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

[hodgjy]

I've got about 30 hours on them so far.  Will burn in some more.  Will also try the cotton.  Thanks!

 

[hodgjy]

I stuffed the back of the cups and there was a slight improvement.  I think all of the reflections and resonance were taken care of.  However, these cans must have a little bit of inherent honk to them.  A little -1 db eq at 1 Khz took care most of the honk.  These cans are at least decent now. 

 

[rhythmdevils]

They don't have an inherent honk, at least not compared to all other headphones.  It's all in the damping

 

[headphonatic]

I stuffed the back of the cups and there was a slight improvement.  I think all of the reflections and resonance were taken care of.  However, these cans must have a little bit of inherent honk to them.  A little -1 db eq at 1 Khz took care most of the honk.  These cans are at least decent now. 

Hey, if they don't amaze you in the beginning, then just keep trying, it took me 15 hours to finally get the sound I love, and it was worth every drip of sweat and blood.

 

[hodgjy]

They're not too bad right now.  Applying a slight v-shape eq curve did wonders.  I'd say I'm about 95% there.  I want to listen to them extensively before I crack them open again and try something different. 
 
I do like the speed that the planars give.  I listened to some Korn this evening and was impressed with the transients.
 
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Hey, if they don't amaze you in the beginning, then just keep trying, it took me 15 hours to finally get the sound I love, and it was worth every drip of sweat and blood.

 

 

[Magick Man]

I didn't want a pure neutral signature, I wanted something silky smooth while still maintaining high detail. I spent 40+ hours tinkering with mine; adjusting this, fiddling with that, but I finally got what I wanted.

 

[shrimants]

Alright guys, I finally got around to doing some rudimentary mods and have left alone all of mksuen's mods (i think he did basic mass loading and cotton but nothing else, he wasnt terribly specific). I also slapped on SRH-840 pads because most of the time I use my ath-m50 I use them for driving, and the bass reproduction with srh-840 pads is not much and the harshness in treble isnt worth the slightly more controlled bass, especially because mine sounded fairly neutral to begin with. Sure, my ath-m50 are slightly uncomfortable now but i'll figure out a way to break in the pleather eventually. I was gonna attempt doing oil swabs or vaseline to soften it up.

Anyways, srh-840 earpads, some mass and cotton, and I got a temporary super crappy cable to test with until I get my radioshack refund and can get some parts to reterminate the stock cable.

my t50rp have excellent bass reproduction right now although I feel like the 40-100 hz should be toned down slightly, the 20-40 should be brought out, and i'd like a bit more detail out of the treble. The soundstage on these is almost startling compared to ath-m50's. Furthermore I think these can benefit greatly if they are properly driven. I'll try them out of my Fiio E11 later on. right now they are being powered directly out of my AMB Gamma 2 F++ (with 470 uF caps, so they dont roll off prematurely).

you guys will laugh when you see the state of these because of how ghetto-fabulous they are right now lol. I got some random piece of (closed cell) foam form my sister's old flute cleaning kit (it was just a placeholder) to act as padding for the headphones. I might invest 8-10 bucks in the Sennheiser pads to keep it elevated off of my head. For now im trying to figure out a way to stitch together a tube of fabric and slide it over the strap and foam that i put on there.

Once my radioshack part gets returned i'll reterminate my cable and be able to really try them out with a proper cable. I'm not expecting any differences, just my current cable has a slightly bent headphone jack and im not a fan of it. Plus if my retermination goes well, i can reterminate the cable on my ATH-m50 also without being as scared.

One thing i'm wondering: I know theoretically balanced sound vs single ended shouldnt make a difference on short run cables but I feel like in reality it does. Anyone have any insight on this?

 

[rawrster]

Every time I think about selling mine I listen them and change my mind even though I don't use them very often.
 
The only thing I wish was that I had a shorter cable for these around 5-6 feet but not gonna spend money on that so oh well.

 

[Magick Man]

Sell my T50s? How about a few pints of blood or a piece of my liver instead?

