[Taveren]

  Well, that probably means i should look around once more, for portable headphones under 300$ ... thanks for your opinion.
 
If you could weight them, how heavy they really are? I also forgot to mention, that i'm looking for allaround headphones, i can take with me. That is what i do now with my ATH-M50's at least.
 
P.S. if those modified fostex are comfy enough, i can disregard the weight i think.

 
 
The ZMF (Fostex T50RP) is not really heavy for me, specs indicate 330g +/- the dampening materials they put inside so roughly 350g (don't quote me on that 

) compared to my M-Audio Q40s at around 250g. When I said heavy I meant the LCD and the HE orthos.
 
So I need to correct my statement a bit, The T50RPs are not that "heavy"

 and they are really comfy specially if you get the plushier pads like the Alpha Pads but that cost 50 bucks.
 
The only thing left to consider is if your portable rig can power them up nicely and you can have Ortho goodness on the go.

 

[Taveren]

Just to add, I got the V2 and it is superb on everything I throw at it. But I really feel it will scale up if I upgrade to a more powerful amp. 

 

[KBGolfRunner]

Florimer - Would you consider carrying around a mini dac/amp to power the ZMF's when you are on the go?  Maybe like a FiiO E7 for 55$ on Amazon that's portable.  Then, you have $95 for an amp.  Check out the E7/E9 combo.  There's a $75 E9 on eBay right now that you can use at home to get full sound out the the ZMF's.  Also, there's equipment on Head-fi as well. 
 
What do you think Taveren?  I was thinking this would work for now, and he could upgrade from there.  Plus, WHY are the other Planar Magnetic Headphones $500 minumum, and you can get unmodified Fostex T50RP's for $100+?
 
I know what you are going through....It's fun but worrisome...Thank goodness there are some great people on here that will take the time to help you out. 

 

[zach915m]

 Check out the E7/E9 combo.  There's a $75 E9 on eBay right now that you can use at home to get full sound out the the ZMF's.  Also, there's equipment on Head-fi as well.   
What do you think Taveren?  I was thinking this would work for now, and he could upgrade from there.  Plus, WHY are the other Planar Magnetic Headphones $500 minumum, and you can get unmodified Fostex T50RP's for $100+?
 

 
I was pretty shocked at how well my Fiio X3 drives the t50rp's, but I have no idea what equivalent that would be to their amps.  You can really blast yourself away with the high gain setting on that thing.  You can get better timbre from other more expensive amps but the X3 is no slouch at all power wise.
 
I think the reason the Fostex's are so inexpensive comparatively has to do with the size of their company and fact that the driver really is the only high quality part in the entirety of the t50rp. If you look at the other companies that make Ortho's like Hifiman and Audeze they are much smaller operations than Fostex so their margin per sale has to be higher.  I would expect the economics of the R/D for the models has something to do with it too, but I'm no expert on that.
 
Small aside, the dynamic range on my Schiit Mjolnir seems to be steadily increasing and I'm finding it as enjoyable albeit in a different way than the LYR.

 

[Taveren]

  What do you think Taveren?  I was thinking this would work for now, and he could upgrade from there.  
 
 

 
I'm not sure bro, but as per what Zach replied, if the E7 /E9 combo is comparable to the high gain output of the Fiio X3 then it will suffice. also, I remember Trolldragon mention he has this combo may you can pm him.
 
From what I remember I was advised to look into an amp pushing 1W at 50ohms to get the most out of the T50RPs. I am not sure how much power my current desktop amp/dac has but right now I am already impressed with the ZMF that's why I am very curious to hear the improvement on a more powerful amp.
 
Cheers!

 

[Taveren]

Zach, have you tried the Rope Spacer Mod instead of the double sided tape inside the pads?
 
personally works better for me you may want to check it out. 

 

[Taveren]

  I know what you are going through....It's fun but worrisome...Thank goodness there are some great people on here that will take the time to help you out. 

 
You got that right on brother!
 
Cheers! 

 

[uncola]

Hey Zach I just ordered the white blemished headphones on ebay and asked for the no earpad discount.  If the blemish discount is already too big that you can't give it, that's cool.  Also I'd like the classic v1 mod please.

 

[zach915m]

"Hey Zach I just ordered the white blemished headphones on ebay and asked for the no earpad discount. If the blemish discount is already too big that you can't give it, that's cool. Also I'd like the classic v1 mod please."


Please email me off site. Thanks!

