Tourmaline Gadgets/Tweaks

[Ghoostknight]

Hello,

I never really saw english discussion about tourmaline and its effects to audio reproduction, but they get spoken about quite alot on german audiophile forums and i also tested this myself out of curiousity and i agree what most people say about it, overall it improves audio quality similar to what other tweaks do (better power supply, better cables, better dac etc) even if it sounds vastly esoteric at first

(black) tourmaline has the property to dampen specially high frequency electrcity, electricity will move the cystal structure of tourmaline and this generates heat (in minimal form) and dampens electricity, if you move the tourmaline crystal structure with heat it also can generate minimal amounts of electricity
and people think this is one of the reasons why tourmaline seems effective in audio application, even if measurements show the effects of tourmaline are quite minimal...

You can apply torumaline in different ways to your system, common approaches are
1. modified chinch plugs (basicly you extend the plus pole with a piece of wire to the end of the plug (without making any connection, the pluspole is just floating in turmaline), close the plug, fill it with tourmaline, close the end with hotglue or something and plug in into a not used chinch socket, this is also what i tested so far, effects can vary a bit how you build the plug, what tourmaline is used and to what device its plugged in, but overall effects seem always positive but in different degrees of effectiveness
you can use the plugs on any empty chinch/rca socket, also on spdif sockets the effects are clear (on a dac for example, even if spdif isnt used as input)
2. the same can be done to XLR plugs, 6,3mm TRS, USB Plugs, you get the idea
3. Grounding Boxes, you probably heared of them at some point, with torumaline you basicly wanna couple as much copper surface as possible to a box filled with tourmaline which gets connected to ground to "clean up" the groundconnection

i also measured frequency response with and without chinch plugs, i could not spot a difference but it sounds way better. i would probably even say tourmaline is one of the cheapest tweaks you can do with the best bang for the buck, i dont wanna listen without it anymore

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I am kinda wondering if this would be a viable buisness idea (to sell such gadgets, "properly" made/tested) but i kinda wanna hear about any expierences/thoughts you have first, if i decide to go this route

If there is some interest i will probably plan to "giveaway" (maybe free or for production cost + shipping) around 5-10 pairs of chinch plugs, so some people can test them out in exchange of a honest review

production cost of a pair of chinch plugs is probably in the 20-40€ ballpark, depending on materials used without labor cost
i also made some thoughts of a prototype plug which could look like this:
- ElecAudio red copper (99,99% copper, goldplated) chinch plug
- 4% Silver Solder (10% silver could be very hard to solder depending on the plug...)
- Neotech OCC copper wire, maybe multiple strands twisted for more surface area
- black tourmaline powder
- locktite used, so the chinch plug cant fall apart easly
- if possible end of the plug closed with metal so its ideally fully enclosed and also acts as a "endcap"

 

[Bosk]

If a commercially-available solution is out there I'm willing to give tourmaline a try, being very open-minded when it comes to audio tweaks.

 

[Ghoostknight]

If a commercially-available solution is out there I'm willing to give tourmaline a try, being very open-minded when it comes to audio tweaks.

i dont think so, atleast not from a known brand, thats also was intrigues me so much, the benefit seems really awesome for what it is and at what price you can get (diy) it

i can maybe later search some of the german forum links about it, maybe they are half useful with google translate

tho maybe you can stay tuned! i really start thinking of making/selling some because im kinda sold on tourmaline and wanna share the enjoyment, since there are no commercial solutions

 

[Bosk]

Just purchased some black tourmaline crystals online. Will try using a mortar & pestle to grind them finer, then connect them with the ground plane of one of my portable amps to see if I can hear any difference.

For AUD $20 this seems like a fun experiment with little to lose.

 

[Ghoostknight]

Just purchased some black tourmaline crystals online. Will try using a mortar & pestle to grind them finer, then connect them with the ground plane of one of my portable amps to see if I can hear any difference.

my first ones i also crushed down to very fine granulate, they definitely work, you just need to utilize as much copper surface as possible surrounded with tourmaline
next i will try this: https://www.edelsteine.de/shop/turmalin-puder-100-g-schwarzer-turmalin-schoerl-pulver::5492.html
its a bit expensive but i hope for consistent quality and its probably the finest powder around and general opinions seem to be finer = better

For AUD $20 this seems like a fun experiment with little to lose.

yep report back what you think

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well to start of i will make new improved plugs, i tried tourmaline 2 years ago and was quite happy with my first plugs soundwise (tho they look kinda ugly) but i never went further the rabbit hole even i always planned to, which i wanna change now

found the perfect cheap great looking chinch plugs:
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/rca-...nnectors-gold-plated-o4mm-set-x4-p-14152.html

love the look of those, the carbon fits the tourmaline vibe x) and i like the construction

i initially wanted to go for the pure copper elecaudio ( https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/rca-...copper-gold-plated-24k-o9mm-pair-p-11460.html ), they are about twice as expensive as the dynavox but i think the dynavox fit better beside the "normal brass"
1. not painted, so the shell makes a good connection with ground
2. better clamp design(?)
3. no visible screws at the end, i also think the dynavox is a little easier to close at the end
4. im actually not sure if the elecaudio`s shell is connected to ground
5. im actually not sure yet how much materials matter if we speak tourmaline tweaks, while i aknowledge there might be differences in materials i tend to lean to bang for the buck solutions (and it always worrys me to think about the 0815 sockets in devices and then adding expensive materials afterwards x( )

will probably buy these within the next week to make some new prototypes with the powder

 

[Ghoostknight]

i just compared my tourmaline chinch plugs against not using them (i use 1 for each active speaker and 1 for my dac)
and yea the difference flashed me away again... i think the changes are more obvious with tourmaline than with other tweaks (power supply, cables etc)
here are the things that were most obviously for me:

