourmaline or golden plate for the S.G.
The shungite in general is delicate to use for audio positive effect... The shungite can add some negative trade-off in some place but that it is easy to compensate keeping only the positive impact...For this compensation the copper tape act like some polarization of the shungite action, and the Herkimer diamond added some balancing effect on all frequencies without erasing the impactful force of the shungite cleaning noise action....When needed it tough, on a big shungite plate for example, you can replace the little H.D. by tourmaline or pink Quartz for the balancing effect, for example if you put the "golden" plate on your central breaker panel...
The "singing resonators" grid are of my own design with vertically glued copper tape and some amethyst or tourmaline in the center of each bucket.( I had 10 sets now composed of 5 or 6 metal buckets small or bigger) And yes! with more money at hand I would have designed them with brass but they work marvel even made by the cheapest metal buckets bought in the one dollar store and I dont understand why, but my ears dont want to understand...This is by far the most impactful room treatment of my owns and the cost relation to the imaging sound quality is astounding...If you dont have money and dont fear ridicule try it, I have completely transform my room in sonic heaven with this last tweaks at almost no cost... This will deliver to your room the sonic qualities that only big money only is supposed to be able to afford...I called them resonators but they are also reflectors and are a key elements for me to compensate for the irregularities in the distribution of furniture and of the walls irregularies near the speakers relatively to my sitting position ….Dont thanks me...:)
In one of the photos we can see a big glass Helmholtz resonator homemade, i design 20 of them in my room (most of them around 1 liter some around 5 gallons).
The 6 china designed cheap Schumann Generators modified in my room are linked by cable to my grid of cabled stones+ batteries... (it is important that the shungite pyramid dont touch the horizontal antenna of the S.G. and by the way it is not necessary to put a pyramid to affect the sound a thin+copper cell phone shungite plate will do the same on top of the 4 capacitors of these usb powered Schumann generator and will cost less)
On speakers and in front wall and rear wall I put 15 TINY MAGICAL RESONATORS: one Alaska brass cone 3/8 inch + 1 Herkimer tiny diamond in the center...Results: better imaging and better timbre.… cost ridiculous and behemoth effect....
My room is treated by myself after many experiments and only with no cost materials ( the rule number 1 is to make an equilibrium between reflexive and absorption surfaces and materials in a particular room)...
An important remark: Room treatment with absorbant or reflective materials and non conventional acoustical space modifications with Schumann modified generators and controls with Helmholtz resonators or different resonators and reflectors are not the same thing.We must not confuse room treatment with acoustical space modifications.
If there is 3 rungs in the scale going to low, mid, and high, any electronic component pertaining to a rung of this scale is different with another on the same rung...But rightly embedded anyone of this element go from a rung to a higher rung entirely if it is rightly embedded with the 3 implementation protocols and parts pertaining to each one of these 4 methods :
1-The mechanical environment of each electronic component (vibrations-resonances controls)
2-The electrical grid of the room and of the house
3a-the "passive" room treatment with materials absorbant and reflective ones
3b-the "active" acoustical space modifications with reflectors, Helmholtz resonators, Schumann generators,etc
(We must not confuse room treatment 3a with acoustical space modifications 3b. because one work in a passive way, the other work in an active way)
The electrical grid of my house is also treated by my own design, and my speakers and gear are on top of my homemade vibrations platforms which is 5 sandwiches of coupling-decoupling levels, each platform created with 2 granite plates+ one bamboo plate+ one cork plate+ one sorbothane plate +quartz feet...At any sound level this is so efficient than my finger on the desk does not sense any vibrations coming from the speakers...(By the way I know perfectly well that there is vibrations in a range that my finger cannot sense of, but nothing is perfect no?) I forget to say that I added 70 pounds of concrete to the mass of each of the speaker and to complement the damping sandwiches for the controls of negative resonance....
The external electrical main cable of the house is entirely treated with ordinary cheap riverbed stones and some shungite plate… The main central electrical panel of my house also, with lava beads, agate, tourmaline, shungite tiles and some others even the computer and the routers are treated with some stones and crystals etc...It is way better than an active filtering, a passive filtering with stones does not add any noise of his own and is more cheaper than a big power conditioner....Each stones has his own filtering characteristics easily audible with experiments...All this characteristics are complementary with each stones adding to the lot... By the way I use my "golden" shungite plate( designed for cell phone) to block unused wall duplex plug...
My audio system is less an out of the box ready to listen system than an experiment in the making...
The total cost of my system is around 1000 dollars all included except the price of the stones (20 varieties of crystals and stones used) in my grid... The sound is way above his price and appearance...Upgrading possibilities giving to me by reviews of any price gear makes me smiles with satisfaction with my cheap audio but TOTL system...
I get holographic 3-d imaging and natural timbre sounding instrument or voices at my 3 possible positions for listening : nearfield, normal position, and with my Fostex orthos headphone...That was exactly my goal in the beginning of my odyssey some years ago with few money to spend...
I hope some"poor" audiophiles will be motivated by me...The others can smile incredulously... :)
One important remark about my "singing resonators" grid set of ten quincunx or sextile buckets :
My room is relatively small 14 feet by 14 feet and 11 feet high...I think that in a way bigger room my metal buckets resonators would be less efficient to controls the imaging and way less spectacular if working...Then take that into account in the equation...
A new powerful tweaks: The "golden"shungite plate...
You take a shungite plate and you put on one side some thin auto-adhesive copper tape, and you put the plate with the adhesive out of the surface of the electrical panel, or router-modem, or cable, or unused duplex wall plugs etc and miracles happens: more imaging and more natural sound....This is low cost and simply magical...Enjoy it, it is almost free...(except the 10 dollars plate shungite 250 grams) For a cable or a unused duplex plug you can buy a shungite cell phone thin plate for a few bucks...
I have 8 shungite plates of 250 grams on my electrical central panel in my basement, the shungite plate improve the sound way better with the copper tape on the side exterior to the applied surface...
Behind the speakers under the cables connectors and on top of them I place some "golden" shungite plate, 2 for each speakers for a total of 4...On top of each shungite exposed side I glued an Herkimer diamond for each plate, that enhance the effect of the shungite plates behind speakers...(there is a photo ) I add one small tourmaline stone to the H.D. on top of one of the plate behind each speakers... The 3 more potent stones that act very good in synergy with one another, is tourmaline, Herkimer diamond and shungite…The "golden" trinity for speakers... Behind my speakers they make perfect harmony between imaging, timbre, tonal equilibrium... Amazing low cost modification....No corresponding audiophile mods. on the market exist at this cheap cost... The "golden" plate on the central electrical panel of the house, and behind the speakers are an upgrade of the whole audio system for peanuts....
A NEW TWEAKS:
The " Bell of bells"...
I just create it ...
I use a brass little bell at which I attach and hang a rope coming from the ceiling in the center of my room...
Around this bell I glued 16 little bells (Alaskan brass cones3/8 inch) with half of them with an Herkimer micro diamond glued in them...It is very important to balance half the cones with diamond (half of them)…This balancing compensate the bass frequencies and high frequencies with one another...The result is a better tone accuracy....
This device makes my ears spirals( by some internal Fourier analysis by the brain) able to decode from the feedback waves and reconstruct more easily, in spite of the room intricacies, an optimal tone and imaging ....I am not a scientist tough, I just want to transmit my impressions and communicate my own understanding....
The results (for 10 bucks) are ASTOUNDING....
A word of caution :These posts are only words to convey my experience and not science at all....
