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Okay, I realize this is opening myself up to being hit with "flamethrowers", but after reading about the benefits of topaz and tourmaline crystals on this forum, I figured what the heck and went to a local rock shop and picked up a few small samples. I prepared three small zip lock baggies each with a piece of blue topaz tumble, a piece of pink tourmaline, and a Herkimer "diamond". I attached one of these baggies to the AC inlet of my power conditioner, another one over the circuit breaker to the dedicated line powering my system, and a third baggy inside my SACD player next to the transformer. I didn't expect to hear anything, and felt silly even trying this but, hey, it only cost a couple of bucks and the stones were pretty cool anyways. To my amazement, this made a substantial, not at all subtle improvement to the sound of the system. The noise floor seems to have lowered and the timbre is much more natural. The first question I have is: why does this happen (aside from the alleged placebo effect)? Secondly, where else should I try these crystals to maximize their effect?
Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.
Chris
Follow Ups:
Hanging a bag full of marching powder from a drummers crotch. Mick Fleetwood has been photographed many times over the years wearing this tweak. He claims the sizzle on the cymbals is hotter and the Tom-Tom thwacks with 4 times the authority. Did I mention the rim shots?
Another photo of this tweak at:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Maclivebbc.jpg
Often you will see a singer with a variation of this tweak, usually in the form of a phial dangling on a chain. It is said that a gold chain offers more than added bling, One of the side effects of these phials is that people tend to be drawn to whoever pulls one out of their neckline. Users of this form of tweak can nail a piercing high note and hold it for over 4 minutes.
Edits: 03/05/09
Thanks for starting this thread! I had won a small size brilliant pebbles auction from Machina Dynamica on A'gon for about $16. I put them on the IC's from CDP to pre. I had little affect and left them there. Your post made me put them on my HF amp's power cord where it meets the amps IEC> Bingo! It made a nice improvement in the HF tone and character. I immediately went for my most syllibant female vocal recordings and they were WAY WAY better!
ET
Question "Authority", the mainstream media sucks - Go Independent and hold BOTH parties accountable instead of just the other guys!
I need music to help forget the reality of today
I don't know, but here's something you can try:
Once you sort of get settled upon where and what sounds good to you, it might be an interesting experiment to go scrape up some basalt gravel of similar size and mass to the ones you are using, put them in baggies and carefully place where the others were. Hopefully this will help you to sort out any physical effect they may have from any electrical effects. The net effect may well be a combination of the two, but it's a start.
Have fun, Rick
I'm guessing that you have a pretty decent set-up because the effects that you describe can't be heard on a mediocre system. The reason things sound better is because the crystals are absorbing high frequency electromagnetic interference. It seems strange that rfi can scramble up a signal at a much lower frequencies, but it does. On my system, the most obvious effect is that the soundstage increases in size--the sound becomes more enveloping.The crystals are piezoelectic, which is to say they vibrate when subjected to an electric charge. This is how quartz radio transmitter crystals work. And I know that I'm right about this because of the line conditioner in my breaker box. It's a great little device that absorbs electromagnetic hash at frequencies up to 1 ghz. It does pretty much the same thing as the crystals--bigger soundstage, finer detail.
I've found good locations for crystals by trying out locations recommended by others and trying out other places on my own. Here are some locations that have worked for me: near my woofers, near my tweeters, near my electronics (experiment with locations), at the wall outlet, near the ac inlet at the component. Inside of my preamp, I've put tourmaline and topaz on diode heatsinks, on power transformers, right next to tubes, and on electolytic capacitors in the power supply.
One thing to be careful of is overdoing it. If you just load on the topaz, you will probably find that you're hearing more distortion. The soundstage will keep increasing, but so will the distortion--apparenly not the kind of distortion that masks the subtle cues responsible for revealing soundstage information.
Another neat trick to try is to shoot negative ions at the chassis of your power amplifier. This is powerful medecine which does the same kind of thing that the power conditioner and crystals do. My theory about the ion emitter is that it creates a charge on the amplifier chassis which repels stray emf (a Farraday cage). Check it out!
Edits: 03/03/09
Are you mounting the crystals on a piece of Blue tack or putty? I find that the location of crystals is influenced by the ability to allow the crystals to move. If you simply place crystals on the c component and such, the weight of the crystal itself may not allow the piezo effect to really work. The crystals do need a definite piece of putty or Blue tack in order to enable the crystals to move in response to the EMI field.
I have found if the crystals can not easily move, the effect is a kind of distortion particularly in the upper frequencies. Apparently the crystals can absorb the EMI fields but then if the quartz can not move the EMI fields get re transmitted.
Stu
I attached them to the electronic components with silicone, so it should be working well. The crystals that I am assuming created distortion were laying loose, and they were tumble polished so they should have been able to move. The most noticeable distortion I got was with QR8s placed loosely on top of a speaker. They were right next to eachother, so they could have been interacting with eachother.
