It really does feel like a great deal has happened since the last Newsletter, some of which is clearly a personal odyssey, and some more purely P.W.B. related. I will dwell on the latter first, although, curiously, it has become part and parcel of my own developments.
For once I am not writing of the latest and greatest P.W.B. device, although you can read of this wondrous device two times in this Newsletter. Instead I am writing about that even greater development – publicity. It has been clear to many of us for a rather long period now that our sticking of bits of Foil or spraying or tapping merely scratch the surface of something much greater. I had the opportunity recently to throw out a number of instruction manuals for equipment, as part of a 'spring clean', and it was unusually revelatory. Those that are steeped in the history of this Newsletter, or P.W.B. devices, will know that at one point we were putting such manuals into a bag, with a Dome atop of the manuals, in order to decouple the equipment from the morphic resonances that ultimately played havoc with our senses. As the bag eventually tore under the pressure of the manuals, and also as the newer 'Message Foils' came in, I simply put four Foil strips on each manual, and left it outside of the bag. I won't list the Foils here, as I recently discovered no matter how good the P.W.B. device, we are simply making the best of a bad job. It was clear to me that the sound of my system 'improved' when even these treated manuals were ejected from the premises. This was a very real surprise, and a lesson that the best listening environment is a vacuum (yes I know I wouldn't hear anything, but if I did, it would be very clear!)
It is a powerful reminder that not only should one be rather Bauhaus and spick and span to get a good sound – as Linn showed once with their single speaker demos – but so much needs to be overturned to get a good sound etc. As we have often discussed, the best way of approaching this is for P.W.B. processes to be incorporated during such processes as manufacturing, but the world won't listen. It was heartening therefore to read of the Red 'x' Pen's new found fame in the pages of Audio Musings (also on the associated web site …. audioMUSINGS ) Those of you with 21st Century leanings will know of this already, since May mailed everyone to share the good news. Carol Clark's piece was clearly the finest yet on a P.W.B. product; unflinching in its acknowledgement of what appeared to happen. It is one thing to acknowledge the Rainbow Foil as Greg Weaver had done, but to affirm the benefits of using the Red 'x' Pen takes us to the very heart of the P.W.B. experience and dilemma. I can only recommend that everyone ensures that they have read this piece of masterful journalism, and our thanks to Carol for revealing such views to a wider audience. It remains the case that if there are no sparks there cannot be flames. If someone somewhere could grasp this nettle and start to incorporate Peter's principles perhaps our homes wouldn't have to be so bare. Yet it remains that the more open the window, the more muck flies in. So if you want a good night of music, look around for any old papers or discs, and throw them out.
It was this piece in Audio Musings that lead me to a world I had yet not discovered; the world of the discussion forum. If many of the readers are like myself, they came rather late to the IT party, and may not have discovered this particular delight of the Internet. But here we have a system where apparently like-minded people can discuss related issues that appeal to them, or annoy them enormously. One reads a comment and then possibly responds to it. There is even one, set up by Chris Belt, purely devoted to P.W.B. at this site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PWB
There are many interesting sites, notably the Tweakers Asylum,
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/bbs.html
http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tweaks/bbs.html
and others connected to specific manufacturers. Not all are interesting, and the P.W.B. forum at present is criminally underused – I hope we can change that now. What one discovers though, as I have out of ignorance, is that hostility to P.W.B. ideas is as great as ever. This can be amongst apparently fellow tweakers or enthusiasts, and one always has to watch for the person who feels the so-called Laws of Physics should be policed with greater ferocity than the criminal laws are. What I found distressing about this was the apparent mindlessness of it all, since there was no sense of Physics, as a body of knowledge, progressing. There is also a much paraded idealisation of blind trials, and an assumption that if it doesn't pass this or that test, the product is useless. Such thinking fails to take into consideration the progress made in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and so we are stuck with bigotry based upon past ideas. It is quite something to be gunned down for ones beliefs, even in a discussion forum, but I learnt quickly that if one stands ones ground, and is not bullied into defeat, the bullies soon back down. I don't know if this changes anything as yet, but as Mr Wilde once commented, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
I would thus like to suggest that in this new year, we start not only to use the P.W.B. forum more actively, but encroach on at least the ones listed above, to confirm that the active group of P.W.B. users is still in existence, and still able to think and reason. After all, many assume that we have lost any last slither of sanity the moment we tried or purchased a P.W.B. device.
This is all the more important when we truly embrace the international nature of the P.W.B. users group – contained within these pages are the many excellent pieces from countries other than England, and long may it continue. Indeed, I feel confident in stating that this is perhaps our best edition yet, and all the more lively for a reduction in editor-padding. We indeed are embarrassed by riches. Keep them coming.
It remains just for me to say that as usual, the Christmas competition is a draw, with two excellent entries again. I am not sure what Peter has waiting for them, but hope when they receive it, they can let us know what they thought of it!
And so it is with some excitement I now bid you adieu, leaving you to enjoy the excellent pieces contained within, but with one other compelling thought. It will not take three months now for a further communication: see you at the discussion forum at.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PWB
Richard Graham
P.W.B. Newsletter
P.W.B Electronics
18. Pasture Crescent
Leeds LS7 3QB
Or for you sophisticates
E-mail – to Newsletter@belt.demon.co.uk
The P.W.B. Room Device Wallet
For anyone who has followed the developmental path of P.W.B. Electronics, from its early preoccupation's with electromagnetic radiations to the much more abstracted ideas influenced by quantum mechanics, the use of photographs may still be the most challenging. Of course the Red 'x' Pen is still freaky, but the use of personal photographs is, well…
The use of photographs goes back quite some time however, from placing the 2cm and 3cm Clear Films, to placing the message foils on one's image, to the specific and increasingly developed Photo Wallets. For myself they have always been of central importance for two particular reasons. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, when one leaves ones home, or treated car, many of the P.W.B benefits disappear. Now, for those of us used to the products this can be quite disturbing, and it was once brought home powerfully to me when walking around a lighting shop. The concert hall also revealed just how good things were at home and how bad they were elsewhere. Treating ones photo allows the benefits to travel with you wherever you go. Secondly, a treated photo or Photo Wallet is a powerful device to treat other things, since when it is pressed against another object, and then tapped with the Red 'x' Pen. Dialling ones telephone number, to obtain an engaged tone, then tapping the receiver in this way is one of the best ways of 'harmonising' all of the P.W.B products within the home. Obviously, the better the Wallet, the better the result.
Interested readers can search the web site for the history of the use of Photos in this way. The reader will also, in any search, see that it is not just the self that can be treated but buildings too. Some early editions of the Photo Wallet included photos of P.W.B. central, and there have been Wallets for the car, and a promise of a Wallet for the home. P.W.B. did develop a whole series of devices to deal with a building, often taking the form of a small box, and some very successful experiments occurred with them, including the now legendary (?) Albert Hall experiment. It has taken until now for progress to have been sufficient for a Wallet for a building to have been fully realised. Has the wait been worth it?
It is hard to fully encapsulate all of the work and thinking that has gone into this product since it builds upon all that has gone before, and to fully appreciate all of the thinking, an examination of the past ideas, as held in the pages of past Newsletters would help. The importance of boundaries in the home, of various substances that are contained within the earth, the importance of different energies interacting with objects, which impact upon our senses, and the influence of past, present and future are all of significance. In many ways, this product is a concentration of all of this thinking and developmental work, and perhaps that gives us the biggest hint of what to expect.
When the product drops through the letter box, as with most other P.W.B. devices, whilst the visual appearance is not unpleasing, there is a sort of underwhelming sense that this devil cannot do what it purports. It appears to be a very slim wallet of transparent plastic, rather like the wallets that contained the driving license in the UK. The wallet is covered though with the now familiar labels and strips of copper and aluminium. Within the wallet there are a number of bags, and slivers of plastic that do the work, and any further explanation will fail to describe the complexity of the product. But still, it hardly looks earth shattering. But in a sense it isn't since the benefits of this particular device come with the lateral thinking now so familiar to Beltians.
