Orthodynamic Roundup - Page 445

Cool old reviews, and today, like then makers are still screwing up on the basics.

I had my doubts and suspicions about the T50RP. I had a feeling the driver was good but the housing was bad. I suspected the smaller bass was due to both circum design and the smallish diaphragm.

Ok, right on some, wrong on others.

As they come they are perectly listenable, nice and better than most orthos unmodded. I did the first round of mods and they improved nicely. I was still very suspicious of the housing and I knew I couldn't fix what was wrong with it so I went on an all-out assault.

These are now top of my phone pile. The driver is outstanding and needs no on-driver damping imo. The reflex dot is good but that's it. Properly mounted and housed with just a couple of disks of medium felt lining the cups they kick everything else I own or have tried. It's a closed, largish cup with small port like all my other most successful efforts.

The treble is sweet and extended, clear and sparkly as no other ortho I've heard. Smooth, fast, detailed and bass that is now full, powerful, deep and effortless in it's presentation.

On top of that, being circum also means extremely comfy, especially with the new pads and mounting setup. It's hard to believe it's the same phone. I think I'm going to totally cease looking for oldies on the bay, these are the best planar drivers I've met of any type. Fostex still messed it up with that crappy plastic housing. These drivers are so much better than Fostex, or anyone else realises.

Incredible, just outstanding! My ortho search is over.

Pics? And when are you going to get "member of the trade" status and offer the modded T50RP to the general public? I for one would probably get them.

MOT! MOT! MOT!... couldn't resist...

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Congrats on the modding success .!

x2, me too.


Interestingly, check out the description of the T50RP model here:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=REG&A=details
Seems like it must have been an official product upgrade, and we just missed seeing it.

It's nice that smeggy likes his T50, I like mine as well, not as much as he likes his, but I like them just fine.

Nope, they have been saying this for 8 years

Looks nice for an old amp, but too busy for my taste. I bet is sounds better than it looks

I encourage everyone who does work on the wiki, to register at wiki-forum section to keep up with what the update goals are and all other such nonsense.

I'm sure the vents would have been more successful had the driver been mounted straight instead of diagonally, but I guess Fostex might have had issues fitting it in. Sounds like yet another involved modding scheme for one of my orthos. Hopefully I'll actually get to it, and the others.

I finally got around to buying a fosterphone for a pair of SFI drivers...

Nice job, smeggy. We expect pictures.
I hope to get reasonably close with all the mods I intend to do. Basically see above quoted post by wualta plus some minor driver tweaking.

Anything in particular missing or added that's detracting from your enthusiasm of the T50?

Morning time and they're still awesome.

I thought ahead this time and took some pics on the way.

Kingwood cups partly hollowed out.



Drivers in their trimmed down baffles



Glued solidly.



Drivers attached to the Rock Maple baffles, profiled like the original baffles



Dry run for testing before sealing up



Sealed and attached to the adjusted headband. I bent the arms in for better clamp/seal and cup clearance. Added fluff for good measure.



Showing the extra bent arms, I re-shaped the headband to suit, super comfy and they stay in place when rocking out



Just need to close off the end caps.

I'm such a happy little bunny right now.
Thanks guys.

Wow, those T50 drivers look like little toys, not some serious piece of audio hardware. Still, they look great in your woodies, though I cant see where the vents are located. Those are the stock earpads?

I imagine it's the same as with these before rehousing. Very nice but not exceptional in any particular way. I don't know that it's possible for the drivers to shine without really heavyweight mods. The T50RP is another flawed phone that is really punished by poorly thought out implementation.

The housing is thin live plastic with no damping/absorption inside and that causes that bloom/boomy bass without letting them go deep or strong in the right places. Good overall balance but so far from what they are capable of. I know it's a studio phone at a low retail price and making them sound really good would double their price at least. They could easily make a premium version to sell to the consumer market.

The drivers are teeny wee things but they can kick like the big boys. The vents are little holes the same size as the cable hole but at the top of the cup, one hole per side. The pads are stock and the baffle is shaped as an oval like the original, the cups are round.

Nice work, ends caps will make that so sweet and I love the rock maple baffles. Any though of an angled driver version?