[walbum4262]

Here is a build log of my fostex t50rp.. I'm still tweaking the sound just a tad but it's near perfect now.

I wanted to make new mini xlr plugs in the cups so away with the old jack plug and the plastic mount that it was held by

Front of the baffle where all the felt is going to be taken away

Here I covered up the holes for the jack and the wiering with some electrical tape

This is what I used to close the holes

As seen here in the picture

The result when it was dryed 

It needed a bit of repair to be even so I put on some more on the outer side

Later on I will be sanding them down and paint them but for now it was enough

I moved to the ear side of the baffle and removed the felt there the felt was first removed with a knife and then sanded down to be smooth

I then made a template if paper and cut out some paxmate for the ear side of the baffle 

Arround the paxmate I wanted some dynamat

Time to solder some wire to the mini xlr 

Here glued in place

Here the result from outside

And here inside the cup where I have put paxmate into the cup wells and self adhesive felt in the middle 

I then got an idea that I wanted to make a grid holding down the felt on the back side of the driver instead if taping it in there here was one of the templates I made

Here is a rough prototype I made out of 5 layer laminated 2,5mm wood

Here is the final grid beside the prototype and driver

I then made some threads in the holes for screws to hold down the grid 

And here is the final result with I felt installed under it yet

Placed a treble reflector on the Center grid I'm still toying with the size of this to get the right amount of treble and also filled the baffle with something called unigum that is used as a sealant in plumbing 

I worked with several different types of felt and several layers and ended up with one layer of this white felt that I got from BMF the cut could have been nicer I'll get to that at some point 

I noticed the headphones had a box like sound and played around with different stuff and found this to work well with paxmate stribes in the cups

I needed to dampen the bass a bit as I don't use a bass vent right now ( I got plans on making an adjustable one ) so I put in this synthetic cutton that I got from a friend it's we're airy and down draw moist from the air and collapse like cutton balls

I made sure not to have to much I front of the driver

A piece if felt cut to cover the dynamat for Aesthetics reason

Lastly I put on some alpha pads for awsome sound 

And then to listen for a while with my aune x1s dac and project ember

I know I will be doing some fine tuning on the sound.. I wanna find out how to get more soundstage and room out of them as they can be a tad congested compared to he500 but that's all the fun to try and find this stuff out

 

[nick n]

That "white felt" looks familiar 

You covered all the vents with adhesive felt at the bottom? So that means they are fully sealed ? Ah yes I see they are.
 
Did you try at least opening one of the slots or are you going to wait to make the adjustable bass vent.
That will add some space you are wanting at the same time as the bass, so I guess it is a matter of redajusting at that time for both
That should noticeably add some more depth/stage to the sound with at least something open.
 
 
One other thing if it is the same stuff as I am thinking, have the fuzzier side of the "white felt" damping square against the driver rear and see how that changes stuff slightly also.
 
Great post
Much appreciated.

 

[MasterMech7777]

  Thanks to everyone sharing their mods, and of course to Bluemonkeyflyer for his very thorough testing and impressive charts that got me to finally get a T50rp.
 
Stock, it sounded terrible, almost underwater.  Possibly due to an excessive air gap around the plug jack that is now sealed up.  
 
It's coming around now starting with easy mods, but, question: The frequency charts may show good results, but doesn't stuffing so much dampening into the cups make them sound congested, lifeless, and 2-dimensional?  I teased four cotton balls into each cup, plus 840 pads with the felt cut out, and the resonance is gone, but the life is sucked out of them.  
 
I've done similar when modding other headphones, so that's not a surprise, but what is a surprise is that people are stuffing far more into their cups than that and saying it sounds great.  They're plugged into a 930mv@32 amp, so power shouldn't be the problem.
 
Yes, every headphone is a little different, but people are stuffing six cotton balls + paxmate or similar + baffle clay... that's a lot of stuff. 

