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Fun Little Project for improving Dynamics

Fun little project, or Tweak that will improve system dynamics, soundstage, frequency extremes.

Try using Amethyst crystals. Get them in small sizes and unprocessed. I bought a pound on EBay for $10 including shipping.

To clean the unprocessed crystals prior to use, I soak the crystals in distilled water with Aquarium salt. Mixing it to become a strong sea salt mixture and letting them soak for about 8+ hours.
Then pour off the sea salt and soak the crystals with 90% or better alcohol for about an hour. After that, drain off the alcohol and rinse well with just distilled water.
Finally, let the crystals dry in a bowl in the sun.

Start with placing small amounts (25-40 crystals) in the plastic baggy things and tape the bag over your Circuit breakers to your system or on top of power cables IEC/Male end.
You can even buy at Radio Shack small project boxes. When using these types of boxes I put a lot more of the crystals in them.
You can use Blu Tack or 3M tape to stick these project boxes to outlet strips, junction boxes, over outlets, etc.

For reasons still unclear to me, it may take a few weeks (perhaps as much as 4 weeks) to sound good.

But, when it does, the dynamics will improve and so will the overall sound stage and frequency extremes.

Please note:
Too much of the crystals may actually surpress the dynamics, but with the baggies you can experiment with how much of the crystals to use.

I have experimented with all kinds of different crystals, from Topaz, to Tourmaline, to Quartz and etc. The Amethyst crystals seem to work the best.
128x128ozzy
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
735 posts
 
>>"No BS. For $10 on E-Bay you can try this and speak with some meaningful knowledge instead of snarking at those not afraid to experiment. I can't explain it and I won't try."<<

Ptm - I'll explain it.
You made a change and you believe it made a difference. There is no mysterious unexplained phenomenon. I don't need to try it to understand that. If i did try it i would probably believe it too. Just google around and read about how we mistakenly perceive things in our environment. Start with the McGurk effect. Fascinating.
ozzy's avatar
ozzy OP
3,650 posts
 
Sebrof , you need to Google and read all the glowing reviews about using Alan Maher’s CBF Signature Filters. These filters use exclusively the Amethyst crystals.
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
735 posts
 
Ozzy - Glowing reviews from folks that made a change and believe they heard a difference no doubt. Kinda made my point.
I'm not saying these things do or don't, just saying that a lot of the "I have no idea how or why" tweaks can be easily explained. Very easily.
Did you see the McGurk thing? That's the kind of thing that makes me very skeptical of a lot of what I read on these forums.
cbw723
89 posts
 
Sebrof, the problem with your argument is that it applies to almost everything we audiophiles do to improve our systems. "I tried a new speaker/amp/preamp/DAC/speaker cable/interconnect/power cord/what-have-you and it made my system sound better/worse." At some point we have to trust our perceptions.

I'll grant that the crystals sound loopy, but so do about 90% of the tweaks I've seen advocated here and elsewhere. As a natural skeptic who has entered the audiophile world, I've had to learn to withhold judgment on a lot of claims that seem both unlikely and exaggerated.

That said, I'm not buying any Amethyst crystals until I see a lot more "evidence" of their positive effects.
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
735 posts
 
Thanks cbw. But I'm specifically addressing the part of the post that said he had no idea how or why it worked. Those are the things im talking about. Preams and speakers are in the signal chain, there is no mystery why or how they would change the signal.
It just seems that too often we are willing to completely disregard the most obvious and also most likely explanation. I guess that makes the hobby more fun for a lot of us, the mysteries and experiments and all. I guess I'd rather get to the bottom of things.
Again- the crystals may work, but there is no evidence to support it to my knowledge. And there is information to support that he who added crystals would hear a difference. Let him do as magfan suggested, have someone remove the bags. My guess is he would not be able to tell.
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