[Notes] Trying Out the "Golden Sound Concert Hall" Tuning Pack
A friendly heads-up: the tuning pack was a loaner for testing from the vendor,
but I’ve tried to stay as neutral as possible in writing up my impressions, so take them for what they’re worth.
For all you readers whose time is worth a fortune by the second, let me give the verdict on the tuning pack up front:
It works, it’s effective, and it won’t blow up!
Overall, the sense of space is stronger, the highs and lows are rounder, and the musicality improves across the board!
For me, it’s not just a placebo effect.
The principle behind it, whatever—who cares, XD Working is what matters!
The price is affordable too; the cost of one CD buys almost three tuning packs~
And it’s on sale now! What are you waiting for! Hurry up and click the link below to buy, XDD (sales-pitch mode)
http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21404197962061
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D e t a i l e d I m p r e s s i o n s B e g i n
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As a professional forum regular, it’d be a lie to say I didn’t have the following doubts about a thing like a “tuning pack,” XD
Things like:
- This has to be a scam, right? Isn’t it all just placebo?
- I can’t understand the principle~ it sounds like it makes some sense, but I don’t really get the real reasoning~ maybe I’ll just pretend I follow it, XD
- What exactly is inside it? Is it going to explode?! If I wanted an explosion I’d just use C4! Professional, right?
And then I’d think, forget it, I’ll just call it a night, XD
This call-it-a-night cycle went unbroken until one day I got a private message…
The gist of the message was that he’d seen one of my earlier write-ups, found it fun and quite good, and hoped I could help test a “tuning pack” he was selling…
Hmph~ Flatter me all you want, I still won’t be pleased~ (Chopper face)
As a professional forum regular, one look and I knew this had to be a phishing/scam message~~
So I fired off a quick reply and went back to calling it a night~
To my surprise I got another reply—and it earnestly discussed with me how to use the tuning pack, even attaching the “proof”: his Ruten shop…
?! What?! So it was real?!
Mr. Chen of the Golden Sound Concert Hall, I’m so sorry~ (kneels)
So the two of us met up, chatted a bit, and he introduced me to more of his own usage impressions and explained the detailed methods. I also told Mr. Chen that if I didn’t find it that effective, I might not be able to help recommend it… He said that was fine, he understood…
Mr. Chen really is a wonderful guy!!
So everyone, if you can, consider meeting up with Mr. Chen in person. You can talk audio and swap notes!
First, let me explain how to use the tuning pack:
- Pick up the tuning pack (obviously).
- Please note!! It is not a damping pad, even though it looks a lot like one, orz.
- Since the tuning pack is meant to bring gear to an “electrically neutral” state, it works best placed where there’s power flowing. I’d recommend putting it above/below a transformer or a DAC/headphone amp—the key is just not to crush it hard.
That’s also why it has no real effect on passive speakers…
In my case, I put it on top of my Supplier HD + Spitfire HD + Beyond HD. - Lay it as flat as possible so the contact area between the pack and the gear is as large as possible.
PS: Since I happen to have a Xiaomin 3 on hand, I asked about the recommended operating temperature… Mr. Chen said the main concern is the fabric scorching, so he doesn’t recommend going above 80°C. My Xiaomin 3 runs at around 50–60°C, which is fine, and it’s worked out well for me after using it. If you’re worried, you might want to test a bit more. - Wait…
The whole electrical-neutralizing process takes 30 minutes at the fastest and 2 hours at the slowest, and the sound is at its best by then.
Of course you can still listen during this period; it just feels weird because the sound keeps changing, XD - Enjoy happily~~
Let me lay out my basic test setup:
Spitfire HD (new love, with Supplier HD, tested via optical here) + Beyond HD (new love, with Supplier HD) + Supplier AC.
The RCA and USB cables are all sub-1000-NT budget upgrade cables, all-copper and neutral in character.
