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

[leeperry]

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I used a Dremel cutting disk and sander attachments to remove the shock absorber posts and the dustcover around the drivers. I don't do either, anymore.

 
Do you think that the dust covers in front of the drivers on the earside can be kept? It muffled the 2kHz region to death IME.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

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Do you think that the dust covers in front of the drivers on the earside can be kept? It muffled the 2kHz region to death IME.

 
 
For me? Absolutely. I've tried with and without the dust cover. I don't hear a difference. The dust cover is super thin, microns, and fairly porous. I posted a picture of it in the Incremental mods/measurement thread (near the bottom) sandwiched between 1.5 mm stiff felt.
 
Others, including some good friends, have removed it and reported improved sound. I think that's great.  

 

[chrislangley4253]

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Thanks for the replys. and . chrisangley4253: I was wondering how well side cutters would work. That was my first choice. I may also see if some type of chisel won't do a decent job also. I'm anal about these types of things and would like to cut them off neatly even with the side of the headphone. Armaegis:I don't think I want to spend a lot more on a DAC amp. I suppose the recent amp deal on Massdrop would have been the one to go for. Anyway, I'll have to give it some thought.... I will try swapping out some of the op-amps and see how it sounds. Thanks again.

I uh.. Just from experience with op-amp swapping.. Usually you are best off using the op amp intended to be in that slot. You are much more likely to add distortion or something bad than you are to somehow make the sound better.

Side cutters won't get it exactly perfect, I'm anal too.. But, I couldn't get the slits in the dampening material to line up for the life of me, so side cutters it was. Once the cups are closed I can't tell that there are little uneven nubs left 

 

[wje]

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For me? Absolutely. I've tried with and without the dust cover. I don't hear a difference. The dust cover is super thin, microns, and fairly porous. I posted a picture of it in the Incremental mods/measurement thread (near the bottom) sandwiched between 1.5 mm stiff felt.
 
Others, including some good friends, have removed it and reported improved sound. I think that's great.  

 
I've also had a recent experience ... in going the other way, actually.  I had one particular modification tuned a bit towards being more prevalent in the upper registers.  The sound stage of the Fostex was actually mind blowing.  While the Fostex headphones can be a sore spot at times when it comes to the soundstage, but with one mod, it really - I do mean REALLY opened up.  The down-side?  Well, listener fatigue could set in early due to the "dog whistle" affect from the upper frequencies.  As a quick item to try without opening up the cups again, I applied some heavy craft felt (yes, the heavy version) to the square area over the driver.  I just set these pieces in place over the existing driver felt.  The result?  The upper frequency issues were tamed and gone were the highly annoying upper frequency "screeches."  Plus, the sound did not appear to be muffled in any way.  However, I'd probably reach for a piece of standard thickness felt first, as opposed to the heavier variety as I did.
 
Now, a word about the female 3.5mm connector on the left ear cup.  We've all tried a quick shot of De-oxit to clean up the conductor of the 3.5mm female TRS jack.  Yet, with a new custom cable that I built with a 90-degree Neutrik connector, I wasn't too happy with the "grip" of the female connector.  It left a lot to be desired - it was just plain sloppy.  Well, to counter this issue, I checked out Radio Shack today and found a 2-pack of 3.5mm female connector / recepticles.  The jacks are SOLID when inserting a 3.5mm male plug.  This is really apparent when you move away from the stock cable, and go with something that doesn't lock into place.  The socket connectors that I found are not quite as deep as the stock version, which actully protruded to the baffle.  This new socket should mount into place without an issue - or, that's my suspicion.  The part number at Radio Shack is 274-0249.  At $2.99 for a pair of these and about 10 minutes of work (unscrewing the front round nut) and desoldering and resoldering the 3 wires is a "no brainer."

 

[onefatsurfer]

I'd think if you're going to start messing with a soldering iron, you'd be better off just going straight to dual entry.. That way you have 2 exactly the same acoustic chambers to work with on your mods.. That's probably my next mod for these..

 

[wje]

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I'd think if you're going to start messing with a soldering iron, you'd be better off just going straight to dual entry.. That way you have 2 exactly the same acoustic chambers to work with on your mods.. That's probably my next mod for these..

 
Actually, I've done plenty of dual entry cables with the Fostex.  It is a bit time-consuming, and in reality, there is not a major change in sound.  In fact, there was a member who had an original set of BMF T50RPs and then had them re-cabled with dual entry cables.  The headphones had to be completely retuned again.  In following the guidance of many members on these forums, one can pretty much pick their options for their mod of choice and go for it.  However, when the dual entry cables are pulled into the picture, one should ensure they have extra time for the tweaking, etc.
 
The only reason for installing some dual cup entry cable (Mogami Quad Neglex) was that I wanted to use a balanced connector so I could run them off of my speaker taps on my amplifier.  In that case, there was a more valid case in doing the work.  Otherwise, I'd recommend keeping the single entry, but replacing the jack as I've suggested.  Even many of the other members (LFF, etc.) have commented on my earlier posts from this past spring regarding recabling the Fostex headphones.  Even he admitted that much benefit would be felt, or heard.  With that being said, I belive that a member will be better served to have time for focusing on the heapdhone mod itself and a bit less on the cable system.