The Wallet works only in the room it is placed. It eradicates many of the problems within a room – such as the influence of the printed word, or effect of different energies on, say, fluids in the room – and products such as the 'x' pen are less necessary. It also significantly enhances the benefit of all other P.W.B. devices within that room, and so, as with many other devices before, it is potentiator. It can be activated in two ways. Firstly, one can place the keys of ones home into the Wallet, after the entrance door has been locked. This latter point is important, as leaving the door unlocked and then placing the key in the Wallet has a lesser effect. Secondly, given the practicality (not) of this, a photo of the fully locked door can be placed in the Wallet, to give the same effect.
As with all Belt devices, it is hard to keep describing how much better the sound of the Hi-Fi appears to get, when this device is activated by a photo in the listening room. It is hard to believe that so much detail, so much richness of tone, so much ambience was contained on the disc before the Wallet was activated. It really seems to be like a massive upgrade, but as we know, we cannot achieve this through the conventional methods. But this is just the beginning.
The Quantum Clip is considerably enhanced by the presence of this Wallet, and everything that is clipped just improves SO MUCH, whether amplifier, speaker, CD or carpet. This then leads to an enormous shift, and this is well worth the investment alone. A CD treated in the presence of the Wallet retains its benefit in other places, and so it does seem that with the Clip, one can lock the benefit into other objects.
One can also re-Clip the Morphic Liquid bottle in the room, and again, the benefit of lifting the liquid up is considerable. I have now got to the point where I only respray choice objects, such as mirrors or favourite CDs, but it does make a difference. Ones photo Wallet for oneself also seems to get better – again enhanced by the Clip – as do any other Wallets e.g. for the car.
The biggest limitation is that it works only in one room, but then Peter developed an extension label for one other room, but it sadly is confined to just this one extra room for the present. I have found that if I take it for a walk around the home, and Clip whatever is in that room, I can lock some of the benefit into that object. And as we know, any advance in one area can be perceived elsewhere – a treated book in one room can influence the perception of the TV in another.
This is not a cheap product, but does so much of what one would pay for with other products, it clearly has value for money. And of course it is not liking treating just one device or even replacing that device, as everything appears to get better. There is one question that remains for me about this product. I have in my Wallet a digital photo (i.e. printed from my PC) and whilst I do believe that more 'processed' images can be better, I am starting to wonder whether a Polaroid picture, perhaps with Foils on will be better. Read the answer in the discussion forum soon!
R.G.
Yes it has been a long time since I contributed to this newsletter. I have been spurred on again by May Belt thankfully. I have been beavering away quietly and perhaps now is the time to share some of my thoughts on P.W.B.
I am sure all those in the know on P.W.B. will agree that experimenting with those wonderful devices can be a very laborious task, and the cost that it involves when one gets addicted to what the strange devices do to your sanity. Two years ago I moved into a new bungalow. The one thing that I dreaded leaving behind was the environment that gave me the wonderful pleasure of enjoying my music, and watching the glorious pictures on the TV courtesy of P.W.B. It dawned on me for a few seconds that I did not think in the line of P.W.B., I thought about the new wiring in the new place, and that could be the baseline on which I could build a harmonious environment for my entertainment. I am here new in this place. I proceeded to set up my basic system (Audio that is) and also the TV. I was quietly devastated by what I was hearing and seeing., after all the money I have spent on P.W.B. and equipment. My wife would have loved to have said, "What a waste of money tinkering with those silly foils and what else". I was glad that I managed to keep my mouth shut for a while. I slowly proceeded to 'beltise' the bungalow. After a lot of time, and a bit of money spent, everything is coming roses. In fact my system sounded a lot better than it was before, but hold on, Peter sends a sample of label to try. Need I say more? I was gobsmacked, it sounded even better than before. The culprit was the Freeze and Heat label. So much so I have seven of them now.
I like to think that some of the old Belt devices are still amazing. Apart from applying violet ink to the end caps of fuses with a treated pen, I found applying violet ink with the thick felt tip pen just on the fuse section, one straight line (ensure that this does not touch the fuse caps). Tap the violet strip with the cap end once. This can be done with the fuse in the plug preferably. Treat all the fuses around the house. As usual with all P.W.B. techniques, everything is better, from the sound to the TV picture quality. As for me subjectively, the sound got deeper with a better extension of bass and the colour on the TV got richer.
The concept that 'odd' was better than 'even' made me think again. Having moved into this new place, I had quite a different experience via experimentation. My Celestion SL6 speakers are mounted on their original stands, quite wobbly in fact. I stayed with it as they sounded better than rigid metal stands. These stands had four spikes at the base, with a coin under one of the spikes to make it odd. The bottom part of the speakers I have in situ three Michell tenderfeet (small) fixed in place with Bluetak, which in turn rests on a six millimeter reinforced glass platform. The platform in turn rested on three focal-pods (courtesy of Spectra-dynamics) all treated of course with P.W.B. foils etc. The sound emanating from the speakers was akin to listening to a valve gear, easy open and relaxed. All in all it sounded three dimensional (Hi-Fi speak). The one snag was the glass platform was not too sturdy, thus making the speaker a bit wobbly. I decided to add one more focal-pod under each of the glass platforms, with a square piece of paper under one pod (the odds being better?). The quality of the sound improved further. After having listened to this kind of improvement I decided to turn to the rest of my Hi-Fi equipment as they were all resting on glass platforms with three pods. Having done what I did to the speakers the improvement in sound and picture became even more obvious. I believe the better the equipment or cables, the better it will respond to belting. I use Kimber interconnects, Power cords and Distribution power blocks and these I find respond splendidly to belting. Russ Andrews recommend burning in the cables for about 500hrs. As long as one treats the cables per the Belt technique and then freeze afterwards, you get the desired results within a few days. Recently I bought a couple of Silencers, a passive filter device you plug into a mains socket to clean the power supply. I am always willing to try anything once. I plugged it to a mains socket in the bedroom anticipating to hear all that it said in the leaflet. I was disappointed. It sounded bass heavy and the flow of the music was held back. I nearly sent it back to Russ Andrews. Tampering with it meant I would not get a refund. Well I thought what the heck, I decided to give it the full P.W.B. treatment. I used Rainbow foil, Comfort foil, Safe Hole foil, Red foil, Blue Z foil, Communication foil, Front and Back Clear Electret film. I also fitted a Magnastrip disc with a black line across it. I scribed the brass pins and the plastic collar as per P.W.B. and 'creamed' the plug. I then Quantum clipped the plug and its pins. I treated the pins with Sol-Electret oil (a tiny amount will do). I gave the Silencers the freeze treatment. At last it was all done. The time for reckoning was here. I plugged the Silencers to the wall sockets and switched the socket on. What I heard was just amazing. Words cannot describe it. The P.W.B. technique has done it again. By the way remember to sign your name with the greater O.K., with Red X pen.
If there was one frustrating aspect of P.W.B. technique, it is if for some reason you knock off a device accidentally (in this case a limpet), you kill the sound that you achieved before. All the P.W.B. devices are so interrelated.
Once you've applied them, you just cannot do without them. Six months ago I acquired a kitten. They tend to knock about and pull at things. It made me nervous about my P.W.B. devices being dislodged. I came home from work one evening, switched on my system, and it sounded flat. Well I thought it must be something to do with the variance of the power supply or else I was tired. After coming home from a morning shift at the hospital, I sat down to listen to my music. It sounded awful. I went round checking the devices, mainly limpets which are fastened via bluetak and tie-rings which I use in conjunction with crocodile clips. I went from room to room. I eventually traced the culprit to a Blue Boundary Ring Tie which the kitten had knocked off the power cord of my amplifier in the bedroom. I had it fixed. I switched on my treated table lamp and then applied a drop of Morphic Liquid to the said ring tie. Now everything was sounding as per original. I believe the very fact of installing P.W.B. devices to one's home, means you can never do without it anymore. I think ignorance can be blissful if you never had the privilege to use all these weird devices. I am looking forward to buying a top end SACD player in the next few weeks and I will endeavor to keep you all posted when I get it treated. If time allows I would also like to share my thoughts on how one could improve one's car system. I hope I have not bored you all too much.