BASS ... becomes way clearer and "deeper" (its not actually deeper but it sounds a bit like that) sounding
VOICES ... overall voices seems to "pop out" more of the speakers, they sound more realistic
and i would say the benefits are across the frequency range but bass and voices i found most obvious

effects are also definitely stackable with more plugs (tho im not sure if there is a limit "per device")

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definitely curios if i can improve this further
one thing to increase surface area could be to coil up the plus pole cable inside the plug, i will probably test this

also, im not 100% certain if the plus pole is even heavly attributing to the changes, or if its mostly the ground, so it might be a good idea to make some prototypes

1. no plus pole wire
2. straight wire
3. twisted wire strands
4. coiled twisted wire strands

maybe someone has a better knowledge, could a floating short wire potentially alter analogue signals? (specially if its coiled)

 

[Ghoostknight]

here is one mega thread about tourmaline in a german forum
https://www.open-end-music.com/forum/privatforen/thomas-michael-rudolph-tmr/15778-t-u-r-m-a-l-i-n

 

[Bosk]

My black tourmaline crystals arrived and I've crushed them up finely with a stone mortar & pestle.

I'm not sure how to go about integrating them into my portable audio system. Is the powder conductive - are shorts a concern?

 

[Ghoostknight]

I'm not sure how to go about integrating them into my portable audio system. Is the powder conductive - are shorts a concern?

no, its not conductive, generally you want conductive metal surface (which is hooked up to ground mostly) surrounded by tourmaline to get the desired effect, it kinda depends what you have in mind, if you want to fill a whole device be careful because of heat build up

thats why chinch plugs are a good start
a grounding box could be multiple cooper plates stacked and all connected to each other and ground with cables, then you put those stacked plates in a box and fill the box with tourmaline

another easy test could be fill one zip bag with the tourmaline dust and put it on top of devices (if these devices have a grounded shell/case), but i have to say that the effects of these are way smaller than chinch plugs, atleast from the tests i did, maybe because of the zip bag material in between
or because the chinch plugs actually treats the plus pole of the chinch signal...

 

[Bosk]

no, its not conductive, generally you want conductive metal surface (which is hooked up to ground mostly) surrounded by tourmaline to get the desired effect, it kinda depends what you have in mind, if you want to fill a whole device be careful because of heat build up

thats why chinch plugs are a good start
a grounding box could be multiple cooper plates stacked and all connected to each other and ground with cables, then you put those stacked plates in a box and fill the box with tourmaline

another easy test could be fill one zip bag with the tourmaline dust and put it on top of devices, but i have to say that the effects of these are way smaller than chinch plugs, atleast from the tests i did

Ahh those are good suggestions, thanks.

Didn't you say though that tourmaline needs to interact with heat somehow to achieve its' effect? So there would be an advantage to storing it inside a warm amplifier case for instance, rather than in an external box or in interconnect plugs.

 

[Ghoostknight]

Didn't you say though that tourmaline needs to interact with heat somehow to achieve its' effect? So there would be an advantage to storing it inside a warm amplifier case for instance, rather than in an external box or in interconnect plugs.

no what i meant were one of the physical propertys of tourmaline, it can exchange elecricity TO heat, or, heat TO electricity (both at very small rates (and i think temperature needs to fluctuate quite a lot to get "meaningful" electricity out of it, slow temperature changes are probably not an big issue)
it doesnt need heat to get the desired effect, we actually want it to exchange elecricity into heat by itself, atleast this is what some people speculate could be the beneficial thing about tourmaline.... audible it also has similar effects to noise reduction/cleaner power etc

so dont worry about getting heat into tourmaline, my chinch plugs work fine without any heating up

 

[Ghoostknight]

one other thing about physical propertys, you want as fine powder as possible because of this:
crystal structures grow uniformly in one direction, and in this one direction torumaline can also just "absorb" electromagnetic radiation if its oriented the right way compared to the crystal structure, so if you crush it to a fine powder you make sure atleast as much "particles" as possible are oriented right to actually absorb stuff

the guys in the german forums came pretty fast to the conclusion that smaller particles have a greater beneficial effect than course chunks, and that the text above could be the explanation why

one other thing i also noticed myself ... after around 2 to 6 months its beneficial to give the chinch plugs a "shake" or some taps on the table, so the tourmaline settles newly oriented, so in the case of chinch plugs i would always leave a bit of air in their so the tourmaline has room to shake around easier

this gets also too scientific to me but if i remember right, electromagnetic absorbtion leads to changing the crystalstructure(? not sure here but something like that) but this leads to lesser effect over time, because the crystal structure orients itself to the electromagnet field its exposed too, and this change of crystal structure also leads to the released heat

i think thats all propertys i picked up so far, which also seem to make logically sense with the heared differences

 

[MasterSplinter]

Acoustic Revive uses it in a lot of their tweaks, some of their power cables have it utilized across the cable bodies (I'm assuming between the dielectric and the tubing).

 

[Ghoostknight]

My black tourmaline crystals arrived and I've crushed them up finely with a stone mortar & pestle.

I'm not sure how to go about integrating them into my portable audio system. Is the powder conductive - are shorts a concern?

any updates here on audibility?

from my side there are no updates yet, still planning, but i actually found a bit of reading material about other piezoelectric crystals too which might be worth trying

 

[Ghoostknight]

Acoustic Revive uses it in a lot of their tweaks, some of their power cables have it utilized across the cable bodies (I'm assuming between the dielectric and the tubing).

yes i also found some ready made grounding boxes utilizing other crystals, i think basalt was one of them

tho good thing about this crystal stuff (grounding boxes or chinch plugs) there is no need to spend few hundreds $ on them, you can build them yourself for a fraction of the "esoteric" price