Just listened to some Fostex T50RPs today... WOW! - Page 361

Back in stock at B&H!!

Thanks! Just ordered 4 sets. Modded, they will make wonderful Christmas gifts.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by slidesear 

Back in stock at B&H!!

Woof! four sets, nice work BMF 

My brother, a total appreciant of good sound, but one who puts no effort into pursuing gear loved my modded t50 . I think he will get my extra pair since it would be nice to share the passion with someone in the family! 

It's a great hifi gift since it can deliver, yet is relatively inexpensive and giftable. 

M

Hey all,

Been following this thread for awhile now. Awesome work everyone! I love me some head fi community. this modding business is eating away my time. Quick question. I've been recently getting a lot of random crackling in my headphones (when there is silence). Is this just due to a dirty end plug? Will deoxit hopefully fix this or is the problem something more sinister (i hope not). 

Anyways to contribute, I have a weird amalgamation of a bunch of various mods that I feel work quite well together. Anyone running the same customization?

• replaced original pads with srh 840 pads
• cut out black covering on front of driver
• Covered front of baffles with silvertone acoustic foam (left small hole open near top though)
• Filled cup with acoustic foam except for around the black felt covering bass ports and on sides. 
• Cut away part of the felt on the 4th port and covered its slightly more than half way with electrical tape
• loaded backs of baffles with clay. Not overly loaded
• 2 1/2 very teased out medical cotton balls (i did a lot of testing with cotton. too much to my ears made the sound signature way to dark and also reduced efficiency a lot. The best configuration to my ears was these few balls at the bottom of the cup extremely thin kinda like cirrus clouds in the sky lol)---noticeably improved soundstage
• small square of black electrical tape on middle of white felt on back of driver. 
• Recabled with 24 aug silver teflon wire.

To my ears it sounds absolutely excellent. Finally got the bass tuning right. 

T50RP's still in stock at B&HPhotovideo. The price is still $74 with free CONUS shipping.

Yesterday I called Full Compass. I was told their ETA for their order is "the end of December." The salesperson offered to notify me when they arrive.  I'll do the same, here.

Amazon's crazy high price around $130 yesterday is inching down, currently at $109. Their price will go down further the longer B&H and Full Compass have them in stock at lower price point.

@mmayer167, my brother, son, daughter, and a friend will be getting a modded set.

BTW, how many klicks from the Arctic Circle...what's your current temperature? It's absolutely freezing, here... 273 degrees Kelvin!
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmayer167 

Woof! four sets, nice work BMF 

 

My brother, a total appreciant of good sound, but one who puts no effort into pursuing gear loved my modded t50 . I think he will get my extra pair since it would be nice to share the passion with someone in the family! 

 

It's a great hifi gift since it can deliver, yet is relatively inexpensive and giftable. 

 

M

I'm at 47-92 (lat-lon). It was 257 kelvin (4 fahrenheit) on my walk to campus today! my face is still a bit numb from the wind-chill

M

Edit: forgot about klicks-  Im roughly 840 klicks from the circle, so more than a few haha.

ordered a pair

going to BMF them

If anyone need plasticine, Fatmat and Akasa paxmate, I have plenty of extra that I bought for sale. It will save you a lot.  Please pm me. Thanks

When changing the ear pads to "DT 990 Pro velour ear pads", is there some other small modification that I should do?

Did a bit more work on my previous mod (link for details). I finally used some rubber cement to hold the felt behind the driver in place, as I was pretty satisfied with how it sounded. Previously it was held in place due with the cup stuffing. I also took the time to redo the cotton stuffing in the cups. I wanted to try something slightly different, so what I did was complete tease apart 5 regular sized cotton balls (per cup), place half of that in each of the cups, and then I took a bit of fiberloft (compressed to the size of a cotton ball per cup, though not as dense or thick) and put a layer of that on top of the cotton in each cup. I then took the remaining cotton and placed that over the fiberloft. So, 5 teased, regular sized cotton balls per cup with a thin layer of fiberloft in the middle of the cotton stuffing.

I'm not sure if it helped or hindered the sound. I couldn't really tell a difference! I did notice that I had more stuffing in the cups than before, so I must have taken quite a bit out over time while experimenting with varying amounts of cotton. I noticed that I now felt comfortable leaving the bottom vent completely open. I previously had been closing the vent about 50%. 

Next, I tried using a layer of Dynamat on the ear-side baffle with a layer of Silverstone acoustic foam on top of that. I did notice a change in sound after that, but I can't describe how it was different. At first I thought maybe it sounded worse, but after I gave it a second, I really had no idea whether it was better or worse. I found that after applying Dynamat, I preferred closing up that bottom vent by about 50% again rather than leaving it open. I'm not sure if it brought out the bass more, sucked out some of the mids/treble, or what. No idea. I really wish I was able to measure them so I had some hard data to compare various mods.

Can't really say for sure whether or not I'd recommend Dynamat on the front side of the baffle. It's definitely a viable option that you can work with. I'm thinking some of the change in sound has to do with the earpads being raised slightly more than before (acoustic foam vs acoustic foam and Dynamat on baffle).

Either way, I'm still very satisfied with how these sound. Nice and detailed without being harsh. They pretty easily extend to down 40Hz, and while you can hear frequencies below that point down to around 30Hz, there is a pretty sharp roll off. Sounds like a pretty smooth, natural sound overall to my ears. I opened up SineGen and did some sweeps. I didn't notice much in the way of dips and peaks between 40Hz and 10KHz except for the peak around 10KHz (seems to be pretty standard with the T50RP).