As the saying goes, “It takes three to make it proper” (misused), so to make sure it wasn’t just placebo, I ran three tests.
TEST 1
The picture above is my original layout.
Following Mr. Chen’s advice, I spread out the gear I’d stacked together as much as possible, so the tuning pack could have the greatest effect.
So I cleared some space on my cluttered desk that had been piled with stuff, retired the Custom Cute from the picture above for now, kept only the Supplier HD, and placed the Beyond HD and Spitfire HD apart on either side, with a tuning pack on top of them, XD
Then, since I had to wait a while, I went and took an afternoon nap first, XD
After waking up, I ran the test…
…?! No way!! It’s all just because I napped so comfortably that it sounds good!!
You can’t scare me! Hmph! I don’t believe it! (Status: headphones still not taken off)
Overall, the highs and lows became rounder, and vocals gained more magnetism—listening to Tsai Chin’s voice, for example, became even more alluring~
Some poorly recorded parts on certain CDs became acceptable too, instead of being purely about resolution, resolution, resolution…
The sense of space grew larger, the instruments were more in harmony, and there was no messy, cluttered feeling.
You can listen to music fully relaxed, and still hear the details when you want to~
TEST 2
Because there was really way too much clutter on the desk, =_=
and laying everything out flat like this really takes up space, plus testing only once still wasn’t enough to convince myself, I figured I’d stack the Cute gear back up and test again, XD
So TEST 2 came about.
After stacking them, I listened first without the tuning pack…
Orz. The soundstage shrank a whole size, and a lot of things felt crammed together…
Placement really does matter for audio…
Alright! Let me put the tuning packs on and try…
I placed the tuning packs on both sides of the Supplier HD, Spitfire HD, and Beyond HD
(see the final layout picture for reference).
Since I had to wait, I went out for a big meal again, XDD
After coming back stuffed…
…Oh! It’s a bit better—at least much better than the crammed-together feeling from before!
But… there’s no going back for me now, ==
All because I had to review this tuning pack… now I’ve spent extra money again, ==
TEST 3
What’s different this time from before is… I splurged on the audio rack from Firestone made specifically for the Cute series, ==
Why splurge? Simple: clearly I don’t have much space to lay gear out flat, and if I want to stand the gear upright and keep it compact, this was the only option, ==
Placed on the rack, I listened a little before adding the tuning pack~
Mm-hmm~ the sense of space came through as expected, but the instruments felt a little scattered because of the high resolution and large amount of information, so it was harder to listen fully relaxed or as background music, since the music keeps pulling you in…
If I had to put a number on it, it’s about 80–90% of the flat-layout performance!
So I put the tuning pack on and tested again…
Since the audio rack is small, the tuning pack was really hard to wedge in, so I only put one on top of the Beyond HD…
Thirty minutes later, once I’d finished up my other tasks, I gave it a listen.
Mm-hmm… well, I give up, ==
As expected, running the tuning pack only on the headphone amp can’t match putting it on everything, ==
I’ll just have to keep wedging them in…
After finishing, I waited a while and tested again, and it was about the same as TEST 1’s sound quality—about 80–90% of the original—very satisfying, XD
The picture below is the final version~
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T h e C o n c l u s i o n
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To those who think it’s placebo… I tested it three times myself…
What I can confirm for everyone is that, at least to my own ears, it’s not placebo, =_=
So, yes, there’s an effect—but how big? All I can say is that to my ears it means a stronger sense of space, rounder highs and lows, better musicality, and a more comfortable listen…
Different placements and different quantities (e.g. DAC + amp + power supply vs. just the amp) also make a difference…
The key point is that the price is very affordable. Buying one or two just to test won’t cost much—it’s far cheaper than a lot of other audio gear where a single cable runs close to ten thousand NT…
At the very least, I can’t take my tuning packs off anymore…
If you’re genuinely interested, or have any questions, feel free to ask at the link below~
http://goods.ruten.com.tw/item/show?21404197962061