If you mean silicon as being RTV, I find that RTV inhibits the motion of the quartz and various other crystals a bit too much. I use the blue tack and make sure the crystals are mounted rather precariously. It is imperative that the crystals can move freely in order to harness the piezo effect. You can get the blue tack as a Duro product called fun tack, although it sometimes appears in a yellow color. It is designed to post posters on walls without using a thumbtack.
Stu
Hi Paul
Thanks for the very helpful reply. I'll try those spots out and see what it does. What is the conditioner you have in your breaker box?
Chris
Hi Paul
When you say an increase in soundstage, do you hear this in width or depth? I only ask because it seems like my soundstage width is more or less the same, but I hear much more of the recording venue with decay, etc., giving the impression the performer is sitting about 10 feet behind the wall in the front of my listening room. I'm not sure yet whether I like this effect and I'm wondering if perhaps the spots I picked have overdone it. Also, did you notice an apparent decrease in volume when you used topaz? It seems that the quiet passages are much quieter than I remember, yet the loud passages are about the same volume as before. All in all, it's fascinating, but kind of strange.
Thanks so much again
Chris
The soundstage width increases, but also the sense that the musicians are in the room. The sense of having the musicians in the room on certain recordings has increased strikingly with these tweaks. I have noticed this on string quartets where I am guessing the musicians were sitting around the microphones. On these recordings, you really feel submerged in the sound. On recordings made in larger venues, I really seem to be able to guage the dimensions of the room. The recording that shows this most strikingly is Wagner e Venezia by Uri Caine. It was recorded in the Piazza San Marco in Venice and the sense of being in the Piazza is really quite amazing.
I haven't noticed the difference that you're talking about with quiet passages. What I have noticed is that instruments sound much more precisely renderred--all of the Stereophile gushing talk about palpability and hearing exactly what the sound is that is coming out of the instrument.
Here's another interesting tweak, and it's probably the strangest one in my arsenal--a Schumann generator. The one that I use is by Earth Calm. I think that this tweak is almost certainly due to a psychological change in me--but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. A friend of mine listened to the Schumann generator with a switch to turn it on and off. He said that without it, he could sense edges of the sound stage. After it was turned on, the edges seemed to dissolve. If you are interested in entering the territory of the truly strange, you could try one of these devices.
My rig has an awful lot of tweaks, so it can be hard to distinguish which one is doing what. I can say though, that before I started tweaking, I didn't have much at all in the way of three dimensional imaging. Now I have it in spades and it's obvious to anyone who hears it. People who hear it for the first time--non-audiophies--usually get a goofy look of disbelief on their faces. No shit!
Hi Paul
I, too, have an Earthsafe. It seems to make a big difference with sound and (curiously) also for our plants, which are growing much larger and are much healthier than ever before. This indicates to me that whatever that thing does is far more than just psychological. Where do you have your Earthsafe set up? Mine's in a room adjacent to the family/listening room, since Earthsafe says it should treat a whole house. Did you find any effect from changes the Earthsafe's position? Also, when you say "overload" with topaz, how much topaz are you talking about? Would a rough tumble the size of a gumball be too much inside a SACD player? Should all the components have crystals inside as well as on their IEC inputs? Should crystals be placed within the listening room as well, kind of like the Acoustic ART system by Synergistic Research? Does tourmaline overload as well? How many crystals do you need to put in the breaker box? I agree with you about getting a sense of the dimensions of the recording venue. This is something I really didn't appreciate before putting in just these three baggies of crystals. I guess I need to buy some more...
Thanks!
Chris
My Schumann generator is an Earthcalm, not an Earthsafe. It uses the house wiring as an antenna, so I don't think that it matters where it is located.
I noticed the overloading with QR8 quartz resonators from Acoustic Revive. I put all eight of them on top of a speaker and it sounded horrible. The Topaz doesn't cause distortion nearly as much, but I began to notice that while I was increasing my soundstage, there was some distortion creeping in. I had put dozens of crystals in various locations. I have removed most of the loose crystals, so now I'm left with the crystals inside of my electronics and a few on my speakers. The distortion has decreased quite a bit now. I don't think you want to use lots of these crystals. Once the initial big effects took place, I have found it difficult to sort out what is happening. You just need to experiment and take a lot of time. I've been using the crystals for more than a year and I'm still not finished refining.
I'm not sure that placing baggies of crystals in a single location is a good idea. I would try placing individual crystals in discreet locations. Despite having said this, I do have a custom built (by me) power strip that I have half filled with tourmaline pebbles. It only serves my phono preamp and doesn't seem to have added any distortion, but it is currently under scrutiny.
There are lots of places out in the room where crystals can have quite a profound effect. As much or moreso than around electronics, I'd say.
nt
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