Just listened to some Fostex T50RPs today... WOW! - Page 206

Wow okay, I really want to read this thread but it's so freaking huge.

You should read it. It's da bomb.

In all seriousness...it's a worthwhile read, especially if you plan on getting the T50's.

I've got them delivered yesterday and I'm giving them a two days stock listening, planning to do the mods on weekend.

Impressions of the stock T50RPs:

Definitely, very natural mids, vocals are gorgeous. Bass is quite detailed, but lacks authority (I'm not a bass-head). It has an armature iem bass impression almost. Highs sometimes promise greatness, but most of the time they are not there.

They suffer from boominess in sound, that makes the sound somehow fatiguing places. I think I've quite clearly got what is that plasticky resonance everyone is talking about. Soundstage leaves mixed feelings, and I don't use open cans at all)

I'm stocked with materials, so I intend to try reversible mods on them - plasticine in the baffles, acoustic foam in cups and around drivers, plus a reflex dot - I think this is BMF recommended scheme. Will post pictures and impressions.

PS. Stock comfort is good to me, 4/5 stars like. This was not expected, but I have quite an average head. They leak some sound out, which was not expected for a closed can.

PPS. How do you remove the pads? Do you pull from the outer circle of the pads around the cups, or the inner circle?

Wow okay, I really want to read this thread but it's so freaking huge.

Unfortunately, gotta say after all the mods, with 840 pads, they don't compare in anyway to the D7000's. No sounstage, hot midrange, unbalanced sound. That being said, all I'm running them out of is a soundcard, which was what the modded D7000's were using also. But they may improve greatly with an amp, let's see how they go when I get the Headzone Pro package from Beyerdynamic.

Unfortunately, gotta say after all the mods, with 840 pads, they don't compare in anyway to the D7000's. No sounstage, hot midrange, unbalanced sound. That being said, all I'm running them out of is a soundcard, which was what the modded D7000's were using also. But they may improve greatly with an amp, let's see how they go when I get the Headzone Pro package from Beyerdynamic.

Unfortunately, gotta say after all the mods, with 840 pads, they don't compare in anyway to the D7000's. No sounstage, hot midrange, unbalanced sound. That being said, all I'm running them out of is a soundcard, which was what the modded D7000's were using also. But they may improve greatly with an amp, let's see how they go when I get the Headzone Pro package from Beyerdynamic.

Chain: MacBook Pro with lossless files --> Toslink to Dacmini --> Modded T50RP's

My reference phones are BMF's without the Organdi.  I re-installed the stock white felt and added the following mods:

1. Paxmate Plus - 1 layer in the cup bottoms

2. Plasticine in back of baffles

3. Stock white driver felt back in place

4. Stock black bass port felt in place

5. Ring of Paxmate under ear pads

Naked drivers once again.  I tried 1 to 3 layers of "3M Nexcare flexible clear tape." The back of the package says "Hospital name: 3M Transpore Surgical Tape."  It has numerous perforations that allow just the right amount of air movement/driver excursion and adheres easily. Right off the bat with just 1 layer, I knew I was onto something great.  With only one layer of this tape, the cans opened up nicely but still had a tad too much sub-bass, slightly muffled mids on vocals, and veiled treble with no air at all.  Two layers was better and three layers much, much better than 1 or 2.  With each layer, the sub-bass was progressively controlled and the mids and highs unveiled.  Further tuning with a reflex dot better suits my tastes and hearing range.  This fourth set of modified T50RP's sound just like my third set used as my reference for these mod comparisons.  Closing off 1 to 3 bass port slots with electrical tape over the stock bass port felt allows for fine-tuning the bass:  the more slots covered, the less bass you get.  Closing all 4, however, resulted in a hollow, "in a well" type of sound effect superimposed over everything.

Conclusion:  With my preferred mods listed above, including stock white driver felt in place, I was able to sonically match their sound signature substituting "3M Nexcare flexible clear tape (3M Transpore) in place of the T50RP stock white driver felt.  This tape may be your solution if you mangled your stock white driver felt and want an equivalent to take yours back to stock SQ.  As always, your results may differ.

New and Improved BMF's - Modded set #4

Paxmate Plus in cups, Claytoons plasticine in baffles, Stock white driver felt removed, 3 layers of "3M Nexcare flexible clear tape ( aka Transpore )" over the back of the drivers, furniture bumper for reflex dot at center position of driver grid, Stock black bass port felt in place and no additional bass tuning, and a ring of Paxmate under stock ear pads.