Hello,
I bought the Ebony from Emu on the Fostex Tr X00 because the Mahogany was too shrill for me.
Before I did that I had restored the Denon D2000 with the Lawtonmod, renewed the cables, new pads and Dekoni rings together with the Purpelheart cups from Emu.
Later came the Ebony because the Purpleheart had convinced me so much that it should be better with the Ebony.
Well, that was not the case.
The Ebony was just terrible for my ears.
Much too cool and almost dead, and vocally boring.
The Purpelheart was lively and warm, vocally livelier, full of power and life.
I also found Ebony a bit musty in a way.
I sold the Fostex Ebony and the seller was also disappointed.
My conclusions about it are choose a softer wood for the Fostex driver rather than too hard.
The Ebony is too hard in the wood and the driver does not have the power to compensate.
That's something else when you've heard Zmf headphones, they can take it 3 times better than the Fostex.
Before the sale I found the following setup
for the Ebony.
It needed a General Electric tube that gave a fairly analogue sound and was a little slower than other tubes to make the Ebony work.
So for SS amplifiers I did not find the Ebony recommendable.
Apart from that, I still don't understand how you could offer something like that on Massdrop back then.
And that Fostex allowed it, it has found followers but nowhere near as many as with the Purpleheart.
I also went off on all the entries and reports back then.I agree wholeheartedly about the Purpleheart,but unfortunately not about the Ebony.
I could have saved myself the $140.
By the way, I am offering my restored Denon for sale.
Since I went for something new, it is currently still in my possession.