 
 
I have messed around with the sound of these headphones for about a 6 months now in total. I tried cotton balls, cotton sheets, and all other sorts of cotton material in the cups. They all seemed to reduce the sound field. I then remembered I used the Pollyfill in subwoofer encloses to increase the perceived airspace. I used just enough to lay loosely in there but enough that the front driver side of the ear cups compressed the Polyfill down to prevent it from moving around and bunching up.

I found an informative sie on what Polyfill does what added to an enclosure. (I fell like a cotton material restricted the sound and the polyester material opened it up) link below:
http://knowledge.sonicelectronix.com/car-audio-and-video/accessories-and-installation/what-is-polyfill/

 

[DangerClose]

 
I have messed around with the sound of these headphones for about a 6 months now in total. I tried cotton balls, cotton sheets, and all other sorts of cotton material in the cups. They all seemed to reduce the sound field. I then remembered I used the Pollyfill in subwoofer encloses to increase the perceived airspace. I used just enough to lay loosely in there but enough that the front driver side of the ear cups compressed the Polyfill down to prevent it from moving around and bunching up.

Make sure you tried the recommended brand of cotton.  I used a random brand, as balls and as teased out, and it helped stop the resonances, but not enough.  I added more, but then the sound was lifeless, likely due to filling up too much of the cups.
 
BMF rated various products in a post I happened upon, and a specific fiberglass was rated a lot better than "teased cotton balls."  (Since then, he's found a cotton ball brand he likes a lot.)  I have some of that lying around so tried it.  It's not fun to work with fiberglass, but now a moderate stack of it inside the cup easily sounds the best so far. There's still some resonance, but the sound is overall so much better.  I filled the cups more, but the sound became too congested and overall not as good.
 
It doesn't have the I guess clarity I expect the T50rp is capable of.  It's good, but from all the praise it apparently can be great.  But it sounds very good so far considering it doesn't have the currently recommended mods in it.      

 

[nick n]

you can always go with the cotton that is stuffed in the tops of vitamin / supplement bottles that seems very fine. Can't recall if master BMF tried that though.

 

[TechChromeAudio]

Hi!
 
I'm a bit of a noob at the whole modding thing. I've been using cheap thick acoustic foam designed for studio rooms and just cut it down to size. I'm just wondering if other acoustic foams would do a better job.
 
Thanks

 

[htr2d2]

Here is a build log of my fostex t50rp.. I'm still tweaking the sound just a tad but it's near perfect now.

I know I will be doing some fine tuning on the sound.. I wanna find out how to get more soundstage and room out of them as they can be a tad congested compared to he500 but that's all the fun to try and find this stuff out

Well done! Appreciate you providing your mod variation .

 

[rogerthat]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I heard the T50RPmk3 today at Audio Fest and it sounded amazing I think I will put on new pads (glasses like big pads), but I didn't hear anything I did not like and I fell in love with the great sound!

 

[Araki]

There is a cable to replace the original cable?

 

[Araki]

with the angled connector which clips

 

[Araki]

other pad that "alpha pad" Worth?

 

[MasterMech7777]

The main benefit to the alpha pad is the driver alignment to your ears. As long as they are installed correctly, the drivers are lined up to your ears in such a way the the projected sound is "funneled" directly to the opening in your ears. This really does make a night and day difference in the clarity of the highs and how natural the mids sound. They are very comfortable, well made, and have amazing sound isolation too.

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

The main benefit to the alpha pad is the driver alignment to your ears. As long as they are installed correctly, the drivers are lined up to your ears in such a way the the projected sound is "funneled" directly to the opening in your ears. This really does make a night and day difference in the clarity of the highs and how natural the mids sound. They are very comfortable, well made, and have amazing sound isolation too.

Headphones are funny creatures. Something as small swapping out a comfort item can completely change the sound. Or even adjusting how they are sitting on your head

 

[Hutnicks]

In other words, theres as much going on in front of the baffles as there is behind them.

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

In other words, theres as much going on in front of the baffles as there is behind them.

Or every little detail regardless where it is counts