A Scary Thought
Apr 18, 2011 at 5:02 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 15

Centigonal

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I was doing some miscellaneous research today and came upon something very frightening.
 
Fostex is the company that manufactures Apple earbuds.
 
That's right. 
The same company that makes 

also makes 

basshead.gif

Discuss.
 
Source: http://bindapple.com/ipod-music/ (via Wikipedia)
Sorry if this has been discussed before. A preliminary search found nothing on the topic.
 
Apr 18, 2011 at 5:22 PM Post #2 of 15
Imagine this though...The high end audio market (much less the headphone market) is small. I wonder how much money they get for doing a big batch of those for every Apple product out there...

Maybe Fostex puts it into RnD. Hmmmmmm...
 
Apr 18, 2011 at 5:33 PM Post #3 of 15
Tata Motors (india) owns Jaguar. Really nothing new...
 

 
Apr 18, 2011 at 8:56 PM Post #5 of 15
Ah, well. I guess my terror was unfounded. Pardon this newbie's folly!
 
...But I still think they could've done a better job without raising the cost of the headphones.
 
Apr 18, 2011 at 9:09 PM Post #6 of 15

Actually, Foster Electonics does. Fostex is just a subcompany of Foster, who makes basically everything. They make Denon drivers too, along with 50% (total guess) of other random headphone drivers.
 
Apr 18, 2011 at 11:08 PM Post #7 of 15
The T50rp has well engineered drivers, but it doesn't sound that great stock.  I'm not sure Fostex is a shining light in the headphone world, they just happen to be the only big company making (affordale) orthodynamic headphones.  I'm grateful, but the T50rp is hardly an audiophile headphone. 
 
Apr 18, 2011 at 11:32 PM Post #9 of 15


Quote:
The T50rp has well engineered drivers, but it doesn't sound that great stock.  I'm not sure they are a shining light in the headphone world, they just happen to be the only big company making orthodynamic headphones.  I'm grateful, but the T50rp is hardly an audiophile headphone. 


+1
 
It looks budget and I didn't think it was all that after it was modded either.  Not sure what that wow Fostex is the bezt thing ever thread was about.
 
 
Apr 18, 2011 at 11:47 PM Post #10 of 15
Well I'm not going that far, the drivers have a lot of potential (esp compared to most headphone drivers), and mods like the Thunderpatns are certainly "audiophile grade".  What I meant was that Fostex didn't even make them for this market, they're supposed to be pro-sumer headphones.  Their reputation on head-fi has as much (or more) to do with the modders (especially Smeggy) as it does Fostex.  Fostex made half of a good headphone.  It's like if Nikon put a D3 sensor in a D90 body, with a crappy DX lens that doesn't even use the whole sensor area. 
 
Apr 21, 2011 at 3:42 PM Post #12 of 15
Quote:
Tata Motors (india) owns Jaguar. Really nothing new...
 

 
 
and you're point is that there are both really nice as well as not so appealing tatas out there? talk about nothing new....
 
 
 
Apr 21, 2011 at 3:50 PM Post #13 of 15
Meh, if Foster gets an OEM order for generic earbuds, there's probably not a huge amount of money to be made making them sound better.  Millions of people out there are perfectly happy with the stock earbuds that come with their music players - same reason Chevrolet makes the Aveo and the ZR1 Corvette, different markets, different price points, different demographic requirements for a car.
 
A lot of times (and I'm not sure if it's the case here), big manufacturing companies will be contract subbed to produce something another company has already designed but doesn't have the manufacturing ability to produce, and won't have any say in R&D, marketing, etc.
 
Apr 22, 2011 at 8:02 AM Post #14 of 15
No, his point is that there's big tatas out there and little tata's too, but they're all still tatas. And as long as they arn't http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3084/2561069328_6114aac401.jpg
too old of tatas (ok, that's a Jag long before tata existed, and I like old Jags but go with the metaphore) there is no such thing as truly bad tatas, just decent tatas and incredible tatas.
 
Quote:
 
 
and you're point is that there are both really nice as well as not so appealing tatas out there? talk about nothing new....
 
 


 
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming:
deadhorse.gif

 
Think about it, Sony made the qualia and the R10, but also makes the craptastic earbuds that come with every sony mp3 player (some of them come with decent IEM's actually). Companies make a large varience of products for different markets
 

 
 
 

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