I don't know how to
fully answer that question. Here are the highlights:
1) Made originally for studio use with fully repairable parts (headband, yoke, plastic joints, cable, etc...)
2) Fostex designs most of their drivers and housing for other companies suchas Denon
3) I don't think Fostex has any real idea about how much potential their driver has (though I am sure that's changing with as many people making tons of money off T50rp mods)
4) The price shift after its massive HeadFi popularity went from ~$70 to ~$130. That price shift is fairly massive considering Fostex went from selling to a market focused on studio application before the huge shift to a consumer market.
5) If Fostex wised up, they could easily build a finely tuned wood enclosure and drop the driver into it and compete with some upper tier headphones. But why bother when it would take away business with their OEM contracts as well as create R&D costs. As they say, "Why fix what ain't broke?"
A friend of mine who is a nuclear engineer came up with a theory about the Tx0rp line. He jokingly suggests that originally Fostex gave the R&D department a large budget to come up with a new and innovative headphone driver. Bob (we'll call the head of the department) decided to create the best damned driver their resources could make. Bob being proud of his department's creation showed it to the big shots. They said, "Well done, but because you used all the resources and time building this driver, we sent it off to the housing department. They slapped it in some cheap plastic and look, it's now profitable!"
The lesson is, I feel, Fostex over engineered the driver and just stopped caring about the rest of it. The shortcuts show, and that is why at stock, they are not worth spending much more than $100 on. Had Fostex gone the distance, no one would have had the need to tear them open. This massive modding community would never exist at its present state. I feel the guys who built up this thread deserve a ton of credit and praise. I know I have personally used information provided by LFF and BMF among
many others, but it is the
whole community support that truly amazes me each time I come back. This thread has lasted so long because of the creativity and humility of everyone that participates. I am amazed by how many people supply their information and results so freely. What the T50rp lacks in design, we've made up for with this community.
Now that all the mushy-gushy stuff is out of the way, I would like to say, for any new comer, please take what is written in this thread as inspirations and not a blueprint. Let's keep thinking outside the box to come up with new and innovative ways to push this driver even further. No idea is too obscure (well except maybe Red Dixie Cup enclosures
)!