[MarcusHe]

I just ordered a pair of ZMF Lambskin pads for my T50RPs, hope it wont change the sound for the worse.

 

[Grayson73]

I had a spare pair from my denon d5000 that I put on and they can be gotten here http://www.lawtonaudio.com/

I tried on mrspeakers alpha pads yesterday with wery good result aswell

 
Wow, $109 for pads!

 

[raybone0566]

My freshly modded pair from Peterek

 

[RevA]

@ryabone0566 -- They look nice, can you post more pictures? 

 

[RevA]

  So I just talked to American Music and Sound, the $50 rebate is available through ZMF.  So you can buy the t50 in any iteration and essentially get the earpads of your choice free, or a bunch of earpads etc.
 
 
ZMF T50 and/or earpads can be seen HERE.
 
I am currently out of stock of the MK III, but have a bunch on order and they will arrive early next week.

Zach, thanks for confirming the details of the rebate offer. 

Quick question, there has been a bit of speculation on this forum (and others) about the affect that ZMF pads have on otherwise stock MKIII's --- aside from undeniably improved comfort, can you comment on the difference in sound quality of the MKIII with ZMF pads vs stock? (Simply your personal opinion as a music / headphone enthusiast, not as a guarantee of product performance.)    

 

[headhog]

  Zach, thanks for confirming the details of the rebate offer. 

Quick question, there has been a bit of speculation on this forum (and others) about the affect that ZMF pads have on otherwise stock MKIII's --- aside from undeniably improved comfort, can you comment on the difference in sound quality of the MKIII with ZMF pads vs stock? (Simply your personal opinion as a music / headphone enthusiast, not as a guarantee of product performance.)    

Z Review talks about this in his MKIII review I don't believe he has the ZMF pads but he dose have pads that are just as thick.

 

[zach915m]

  Zach, thanks for confirming the details of the rebate offer. 

Quick question, there has been a bit of speculation on this forum (and others) about the affect that ZMF pads have on otherwise stock MKIII's --- aside from undeniably improved comfort, can you comment on the difference in sound quality of the MKIII with ZMF pads vs stock? (Simply your personal opinion as a music / headphone enthusiast, not as a guarantee of product performance.)    

 
 
 
 
Here's a couple graphs from my not to spec measurement rig. 
 
TOP LEFT GRAPH = ZMF Lambskin Pads = Green / Stock t50 Yellow
 
TOP Right GRAPH = ZMF Classic = Green / Stock = Yellow
 
The basic point of the graphs is to show that pads alone make a slight difference of smoothing out the frequencies and eliminating some weird distortion caused by the stock pads.  A lot of people use the t50 with ZMF Pads and seem to like it, but they sound by far the best modded in some capacity.  I usually tell those who are going to mod the t50's to get the pads and have at it.  Is it worth JUST changing the pads out and not anything else?  I honestly haven't listened to that configuration much at all, maybe for 30 minutes or so.  But even just opening the cups and throwing cotton in will help.
 
Please don't read these measurements like you would read InnerFidelity etc etc, they can only be compared to my own rig, it may be best to find other t50 measurements etc to correlate.
 
So in short, switching to ZMF Pads = slight improvements in sound. 
 
Switching to ZMF pads and modding CAN possibly lead to HUGE improvement with sound.
 
These are good sounding headphones as is though.

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

Fostex T20RP MK3 vs Fostex T50RP MK3
 
Have anyone had a chance to test / demo these two? If so What is the sound quality like between the T20RP(Open) & The T50RP(Semi-Open), How different are they? how are the sound signature different between the two? Which is better for what type of music? I couldn't fine any user feedback on the T20RP MK3.
 
Any feedback is greatly appreciated, Thanks

 

[kimikaze]

 
 
Sound quality is pretty much the same, there is really no big hearing differences in real time use. It should not be looking at graph and almost the same design(practically the same apart from some stuff, that can be modded and are reversible) Judging from freq. response t20 go deeper a few Hz, but have bigger spikes(relatively speaking) and is more V shaped(a bit more pronounced lows and highs). T50 are more neutral/balanced, have more mids, but low end roll-off is a bit faster and they have a bit less bass. But these are all small changes, especially judging from rookie listeners. From design t20 and t50 cups are physically the same, they both have upper cup vent permanently closed. But the differences are, that  under one(cup vent) on t50 is covered with stiff felt so sound leak is lower(that's why they call it semi open design) and on t2 that vent is covered with softer felt, so that vent leak more sound(that's why zhe call it open design). So those are things that are easily to modd and are reversible, they don't have permanent differences, so basically does not matter which one you choose. The most different in those RP line is t40, which have cup vents permanently closed and from sound quality less desirable, but only from modding possibility, default they sound similar. Let me tell you now right away, differences(sound quality) between those(in default form) are less than with a lot of modds you can do, so  t20 or t50? Go with whatever is cheaper.. You can transform t20  to t50 and vice versa, without any particular skills. Is 10 year old kidd job. I buyed t50 but i modd it in a way, they are now completely open design. So i should buy t20 in first place

 

[RevA]

 
 
 
 
 
Here's a couple graphs from my not to spec measurement rig. 
 
TOP LEFT GRAPH = ZMF Lambskin Pads = Green / Stock t50 Yellow
 
TOP Right GRAPH = ZMF Classic = Green / Stock = Yellow
 
The basic point of the graphs is to show that pads alone make a slight difference of smoothing out the frequencies and eliminating some weird distortion caused by the stock pads.  A lot of people use the t50 with ZMF Pads and seem to like it, but they sound by far the best modded in some capacity.  I usually tell those who are going to mod the t50's to get the pads and have at it.  Is it worth JUST changing the pads out and not anything else?  I honestly haven't listened to that configuration much at all, maybe for 30 minutes or so.  But even just opening the cups and throwing cotton in will help.
 
Please don't read these measurements like you would read InnerFidelity etc etc, they can only be compared to my own rig, it may be best to find other t50 measurements etc to correlate.
 
So in short, switching to ZMF Pads = slight improvements in sound. 
 
Switching to ZMF pads and modding CAN possibly lead to HUGE improvement with sound.
 
These are good sounding headphones as is though.

Thanks for the information... I'm sure that this will also help others in deciding which direction to head in, in their T50 modding adventures... 

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

I can't read these graphs 

 

[SeEnCreaTive]

I can't read these graphs 

Showing an improvement in low bass, knocks the treble down a bit. AKA flattens the graph out

 

[Decommo]

Hello. I just ordered MK3 and think of ordering Bose QC25 earpads because QC25 earpads are thin but very comfy. Does anyone know if QC25 earpaf would fit MK3?

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

Looking for a Budget DAC + AMP Combo for the T50RP MK3, Any suggestion? Under $70, I can stretch that budget a little more.

 

[MarcusHe]

@Decommo
I just sold my QC25s and from memory the cups on those are both smaller and more oval shaped than the Fostex pads, pretty sure you would not be able to stretch those over the MK3s.
 
 
 
So I did a few minor mods to my T50RP earlier, put some cotton in the cups and placed some electrical tape over the vents on the inside. I've only listened for about an hour but from first impressions the mids seem more punchy while the bass seems to have a bit more "slam" to it if that makes any sense. Still feeling that the highs can get a bit harsh on quite a few tracks. I should have my ZMF lambskin pads in a couple days so I wont bother trying to tame the highs before those arrive.