Fostex T50RP vs m-50?

Heya,

 

Out of the box? The M50. The M50 covers a lot more ground and does more genres justice out of the box. The T50RP is a very mid-centric headphone, with lightish bass (though good extension) and damp volume. The M50 on the other hand will give you a lot more omph in all departments (though less in mids overall). Switching between genres, the M50 will likely give you more sound in general from all of the spectrum than the T50RP. The T50RP is really good out of the box for only a few genres. Vocal and acoustic come to mind. Otherwise, they suffer when big bass is called for. If you do not plan on modding the T50RP, I would just get the HFI 580.... or M50 if you think you should really get the AudioTecchnica, but I'd get the HFI 580 instead or SRH840 instead, but again, if you had to choose those or the T50RP with no modifications, I'd not get the T50RP. If you plan on doing a thunderpants mod or other self-mods in general, get the T50RP without hesitation.

 

Very best,

 

Go to the main page of head-fi and watch the episode. It'll surmise things.

 

Very best,

Heya,

 

Thunderpants (modded T50RP's) were being compared to HE500, HD800, LCD2, etc. High ends.

 

Modded, the T50RP goes into a new world of sound. Modding is not cheap. You can do it yourself or have it done for you. There are cheaper mods that improve sound. If you're willing to tinker and possibly spend more on it later, get them.

If you're not willing to tinker, solder, or pay more, then do not get the T50RP and instead just get a Shure SRH840 or Ultrasone HFI 580 (not the M50...).

 

Very best,

 

...and let's not forget that T50RP modding is by no means limited to the expensive Thunderpands mod.  There's a good-sized community of us that have had some wonderful success by just using different materials inside the stock housings and a little bit of pad rolling.

With just some plasticine in the baffles and acoustic foam lining the cups, the T50RP can be modded to sound pretty darn good. If you don't experiment much and just stick with one of the many "milestone" modding approaches (cf mrspeakers' rastapants mod), you can get away with around $25 (most of which goes toward the acoustic foam). Mind you if you want to experiment, well, the sky's the limit. Some folks are dropping well over $100 just to upgrade the earpads. But that's the lunatic fringe. :)

 

(Me? I'm in for maybe $30 -- plus the cost of the headphones -- and I'm happy with the investment.)

I've never heard the m-50s so I can't comment on them per se. But modded T50-RP can sound as good as, or better than, some of the more expensive headphones I've owned or auditioned.

 

The fun of the T50-RPs is that they are really tune-able to match personal tastes. Personally, I haven't quite found the perfect tuning that meets my ideal balance of bass and high end, but I'm close.

 

Owning both, I would have no hesitation in recommending modded T50RP's over the M-50's. Yet one thing to contemplate is your source and amping. When modded, the Fostex can be rather unforgiving to poorly mastered tracks. Crap in, crap out. The T50RP's also benefit from amping, when I have no issue driving The M50's straight from a Clip+.

How is the headphone out on your dv6? I'm using hfi-580's which have the same impedance at the m50's, and I hear constant hissing from it even on mute. There are also annoying beeps at the beginning of songs. If yours is anything like that, I would highly recommend a amp/dac.