Just listened to some Fostex T50RPs today... WOW!

[PhaedraCorruption]

Quote:

Those four pillar thingies rising from the back of the cup, are they really necessary?

 
Nope, dremeled all 4 of mine off to make room for paxmate. 

 

[Mad Max]

Out they must go then!  =]
Thanks.

 

[wdiabc]

I thought the four things designed by Fostex engineers intend to offer some supportive structure. But I dont even think they are effective at all. Still fighting with the crappy resonance. 
Strangely, I still find kitchen papers the best damping material. Better than open cell foams. lol
Quote:

 
Nope, dremeled all 4 of mine off to make room for paxmate. 

 

 

[Jonclarke]

I finally got some today and love there sound. I think mine are the V1 as the earpads look like there about to fall apart and are really hard on the ears.
 
Could anyone help me on how to mod them, this thread is so big i could never go though it all. I have akasa Paxmate plus and Dynamat extreme.
 
 
V1 earpads, what replacement?
I can get SA5000 off a forum member if he still has them for $100, but i dont really want to spend this much.

 
 
 
Should i leave this in?

 
I am going to roll the dynamat in a ball and use it on the black bits like blue tac
Should i remove the white cover on the driver?

 
 
The vent is covered with foam, should it be?
What part of the ear cup should i cover with akasa foam?

 
I fitted my denon earpads that are 100 times more comfortable but didn't sound as good
It could be because they have cloth over the hole, and the hole isn't in the same place

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Mad Max]

Looks good at least, lol.  Remove all that foam over the face of the driver, it doesn't do it any good, then remove the felt over the vents to unleash the soundstage.  Cover the inside of the cups with Akasa foam, then use Dynamat xtreme on the backside of the baffle as described in this thread.  Mogami 2534 recable will improve clarity, detail retrieval, extension, body, and soundstage, the first three being the most noticeable.

 

[joelpearce]

If you get really stuck on the earpads, I have a spare pair of the stock v2 pads--message me about it.  For the Denon pads, one thing that you can try is to COVER the baffle hole.  With larger earpads, mine created weird resonations and bloat at the frequencies the baffle hole is supposed to emphasize.  Covering it solved that problem and they still have plenty of bass.
Quote:

I finally got some today and love there sound. I think mine are the V1 as the earpads look like there about to fall apart and are really hard on the ears.
 
Could anyone help me on how to mod them, this thread is so big i could never go though it all. I have akasa Paxmate plus and Dynamat extreme.
 
 
V1 earpads, what replacement?
I can get SA5000 off a forum member if he still has them for $100, but i dont really want to spend this much.

 
 

 
 

 

 

[Mad Max]

 
Quote:

If you get really stuck on the earpads, I have a spare pair of the stock v2 pads--message me about it.  For the Denon pads, one thing that you can try is to COVER the baffle hole.  With larger earpads, mine created weird resonations and bloat at the frequencies the baffle hole is supposed to emphasize.  Covering it solved that problem and they still have plenty of bass.

So that's the solution for, say SRH840 earpads?
 

 

[Jonclarke]

thanks for the replies, do i need to take the driver out to get to the baffle hole?
 
is this the foam i need to remove? and the felt you said remove from the vent is it the other side of the driver in this picture or the foam in the earcup vent?
 

 
 
 

 

[joelpearce]

Quote:

 

So that's the solution for, say SRH840 earpads?
 

All I know is that it worked for me with the SA5k pads.
 

 

[Mad Max]

Quote:

thanks for the replies, do i need to take the driver out to get to the baffle hole?
 
is this the foam i need to remove? and the felt you said remove from the vent is it the other side of the driver in this picture or the foam in the earcup vent?
 

 
 
 

Sorry, I meant felt, not foam.  The thick black felt on the face of the baffle as you called it.
Take the stuff off the small vent on the inside, bottom of the cups as you asked about.  That eliminates the gaping hole in the soundstage that is in front of you when using the headphones.
 
The baffle hole is just above the driver, you can see it in that picture that you took of the face of the driver.

 

[mrspeakers]

 
I have had a few requests by PM to re-summarize my latest configuration.  This is virtually identical for the 5000 pads or the stock pads, with one exception, which I'll detail later.

 

Inside:

 

1) Using plasticine (modeling clay) to damp the front baffle.  