 

[Florimer]

Originally Posted by Taveren /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
1W at 50ohms to get the most out of the T50RPs

 
Hoooly **** D: That sounds like a lot. I thought i said somewhere before, i was considering Fiio E12 to Amp those but it is nowhere nearly that much power. I also have my old Cowon s9 as a player, and it sounds nice enough, but not powerful to drive orthodynamic headphones solo for sure too.

 

[Taveren]

   
Hoooly **** D: That sounds like a lot. I thought i said somewhere before, i was considering Fiio E12 to Amp those but it is nowhere nearly that much power. I also have my old Cowon s9 as a player, and it sounds nice enough, but not powerful to drive orthodynamic headphones solo for sure too.

 
My thought on this is if you really want to get the optimum performance out of it then you need that much power but for low level listening the Fiio E12 might be sufficient (sorry don't have experience with it).
 
As I described a few pages back, I enjoy them a lot with classical and jazz paired with my HA-Info DA1 but not as much (as compared to my M-audio Q40s) with dubstep and drum and bass.
 
Most probably because the planars need more power to "ommph" that bass if you get what I mean

.

 

[Florimer]

As far as i understand, Fiio can output 880 mW on 32 Ohms, which is around 600 at 50 Ohms i guess. Well at this point i'm guessing stuff anyway. I remember myself doing the same "oh jesus, but what if it sounds bad?" and "what if my source is not good enough?" when i was considering my ATH-M50's around 3 years ago. And they were good enough for me. Quite dark thou. So i think, it should be a good upgrade. I'll just have to stop being a little girl, show some balls and go buy things i want.
 
P.S. my current setup is using Focusrite 2i2 as external soundcard for PC (i occasionally record some things through my mike) and Cowon s9 + Fiio E6 (which i found is not that much of a use with my low impedance headphones) + ATH-M50. Just so you'd know what am i upgrading from.
 
Thanks for spending your time on me

 

[Modulus]

Finally received my ZMF v1 a couple days back and have given them a lot of head time over the weekend with my NFB 11.32.
 
Initial impressions are very positive. I'm quite pleased with their bass response in particular, they really sound great for electronic music and synthesized instrumentation, also vocals and acoustic sound great.
 
These are not perfect headphones though, and in a way I regret having ever listened to HD800's because anything else that I will ever listen to will never be an HD800. But the ZMF are plenty resolving, extend high an low, are super smooth, no sibilance, comfortable, and I'm sure they measure fairly flat. Their only problem is that they are still very much mid-centric. The T50RP driver is stubbornly a bit wonky in the mids and I don't think any amount of modification will change that. I would be very very interested in hearing someone compare these (regarding the mids in particular) with the LFF Paradox, which are widely regarded as the flattest T50 mod.
But Zach has solved this problem to the point at which it is no longer a problem, in fact the mids sound pretty good, it's just that they are a little forward. I personally believe in EQ and I will probably end up giving these cans a little tweak after I've given the mids a fair opportunity to win me over.
 
I will be writing a full review after further listening.

 

[Taveren]

  As far as i understand, Fiio can output 880 mW on 32 Ohms, which is around 600 at 50 Ohms i guess. Well at this point i'm guessing stuff anyway. I remember myself doing the same "oh jesus, but what if it sounds bad?" and "what if my source is not good enough?" when i was considering my ATH-M50's around 3 years ago. And they were good enough for me. Quite dark thou. So i think, it should be a good upgrade. I'll just have to stop being a little girl, show some balls and go buy things i want.
 
P.S. my current setup is using Focusrite 2i2 as external soundcard for PC (i occasionally record some things through my mike) and Cowon s9 + Fiio E6 (which i found is not that much of a use with my low impedance headphones) + ATH-M50. Just so you'd know what am i upgrading from.
 
Thanks for spending your time on me

 
Hey no worries mate, we are all after the same thing - to enjoy musical nirvana. Though admittedly part of this journey is the gear hunting aspect (both joy and pain 

) and we all have our own priorities and limitations in this hunt, so after all the research and discussions it is up to you to weigh everything and pull the trigger. 
 
Happy hunting 

 

 

[Taveren]

  Finally received my ZMF v1 a couple days back and have given them a lot of head time over the weekend with my NFB 11.32.
 

 
Hey bro, congrats on getting your ZMF! would like to ask if you have other amps to compare against the NFB 11.32? 
 
Very interested in the pairing as I am planning to grab a NFB 15.32, but I read that the wolfson chip is a bit warm and the sabre chip is more neutral thus it would complement the T50RPs.
 
Cheers!