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

[eltocliousus]

Quote:

Those are being sold by Justin, who is a member here and is a MOT (Member of the Trade).  I don't think you'll miss out on the auction, but could send him a message to get a pair built for that price, if you'd like.  However, I'm still of the belief that just adding a wooden cup, does not provide any miracles for the sound - and, may, in some ways even hamper it.  The modifications have to be done in conjunction with the wooden cups to get the most out of the set up.  Plus, after hearing the wooden cups, I'm not 100% convinced, personally, that they are better than the plastic cupped T50RPs with plastic cups and the right modifications.
 
Again, that's just my opinion, though.

 
 

 
I do wish I've of seen it before I bought my T50RPs, but then I wouldn't of had fun modding them!
They are at a very, very good price though.
How would you comment on the soundstage of a modded T50RP (similar to mine if possible, Newplast baffles/foam/Shure840/cotton in cups)? I can't tell if it's placebo or not, but the soundstage is far better than any other headphone I have by a long long way.

 

[timbo4321]

Quote:

I have stuffed the entire cup with a ridiculous amount of cotton, which brought out treble, but didn't exactly make it detailed, will the transpore tape make the treble to dominant? Cotton also increased clarity by miles.
Edit: You might want to remove the paxmate on top of the blutac, foam and paxmate help reduce resonance, but too much muffles the sound and kills off treble.

I don't know about the cotton and transpore combination, if you try it report back, I don't think I have the time to play at the moment.
 
I put more Paxmate in as I'm trying to damp the resonances in piano music. Listening to the later recording of Glenn Goulds Goldberg Variations I hear smudging in fast running passages. Its like hearing the echo bouncing around the cups. Its a test cd  so if I can solve the smudging I will have achieved one of my aims in modding these cans.
 

 

[skeptic]

 
Quote:

I don't know about the cotton and transpore combination, if you try it report back, I don't think I have the time to play at the moment.
 
I put more Paxmate in as I'm trying to damp the resonances in piano music. Listening to the later recording of Glenn Goulds Goldberg Variations I hear smudging in fast running passages. Its like hearing the echo bouncing around the cups. Its a test cd  so if I can solve the smudging I will have achieved one of my aims in modding these cans.
 

 
Curiously, what have you done/not done with the bass port in the cup? 
 
 

 

[eltocliousus]

Any opinions on whether the LCD-2, SR-007 or SA5000 would be the best buys? Currently using the Shures but definitely looking to improve the comfort.
The SA5000s look a little thin compared to the STAX/Audez'e but without experiencing them for myselves it's hard to tell, leaning towards LCD-2s for price's sake.

 

[timbo4321]

Quote:

 
 
Curiously, what have you done/not done with the bass port in the cup? 
 
 

No felt inside, and three of the four vents taped up. Why do you ask?

 

[mcjjashik]

How do (most) of these sound properly modded? (not "ultimate" thunderpants modding) but some simple average modding vs the denon ahd 2/5k series?
 
Thanks!

 

[wdahm519]

Quote:

How do (most) of these sound properly modded? (not "ultimate" thunderpants modding) but some simple average modding vs the denon ahd 2/5k series?
 
Thanks!

Very good.  I'm only getting started at "proper" modding (proper modding to me is modding, then taking measurements, then going back and fixing it, and taking more measurements -- not just aimlessly trying to tune).  I didn't know how fail-tacular my mods were until a very good friend told me how to measure these.  So far I'm here:
 
I have no where NEAR the flattest, best sound -- but I'm slowly marching my way toward it... This particular set was plauged with an issue in stock form.  It had a -25dB dip at 2.5kHz... 

  I'm pretty proud to have it pushed up to about -8dB.  Its improving daily.
 

 
And if you think its easy, or that you might be close to that.  Here's where I started after doing some very well regraded mods that have been mentioned in this thread:
 
LEFT:

 
RIGHT:

 
Not only incredible channel imbalance, but terrible curves.

 

[Kibble Fat]

On the tangential topic of taking measurements, I'm about to build a Linkwitz WM-61A setup with phantom power to use with my laptop's line-in... Should I go stereo or mono? Assume the cost difference is negligible (<$3).

My concerns:
the +/- 4dB variation between electret responses -- enough to fundamentally prefer mono over stereo?
the simplicity of testing given up if I go mono -- is there even any freeware that can spit out waterfall/FR plots from a stereo signal?