 

[eltocliousus]

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Those ear pads look pretty slick.  Which brand are they, and where can you get them?  Thanks,

 
Wje, these are the brown Stax SR-007 pads, they can be found on the StaxUSA website for $130, you can get them a bit cheaper on eBay I believe.

 

[Nevod]

Yesterday I decided to try stereo convolver plugin for fb2k and went to IRCAM demo sounds page: http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/sounds.html
I haven't listened to all the sounds, maybe 15 of them, but they all had one common property: while the sound source moves behind me, it's all ok, but frontal localisation is either non-existant or flawed: in worst case, sound just moves along the same path behind me, in mirrior to what it's supposed to be, in 'medium' case it moves by a straight line through head from left to right ear, in best case it starts moving from left to right in front of me, but after going about 45 degrees, it 'falls' into it's mirror on the back.
 
I've decided to try "Holophonics-Matches" then, as I recall that with my first headphones (Philips SHP 2700) I consistently had a similar result: when the sound moves in front, at first it moves correctly, but when it's approaching dead front, it jumps into behind, and then continues to move toward right ear. Trying it on current Fostex setup, I've heard the same jumping sound. The whole soundscape in binuaral recordings seems to be shifted to rear hemisphere for me, there are almost no sounds in front, they're at sides at most.
 
That made me a bit sad - I hoped that the scene would be better! I've recalled that with my first Fostex mod, I have heard Matches properly, with sound reliably going a full circle around, and the current mod supposed to be better than the previous one in all factors. I wanted to ask here on what is possible to do immediately, but decided to go to sleep.
 
Today I realised that actually, my left ear doesn't stick out - it's nearly flat and parallel to head surface. The right one, however, sticks out significantly. I have tried to angle the earpads on the headphones, but as I had to resort to using electrician tape to attach the pads, they've ended up non-angled. On the first mod, I was trying to be more accurate with taping, it was a bit more loose, and after stuffing cotton under the pads, they were a bit angled after all. In current mod, they are fit tightly and don't angle at all. Supposedly, as driver plane happens to be parallel to left pinna, it is able to localise sounds not too far in front, but as it is not the case for the right pinna, I'm not able to resolve most of frontal hemisphere spatially - it just gets mirriored to rear hemisphere.
 
So, I think that these well-known binaural records are a good subjective test of a 'required minimum' of headphone's scene capability - if you correctly resolve all the directions in these records with your phones - they do have scene capabilities.
 
While I have got the idea on how to angle the pads correctly - are there any other methods on improving/enlarging/controlling the soundstage? I know that tonal balance is important, but I'm more thinking of doing something on spatial configuration - just like angling the pads - and reflection control - baffle and earpad coating with acoustic foam, etc.
 
Sorry that this post is so hardly readable. 

 

[marcin z]

I found use for stock T50RP earpads
 

 

[hans030390]

I found use for stock T50RP earpads

I've been attaching the stock T50RP ear pads to the bottom of my suspension headband for a long time now, haha. Looks like you left out the headband and went straight for the ear pads!

 

[dustdevil]

Is the "Fostex T50RP - All Stock Left Side: Current production with smooth finished metal hangers and non-textured, translucent white driver dampener" in the thread "Fostex T50RP Incremental Mods and Measurements" the newest model available?
And would you guys agree that Stock with Grodan Rock Wool and Shure 840 Pads is the easiest way to get the flattest frequency response?
Thanks.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

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Is the "Fostex T50RP - All Stock Left Side: Current production with smooth finished metal hangers and non-textured, translucent white driver dampener" in the thread "Fostex T50RP Incremental Mods and Measurements" the newest model available?
And would you guys agree that Stock with Grodan Rock Wool and Shure 840 Pads is the easiest way to get the flattest frequency response?
Thanks.

 
First question: Yes, at least I think so. Tonight, I will double check the 3 sets I received last week and let you know.
 
Second question: Maybe, but each person must judge the sound quality for themselves. FR is helpful but does not tell how they will sound to you. Every mod I build requires some degree of tweaking or tuning to "get it right" using my ears, preferences, and audio chain. The Grodan + 840 pads mod is simple, easy, and measured great but my perception favors the "full boat" DBV #3.
 
Others may have simple configurations and/or flatter FR, shared or not.
 
good luck

 

[dustdevil]

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First question: Yes, at least I think so. Tonight, I will double check the 3 sets I received last week and let you know.
 
Second question: Maybe, but each person must judge the sound quality for themselves. FR is helpful but does not tell how they will sound to you. Every mod I build requires some degree of tweaking or tuning to "get it right" using my ears, preferences, and audio chain. The Grodan + 840 pads mod is simple, easy, and measured great but my perception favors the "full boat" DBV #3.
 
Others may have simple configurations and/or flatter FR, shared or not.
 
good luck

Good to know, tbh I am not even sure yet whether I am going to make a purchase or not, even if I am it won't be any time sooner than June 2013... though I am still looking forward to your reply.

 

[MuZo2]

Did someone find a donor cups from different headphone that would suit these drivers?

How about using lead sheets, they are used in speakers for damping cabinet resonances. One will still need to use rockwool, fibreglass for acoustic damping.

 

[onefatsurfer]

Honestly, the DBV #3 is not that difficult to make, and even if you screw up a thing here or there, it still sounds fantastic.. just... not as good as it's capable of sounding.  The hard part is sourcing the materials... and there are members here who would gladly sell some of their leftovers to try to make up some of the cost of modding one pair.