Fostex TH600 Dynamic Headphones - Page 8

Quote:

Originally Posted by the wizard of oz 

Ah, no, no thanks... lets keep it plain black please...

Woops. Sorry, I forgot to follow up after the last time. At least back in Oct 27th Fostex did mention that the final colour is planned to be black and the prototype finish is of course only temporary - the final production will be more durable. The price was also planned to be a little more than 1/2  of the TH-900's and targeted for year end for production.

Wait are these available yet?

Not yet ;)

"-- release is scheduled for early next spring"

What's the speculation on these?

D2000 < TH600 < D5000 < D7000 < TH900, or would they be better?

Can't wait!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrAdrian 

What's the speculation on these?

 

D2000 < TH600 < D5000 < D7000 < TH900, or would they be better?

 

Can't wait!!

For the projected price it'd better be more like:

 D5000 < D7000 << TH600 < TH900

Then I better aim at a D7k, given money concerns @@

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tangster 

For the projected price it'd better be more like:

 D5000 < D7000 << TH600 < TH900

^Basically this. I am optimistic that the TH600 will have a very similar sound to the TH900 but at a significantly reduced cost due to the materials used.

Fostex makes all their prototype headphones in black AFAIK. The D5000 and D7000 were black before getting the Denon branding, and if you look in the catalogs of their products, you can see the OEM designs have housings very similar to the TH600. Which leads me to believe the matte black finish on the TH600 is merely temporary. Then again the D2000 kept its black cups, so who knows...

It's kind of hard to compare the TH600 to the D5000 / D7000, since those latter two are tuned to be pretty highly colored. I have a feeling the TH600 will be at least on par with the later-version D7000 clarity wise. The bigger question to my mind is how Fostex is going to tune them in the end, whether they're going to go for a more neutral or less neutral sound signature relative to the TH900. Industry trends would support either direction IMO.

Personally, I'm routing for a flatter balance relative to the TH900, ie. less bass presence.

I'm very fond of the TH900 but if Fostex plumped up those mids and toned down the bass then it would be a more balanced sounding closed phone IMO. It seems unlikely to me that Fostex would give the TH600 a more neutral sound signature than its flagship audiophile headphone but stranger things have happened.   

Quote:

Originally Posted by unspool 

I'm very fond of the TH900 but if Fostex plumped up those mids and toned down the bass then it would be a more balanced sounding closed phone IMO. It seems unlikely to me that Fostex would give the TH600 a more neutral sound signature than its flagship audiophile headphone but stranger things have happened.   

It could still have a more neutral tonal balance while lacking the overall level of refinement found in the TH900. There are plenty of examples of flagships which are more colored than "lower" models, but these days it's more often in the realm of IEMs. For full-sized headphones, JVC's DX700 versus DX1000 comes to mind. Denon's terrible new lineup too (D600 versus D7100). Also the Audez'e LCD-2 rev. 2 versus LCD-3. Dare I say the Sennheiser HE60 versus the HE90?

Just baseless speculation on my part and I would expect it to be less refined too. One thing I do know is that it won't have those stunning Urushi lacquered earcups.