 

2) Entire back of cup covered in paxmate (not the outer perimeter, there's no audio bouncing around in there, or shouldn't be...

 

3) Removed the white cover over the driver and replaced with a stiff felt, glued with a 360 degree bead of rubber cement

 

4) Felt removed from the vent, and the vent ~90-95% covered with electrical tape (interestingly the stock pads and 5000 pads tuned almost identically).   This is a very crucial adjustment.  When the vent is stock, or more so wide open, bass is totally boomy, peaky and under damped.  Individual preferences will vary, as will the tuning based on which pads one uses, which felt, etc.  The best way to tune it is to start with it 100% open then "dial in" a rough estimate of the coverage needed over the vent.  To do this  I simply "sealed" it by pressing gently with my fingers from the outside, and gradually rolling them to open a little of the vent.  It's pretty dramatic, you'll hear the bass adjust in level and damping, as well as the soundstage and midrange.  

 

 

Outside:

 

1) Cut the felt away from around the driver.  With the 5000 pads, I left the driver exposed, and lifted the back of the pads about 1/8" using a piece of weatherstipping.  The stock pads, on the other hand, had a sibilance to them that a thin layer of soft felt over the driver fixed.

 

2)  Surround the driver on the baffle with Paxmate.

 

 

 

[wdiabc]

One follow up question, you did not stuff the back up with any stuffings such as cotton ? So you leave the enclosure with sufficient volume and tune the port(90-95% original vent sealed)?
I am especially interest if you can explain why your mods would eliminate the mids peak theoretically.
-wdiabc
 
Quote:

 
I have had a few requests by PM to re-summarize my latest configuration.  This is virtually identical for the 5000 pads or the stock pads, with one exception, which I'll detail later.

 

Inside:

 

1) Using plasticine (modeling clay) to damp the front baffle.  

 

2) Entire back of cup covered in paxmate (not the outer perimeter, there's no audio bouncing around in there, or shouldn't be...

 

3) Removed the white cover over the driver and replaced with a stiff felt, glued with a 360 degree bead of rubber cement

 

4) Felt removed from the vent, and the vent ~90-95% covered with electrical tape (interestingly the stock pads and 5000 pads tuned almost identically).   This is a very crucial adjustment.  When the vent is stock, or more so wide open, bass is totally boomy, peaky and under damped.  Individual preferences will vary, as will the tuning based on which pads one uses, which felt, etc.  The best way to tune it is to start with it 100% open then "dial in" a rough estimate of the coverage needed over the vent.  To do this  I simply "sealed" it by pressing gently with my fingers from the outside, and gradually rolling them to open a little of the vent.  It's pretty dramatic, you'll hear the bass adjust in level and damping, as well as the soundstage and midrange.  

 

 

Outside:

 

1) Cut the felt away from around the driver.  With the 5000 pads, I left the driver exposed, and lifted the back of the pads about 1/8" using a piece of weatherstipping.  The stock pads, on the other hand, had a sibilance to them that a thin layer of soft felt over the driver fixed.

 

2)  Surround the driver on the baffle with Paxmate.

 

 

 

 

[Mad Max]

What mids peak?
In stock configuration?

 

[mrspeakers]

I have no mid peak, but when the vent is not tuned that is a different issue.  Under damping the bass made the lower mids really yucky; male and female vocals just sounded like the singers were, well, huge-chested.  Not at all natural in timbre.  The port tuning and changing the damping fabric behind the driver, plus AKASA around the driver on the ear-side of the baffle really worked magic.
 
Cotton in the enclosure won't do too much, it's not a volume issue, it's reflections off the plastic cup that a) muddy the sound and b) make the original phones sound kind of hollow/reverby.  The Akasa does a fine job on this.
 
Also, I felt removing the white material behind the driver and replacing it with felt really helped.  I'm guessing, but the white fabric on the back was pretty restrictive for airflow, so it may have been designed to reflect HF back into the driver to "reinforce" the upper range.  With my particular combo of mods, this just left the phone sounding hard and not nice.  Replacing this with a less restrictive felt cleared the mids up further, and left the highs brigth and extended.  
 
Again, not my LCD-2, but just a real quality, fun listen.  Very lively and engaging.

 

[wdiabc]

No matter how I tune it, it seems the 850-1K are louder than other frequencies when I do the 20-20K sweep.
Quote:

What mids peak?
In stock configuration?