John Peter,
Cambridgeshire.
Cause and effect can be applied to a multitude of situations. When we moved house back in September, one of the first things that troubled us was the lack of security regarding the front door. A standard Yale lock which had been fitted so badly that a moderate push would have defeated it.
That very day we went out to purchase a five lever mortise lock, bristling with all of the latest standards. It then became a task of mine to fit the said lock as a matter of urgency.
Well, as we all know, things don't always happen to plan. Days go by, the stress and the strain of the move ebb away and a routine begins to get established. The 'tasks' get pushed ever further back down the priority scale.
It is now February. I'm writing to May Belt with a request for some more devices that treat the house in general – having had so much success previously in this line of Belting. In her reply, May mentioned that they had just completed a new device called the 'Room Device Wallet' . It appears that this product was developed specifically to combat, amongst other things, the adverse effects of written words within territorial boundaries. It would be more expensive than most of the current P.W.B. products, but in return, it is much more potent. She would be glad to let me try it on the usual P.W.B. 'try before you buy' terms.
A few days later I come home to that most welcome of communications, a P.W.B. envelope on the mat. The contents consisted of a plastic wallet containing various bags, each of which in turn housed various treated labels and small pieces of material such as wood, carbon etc. There are various experiments that can be performed immediately upon receipt, but it's full working condition requires that you take a photograph of the outside of your fully locked front door.
By good fortune the next day was a Saturday. By 10.00 am, the half forgotten five lever lock is well on the way to installation. By midday, the camera with half-finished film from the holidays is quickly fetched out and a photo grabbed. Finally, by mid-afternoon, the processed photo is ready for the wallet. Inspiration for DIY comes in many forms, and so we have Cause and Effect I.
Cause and Effect II however is a tad more difficult to comprehend. First off, listen to a CD – OK, sounds very good indeed. Now slip photo into wallet and listen again. Don't you just know what I am going to say?
I don't know how many leaps forward any one person can experience from P.W.B. devices; in my case there have been several of heart stopping magnitude and this is another. A sort of laugh out loud moment really, caused in part by the musical lift and also by the action that provoked it.
I don't want to plough into descriptive excess here – I'll just say that musical enjoyment levels soar. It does seem that you are so much more aware of what's going on, a bit like you are travelling the same musical path as the musicians. Whatever the 'buzz' you get from listening to music, expect to get a lot more of it. It is an experience that I would now find very hard to live without. So, in spite of it's cost, I couldn't possibly contemplate sending it back – sacrifices will be made. Oh! Now Cause and Effect III I think!
It's now Saturday night. We've got a nice bottle of Red on the go. My wife Wendy turns to me and says "I'm going to write to P.W.B.". "Really?" I say "What about?". "I'm going to ask them if they can come up with a device which makes it imperative that the front and back rooms get decorated for its full effect to become apparent"….
Kevin Kehoe
Father C. woke up with a start. He looked at his face in the mirror and decided not to shave. It was the same decision he had made on Feb. 1st for the last 150 years. He splashed a little water on his weather-beaten face and decided it was after all time for some kind of change. Why did he always wake up with such an awful headache after his month of well-earned sleep? Father C. chopped some firewood and lit a fire in the stable yard. The smell of freshly-brewed coffee – nothing like it to wake the reindeer up - cowboy style in a pan on top of the flames.
Father C. set about the breakfast cooking with a queasy feeling that bordered on the blues. The thought of the black coffee kept him going however and by the time the morning sun appeared, the reindeer were stirring out of their dreamland. But why did they have to blunder into the yard all at once with their bells jangling?
Prancer was the worst. His bell was crashing into Father C's headache like a skateboard into a dustbin. Comet and Donder clashed horribly as they drank their coffee. Each time they shook their antlered heads in delight the bell notes travelled through Santa's head like a scaffolding pole through a plate-glass window. Even Cupid's nice tinkling bell seemed somehow out of joint with itself. "Dingblast it!" Father C. was down to his last cigarette as well. "Roooodorlf", he roared. "Stop slurping!" But he left them to enjoy their breakfast and took his indoors where he switched on his PC – time to stop fooling around and get ready for work.
An hour later Father C. had ordered 25000 ready wrapped CDs and Books from Amazon, 3000 Christmas Puddings from Tesco's and a packet of Cuban Cigars for himself from Let's Buy It.Com. . Feeling generous Santa decided to order something for the reindeer as well. Just then Vixen stuck her head round the door and asked when lunch was going to be ready. "It's not lunch time yet Vixen; I'm busy. In any case, what's the betting that you and Blitzen haven't made your beds yet?" At this Vixen beat a hasty retreat. If it was one thing she hated it was making her bed.
Father C.'s favourite megasearch engine came up with a mass of entries under Reindeer+gift+items. "'O,HO" said Santa." This is what I'm looking for…."
POSTSCRIPT : the Reindeer Foil that Father C. had stumbled upon through the Internet proved to be highly effective. Not only did it improve the perceived sound of Jingle Bells on reindeer; it also alleviated that the headaches that Father C. had suffered from. Nowadays he was soothed by Cupid's sweet tinkling, invigorated by Commet's bong-bong sound and amused by Donder's dingaling. In fact the sweet carillon of the bells took Father C. right back to the pre-aeroplane days when it had been fun to swoop in low over a sleeping town and land in the market square! Of all the reindeer only Rudolph claimed the Foil made no difference, but even he became very tetchy when asked to have it removed from his bell for some-before-and-after testing.
Father C. was less overworked now that e-commerce made his job quite a bit easier, which enabled him to get round to his much-neglected community work. In recent days, a large number of Parish Councils have been briefed by their Vicars about a man, calling himself Father Christmas, who has been claiming he has the solution to out-of-tune church bells.
Kenneth Hyam
......................... ( Joint competition winner )
Hope the following will make clear who the Mr. Harrison in the cartoon is.
I will assume that many P.W.B. Newsletter readers will have read the four page brief introduction to the Joseph Lister story, used by P.W.B. to make a striking parallel between Lister's fight with the Medical Professionals of his day to get his theories accepted, and that of Peter Belt today. It reminded me of another pioneer who battled many years against a bigoted and sometimes petty institutional snobbery. That man was John Harrison 1693-1796.
A master carpenter by trade and a self taught clock maker. One of his first clocks was actually completely made of wood and is still in working order today. After a series of disastrous naval losses (both lives and ships) due to navigational errors, a Parliamentary Bill was introduced in 1714 which offered twenty thousand pounds to anyone who could devise a means of establishing longitude at sea more accurately than was then achievable. Harrison came up with a series of exquisite timekeepers (now on display at the Greenwich Observatory), each an improvement on the one before, culminating in a watch about 5" in diameter with an accuracy of one third of a second per day.
Although those devices proved themselves capable of doing the job, the prize money was held back. Goal posts moving in the form of petty objections by the Admiralty and changes to the original bill served to keep Harrison at bay. Even when he met the criteria, only a small portion of the prize was offered to him. The hope being that the real answer would come from the more lofty echelons of the scientific establishment.
Even endorsement by Captain Cook following voyages to the Southern Seas using Harrison's timekeeper failed to impress and it fell to the King, towards the end of Harrison's life, to persuade Parliament to pay the prize money in full.