 

[wje]

Exactly.  I don't think the idea of selling the headphones can be such a given thing being all the time, sweat and energy spent on them.  I think one would sell a pair of headphones that they purchased and didn't care for the factory sound because modifying them like the T50RPs would be totally insane because those other headphones would cost 4 or 5 times that of the Fostex.  However, I do have to admit, I've sold a few pair off (at cost) after completing the modifications.  I guess at the time, I was quite wrapped up in the actual modification process and a bit less on enjoying them.  But, now, it's all about the enjoyment - and the unbelievable comfort they convey for me without having to perform any "fit" adjustments.

 

[Aaron1006]

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Exactly.  I don't think the idea of selling the headphones can be such a given thing being all the time, sweat and energy spent on them.  I think one would sell a pair of headphones that they purchased and didn't care for the factory sound because modifying them like the T50RPs would be totally insane because those other headphones would cost 4 or 5 times that of the Fostex.  However, I do have to admit, I've sold a few pair off (at cost) after completing the modifications.  I guess at the time, I was quite wrapped up in the actual modification process and a bit less on enjoying them.  But, now, it's all about the enjoyment - and the unbelievable comfort they convey for me without having to perform any "fit" adjustments.

Consider yourself lucky, for me these things feel like torture devices after 30 minutes . I'm still stock pads though, hoping to find some FA-003 pads. The headband is still uncomfortable for me too though, clamping them together makes the headband feel better because it fits my head better, but the clamp gets too tight. When it's widened it touches the same spot on my head forever and starts to get irritating. I tried the suspension band mod for temp to test it out but it was kind of awkward for me lol. I'll probably end up buying some padding and just throw it on there eventually.
 
 

 

[eltocliousus]

Does this look good? As in clean and everything where it should be?
Also, the pads on it now are the 840s (and they are very comfortable and sound great) but I've really been wanting to try some beyerdynamic gels, do you think it'll be a good purchase once I next get paid? They're all ready quite bass'y.
 

 

[soundstige]

I don't think the beyer gels will fit them too well due to the cups oblong shape. I just got a pair of gels for a Fostex T20, and they just barely fit. The T20 have a cup diameter a bit smaller than the T50, and are perfectly round. The gel pads want to stay round and I don't think they would work at all on the T50. The gels would also add even more bass than the 840 pads, and remove some of the mids and make things sound more distant and V-shaped without further mods to make up for that -- that's definitely what they initially did for my T20; I had to rework most of the mods I did to them. Also, the 840 pads fit better on the ear (seal to your face better) than the beyer gels.
 
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Does this look good? As in clean and everything where it should be?
Also, the pads on it now are the 840s (and they are very comfortable and sound great) but I've really been wanting to try some beyerdynamic gels, do you think it'll be a good purchase once I next get paid? They're all ready quite bass'y.
 

 

 

[eltocliousus]

I believe I'll stay with the 840s in that case, it's a shame though as I really wanted to feel the gels on my face, just to see what I was missing! Although considering the price of the gels it may have been a good thing.
You never know, I might impulse buy some gels just for the hell of it, I don't think I've seen the gels fit onto the normal plastic housing of the T50RP so that'll be something to think about, I might give them a ghetto listen and if I like it, permanently attach them with glue, we'll see.
 
Thanks soundstige, and thanks for the lovely T50RPs, enjoying them immensely.

 

[Nevod]

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You never know, I might impulse buy some gels just for the hell of it, I don't think I've seen the gels fit onto the normal plastic housing of the T50RP so that'll be something to think about, I might give them a ghetto listen and if I like it, permanently attach them with glue, we'll see.

I use gel pads. They indeed do not fit, so I have them duct-taped on. Don't have Shure pads, so can't really compare. When I put on gel pads, I noticed immediate and quite extreme reduction of mids and upper bass, move of the sound further away ( it was too near, imo), much more treble - actually, there was no treble without them, with them, tonal balance seemed to get normal, and the lowest bass appeared - there was way too much leak from under stock pads, it seems. Way more comfortable, as they are so much thicker and have a bigger opening. They are indeed quite stiff and, being not shaped to conform to the head, require a lot of clamp and proper positioning to get sealed, but when they indeed get sealed, they are just superb. Drawback is that I can't just put them on the head, I have to remove hair from under them - that last bit of seal really matters with them.