Review: Fischer Audio FA-003 - a neutral champ!

FlySweep,
 
Thanks so much for the testing and observations. Based on your mods, I modded my FA-003's over the weekend, replacing the felt / foam pad in the housings with a similar pad cut from Akasa sound dampening material. I do not have any Dynamat, but I had a ton of Akasa leftover from modding my Fostex T50RP's. The results were great. The soundstage and response improves much like you said. In the past, the Fischers compared fairly good against the Fostex's, but the Fostex soundstage was bigger with more air and better spatial characteristics. After the mod, I have a much harder time telling the two apart. The Fischers go a touch deeper in the low end, and the Fostex soundstage is still a little more open spatially. Also, the Fostex's sound a touch darker. I will need to revisit a comparison of the two phones for classical use alongside my AKG K501's which I use as sort of a benchmark.
 
At any rate, thanks again!
 
Quote:

flysweep said:

 
Personally speaking, dampened all the way.  They're smoother sounding (which is what I most noticed the wood cups did).. but the dampening keeps the presentation up front, adds air in the midrange, tightens the bass and fills the soundstage more evenly (I didn't hear the wood cups do any of these things).
 
Remember, I had the 5-step beech cups (the cheapest model available from GD-A).. I can't speak for the more expensive models but I would think with how much some of them cost, there has go to be a premium on sound with them (for the sake of the purchasers, I would hope so).
 
 
 
LOL.. should I throw a pie in the oven too? HAHAHA.  I'll have pictures up in the next few hours.  It's really quite easy Lorspeaker.. how does the Geico ad go? "So easy a caveman can do it" .. Well you'll at least have help from the wife.  

Click to expand...

 

Ordered dynamat xtreme and they'll be arriving by friday or next week.  I'll definitely post impressions.  Also I'll do an equal loudness contour before and after to approximately confirm any changes in FR.
 
By the way, does isolation improve by any chance?  That'd be a nice bonus for having sound-deadening material.

Quote:

hayang said:

Ordered dynamat xtreme and they'll be arriving by friday or next week.  I'll definitely post impressions.  Also I'll do an equal loudness contour before and after to approximately confirm any changes in FR.
 
By the way, does isolation improve by any chance?  That'd be a nice bonus for having sound-deadening material.

Click to expand...

nah, the sound escapes through the crack between the pads and the driver. I've tried filling this gap, but It's not feasable unless you completely change the way the pads are designed (the twisting motion.
 

BobSaysHi, It looks like you are enjoying the FA-003 This thread makes me miss them. Maybe one day I'll pick up another pair but with one of the nicer wooden cups. Considering how the FA-003 sounded compared to my HD600 they are quite the bang for your buck imo. If only I had a real need for a set of closed headphones.

I am back with impressions and pics!
 
This is how I did my mod:

I used Dynamat Xtreme from a car speaker package.  Two 10x10 sheets were ~$15 on ebay.  Half of one sheet sufficed for this mod.
 
I tried putting dynamat on the back of the driver like so:
and I listened to it and couldn't tell if I liked it more or not.  It did something to the bass, but I couldn't tell what.  I decided to favor the stock configuration just because it's stock and for no other reason.  It was easily reversible and I will try doing it again and listen more closely to see if I like it.
 
Now, I did an equal loudness contour both before and after, and the results are inconclusive.  Any differences were subtle.

 
There are two things that I am certainly confident about though: The soundstage and bass improved.
 
FlySweep noted the treble peak being gone, and the midrange becoming much smoother, and I really agree, but I get confused when I look at the equal loudness curves, because they don't show any clear changes.  I will say this though:  I really do think something annoying about the treble has gone away.  Call it 4kHz peakiness or whatever, but I do think the treble is more even in every track I listen to.
 
The midrange too really does seem a lot smoother, and this is most apparent in piano tracks (which I consider the best way to test the smoothness of midrange), which have never been this eerily seductive.  The tone of each note is more even and "stable" than I recall hearing before.
 