Although Harrison's work was within known parameters of science and may not provoke the profound thoughts inspired by Lister's work then and Peter Belt's today, it did have a massive impact on seamanship and thus on almost every aspect of life up to the present day.
Kevin Kehoe.
Music (even from instruments - mechanical devices like a saxophone) is not mechanical; its electronic reproduction generally is. P.W.B. seems to get you past the mechanics and to the music.
Half a year or so now I've been using the Red 'x' Pen, marking audio equipment and nearby objects, and, as I listen to them, CD's. As time allows, and selectively, and husbanding my ink supply with tiny printing, I've been labelling equipment with the Frosted material
With CD's, because the markings on the outer case come off so easily, I've taken to removing the back, taking out the back insert, creaming it, and marking it, and activating it with a treated flashlight (torch for the British). This way, I don't have to inspect the case every time I play the CD.
I've been upgrading with the 'x' pen some of the things I'd already done with a plain Staedtler marker - marking over some CD's and equipment and the plastic baggies holding my photocopied photos in the freezer. The jump in sound quality is a big one: about as large as between no treatment and the first foiling. My system is a good one and I've put it in a room that's friendly both physically and electrically. I've visited the fuse-boxes with cream and foil. The room has been pretty thoroughly treated on an elementary level. Audiophiles and music-lovers alike are impressed. One friend says, "I want to die there." So before I do a new treatment, I'm always sceptical - how much better can it sound? And the answer is always,
"Lots."
It's been a couple of years now I've been using the P.W.B. products, at the entry level; the Red 'x' Pen is the highest I've gotten up the hierarchy. I began with one of your free samples a month or so after reading Greg Weaver's article on the Rainbow Foil - a month's delay because I thought the article was an April Fool joke. What I heard the first time I used the foil - a whole lot more music - told me the foil was no joke. And that I had encountered something completely different. The change in sound was uncanny.
Recently, I improvised a watered-down version of your Chunky Violet Pen. The idea came from http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina12.htm , a web site devoted to the "Machina Dynamica," an elaborate isolation device for audio equipment. Their "tweaks" page refers to your web site and lists your Rainbow Foil among its recommended tweaks. And also recommends, in addition to greening CD edges, violet markings as detailed in your Chunky Pen literature. My violet marker, as with most things audio, I turned into a P.W.B. device, using what I had at hand - namely Rainbow Foil, Cream Electret and the 'x' pen for putting positive messages on the object. Your assertion, in the 'x' pen brochure, about the power of language makes great sense to me. So I marked my marker with the 'x' pen:
'x 26 'x
Mark Kirby > O.K.
SOUND HAS PRIORITY.
At any rate, in leaving behind some of the mechanical aspects of audio reproduction, the violet markings are remarkable. Bear in mind the CD's I've been marking have been thoroughly treated: washed, their edges greened, and their surfaces polished with Sonic Blast 303; and then Belted - creamed and x'd and frozen twice. They sounded very good already. Nonetheless, the violet markings took them to a new level. Judging from my previous experience with my home-brew 'x' pen, I have to think the Chunky Violet Pen must make truly spectacular improvements to the sound.
I have gotten wonderful effects with freezing components in addition to source material. The only piece I haven't frozen is my Decware Zen SE84B, a small, one-source, integrated tube amp; I was afraid of condensation in the transformer. Tubes I have creamed and x'd and frozen, and interconnects, and even my wife's PSB Alpha's, currently my main speakers. And passive equipment - the exotic wood blocks I use for tuning the system, the ceramic cones and graphite squares from Golden Sound. And so on. Always there has been an improvement in naturalness, sometimes startling in its intensity, leading, paradoxically, to greater and greater relaxation listening.
The P.W.B. treatments have always made my equipment more musical. I've noted in your newsletters that there is some discussion regarding what in a good-sounding, treated system is due to the P.W.B. products and what can be attributed to the hardware. Really an imponderable at my budget level. Everything I put into my system now I Belt with what I have available. I'm not running a lab here, I just like to listen to music. I've had more than enough proof for me that the P.W.B. devices enable me to hear more music. Why waste time?
The downside to the P.W.B. products is that they can be forbiddingly labor-intensive. I haven't got through even a third of my CD's - creaming and x-ing and such. The sound of the treated "software" has so spoiled me that I rarely bother listening to anything that hasn't been treated. And I worry that, especially since I don't really understand how the treatments work, I may feed my fairly weak (self-diagnosed) case of obsessive-compulsive disorder and make it stronger than I am. On the other hand, having got through a new set of freshly treated CD's or cables or whatever, and hearing the results, I've never felt that it wasn't worth the trouble. People who get interested in sound reproduction tend to be a little obsessive anyway.
I may have mentioned in another letter that I've marked my tennis rackets and shoes, creaming and foiling them too. Of course, I know that treating virtually anything in the environment is likely to improve the sound of audio equipment. I was more interested in helping my tennis game, reasoning that if my body perceived my equipment as less foreign, I could manipulate it better - getting, in a sense, cleaner biofeedback. Once, I treated the rackets of all my doubles buddies before we played. This was something like the first P.W.B. experience. The level of everyone's game lifted dramatically. What enormous fun! Since, I suppose, there are always "unnatural" objects to dismay the senses, in our next session we returned to something close to our normal hacker's level. But, although playing "in the zone" only happens now and again, unless I'm very mistaken, my touch is permanently improved, and my strokes are generally more relaxed. What was unique about the one time was that everyone was "in the zone" simultaneously. This just never happens. Tennis is one of those games where, each time out, you're improvising to cover the part of your game that's gone missing. Once or twice a season, all your game comes to the court with you. Half a dozen club level players playing at their highest level? Nah. Do I need to say that, when we next played, everyone discounted the experience of a few days before?
What the P.W.B. products have allowed me is, I think, very remarkable. Somehow they take away the aggressive edge of the world I inhabit, and I get the time and quiet - the rushing stops - to notice. I've always loved music. Now I literally hear more of it. In my treated listening room, when I listen to a singer, it feels like I'm getting a singing lesson - the spirit comes through - and the small changes in dynamics, the way a sustained vowel changes, how a consonant is hit or elided.
Just the other night, I finally gave up on getting through treating my CD's and decided to do the minimum - line through their bar codes with the 'x' pen - so the perceptual haze that bar-codes induce would interfere less with my listening. Before I ever heard of P.W.B., I had moved all my CD's to shelves outside my listening room, instinctively (great improvement). Of course, negating the bar codes let me hear more music - especially hearing the music play from other rooms. Even if I am less surprised at the improvements, it's still gratifying to the senses. My next ambition is to 'x' the rest of my books; all the ones in the listening room are done. Lots outside yet to do.
This is sort of funny. Last week, a gang of four of us here at work who share an interest in audio (one works part time at a high end audio store) got together to hear the system one of us had assembled. A few months back we had listened to my system - which sounded good, everyone agreed. Of course when I attributed as least half its excellence to P.W.B., I was ignored. People who haven't experienced it directly (i.e. before and after) tend to attribute the P.W.B. effect to self-hypnosis.
This time was to be sort of a tweaking session. I had not really intended to Belt anything, although I did have my 'x' pen and my ersatz purple pen with me. Two of us are inveterate tweakers. Two tend to throw money at audio problems (this does work by the way, in a limited fashion). I had brought my Aurex CD mat; like just about everything I use, I had x'd, creamed it, froze it. The other tweaker had brought a Bedini Ultra-Clarifier, a Milty Zero-stat gun, an Audioprism CD mat, with a portable fluorescent light to charge its glowing surface.
After we listened for a while, we began to tweak. I was very impressed with the system: Proceed source, NAD electronics, big KEF speakers, MIT cables. A lot of punch, big sound, terrific detail, good tonal resolution, etc. Every tweak we tried was pretty impressive. We tended to like the Aurex mat a little better than the Audioprism - an inkling of the P.W.B. effect I'm inclined to think.