Please discuss! (briefly)

 

[wdahm519]

Mono.  Take out as many variables as possible.  One mic means less variance.

 

[LFF]

Quote:

How do (most) of these sound properly modded? (not "ultimate" thunderpants modding) but some simple average modding vs the denon ahd 2/5k series?
 
Thanks!

The ultimate mod is the one that makes you happy.

 
That said, I have heard HORRIBLE mods that make you want to commit suicide. Horrible ones that make the stock T50RP sound like a king of all headphones. I have also heard some excellent mods that, while not neutral, are totally fun! I have also heard another set of neutral themed mods that sounds excellent. As with all things, YMMV. Trust your ears and when in doubt, have them measured by someone who knows what they are doing. Most of all....have fun.

 

[proid]

Quote:

Very good.  I'm only getting started at "proper" modding (proper modding to me is modding, then taking measurements, then going back and fixing it, and taking more measurements -- not just aimlessly trying to tune).  I didn't know how fail-tacular my mods were until a very good friend told me how to measure these.  So far I'm here:
 
I have no where NEAR the flattest, best sound -- but I'm slowly marching my way toward it... This particular set was plauged with an issue in stock form.  It had a -25dB dip at 2.5kHz... 

  I'm pretty proud to have it pushed up to about -8dB.  Its improving daily.
 

 
And if you think its easy, or that you might be close to that.  Here's where I started after doing some very well regraded mods that have been mentioned in this thread:
 
LEFT:

 
RIGHT:

 
Not only incredible channel imbalance, but terrible curves.

That's incredible good bass response, how did you achieve that?

 

[rawrster]

Quote:

Those are being sold by Justin, who is a member here and is a MOT (Member of the Trade).  I don't think you'll miss out on the auction, but could send him a message to get a pair built for that price, if you'd like.  However, I'm still of the belief that just adding a wooden cup, does not provide any miracles for the sound - and, may, in some ways even hamper it.  The modifications have to be done in conjunction with the wooden cups to get the most out of the set up.  Plus, after hearing the wooden cups, I'm not 100% convinced, personally, that they are better than the plastic cupped T50RPs with plastic cups and the right modifications.
 
Again, that's just my opinion, though.

Although it does look better than the previous version and at a good price I do have to agree with you. The price is attractive if you want a wooden and recabled T50RP however. After hearing one of the Thunderpants a few months back I think I'm done with the T50RP and just settling on what I have unless the differences in sound is that great which. I found the Thunderpants good but not worth the premium over my own modded T50RP. It doesn't look as nice but I like my T50RP although the only complain I have is that I wish there was a good quality and cheap cable I could buy that wasn't so long in length.
 

 

[mrspeakers]

[/quote]

Any opinions on whether the LCD-2, SR-007 or SA5000 would be the best buys? Currently using the Shures but definitely looking to improve the comfort.
The SA5000s look a little thin compared to the STAX/Audez'e but without experiencing them for myselves it's hard to tell, leaning towards LCD-2s for price's sake.

For my tuning the Stax O2 pads give the best bass and flattest response to 2khz, but have a small dip at 4K.

The 5000 pads are a very poor match and no combination of reversible or non-reversible mods works well with them. Ver ragged frequency response results.

I want to try the LCD2 pads b ut can't figure out how to get them off the LCD2. An y hints from another LCD2 owner? I suspect they might be excellent...

The 840 pads have a bit less bass than the o2, a bit more mid presence in the 4k range, and a 3-4db hump between 100-300hz (it's a bit warm in that region, but not objectionably so).

 

[wdahm519]

Quote:

That's incredible good bass response, how did you achieve that?

 
Careful tuning.  Every set is different, that's something I've seen talking to people about mods and comparing graphs that have been sent to me.  I played around with many many combinations of modifications and found what worked best for my set.  If you extend the graph, it goes down past 4Hz.  I didn't check past that.
 
Here we go, it goes down to 2Hz on the left channel as shown in this graph... I didn't tune for anything past 20Hz though, so there's a big hump down there.
 

 

[mrspeakers]

That's incredible good bass response, how did you achieve that?

The data below 40hz looks very suspect, like there may be an issue with the test setup... Is this mic calibrated?