[chipbutty]

Well I for one have been looking forward to your reports and any necessary mods! Would dearly love to make these mk3s a little more comfortable.
 
Quote:

It's all gone a bit quiet in here, my velour pads should be arriving soon and as soon as they do I'm cracking them open and trying out a few mods. Will report back with results. I went with the angled velours in the end to see if angling the driver is a good move with the t50's. Anyone got any experience of this?

 

[lawrecedent]

I have angled lambskin and they are fantastic, I hope yours are too.

Just out of interest which pads do you use? Are they the lambskin alphas?

 

[lawrecedent]

I know exactly what you mean. Ive been considering trying to swap out the headband for a mk2 Headband which I will cushion with pads for the HD600. I just can't get used to the flatter curve of the mk3 headband and although comfortable, I don't like the white Fostex writing on top. I'm not sure if it would be a straight swap and whether Fostex sell spare parts? Does anyone know?

 

[chipbutty]

I don't mind the headband too much. When I first got the mk3 the headband was too flat so I bent it steadily until it followed the contours of my head. It's more the pads that annoy me. I'm constantly having to readjust them so they're comfortable. I think it's the pleather material that causes the problem. It sticks to my skin and pulls it. I've been spoilt by the velour pads on my HD580s all these years. 
 
Quote:

I know exactly what you mean. Ive been considering trying to swap out the headband for a mk2 Headband which I will cushion with pads for the HD600 (like the mayflower mod). I just can't get used to the flatter curve of the mk3 headband and although comfortable, I don't like the white Fostex writing on top. I'm not sure if it would be a straight swap and whether Fostex sell spare parts? Does anyone know?

 

[IBJamon]

I had angled velour pads and ended up returning them and went back to flat.  They weren't all bad, but I felt like something was missing.  Could just be my preference though.

 

[Rearwing]

Just out of interest which pads do you use? Are they the lambskin alphas?

They are the ZMF pads, pricey, but really comfortable and with the other mods I have they give a great sound.

 

[Sam21]

Sorry for asking this again but Which pads do you guys prefer and why ? I am looking for a pair of comfy pads which improve the soundstage on these...

 

[Sam21]

Should I pull the trigger on a pair of LambSkin ZMF's ? will it be good ?

 

[gr8soundz]

Tyll finally reviewed the mk3:
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/diyers-delight-fostex-t50rp-mk3
 

 

[Rearwing]

  Should I pull the trigger on a pair of LambSkin ZMF's ? will it be good ?

I certainly like the comfort and the sq, but I have had mine modded, so they are far from standard.

 

[xanlamin]

Will changing the pads to the ZMF lambskin ones increase the soundstage?

 

[Rearwing]

Yes, the soundstage does increase, but you have to tune to avoid bass overload.

 

[jerryx8664]

I ordered some Shure 840 pads and a mod kit from Mayflower. Installed some of the Silverstone foam to the enclosure as per BMF's mods and the pads mk3 style. Pads are super comfy, but made the bass extend too far up the mids and muddied them. I did one ear first and the foam seemed to help with this a little, but I felt it wasn't that significant. Nice bass extension though, I can now hear the kick drum in complex instrumentals (I'm thinking something like death and all his friends by coldplay).
 
Still looking for a way to clean up those mids a bit though; but I'm worried that in adding felt to the back of the driver, I'll trap debris in it. I also don't want to do anything that'll compromise this lovely bass extension too much. 

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

I ordered some Shure 840 pads and a mod kit from Mayflower. Installed some of the Silverstone foam to the enclosure as per BMF's mods and the pads mk3 style. Pads are super comfy, but made the bass extend too far up the mids and muddied them. I did one ear first and the foam seemed to help with this a little, but I felt it wasn't that significant. Nice bass extension though, I can now hear the kick drum in complex instrumentals (I'm thinking something like death and all his friends by coldplay).

Still looking for a way to clean up those mids a bit though; but I'm worried that in adding felt to the back of the driver, I'll trap debris in it. I also don't want to do anything that'll compromise this lovely bass extension too much. 

You won't, that's what the white paper that is already there is for, if you are really worried about it, keep the hole that's already open, open, and just put the felt on the white fabric instead.

This will 100% clean the mids up for sure. Or you can try closing the cups as well, might help a bit

 

[Asr]

Just wanted to post up my "lasting" impressions of the T50rp MK3 from when I had them for a few weeks back in October (I wrote down some notes, thinking I was going to do a review, but that's obviously not going to pan out now).
 
First, I ended up returning them to Guitar Center because they were just too damn uncomfortable and I couldn't wear them longer than 10 minutes no matter what I tried. I did try stuffing the earpads with rolled-up fragments of toilet-paper but that did absolutely nothing.
 
Sonically they were amazing—and I mean, amazing! And for the price, they're a total steal and no-brainer! By far one of the biggest "bang for the buck" headphones I've ever heard, right up there with other giant-value killers like the KOSS KSC75, Yamaha MT220, and Audio-Technica MSR7. They were so sonically amazing that people really shouldn't be thinking about these especially when they're only $160—just buy them already! (And make sure to mod the earpads for comfort of course, which I didn't bother to do because I was just lazy & cheap.)

 
Between the two other closed headphones that I had at the same time, the MT220 and MSR7, the T50rp MK3 was way more similar to the MSR7—actually, it was definitely along the same sonic lines. Similarly very clean & clear, with a bass that managed to hit surprisingly hard & deep despite being clearly under-driven by my Gilmore Lite. And it sounded more "open" and spatial than the MSR7, which was expected from its semi-open design—larger soundstage, higher sense of the music being projected outwards more. The MSR7 was actually sort of closed-in and upfront-sounding in comparison. If I had to use an analogy, the MSR7 is definitely for those who like (or wouldn't mind) their music being served up somewhat-intimately and very directly, kinda like being close to the stage at a rock concert, while the MK3 is definitely for those who want more of a laid-back spatial "concert hall", if you will.
 
Another non-sonic reason I didn't warm up to the MK3 was because of its inefficiency—as I wrote before already, there was absolutely no way I could use it directly out of either of my computers, and I didn't really want to buy a new amp for my dedicated "Head-Fi" system either for music-listening purposes. I really thought it had potential as a computer headphone sonically too, but the inefficiency killed that for me, which was just too bad. I would've loved its sound for gaming as well—its inefficiency became one of the most soul-crushing disappointments I've ever had in my closed (or semi-closed) headphone journey.

 
Now if only Fostex could plant the MK3's sound into a headphone that's actually comfortable to wear and efficient enough to be driven directly out of a computer sound card, that would be fantastically amazing! (And that's definitely one of the reasons I got on board the TH-X00 hype train!)