A couple of the discs we listened to were mine. Eva Cassidy's "Songbird" was one, a disc I'd put through my current, entire treatment regimen: wash it, polish it with Sonic Blast 303, green the edges, Foil it, creme it, 'x' it, mark the edges in violet a la your Chunky pen, freeze it and thaw slowly twice. It sounded wonderful. A new disc, by Call and Response, had not been x'd or violeted or frozen. We listened to it, and it sounded really good - it's well-recorded, California pop. I said, "Do you want to hear some P.W.B. stuff?" "Why not?" was the general sentiment. So I marked the disc and did the violet edging. Then I suggested I do the equipment. Same response, and I wrote "NAD > O.K." "KEF > O.K." and so on on the source components, the amps, the speakers. When we played the disc, the sound was so much more there, everyone began to laugh and clap.
With the music apparently many decibels louder, we turned the volume down. "A pretty convincing demonstration," one of us said. A neighbour who'd dropped by looked genuinely alarmed. The fear of occult power was one I had when I first started using the Rainbow Foil - it's that startling and inexplicable. It doesn't help that your web address includes "demon." We listened twice to the Eva Cassidy disc, before and after I x'd the equipment. We all agreed it sounded leagues better with the treated equipment - no mean trick since it had sounded pretty wonderful to start with. A CD-RW copy of the Eva Cassidy disc sounded mighty pinched right after the treated disc. The copy is in my freezer right now, its penultimate treatment. I remember reading in the Newsletter how copies can sound better than originals, so I'm curious about it. Also what my friend will hear from his own disc.
The day after our tweaking session the fellow who had called hearing the treated recording and hardware a "pretty convincing demonstration" dropped by my cubicle, still in wonderment, and a little dismayed, wondering "what kind of universe we live in." He commented on how the night before everyone heard something different. We agreed that this is probably due to "listening styles" - experienced listeners tend to focus on a favourite thing: tight bass, treble extension, etc.. I sing a little, so I key on voices. I visited his cubicle later and x'd the headphone rig he listens to here (he's one of our genius programmers). He was very satisfied with the results. The other guys were a little scared when I offered to 'x' their portable rigs and they declined. I'm not entirely unsympathetic. It really stretches credibility beyond the breaking point to think that writing on anything is going to change how it sounds.
Finally, I'll get a little sentimental. What the heck, my ancestors come from Ireland, and tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. The P.W.B. products are genuinely revolutionary. Experiences with them, especially after running them through a glancing acquaintance with the thought of Rupert Sheldrake, make you rethink your relationship to the world - everything from Feng Shui to Jackson Pollock. But they're also a continuous kick: a combination of real amusement with the apparent absurdity of what you're doing (to my friends I refer to the P.W.B. web site as the "World Center of Weirdness"), and a kind of wonder and joy and relief that things are connected in ways that just haven't been thought of before.
And thank you so much for pointing me to the work of Rupert Sheldrake. I hope to finally make it through "The Presence of the Past" this summer.
Wish me luck.
Mark Kirby
U.S.A.
P.S. I visited the web site recently; thanks for including more product information. It's really helpful.
And thanks for the P.W.B. Christmas Holiday card. It went right into my system, to great effect. Haven't had a chance to play with the Power Plug Charge Barrier yet. I'll let you know when I do.
Using P.W.B.'s products to improve the performance of CD playback, have ranged from non discernable to good to GREAT !
My CD player is a mid priced Sony CDP-X333ES that I purchased in 1992, the Radford STA 25 vacuum tube amplifier, that I purchased in 1986, has had at least two previous owners and is probably about 40 years old, purchased the Rogers LS3/5a speakers about 21 years ago. May 27, 1999 purchased MSB LinkDAC. The passive preamp (made for me about 10 years ago) is a box containing an Alps potentiometer -- no switches or controls. The Assemblage D2D Upsampler / Sample Rate Converter and PS Audio P300 PowerPlant were purchased in 2000.
Prior to November 30, 2000 I implemented many, many tweaks (i.e. building a superior power supply for my MSB LinkDAC, rebuilding the Radford Amplifier with premium parts, using superior components in Sony CD Player, LinkDAC, power supply to LinkDAC, speaker crossovers, using Rollerblocks & Black Diamond Racing Cones under all equipment, Lead Balloon under Sony CD Player, Kevlar Tube Dampers, Shun Mook Power Tube Resonators, Shun Mook Mini Valve Resonators, Stabilant 22 on vacuum tube pins & interconnects, finding optimal plug polarity for each component, installing dedicated AC lines with hospital grade wall receptacles, retrofitting all equipment with hospital grade plugs, applying Marigo Dots, Permatex, using Bedini UltraClarifier for CD's, etc.) Subsequent to November 30, 90% of the improvements to my audio system have resulted from using P.W.B.'s products.
The following is a log of my activities with P.W.B. products that I found beneficial
Nov. 30, 2000:
Rainbow Foil helped CD's sound better; improved dynamic range; improved imaging; heard previously unheard details; system became more transparent.
Dec. 8, 2000:
Was very very skeptical about the effectiveness of "Cream-Electret" on CD's. Received Cream-Electret on November 30 and put off using it until Dec. 8. Found it improved definition and details significantly.
Dec. 9, 2000:
Applied Cream-Electret to batteries & battery compartments of CD player's remote control & to clock on the wall; also applied a small amount on the back of the CD player. It improved the sound.
Dec. 9, 2000:
Applied Cream-Electret to back of CD player; on Toslink interconnect between CD Player & Upsampler; on CD Player's power cord; a small amount on RCA coax between Upsampler & DAC. Made a BIG DIFFERENCE!!!!
Dec. 20, 2000:
Removed speaker grilles & applied Cream-Electret to front of speaker baffle. Also creamed the metal exterior surround (or front fixing plate) of the tweeter. Creamed the woofer cone. Creaming 3 items resulted in a noticeable improvement.
Dec. 22, 2000:
Used Cream-Electret on two computer monitors & TV screen. Made a BIG DIFFERENCE!
Dec. 23, 2000:
Installed P.W.B. Power Plug Charge Barrier between CD Player's AC power plug and socket of Power Plant. It helped! Significantly improved imaging.
Dec. 28, 2000:
Applied Cream-Electret to 4 Shun Mook Mini Valve Resonators & 4 Shun Mook Power Tube Resonators. Creaming these 8 items on my amplifier resulted in a BIG IMPROVEMENT!
Jan. 2, 2001:
Ring Ties from P.W.B. Electronics arrived; tried a Red Ring Tie at each end of power cord to PS Audio Power Plant. It helped by getting rid of "digital glare", reducing distortion, improving imaging and detailing. The improvement was subtle.
Jan. 2, 2001:
Installed 3 Power Plug Charge Barriers to AC plugs of amplifier, jitter reducer, and DAC. Improvement was subtle (more bass, better highs, better definition & detail). The Red Tie Rings made a larger improvement than the 3 Power Plug Charge Barriers.
Jan. 4, 2001 & Jan 5, 2001
Applied Cream-Electret to 24 light bulbs. Imaging & detailing improved slightly after creaming about 14 bulbs. It improved significantly after creaming 24 light bulbs.
Jan. 7, 2001:
Creamed extreme ends of interconnects: preamp to Radford; cables between Radford & speakers. Made a BIG DIFFERENCE! Reduced distortion on Hank Ballard's "Its Love 24 Hours A Day"; increased definition, detail, coherency.
Jan. 9, 2001:
Creamed printed areas of batteries in TV remote control, VCR remote control, Honeywell Fan remote control, printed areas of batteries in 2 door bell chimes; also creamed all battery compartments. Imaging improved significantly!!
Jan. 22, 2001:
Creamed the 4 large power tubes in Radford amplifier. It helped a lot. Improved definition & dimensionality (more depth, better 3D effect), also less distortion.
