[tintin220]

To the above posters:
 
GTMAT is a good alternative, as is any one of those commercial car dampeners. Waxman and Silverstone are nice alternatives to Akasa Paxmate, available on Amazon, though not cheaply.
 
The best place though? Go to your local Michaels or other craft store and buy yourself a lifetime supply of these materials for $10ish. 

 

[AristoNYC]

Quote:

To the above posters:
 
GTMAT is a good alternative, as is any one of those commercial car dampeners. Waxman and Silverstone are nice alternatives to Akasa Paxmate, available on Amazon, though not cheaply.
 
The best place though? Go to your local Michaels or other craft store and buy yourself a lifetime supply of these materials for $10ish. 

Thank you for your response. 

 

[stillshot2]

Yeah thanks! I am also wondering, how will these headphones sound playing 256kbps songs? Or even using Pandora? Are they too detailed or revealing for either situation?

 

[jasonb]

Pretty much all of my listening is done using 256kbps aac from itunes or 320kbps mp3 using MOG. Both formats are perfectly fine.
Quote:

Yeah thanks! I am also wondering, how will these headphones sound playing 256kbps songs? Or even using Pandora? Are they too detailed or revealing for either situation?

 

[MetalHealth30]

For all intents and purposes, 256 kpbs aac should be pretty much transparent. I notice my VBR with a bit rate around ~200 sound just fine so 256 kbps should be just fine.

 

[sheya]

Quote:

 
 
Completely sealing the cups (cup vents, jack, ear side baffle ports) = Less Bass, "thin" sound, and less efficiency (need more power to drive), IME.
 
Removing internal cup vent felt = Too Much Bass that bloats into the lower mids and knocks out treble.
 
Leaking caused by poor seal at cup-to-baffle rims, stretched pad flaps, poor seal at pads-to-your head = Loss of Bass
 
The density and weight of your cotton may be different from side to side. Get a $25 digital scale with calibration weight from Amazon.
 
More cotton, acoustic foam, fiberglass, felt, rock wool, polyfil, etc. = more treble, less bass.... and vice versa
 
There is manufacturing variance from 'phone to 'phone as well as from Right to Left drivers of the same set of phones. I often have to alter the damping materials in one side or the other to balance them. REW and a measurement kit, or a SPL meter, tells you if you're balanced, or not.
 
You could try un-sealing the ear side baffle ports and making a 4 mm wide modified bass port at the the center of just 1 of the 4 cup vents instead of completely sealing them. 
 
Modified Bass Port = Controlled Bass aka less bass quantity, perhaps better bass quality
 
The pads you use make a Huge difference in FR.
 
Others do things differently with good results. There are many paths to good SQ but it will likely require a bit of trial and error tuning to balance them and get the SQ you like best. Don't give up...experiment!
 
Good luck

Sorry that it has taken me so long to reply.  It took me a while to work on them and figure out what I could do better.  It turns out that the screw holes were slightly stripped, and even though the cups were sealed with silicon around the rims, the screws not tightening the baffle to the opposite cup effected the bass response and other aspects of the sound.  I used krazy glue and drilled out new screw holes, and now the cups are even below 2khz.  I still have some work to do to even out the treble.   I seem to prefer the cups completely sealed.  Thank you for your suggestions and help.
 
Aaron

 

[Lohb]

Would an 18 volt Altoid amp be enough to power a pair of Fostex as a mobile amp ?

 

[MetalHealth30]

Quote:

Would an 18 volt Altoid amp be enough to power a pair of Fostex as a mobile amp ?

 


Depends on how much dampening you used inside them. More dampening=less efficient.

 

[Lohb]

could the damping cause them to distort/fart ?

 

[Armaegis]

Distort... not likely. Farty noises... maybe. 

 

[jasonb]

How would an 18 volt amp not be enough? Even the E17 powers them well and it has nowhere near that kind of voltage.

 

[Schonen]

Quote:

How's the lower and upper end?

That's the weak point of all planar/ortho speakers,  very weak bottom end. Friend and I tried the mods on T40 and mids/highs were good but I like bottom end too much to use them for myself. I have an old pair of planar computer speakers (Monsoon) and they solve that issue by throwing in a subwoofer too.

 

[jasonb]

That is totally untrue. Othordynamics can have plenty of bass if tuned that way. Mine are just north of neutral and have the best bottom end extension and power I've ever heard from a headphone. 
Quote:

That's the weak point of all planar/ortho speakers,  very weak bottom end. Friend and I tried the mods on T40 and mids/highs were good but I like bottom end too much to use them for myself. I have an old pair of planar computer speakers (Monsoon) and they solve that issue by throwing in a subwoofer too.

 

[stillshot2]

@jasonb:
Are these modded t50rp's you are referring to that have "the best bottom end extension you've ever heard?" 

 

[Lohb]

Quote:

How would an 18 volt amp not be enough? Even the E17 powers them well and it has nowhere near that kind of voltage.

I bought a custom pair of Fostex recently and I could not get them loud without them farting. So I was puzzled as both my other headphones go loud and one was HFM-400's so my audio chain was working with unmodified Orthos.To remove the bass distortion they had to be so quiet that they were unlistenable.