Overall, I am very happy with the improvements!!!  Do the mod, it is safe and easy to do, and I think it has great results.

people, don't just use dynamat. Put some felt over it. I'd recommend removing the top foil too, as it is just reflecting sound back into the headphone, which is NOT what you want to happen. 
 
Again, dynamat -> felt -> foam/felt behind driver -> driver -> ears
 
This is the basic principle. Dynamat isn't meant to be used for this application, so you have to modify it. The tar-like butyl substance is there simply to add weight to the headphone to prevent it from rattling and adding in extra reverberations into the music. Take a look at the diagrams below.
 
   
This is what dynamat is intended for in speaker purposes. To prevent the front of the speaker cabinet from shaking and rattling. Now, imagine you wanted to prevent engine noise from entering the cab of your car. The simplest way would be to reflect it away from the cab. That's what dynamat does, and why it's covered in foil. If you leave the foil on in a closed headphone, it will reflect your sound waves. Removing the foil is hard and time consuming, but the results are worth it. The diagram below shows the intended use of dynamat in headphones.
 

 
Now, this diagram is pulled off of a product called Dynaxorb, which is much too big for our use. It uses ridges in the dynamat to absorb backwave. You can just use the tar and use a pencil or something to give it some ridges and holes to succeed in this.
 
Now, every headphone needs a little reverb or else it will end up sounding "closed." If you'll look at your headphones you'll notice the paper sheild surrounding the driver. This allows some reverb to enter back into the sound. This felt is here to break up the sound a bit and allow some reverb back into the headphones. You can play with different types and densities of felt to achieve the result you want.
 
A properly damped headphone almost always ends up sounding neutral.
 
Now, these headphones almost completely have this down stock, the only mod I would recommend is adding dynamat (foil removed) and then putting that felt layer back on top of that. 
 
This is the summarized version, which I'm sure has some inaccuracies. If you'd like to learn more, I suggest reading up on speaker design.
 
EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot. Once you have the shell properly damped, you can remove the felt behind the driver and get some improved soundstage. It's reverseable, just as long as you are careful.

Taking the foil off of the dynamat is extremely hard... haha.
 
BobSaysHi, would you show us what the inside of your FA003 looks like?

Quote:

hayang said:

Taking the foil off of the dynamat is extremely hard... haha.
 
BobSaysHi, would you show us what the inside of your FA003 looks like?

Click to expand...

I no longer own a FA-003. Just here to share some knowledge. There's no easy way to remove it. It will take several hours.
 

You guys are using way too much dynamat and definitely not helping reflections at all.

Would any Canadians here be able to tell me where I could get my hands on some good sound damping material? I'm guessing Canadian Tire, but any other suggestions would be great. Gd-audiobase is out of the leather dampeners they have for the FA or I would have just ordered those. 

Anaxilus, what would you recommend?

Quote:

anaxilus said:

You guys are using way too much dynamat and definitely not helping reflections at all.

Click to expand...

I disagree. not on the reflections part, but the dynamat part.
 

Quote:

daanish said:

Would any Canadians here be able to tell me where I could get my hands on some good sound damping material? I'm guessing Canadian Tire, but any other suggestions would be great. Gd-audiobase is out of the leather dampeners they have for the FA or I would have just ordered those. 

Click to expand...

I know that Henry at the Trading Post had some.  May have used it to quiet his canoe, eh.
 
(before anyone attacks, I am Canadian)
 
Seriously, I have no clue and am useless to you.  Useless.
 
HOWEVER!  MY CANUCKS ARE 2 WINS AWAY FROM THE STANLEY FREAKIN' CUP!!!

Anyone did a comparison between FA003 and other mid-fi hp, like the HD600/HD650? What is their position in the headphone ranking?

I did a short A/B with the FA-003 and HD600 before I sold the FA-003. I think they were both good just with slightly different presentations but still more similar than different.