Jan. 23, 2001:
Used Red 'X' Pen on adhesive backed labels on PS Audio Power Plant, Sony CD Player, Assemblage D2D Upsampler, LinkDAC, LinkDAC's Power Supply , passive preamp, Radford Amp, LS3/5a's, Power Plant's AC power cord.
Used Following Messages On P.W.B.'s supplied message film:
LINKDAC's Power Supply > O.K.
PS Audio Power Plant > O.K.
Radford Amplifier > O.K.
Assemblage D2D > O.K.
Passive Preamp > O.K.
Sony CD Player > O.K.
MSB LinkDAC > O.K.
Rogers > O.K.
Also used "X = Present Time" messages on adhesive labels that were applied to power cords, interconnects.
This resulted in a BIG IMPROVEMENT!
Jan. 25 & Jan 26, 2001:
Used Red 'X' Pen on: telephones; computers; TV sets; VCR's; bar codes. Crossed out hundreds of bar codes throughout the house.
It made a significant improvement. Imaging, definition & detailing improved. Distortion on BB King CD's was much more apparent.
Jan. 30, 2001:
Applying Cream-Electret on 4 small tubes in power amplifier resulted in less distortion and better definition.
Feb. 22, 2001:
38 coloured ties & ties on clips & Sol-Electret arrived. Results of applying 38 Ring Ties & Ring Ties On Clips to speaker cable, interconnects & AC power cables: bass improved a lot; mid range became "thickened".
Feb. 24, 2001:
Applying Sol-Electret to 16 screws on Rogers LS3/5a speakers resulted in BIG IMPROVEMENT!!!!! Music is much more vivid, dramatic.
Feb. 27, 2001
Opened the CD Player & creamed small edge of transformers, PCB's, heatsinks, capacitors, etc., applied Sol-Electret to the spindle & horizontal "sled" of laser assembly. BIG IMPROVEMENT! Heard distortion much better than previously on B.B. King CD's. On a good recording, heard much more resolution, better imaging, etc.
Mar. 21, 2001:
Removed Permatex and applied Sol-Electret to AC plugs of PS Audio PowerPlant, CD Player, D2D, LinkDAC Power Supply, Radford amplifier. IT MADE A BIG IMPROVEMENT. Music became more vivid with better detailing and imaging!
P.W.B.'s products have improved the sound of my audio equipment tremendously. It has maximized my investment in audio equipment and provided me with a reference standard to make wise purchasing decisions.
Lawrence Joe,
Canada.
In an article from a past issue of SoundStage, Greg Weaver stated a couple of Peter Belt's little silver strips could transform CD's into vinyl (or at least a very high-grade black plastic), This has to be the loftiest praise an audiophile can bestow on a CD.
Here are a few details. First, recordings seem more alive. There is a difference in sound, yes, but there is a palpable difference in the sonic energies in the room, which is not so fantastic as it may seem. Remember, energy enables the speakers to move air. So why not a transformation in the perception of those energies? You do hear the differences, though. One example: during a post-foil listen to Delius' Florida Suite, the triangle took on new life in one part; it had more ping. B.F. (Before Foil), the triangle had been buried among other instruments. Now its highs cut through as it would in a concert. It was not sonically exaggerated; it was returned to its rightful place in Delius' orchestration.
One of the truly amazing things is how the Foil tweaks recordings almost individually. After applying the Foil to some vintage rock recordings, they leapt from the '70s into the 21st century, but each had a different change for the better. Even though I had heard numerous other CD's "foiled", the rock 'n roll tested my credulity once again.
This is supposed to be a short article. No words can tell you what the Foil can do. It does iit. Hear it for yourself. Since a free sample is available, "you have nothing to lose" is lliteral. And no one is nicer to deal with than May.
Gary Lee
USA
Having a background in electronics I have spent much time and money opening up my amplifiers and CD players to install high quality components. The only Tweaks that I still feel were worthwhile was replacing the cheap speaker crossover capacitors in my not so well designed speakers, replacing the very cheap op amp that was in my not so expensive phono preamplifier and perhaps even replacing the output film capacitors in my budged priced tube powered DAC. All other tweaks at best, may have improved the detail and imaging of the sound a little but would always leave the system a bit more thin sounding and, at the least, very little effect at all.
But none of these tweaks have ever had as much impact in my system as one single P.W.B. power plug charge barrier. Which leads me to the conclusion that if you are listening to a well designed Hi-Fi system of which you are happy with the tonal balance there need be no need for improvement other than the use of any or all of the P.W.B. devices. Which leads me to my story of my experience with the new Charge Barrier.
I was happily listening to my well worn Portishead CD when my overseas visitor entered the room "Wow! A record does sound nicer than a CD!" she exclaimed. Previously that day as an experiment, I had purchased the 180g Vinyl record of Portishead to test against the CD. But the vinyl was not what was playing! What had changed this day is that in the post was a sample of the new Charge Barrier. The most impressive thing is that the Charge Barrier was still sitting in the front room where I had opened the mail but it seemed to be already working its wonders.
My visitor was impressed when I stated that the change in sound must be due to the Charge Barrier that was still sitting in the other side of the house. It was then time to take things a bit further. While the music was still playing I measured up the power pin holes, lined up my sharpest artist knife and at the instant the knife pierced through the barriers skin I heard a "Hey' what happened". My visitor who had been listening intently to the music was distraught that the new smooth more present sound had gone. After a bit more cutting and fiddling the Barrier was installed on my amplifiers plug and the improvements were back perhaps even a little stronger.
The charge barrier is the strongest P.W.B. device I have used yet which is not saying a lot as I have only used rainbow foil and cream Electret so far, but the positive effect for me is much more obvious than the cream and the foil. I highly recommend it.
My questions now are:- is there a cumulative effect happening with the interaction of the cream and foils that are already applied or would the Charge Barrier work equally as strong standing alone. It is so cheap and effective- it may be the ideal treatment for first time P.W.B. users.
and:- how does it work so well without even being installed (while still in one piece that is). I am thinking of carrying one in my wallet and perhaps, as it is designed to work at the interface of two materials that it may be beneficial to place a Charge Barrier under one of the four feet on any equipment as in one of the old free experiments in which you would use a plain piece of paper.
Parts upgrade or P.W.B. ?
If I could only take one, it would be the P.W.B.
Paul Topic
Australia
I had to smile while reading the article by Jean-Francois in the Christmas 2000 edition of the P.W.B. Newsletter. For me it was a trip down Memory Lane. Jean-Francois and myself, it would seem, have trodden very similar pathways in our individual searches for the elusive Hi-Fi Nirvana, which is unattainable, but which, with every small step forward has its rewards in added musical listening pleasure. P.W.B. enthusiasts however, know that these small steps can become huge strides due to the work of Peter Belt.
Jean-François gave us some of his valuable opinions and experiences on connectors which I agree with and to which I would like to add some of mine.
I would guess that over 99% of Hi-Fi equipment produced these days is fitted with the ubiquitous RCA phono plugs and sockets, but it was not always so. When I first became bitten by the Hi-Fi bug, the market leaders were Quad, Leak and Rogers, and they all used DIN connectors. There may be many good reasons why manufacturers now choose to use phono plugs, but I am convinced that 'sound quality' is not among them. Quad held onto DIN longer than most manufacturers and founder Peter Walker always claimed they were sonically superior to phono plugs, but eventually Quad succumbed. Obviously you cannot use thick, heavy duty cables with DIN connectors (more on this later) which rules out all specialist cable manufacturers. The only manufacturer today that I know of, that still insists on using DIN, are Naim Audio and I can only conclude that this is because sound quality is their first priority; as it should be.
So why should DIN connectors give better sound quality over phono plugs?
