Peter Belt / PWB headphones

[Filterlab]

A friend of mine has a pair of PWB headphones in his loft and he knows very little about them. I've furnished him with some information on the company but my knowledge is limited in the vintage area. He's obtaining the model number and model information for me this weekend but in the meantime does anyone know a lot about him / these?

[Spectral Morn]

Hi Filterlab

If you think the debates now about cables, mains conditioners etc generates war on the Forums Mr Belt did the same back in the 80's in shops, on the letters pages of magazines etc. He was one of the first well known after market adjusters, in the UK. He discovered that certain things done to kit would benefit the sound. There is a term used on Forums for this kind of thing (FOO). Hi-fi answers, Hi-fi News, Audiophile etc brought knowledge of PB to us and even gave bits of his accessories to the public free to try. The problem with PB's stuff is it well, kind of stretches credibility to breaking point. He had little bits of triangular foil that you stuck to CD's, Speakers, mains plugs etc. Grey coloured Spiral tube for putting on cables etc. Cutting notches into mains plugs (i'll give him that one but the effect came from cleaning the plug not the silly cuts you filed into the plug). He also first suggested the placement of screw head slots to be all aligned in mains plugs. He also had bits of wire looped that you would attach to your speakers. I know people who having been at his demos have said that they thought he was a hypnotist. As this all happened back when I was first getting into audio, I must admit to trying some of his stuff(the bits given away by the Mags), but I could never hear a difference,(except with the mains plug notches). Not having tried much of his stuff I can't say in all honesty that none of it works but, as I said earlier it does stretch credibility to breaking point and beyond.

King of FOO, perhaps but it was fun, none the less. If it was FOO, PB must have had a right good laugh at all who tried it and raved about it, and the lengths some Audiophiles would go to. A joke perhaps at our expense. But it is funny.

I think I might have some of it still kicking around. If I do I will take some photos and put them with this post. I would assume that he treated the Headphones with his accessories.

Peter Belt Spiral Tube on Audio Note of Japan ANV Interconnect



Another view of above



Peter Belt Magic Foil on CD ( Triangle near center hole)



The CD dates this to about 1987. As the bits do no harm, do nothing IMHO, I left them on.

Regards D S D L----- Neil

[Mike]

Don't forget he also advocated folding up one corner of any curtains, and placing a piece of plain paper in any books in the area. It had to be plain paper though, not the stuff with lines on it.

[Filterlab]

Sounds like a nutter to me!

[Filterlab]

What possible difference would putting a piece of paper in a book make?! Surely a book already consists of many sheets of paper.

[Mike]

What possible difference would putting a piece of paper in a book make?! Surely a book already consists of many sheets of paper.

Apparently all books are made from an even number of 'sheets'. This is (according to PWB) a 'bad thing'. Adding an extra sheet means the book will contain an odd number. Which is a 'good thing'.

It's the same with the curtains, folding one corner changes them from having four corners to having five. Simple really!

Odd numbers = Good.

Go figure!!!!

[Haselsh1]

PWB's headphones were sold as electrostatic but were actually electret. They connected directly to the speaker terminals of your amplifier via some hefty cable but did not have a mains source connection. Rather like electrostatic headphones though they did have an energiser box with a couple of transformers in it. I bought a pair in the late seventies/early eighties with the cheaper and smaller energiser unit and they were, as I recall, remarkably good. There were various permutations available from a budget energiser to a premium energiser and then a version that would drive more than one headset.

Much later, PWB starting producing his very eclectic and controversy laden products regarding electric fields and forces. At the time I remember putting together a group of hi-fi nuts to test out his graphite foils. These were little squares of black foil which were trimmed with scissors to a certain shape and stuck to the inside/centre of a CD in the direction of rotation. We used the then rather popular Cambridge Audio CD2 CD player as our reference. Every one of us there noticed a difference in sound quality with the foils attached using a very wide range of musical source from Staus Quo through to Aaron Copland. Of course this took place around twenty two years ago and so it would be difficult to get those people together again to write a summary but I do remember it.

[Filterlab]

...Simple really!

Odd numbers = Good.

Go figure!!!!

I wish I could, however my mind only deals with logic whilst I'm awake. It's only when I'm asleep that absurdity prevails, and I'm not lucky enough to have lucidly controllable dreams.

[Haselsh1]

In fact for those that may be interested, at that time, my system was: Logic DM101/Syrinx PU2 Gold/Lentek Entre One cartridge: Naim NAC42/SNAPS/NAP110: QLN Mk One's: Cambridge Audio CD2. Christ, that brings back some memories.

[Spectral Morn]

I did indeed have some of his accessories still on cables and a CD. See photos above (Honest they were free with Magazines )I forgot about the ideas PB had about curtains and books. It really does sound like Mile High, Ocean Going, Gold Plated FOO.

It was a bit of fun back in the 80's, but when I think about it, this sort of thing really does do harm to the hobby. I wonder how many gave up or ran away thinking we are even bigger nuts than many of us are all ready,.

Haselsh1, I take my hat of to you and your audio mates, I could hear no differences at all.

Was PB the King Of FOO ? (I mean real madness) And those who tried it by paying for it, well were they just ?

Regards D S D L---- Neil