I'd still like to be able to take some measurements on these, though. Anyone have any advice? Feel free to PM me if you want.

Hi everyone,

I happened upon this thread while searching elsewhere for info on the Audeze line of headphones. Briefly, I'm the father of two young kids and I've noticed lately that I, sadly, listen to much less music. Lack of free time being the first, obvious reason, but also because my main system is right below my kid's bedroom. I had a brief stint with Beyerdynamic DT880s I bought used a few years ago... I couldn't listen to them for much more than a few songs before needing to take them off, they just really weren't my cup of tea. My amp was, and still is the EL84 tube Glow Amp One, which I love with speakers and suspect will be everything I need in a headamp. I love most things DIY and am especially frugal, which is why I jumped on the T50s as soon as I read about them. I ordered a pair on Monday morning and by noon Tuesday they had arrived at my doorstep (I should mention that I live in the middle of a mountain forest in Québec, north of Montréal!), crazy good service and delivery!

Anyways, my intial impressions were surprisingly favorable. I actually really liked the sound of them stock and was stoked at the possibilities of the post mod sound. I'm by no means a well versed audiophile, I just mainly love good sound but have a hard time elegantly writing about it. I just don't have the vocabulary and so called "golden ears" to acurately describe exactly what's going on. Having said that, I did find the stock headphones somewhat hollow and shouty in the mids, with less than impactful bass. I'm sorry but I can't say that I heard the "resonance issues" everyone else here describes, if someone could please describe what this actually sounds like in the phones (ie. is it like and echo or something?) I'd be very happy!

I've read several of the mods on the summary link, thanks to whoever compiled that list! 

First thing's first: I'm a painter and had spare canvas laying around in the studio. I tore up a little scap and did the LFF headband suspension trick. Thanks a bundle, it's a perfect, elegant little solution to a problem that barely existed until I tried it. WOW! That got me reading about other LFF mods and I quickly understood that he's keeping his recipe secret, or at least most of it I gather. That's his prerogative, the suspended headband is already really great.

I then stuffed some cotton balls behind the drivers and left the vent felt pads on. Still sounds nice but without being able to A/B them I have a hard time noticing any improvements unless they're truly remarkable.

Next I wanted to wedge the earpads and ended up cutting a piece of magic eraser in a 4 inch long, triangular shaped wedge with an x-acto blade. Wow this stuff cuts really nicely with a new x-acto blade. I thought, what if I cut a bunch of little cubes and replaced the cotton with them, maybe they would act as diffusors to kill resonance as well as whatever function the cotton has. I've heard a friends 2 channel system with and without foam diffusors and can attest to their efficacy. So I did it, cut it up just like a finely chopped onion with varying sized little cubes. I put them in the cup and put a fine layer of 100% polyester fake snow between the drivers and the cubes.

So far everything I've listened to is noticeably better (or is it the burn-in?). I think I would say more refined. Seperation is still top knotch, as is placement or imaging or whatever. Bass is better, nothing to write home about but all I need. I haven't put any putty or blu-tack anywhere in the baffles, maybe I will. What can I expect if I do? Any suggestion to increase bass as well would be appreciated!

That's everything, if someone else cares to try the little cubes, or thinks of any reason it shouldn't be done please let me know! I do like what I hear thusfar, it's keeping my feet tapping!

^ Sweet idea. I'm pondering giving it a shot but having a hard time mustering up the energy to open these up "again" since i'm so happy as they are. Thanks for sharing!  

M

very nice ray! glad to hear it! you really dont hear an "echo" so much as the highs are more noisy from the reflections, you will notice (once you get some acoustic foam in there) that the highs and mids are more crisp and clear, better separation, and a much better sense of space that is the main difference.

as for better bass, upgrading the pads to srh 840 pads provides more space between the cups and your ears, also closing the vent on the back by about 75% will help with bass. That is also the purpose of damping the baffle with plasticine (modeling clay). after all that, you should have more than enough bass, if not, your amp may not be paired well with the t50. Tube amps have to output alot more power to satisfy orthodynamic headphones (for various reasons).

The Panasonic WM-61a capsules really are a great solution for this. If you have a soldering iron it's not too hard, I've soldered 3 now. More soon.

WM61a capsule + old earbuds for cord +ear plug + jumper from ring to tip on the plug + soundcard = adequate in-ear measuring device.

I made a little battery box but I'm not actually convinced that it is needed. Straight into my laptop I was already getting decent results. 

Not sure if I have posted this pic of first prototype.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hans030390 

I'd still like to be able to take some measurements on these, though. Anyone have any advice? Feel free to PM me if you want.

I have one T50rp loaded with plasticine and one without and I don't notice a significant difference between them to be honest.  I haven't compared them with the exact same damping, but they sound very much the same, they have the same strengths and I have the same problems with both pairs- not enough bass depth or quantity and a bump in the upper mids that is bothersome.  If there is any benefit in the plasticine it is really subtle and IMO not worth it unless you have everything else dialed in.  It certainly doesn't increase bass quantity. 

Hard to be sure though because the plasticine needs to be covered in acoustic foam, so one pair has a plastic baffle and the other foam covered baffle, but still they sound very similar...

I haven't had time to try that many things in them yet so I'm not sure whether I'll get them to my liking or not.  I have eliminated all resonances, and I could see some people liking the way they sound, very clear, but they are too thin for my taste so far.