My belief is simply the fact that since DIN connectors are much smaller, they therefore require much less metal in their manufacture, and this is the key factor in determining their sonic superiority. To my mind, this is very much a case of where small really is beautiful. Another factor is probably their shape. Whereas two pins on a DIN plug are symmetrical with the connecting wires, in the case of a phono plug the connection for the screen signal return is annular in shape and requires more metal. I am convinced that in audio, more metal means more distortion.
To those enthusiasts with the practical ability, I certainly recommend them to consider converting from phono's but I also recognise there can be difficulties. I have managed to convert some components, but am scratching my head over how to convert my VCR and Chord amp.
The terminals on loudspeakers should also be looked at. I have TDL Reference Monitor loudspeakers and when these were first reviewed in Gramophone by Geoffrey Horne, he was highly praiseworthy of the heavy duty Michelle terminals. I have to agree with his view of the superb sound from these speakers, but this is in spite of the terminals. Incidentally I own the original review models, obtained at a good discount due to surface scratches and abrasions that may detract from their appearance, but has no effect on the sound from them.
A few weeks after installation of the TDLs I replaced the Michelle terminals with cheap gold plated banana terminals, obtainable from Maplin. I had some difficulty soldering the thick cables inside the speakers (using P.W.B. Smart Metal of course) but the results were worth the effort.
The thickness of the cabling of the cabling made it impossible to use DIN sockets and due to the way the speakers are constructed, I was not able to change the internal wiring. Otherwise I would have rewired the speakers completely .
Jean-François told us of his experiences with a variety of cables which parallels those of my own.
Over the years I must have spent hundreds of hours making up all sorts of interconnects and rewiring amps etc. I first became aware of the profound effect of the type of wire on sound quality when LC-OFC cable first came onto the market, now many years ago. Using single strand LC-OFC for speaker leads for the first time was a revelation. Some time later a multi-strand version came onto the market, and this was regarded at the time as immensely superior by HFN's premier reviewer. This cable was very expensive and I could ill afford it, but if it was so much better than single strand cable then I had to have some. When it arrived I had great difficulty making termination's due to the sheer size of the stuff, at least ½'' in diameter, and so stiff it would hardly bend. With perseverance I eventually managed to connect up my loudspeakers and I settled down to listen with great expectancy. Now HFN's premier reviewer cannot be wrong can he? Err, umm well actually, yes he can. The sound was awful after what I had been used listening to. The multi-strand was soon consigned to the scrap heap and I returned to the single strand. I think this was my worst ever disappointment on a supposed system upgrade; also an expensive one which leaves me with just a hint of suspicion of the hearing of some reviewers.
After LC-OFC came PC-C cables which were superior, but only came in multi-strand form. By this time I was so convinced of the higher sound quality associated with thin cables that I was stripping down a PC-OCC cable containing over 1000 strands and making up my own interconnects using one or two strands with PTFE tubing for insulation. Making up 16 ft interconnects using a strand of wire, barely the thickness of a human hair is not something I am ever likely to attempt again.
When Van der Hul's 'The First' carbon fibre cables became available I was loaned a set by Ian Spiers, then Manager of 'The Music Room' in Manchester (sadly no longer trading). Jean-Francois has commented upon the special quality obtainable with these cables. I was equally impressed such that I immediately bought two sets. Now HFN's premier reviewer has written that 'The First' is the best interconnect in the world, whatever the cost, and HFN's premier reviewer cannot be wrong can he? Err, umm well actually yes he can. The fact is that P.W.B. produce an interconnect which is certainly superior and at considerably less cost. I was convinced enough and I completely replaced all my interconnects with the P.W.B. product, and that included my 16 ft lead over which I had spent so much blood, sweat and (very close to) tears (of frustration). My one criticism of the P.W.B. cable is the use of the screen as the signal return path. My experience is that such practice degrades the signal quality.
The world is full of surprises as I was to discover not long afterwards.
When 'The Music Room' closed its doors, Ian Spiers set up the business 'Serious Kit' and was putting together Hi-Fi systems involving very serious money. With his co-operation Absolute Sounds put on a demonstration of high end stuff in a local hotel, and I was sent an invitation to go along and listen to 'state of the art' Krell and Wilson-Watt equipment. This was an invite I was only too glad to take up. I also realised this would be a good opportunity to show off the P.W.B. interconnect. So with the P.W.B. interconnect in my pocket I arrived at the hotel. I have to say that the demonstration of the Krell and Wilson-Watt equipment was an absolute fiasco. A young man sitting with his girlfriend next to me asked me what I thought, and I replied that I found it hard to believe that the equipment that cost £65,000 (that's right folks £65,000) could sound so bad and it was giving me a headache. He then said that his girlfriend was also complaining of a headache and soon after they both left. I decided this was not the right place to bring out the P.W.B. cable, but I did arrange to visit Ian, who lives locally, at the weekend.
When I went to Ian's house I was feeling cocksure that when he got round to listening to this marvellous product that I was leaving with him for the weekend he would soon be including it as an essential part of his really serious kit. Before I left however, Ian asked if I, in turn, would take away an interconnect that he was making up and selling, and give my opinion of it, which I gladly agreed to. Very much a case of 'you show me yours and I'll show you mine'.
The cable Ian was using was a military specification type. It was quite thin, but also quite rigid due to very tightly woven silver screen which was silver plated. The central conductor was seven strands of thin copper wire which were heavily silver plated. Insulation was of white PTFE and the outer insulation may have been a thin buff coloured PTFE. He was using the screen for signal return. The phono plugs were of good quality and gold plated.
Later the same day I sprawled in an armchair to listen to some familiar music with Ian's cable installed with my equipment.
Soon I was sat bolt upright. This CD had never sounded so good before, and Ian's interconnect had to be the reason. This, to put it mildly, was a shock. It wasn't supposed to be this way but I had to face the fact that the P.W.B. interconnect was now second class. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing CD's and feeling that warm glow inside when you know you have discovered something special that is going to lift listening standards that much higher.
When I returned the cable to Ian I complemented him and said it was the best I had ever heard. I offered the suggestion that if he made up the lead as a balanced pair it would be even better but Ian expressed the opinion that he wasn't really interested in making up interconnects anymore. Before leaving Ian's home I had bought 40 metres of cable at £2.50 per metre and a pocket full of phono plugs. I could hardly wait to get started on rewiring all my interconnects, but I would be making them up as balanced leads i.e. using two cables with the central conductors for signal path and return and with the screens connected at one end only. Life was starting to look very rosy indeed. I would soon have a full complement of superb interconnects, and in Hi-Fi terms at a cost of buttons. Also I had a cupboard full of P.W.B. techniques to improve matters even more.
I now come to the latest stage in my search for Hi-Fi Nirvana; that is, where interconnects are concerned. To you lucky readers of the P.W.B. Newsletter will now be revealed the best kept secret in the world of Hi-Fi.
Two to three years ago, for domestic appearance reasons, I decided to rearrange the layout of my audio equipment. At the time most of the equipment was placed between the loudspeakers to ensure that leads were kept as short as possible; the exceptions were the VCR and tuner, hence the 16 ft interconnect. With the proposed new layout the speaker leads would now be 16 ft, instead of less than 4 ft and the problem was what to use as speaker leads. I decided to ring P.W.B. and spoke to Peter. A few days later I received two coils of wire, one red and the other black, and a sample of the two wires twisted together (about 4 twists per inch). Sent with the wire was a data sheet and this became very useful later. I cut suitable lengths of the wire, twisted them together with a slow speed drill and very soon I was ready to substitute the new leads and compare the sound quality before changing the layout. I didn't need to listen for long to conclude that Peter had triumphed again. The 16 ft leads were outperforming my original 4 ft leads. This was the result I wanted so I had no qualms about changing the layout. The room was now tidier, the sound was better and the time and cost was minimal. This was a win, win and win again situation, which is what I (or anybody) like – thank you very much indeed Peter Belt! The specification of the wire was 19 strand 0.15 mm silver plated copper rated at 9 amps. Voltage rating 500V RMS. Insulation PTFE.
