[up late]

My TH900mk2 Sapphires do not, and it's not up for debate. I don't use EQ, I don't roll pads. They're just very well balanced.

I'm impressed how sure people can be about other people's gear.

your feathers appear a little ruffled. for the sake of clarity, i am referring to the original th900 and the th900mk2 (with the red urushi lacquer ear cups). i am aware that the different coloured variants that fostex released subsequently (in limited numbers i think) may be tuned slightly differently, which is up for debate.

 

[vonBaron]

I have been hearing people say the treble is very harsh with the stock pads and I am a bit sensitive to harsh highs. But I am excited for that bass though!

I tame highs Toxic Silver cable, great synergy with TH-900.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

your feathers appear a little ruffled. for the sake of clarity, i am referring to the original th900 and the th900mk2 (with the red urushi lacquer ear cups). i am aware that the different coloured variants that fostex released subsequently (in limited numbers i think) may be tuned slightly differently, which is up for debate.

You said you didn't know how there could be any debate

 

[Tsunzo]

I tame highs Toxic Silver cable, great synergy with TH-900.

Thanks I will look into those cables.

 

[478423]

Well, you should listen first to see if the highs will bother you. For the most part, they weren't for me and I am sensitive to harsh treble. The times they were harsh, much of that was due to the material itself (the treble was deliberately made harsh for effect or very poorly recorded music being 2 big culprits). After a 3 db reduction on the high end (16-20k hz), the treble ceased to bother me, though tweaking slightly downwards around the 5.5k area also helped.

Honestly more confused at people who call the highs of these harsh but then listen to something like HD800 or HD800S, which are well known to sometimes have harsh treble.

 

[jmills8]

Well, you should listen first to see if the highs will bother you. For the most part, they weren't for me and I am sensitive to harsh treble. The times they were harsh, much of that was due to the material itself (the treble was deliberately made harsh for effect or very poorly recorded music being 2 big culprits). After a 3 db reduction on the high end (16-20k hz), the treble ceased to bother me, though tweaking slightly downwards around the 5.5k area also helped.

Honestly more confused at people who call the highs of these harsh but then listen to something like HD800 or HD800S, which are well known to sometimes have harsh treble.

As the song said "People are strange".

 

[up late]

You said you didn't know how there could be any debate

no, what i said is that the th900 has a v-shaped fr and this really shouldn't be up for debate. subjective impressions and objective measurements overwhelmingly confirm that the th900/mk2 are known to have a v-shaped frequency response.

now i thought that i had addressed your indignant response by clarifying that i was referring to the original th900 and the th900mk2 with the red urushi lacquer ear cups and not the limited edition coloured variants that fostex subsequently released.

whether the limited editions have the same v-shaped fr or are tuned differently is debatable from what i've read. you believe that the sapphire blue variant that you own does not have a v-shaped fr which is your opinion, but that doesn't make it conclusive.

i trust that i've made myself clear.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Passive aggressive claims that everybody is on your side have no effect on reality.

Bottom line, people should not be discouraged from buying or at least trying these wonderful headphones just because of FUD regarding harsh treble, V signature etc.

 

[up late]

i am not the one who is being "passive aggressive" here. nor am i claiming that anyone is on my side. the th900 is known to have a v-shaped frequency response. i happen to own it and enjoy its sound signature, but i'm not going to deny that the midrange is recessed relative to the bass and treble when that's what i hear and the fr measurements indicate. i don't regard it as a major flaw and i don't get defensive when others characterise the th900 in that way.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Well, you should listen first to see if the highs will bother you. For the most part, they weren't for me and I am sensitive to harsh treble. The times they were harsh, much of that was due to the material itself (the treble was deliberately made harsh for effect or very poorly recorded music being 2 big culprits). After a 3 db reduction on the high end (16-20k hz), the treble ceased to bother me, though tweaking slightly downwards around the 5.5k area also helped.

Honestly more confused at people who call the highs of these harsh but then listen to something like HD800 or HD800S, which are well known to sometimes have harsh treble.

I cannot listen to Joni Mitchell out of my 800s (not S). It's like fingernails on a blackboard or icicles through the skull.

