Fostex TH900 Impressions & Discussion Thread
Jul 27, 2019 at 4:31 PM Post #16,671 of 18,737
Wow, just joined with my first post, skip to the end of 1112 pages and see the exact issue I was going to ask about. I recently had the left driver changed by full compass and they did a great job, only took about two weeks from the day I mailed them off till they were back. I was also under the impression that fostex’s tolerances regarding driver manufacturing was tight enough to make pair matching unnecessary. For some reason though, I sometimes feel like the left side sounds very slightly louder/fuller than the right. I’ll admit this could all be in my head and I’m biased knowing the left driver is new. As I only requested full compass to evaluate/repair the left side, I also wonder if the right side had damage as well, though I would assume both sides would be checked during any evaluation? I don’t have the equipment or knowledge to test for channel imbalance/driver damage and can’t seem to find local electronic repair centers that will evaluate headphones. I tried some tests on audiocheck.net but could determine nothing from it. I live in Marietta, GA. Any ideas on how I could have them tested locally without having to mail them across the country again? Any way of contacting fellow head-fi’ers in my neck of the woods who would have the gear and know-how to test them? Even if it costs me 50-75 bucks for someone to spend 10 min with them to tell me they’re fine and I’m imagining things, or I do indeed have a problem, it would be money well spent. I absolutely adore these cans and not knowing if they’re at 100% is consuming me from the inside out!
 
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Jul 27, 2019 at 4:57 PM Post #16,672 of 18,737
Wow, just joined with my first post, skip to the end of 1112 pages and see the exact issue I was going to ask about. I recently had the left driver changed by full compass and they did a great job, only took about two weeks from the day I mailed them off till they were back. I was also under the impression that fostex’s tolerances regarding driver manufacturing was tight enough to make pair matching unnecessary. For some reason though, I sometimes feel like the left side sounds very slightly louder/fuller than the right. I’ll admit this could all be in my head and I’m biased knowing the left driver is new. As I only requested full compass to evaluate/repair the left side, I also wonder if the right side had damage as well, though I would assume both sides would be checked during any evaluation? I don’t have the equipment or knowledge to test for channel imbalance/driver damage and can’t seem to find local electronic repair centers that will evaluate headphones. I tried some tests on audiocheck.net but could determine nothing from it. I live in Marietta, GA. Any ideas on how I could have them tested locally without having to mail them across the country again? Any way of contacting fellow head-fi’ers in my neck of the woods who would have the gear and know-how to test them? Even if it costs me 50-75 bucks for someone to spend 10 min with them to tell me they’re fine and I’m imagining things, or I do indeed have a problem, it would be money well spent. I absolutely adore these cans and not knowing if they’re at 100% is consuming me from the inside out!
Put headphone on four people and blind test them.
 
Jul 30, 2019 at 8:54 AM Post #16,678 of 18,737
In my search for a fullsized counterpart to my IER-Z1R, I tried the TH900. I do have to say, the bass on these is far more impressive than any other headphone I've tried, the subbass is nice and deep and the mids are neutral enough. The treble was very peaky and fatiguing, however, from the suggestion of a friend, I swapped the pads of the TH900 with the TH610, and for whatever reason the treble tonality is eerily similar to the lower treble, dryish sound of the Z1R. I'm more or less likely going to get one eventually, though I have a few questions:

What's the deal with the various mods and pads? I'm very impressed with the results from the TH610 pads, but are there any opinions on any that are better? Is modding them a big deal, and does it bring it closer to my Z1R?
Is balanced particularly good for them? They seem to be fairly low impedance and easy to drive so I question if they genuinely would benefit from a balanced cable.
How are they compared to say, the Massdrop Fostexes the TH909, and other Fostex biodynas?
 
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