Since I am a compulsive improver it wasn't long before my mind was looking for where to tweak further and my thoughts turned once again to thinner cables. This was where the data sheet that Peter sent was invaluable. Looking at the data sheet, I picked out a wire with specification 7 strands 0.15 mm rated 3.5 amps. Voltage rating 250V RMS. I rang P.W.B. to order the thin wire and a few days later I was fitting my latest interconnect between CD player and amplifier.
What 'magic' Peter had performed upon the coils of wire, I will never know, but magical was how it sounded. The detail and delicacy brought out of the sound held me in wonder. Of course I had used every P.W.B. treatment available, but I had also done so on the Ian Spiers cables. I later phoned Peter to relate the excellent results that I was getting. During the conversation I mentioned the problem I was having in stripping the PTFE insulation off of the very thin wire. Peter then said he would send me some wire strippers that had been 'treated'. Dear reader, we now enter the strange world of P.W.B., for how can it be possible for wire strippers to affect the sound quality of wire, but I am absolutely convinced that using those strippers resulted in even better sound quality.
All the interconnects in my audio system are now of this thin wire. I also use it for the speaker cables. It looks incongruous having this thin spidery wire feeding massive loudspeakers but the effect is spectacular. All the mains leads to the audio equipment is also of this wire. The wire is rated at 250V RMS. and PTFE insulation is tough, but for added robustness it is enclosed in PTFE tubing for mains leads, and of course an earth wire is added.
How does it sound then?
Well Matthew, the Northwest agent for Audio Synthesis had occasion to call on me one time, when he arrived I was playing a CD of a Beethoven piano sonata – Claudio Arrau was the pianist. Matthew listened for a few minutes then exclaimed, "It sounds better than a real piano". If only that were true. I live with the sound all of the time, so I hear the limitations, but I have never heard better … £65,000 – you can buy a house for less than that around here.
Finally, always use P.W.B. 'Hollow Fibre' in your phono plugs (or DIN plugs) and Sol-Electret oil is an absolute must. Both would be essential in my P.W.B. Starter Kit.
Tom Marsden
Manchester
Additional note from May Belt.
Following Tom's article, I make no apologies for reprinting one of Kevin Kehoe's earlier cartoons.
Retold by Paul Topic
One morning the King was riding through the countryside and decided to stop and talk to the poor miller. The miller wanted to say something interesting so said "I have a beautiful daughter who can turn water into magic potion!". "Hmmm." said the King "that could be useful, send your daughter to me this evening."
That evening the millers daughter went to the King. The King took her to a little room. There was nothing in the room but a pot of water and a spoon. "Now stir," said the King. "If you do not turn all this water into magic potion by the morning you will be killed." The King left and the millers daughter began to cry. She didn't really know how to turn water into magic potion. Suddenly a little man came in, "Good evening millers daughter, why are you crying." "Oh, the King told me to turn this water into magic potion by the morning or I must die." she replied. "what will you give me if I do it for you?" the little man asked. "I will give you my necklace." said the millers daughter. The little man took the necklace then picked up the spoon. Three times he stirred the pot and the work was done. Now the pot of water was a pot of magic cream and the little man went away.
In the morning the King took the cream and had the cream rubbed on all the knights armour. The Knights had never shone so bright and their horses seemed now to run with a stealth and smoothness he had never seen before. The King was impressed and returned to the millers daughter "You have done well but I need more than that."
That evening the King took the millers daughter into a bigger room. There was nothing in the room but a large cauldron full of water and a large spoon. "Now stir," said the King. " If you do not turn all this water into magic potion by the morning you must die." The King locked the door and went away.
Again the millers daughter looked at the cauldron of water and began to cry. She did not know what to do. The door suddenly opened and in leapt the little man. "Good evening millers daughter, what will you give me if I stir all this water into magic potion?"." I will give you my ring." said the millers daughter. The little man took the ring then picked up the spoon. Stir Stir Stir the work was done. Now the big cauldron of water was full of red liquid and the little man slipped away.
The next morning the King took the cauldron full of red magic ink and ordered his maids to dye his underwear red using the magic ink. Later that day when it was ready, the King put on his new underwear and went for a walk through the town. Everyone who saw him that day remarked at how strong and good looking the King was and by the evening, it was commonly agreed by all that he was the most handsome King of all time and that he would surely lead the country into greatness.
The King was very impressed and returned to the millers daughter. "You have done well millers daughter, but I need more than that." and took the millers daughter to a large bathing room with a pool full of water and a boat oar. "Now stir said the King, If you turn all this water into magic potion by the morning you shall be my wife." Then he left locking the door behind.
The millers daughter not knowing what to do began to cry. Then suddenly the door opened and the little man entered and asked "Millers daughter, what will you give me if I turn all this water into magic potion?". "oh." said the millers daughter "I have given you my necklace and I have given you my ring. I have nothing left to give." and she began to cry even more. "Don't cry millers daughter I will help you, but you must promise to give me something...". "Anything! Anything you ask" she cried. "Then promise me when you are Queen you will give me your first baby." And she thought "Who knows if I shall ever be Queen, or if I am shall I ever have a baby. "Yes I promise!" said the millers daughter.
The next morning soon after sunrise the King entered to find the pool filled with a rainbow swirl of purple, black and blue magic liquid. He was very pleased. "My dear," said the King "we will be married this very day!" And so the millers daughter became Queen.
One week later the King went to war despite the Queen pleading for peace. She believed that the little man was the devil and the King had succumbed to a kind of black magic to make him falsely believe in the positive effects of the magic potion. But the King was feeling very brave and would not listen to her distorted perception of reality. He felt as if a cloud of fear had lifted from his mind and wanted to prove the strength of his army to the rest of the known world. His final preparation was to have all his soldiers paint war stripes on their cheeks with the three colours and have their swords cutting edge marked with the magic ink.
As the army marched on everyone was in wonder of how they were not becoming fatigued by the long walk and walked well into the evening before making camp. They all slept peacefully after the most gorgeous meal they ever sank teeth into and after many inspiring war songs.
The next day as they marched on, all became hypnotised by the melodious gentle sound of the clinking of their armour and enchanted by the sweetness of the sounds of the birds and nature when suddenly they were attacked from all sides. The battle was short and sweet for the enemy. The enemy's archers and swordsmen were more keen eyed and accurate in their art than any day they can remember. Under ambush the kings army were left scattered and defenceless. No one survived of the kings army.
Many months later the lonely Queen had a beautiful baby. One day the Queen was playing with her baby when suddenly the little man stepped into her room. "Good evening," he said "now give me what you promised." The Queen remembered the little man. She was a little frightened and wanted him to go away. She said cautiously "I cannot give you my baby, but I will give you my golden necklace." But the little man shook his head. "well then, I will give you all the riches of the kingdom." But the little man shook his head and began slowly walking up to the Queen to take the baby. The Queen lifted the baby above her head and despite all the little mans attempts at jumping, biting and gnashing of teeth at the Queen the little man could not take the Queen's baby away. He was very hot and furious and his long pointy ears turned bright red. The Queen seeing this thought he was the devil for certain and yelled "Guards!! GUARDS!!! OFF With his head". The little man was very angry, he wanted a baby more than anything in the world and the Queen had broken her promise. "You must keep your promise!" Squealed the little man and stamped his left foot so hard that it made a deep hole in the floor. Oh he was angry. "The baby is mine." then he stamped even harder with his right foot and fell deep into the earth. No one has seen him since! Until recently that is. When rumour has it, that the little man had returned and was looking for an apprentice.
But these are just rumours ! ...
Paul Topic
Australia
............... ( Joint competition winner )
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