Fostex TH900 Impressions & Discussion Thread - Page 121

yes it was. i recall you describing it as neutral or approaching it, earlier in this thread. "pretty overt in coloration" suggests that you're hearing it quite differently now.

 

i just had to do a quick thread trawl to make sure that i wasn't going mad, but i understand where you're coming from. you're describing its neutrality in relative terms. and it's not surprising that its coloration seems more noticeable to you now after spending time with the sr-009. the measurements alone suggest that the sr-009 comes closer to the ideal of neutrality than the th900 does.

Edited by shimmer n roar - 9/9/12 at 7:58am

It obvious your comparisons were relative to other headphones you were using at the time, which you indicated (D7000 and W3000). Perhaps the subtitle "or: Impressions and Comparisons w/ the Denon D7000 and AT W3000ANV"  should have been in a larger type, or mentioned another 68 times. It's hard to catch little details like that sometimes.

Edited by purrin - 9/9/12 at 9:54am

It's important to realize that wood cups inherently color the sound - that's why neutral headphones are made of metal or plastic.  So among the wood headphones, it may have sounded less colored, but compared to a more neutral (no wood) headphone like the 009, it shows it's true "colors."  Incidentally, this is why Heir Audio's IEMs will never be as neutral as say the UERM.

Edited by Radio_head - 9/9/12 at 9:57am

 

 

My wallet appreciates your concerns :) I'll settle for dreaming about these headphones for now (I actually dreamt about them last night). But i should really focus on building up my entry level setup first. I'm still pretty new to the scene and my current setup is a Xonar Essence ST with stock opamps / Denon AH-D1100's. I doubt i'd be able to enjoy a pair of TH900's without atleast a dedicated desktop amp (?).

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At this point I'd say yes. I would describe the W3000 as more balanced (hate to use the term "neutral"). The bass and esp. treble are less pronounced.

 

The bass of the TH900, while obviously more pronounced than even the LCD3s, I can live with OK on most songs. But the pronounced treble adds a touch of sibilance to many of my favourite singer-songwriters' voices that I'm not too found of... I guess other people might describe this as "clarity" or "brightness" and like it for that. Though unlike the T1 it -is- fairly subtle, so in the case of the TH900 it really boils down to a matter of preference...

 

And for the same reason (subtlety), the amplification might actually come into play. Using it with my Peachtree iNova, tube stage enabled, it comes close to being very nice after all (I cannot recommend that all-in-one amp/DAC enough, it keeps surprising me with how good it can sound with some cans, not to mention the bonus of using it with some decent speakers!)

thanks for your "balanced" response. yes, the term "neutral" can be problematic. i thought that it had a specific meaning within the hi fi lexicon - referring to an objectively measurable flat frequency response. to use it in a subjective or relativistic way seems to be a misuse of the term. it seems inconsistent to describe a headphone as "neutral", "fairly neutral", "closer to neutral" on the one hand, and then as "colored" on the other, whether you are describing it in and of itself, or in comparison to other phones. and especially if those phones also deviate so far from the ideal of neutrality as to be considered "colored" and "fun". that's why i avoid using the term too.  

Hey guys, I'd like to point out what might be an issue with my TH900. I believe this issue had already been addressed in this thread a long time ago, but somehow I was never able to make things clear. It has something to with the rotating the angles of the TH900. The rotating axis of the left and right cups are not symmetrical, instead they are "parallel". Most headphones that have rotating cups have symmetrical rotation angles, so I'm not sure if mine is a faulty unit, or if that's how TH900's are normally made. To be exact, when looking the TH900 from the back side (so that I can see the letters L and R in left and right section, respectively), the left cup rotates 30 degress outward - that is, toward the posterior side - while the right cup rotates 30 degress inward - toward the anterior side. Thus the rotating axes are parallel. I hope you understand what I mean.

 

Anyway, I contacted the local distributor for Fostex TH900, and they claim that it is normal. But I'm not sure if they fully understood my point on this. On the other hand, when I contacted Fostex directly, they appear to be confused - maybe they can't fully understand my English?

 

At any rate, how are your Fostex TH900's? Do the cups rotate symmetrically, or do they rotate in the same parallel direction like mine does?

Edited by songmic - 9/9/12 at 9:43pm

I have that issue as well but it doesn't bother me really.

Perhaps you can show them this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5qgGCcdONw

I dont have that issue as per video. Both swing consistently at about 30 degrees

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Same here. Maybe not both to exactly the same degree, but pretty much symmetrical.

I talked to Fostex in the last Fujiya DAC Festival last month. I told them that there are these very complaints on the Internet. They said to bring it back to the Fostex distributor of your country.

My swivel was fixed by Fostex after the video BTW...actually they fixed more than just that cos the swivel broke & I scratched the lacquer housing too.