Fostex T50RP Incremental Mods and Measurements - Page 6

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingoftown1 

You'd most likely suffer some serious hearing damage before the fostex blow.  Just recable those bad boys to balanced.

Balancing sounds better???? In what areas ???

I was thinkink to a female 3,5 minijack cabled to amplifier speaker output (+ left, - left, + right, - right). On the female minijack - left and - right put together.

So I don't modify the Fostex.

Isn't good this way???

As long as your amp has a shared ground you'll be alright with an adapter like that. I didn't notice any big changes when switching to balanced.

Thank you for the reply!!

It's correct this pinout??

If yes: the female connector has the same pinout??

Quote:

Originally Posted by calibro 

 

 

Thank you for the reply!!

 

It's correct this pinout??

If yes: the female connector has the same pinout??

Yes, the diagram for that particular male TRS plug is correct and the labels correspond correctly.  On the female version of the TRS connection, the same would be true.  But, keep in mind, connectors are made by many different companies many variations.  The pins could be slightly different with each manufacturer.  In that case, it's always good to have a multi-meter on hand and use the Ohms setting to check the connector to ensure you're using the right solder points.

I've a multimeter...with BEEEEEEEEP function ...

;-)

I don't exclude the possibility of "balance" the can if I'll open it to mod..... and if my fostex will arrive in Italy....

Quote:

Originally Posted by calibro 

 

Balancing sounds better???? In what areas ???

 

Yes, balanced sounds better - depending on your amp – and while the Musical Fidelity A1 Preamp employes a balanced topology, don’t believe their/your integrated amp does?

The stock T50’s are lacking in so many areas that a good path to follow for improvement would be using BMF's excellent work to correlate a specific mod with personal preference in sound.

Before mods, my T50’s went off to BTG Audio for a dual entry balanced cable. Very fast turnaround with exemplary workmanship.

My particular amp (EC ZDT) just makes every phone (so far) sound better in balanced mode. However, the amount of improvement and end result of balancing the T50’s has far exceeded balanced Fostex manufactured D5000’s, or HiFiMan’s HE-5 orthos.

Saw Café R&B live at a venue with really excellent acoustics a couple of weeks ago. The guitarist gets outstanding tone using a custom Telecaster. The T50’s not only nailed that tone, but detail retrieval and instrument separation became remarkable and they now have very good head/soundstage for a closed phone. Balanced with 840 pads the bass increased, tightened, and became proportionate to the frequency range.

Brian at BTG is an anomaly in custom cable manufacturers who says different cable wire is not going to magically transform headphones. But the change to balanced operation is a separate issue from the debate over perceived or real sound improvements in headphone cables, interconnects, or power cords.

Like someone said, balance those bad boys.

Thank you Northshore!!!!

Very interesting your review!!!!

I've heard the maddog t50rps have new custom pads available separately. I wonder how those pads sound just slapped on a stock t50rp or on any of the lightly modded ones without any of the ports/vents blocked.

This thread is FREAKING awesome! Great job BMF!

I received my T50RP and 840 pads today and did about an hour of burn in before giving them a listen. Not terrible out of the box, but definitely a bit dark, muddy, veiled with a tad of distortion on the top.
 

I took them apart and discovered the top ports were already taped off from the factory. The bottom ports were completely covered with a very thin layer of felt. The back of the driver had a pre-installed square of transpose membrane. I left all of this intact.

I used ordinary materials laying around the house to do the mod, namely, Home Depot plumbers putty to fill all of the baffles and holes, some Pergo flooring foam underlay (thin) for the cup backing, and cotton balls (pulled apart to avoid density problems) for the cup filler.

I'll most likely switch out the putty but wanted to test how well it will hold up. Edit: My putty is oil based so it won't dry out.

I probably ended up closest to the #37 mod.

Total cost was $74 for phones, $15 for 840 pads,  $9 shipping an $0.20 in materials.

THESE PHONES KICK SOME SERIOUS BOOTY FOR LESS THAN A BENJAMIN AND 1-1/2 HOURS OF TIME!

I'm burning them in with Steely Dan SACD stereo layer now and will run pink noise through them  for a while when not listening.

They are just slightly darker than my HE-400 but really unbelievable sounding though my OTL tube amp. They seem to drive about the same as HE-400.

Edit: The front of the driver face had some thin layers of felt. I peeled off the top felt layer and then cut the felt square out to expose the driver. It helped to brighten up the sound a bit and lift the veil off of the whole spectrum. This was an excellent result for me, bringing it closer to the HE-400. What is amazing is the treble control, there is no hint of sibilance.The phones seem to have a bit more detail retrieval this way. The HE-400 is this way. Only the mesh from the pads covers the driver face.

Ortho's are great, modded T50RP ortho's are awesome! Thanks for putting together such an informative thread. Can't wait to get 100+ hours on these.

Just a quick note to thank BMF for this thread, and for his help with parts for my modded T50RPs.  This is what Head-Fi is all about.  Thanks, man.

I just purchased my from B&H for 74 shipped. I assume these are the latest version, probably like yours. I found a guy7 who will modify for 35 dollars and it sounds like a similar mod to yours. Any suggestions to him that I might pass along . Also, I was thinking of going with Shure 940 velor pads over the 840 pads. have you experimented with these?