The same albums out of my TH900mk2 are amazing. So yeah, agreed. At the end of the day, everybody hears differently, most people have different combos of gear (I think @jmills8 pointed that out earlier) people like and listen to all kinds of different music etc. And we really don't know how much unit to unit variation there is. My suspicion is many bassheads buy these and rightfully so, so those people might be more sensitive than average to mids and treble i.e. anything but bass. And a lot of people here seem to use them for EDM which I don't listen to at all. My preference is like 90% classic jazz, 5% classic rock, and the rest all over the map. I'm just so happy with how these sound, I didn't expect they would be so well-rounded and enjoyable without overdoing or underdoing any part of the audio spectrum.

Another thing that's interesting about the TH900s and probably most Fostex of similar design (TH, TR) is how sensitive to pad changes they are. To me this suggests that how the pads sit on every individual head has a big influence on how they sound.

The main thing is to enjoy your gear!

 

[jmills8]

L

I cannot listen to Joni Mitchell out of my 800s (not S). It's like fingernails on a blackboard or icicles through the skull.

The same albums out of my TH900mk2 are amazing. So yeah, agreed. At the end of the day, everybody hears differently, most people have different combos of gear (I think @jmills8 pointed that out earlier) people like and listen to all kinds of different music etc. And we really don't know how much unit to unit variation there is. My suspicion is many bassheads buy these and rightfully so, so those people might be more sensitive than average to mids and treble i.e. anything but bass. And a lot of people here seem to use them for EDM which I don't listen to at all. My preference is like 90% classic jazz, 5% classic rock, and the rest all over the map. I'm just so happy with how these sound, I didn't expect they would be so well-rounded and enjoyable without overdoing or underdoing any part of the audio spectrum.

Another thing that's interesting about the TH900s and probably most Fostex of similar design (TH, TR) is how sensitive to pad changes they are. To me this suggests that how the pads sit on every individual head has a big influence on how they sound.

The main thing is to enjoy your gear!

I cant listen to her period.

 

[Tachyon88]

This is the song I will test the treble spike on.



When I got my HD800s this song got me with the TSSS treble. With EQ its fine though. Also Can't listen to the HD800s stock for speech, the TSS and SH are spiky.

 

[SRKRAM]

Given that after-market cups are available for the TH900 and other variants, has anybody done an open back mod - Something along the lines of a TH909?

 

[cdsa35000]

i am not the one who is being "passive aggressive" here. nor am i claiming that anyone is on my side. the th900 is known to have a v-shaped frequency response. i happen to own it and enjoy its sound signature, but i'm not going to deny that the midrange is recessed relative to the bass and treble when that's what i hear and the fr measurements indicate. i don't regard it as a major flaw and i don't get defensive when others characterise the th900 in that way.

To my ears the stock TH900 was also V-shape crappy sounding. Stock TH610 was sounding "better" balanced.
TH900 was only "superb" and only listenable when I modded it myself, due they use all the same crappy cup-chamber construction design:

Those white-paper ventilation holes backfires soundwaves to the front and resonates/reflexes in the metal frame/ears, causing harsh/ringing highs/suppressed mids, due the stronger forced 1.5 Tesla magnet then the 1 Tesla TH610, the V-shape FR is more enhanced due the more Tesla power!
I closed all those holes and done divers dampening all round, only then now it proofs and sound "superb" more balanced/dynamic/livier with that 1.5Tesla power.

 

[jmills8]

To my ears the stock TH900 was also V-shape crappy sounding. Stock TH610 was sounding "better" balanced.
TH900 was only "superb" and only listenable when I modded it myself, due they use all the same crappy cup-chamber construction design:

Those white-paper ventilation holes backfires soundwaves to the front and resonates/reflexes in the metal frame/ears, causing harsh/ringing highs/suppressed mids, due the stronger forced 1.5 Tesla magnet then the 1 Tesla TH610, the V-shape FR is more enhanced due the more Tesla power!
I closed all those holes and done divers dampening all round, only then now it proofs and sound "superb" more balanced/dynamic/livier with that 1.5Tesla power.

Good job for your ears and your gears running your headphone.