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

[bluemonkeyflyer]

Quote:

Would any Head Fi-er out there be willing to mod a pair for me if I send them and pay $35?

I agree with JoelPearce and others who advise against asking someone to make a mod for you.  Instead, do it yourself.  My first DIY headphones modification was 2 weeks ago.  I read through this entire thread plus about a quarter of the massive Orthodynamic Roundup thread.  I cherry picked posts/pix and pasted into a Word document. Each post is identified by the author. This made it easier for me to go back and check details of specific mods that most interested me.
 
The T50RP is really easy to open up, mod, and put back together.  I've done it about 15-20 times on this one set and 6 times on T20v2.  It does make a difference...with just about every modification.  What sounds good to me, however, might not sound so good to you.  
 
Follow the procedures outlined by smeggy,  mrspeakers, joelpearce, sanchu, boilermakerfan, and several others within this thread.  The supplies can be picked up for less than $10; I did mine for < $5.00 worth of plasticine and Akasa Paxmate Plus.  Pick and choose what looks interesting/feasible and give it a shot. It's fun.  Just be careful when separating the baffle from the cup so you don't pull the wires off from the driver and headphone jack solder points.  You can use some hot glue on the 2 wires connected to the driver but avoid using hot glue on the jack connections.  Hot glue on the jack connections prevents the jack from seating in its baffle receptacle when you're ready to close it back up...lesson learned.
 
Here's my T50RP mod with ideas from all of the above; nothing here was my invention:
 

 
1. Separate ear pads from double back stick tack.
2. Remove 4 outside screws that hold on the baffle.
3. Carefully separate baffle from cup making sure to not stress the delicate solder points.
4. Fill holes in back of baffles with art supply plasticine clay (Claytoons 483 g.) and punch holes with screwdriver.
5. Cut off just enough stock damping felt over bottom vent to expose 1 vent slot; I used an Xacto knife.
6. Cut pieces of Akasa Paxmate Plus to cover the bottom of the cups.
7. Put back together.
 
I cut away the dust cover on the front of the drivers.  This made no difference in SQ; probably because it is very thin and very permeable.  I ordered replacements from Full Compass.
 
I ordered Shure 840 pads but have not tried them, yet.  I may add Akasa or felt to the cup walls. I may try felt over the back of the driver.  I am hesitant to remove the stock white felt despite positive results reported by some on this forum.
 
The bass is textured.  Mids are prominent.  Highs are extended without fatigue.  I'm happy with this but will probably continue to tinker because it is fun.
 
Off topic; same principles:
 
Here's a T20v2 I modded:
 

 
1. Roll a 6" rope of Elmer's adhesive putty tack and press against round driver on back of baffle.  I used 1/2 of a 1 oz (28 g.) package per side.
2. Cut Akasa to cover bottom of cups; leave vents uncovered.
3. Cut stick-on felt and place around walls of the cups.
4. Replace stock foam puck to cover vents.
5. Cut Akasa for outside of baffle under ear pads; obviously leaving the driver uncovered.
6. Put back together.
7. Replace broken hanger with replacement that Smeggy gave me (Thx Smeggy!).
8. Sounds amazing; almost as good as modded T50RP; so I bought another set on ebay.
 
Price paid:  $25 for phones and ~$5 for modding materials.  I may try Akasa on the cup walls; Akasa on one cup vent and remove the stock foam puck; same as previous with felt on back of drivers.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

P.S.  I have 4 sets of stock T50RP's I will eventually modify for gifts.  I used one set just now for A/B/A/B comparisons between a stock pair of T50RP, my modded T50RP, and my modded T20v2.  I am amazed that the stock T50RP with its mid-centric presentation, distorted muddy lows, and non-integrated, smeared highs is so easily sorted out with some simple mods.  
 
The mods I "borrowed" from mrspeakers, joelpearce, smeggy, sachu, boilermakerfan, and others cost less than $5 to implement. I have a lot of left-over material for future mods.  
 
I am a complete Noob at this but was able to improve this $75 pair of studio headphones to somewhere around 75% of the SQ of my $975 Audeze LCD2 "Classic".  The Fostex planar magnetic drivers, old and new, are impressive.

 

[butt]

Hi franklyshankly,
I do believe you can do it yourself all the mods, as at least I think I'm the worst when it comes to DIY..lol
Ask as much question as you want, for me mrspeaker have been very helpful entertaining my PM with all the silly and stupid question, and have been guiding me on most mods.
Try it and I'm sure you'll do fine in no time..

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

Noob question: what is a reflex dot and what is its function?

 

[joelpearce]

Quote:

Noob question: what is a reflex dot and what is its function?

It's something relatively solid--the function is to reflect treble back over the driver.  Since bass waves are longer, they will just keep bouncing around until they hit the ear eventually (this is hugely oversimplified).  Treble waves disperse quickly, but a disc covering part of the back of an ortho driver really increases treble response.
 
That's why you can't use the SFI drivers that don't have openings on both sides--it would be like having a giant reflex dot over the whole back of the driver (all treble, no bass).
 

 

[joelpearce]

Quote:

while i can appreciate the caution to member 'franklyshankly', remember this is head-fi ... where no wallet is too thin or too thick that it can't bleed a little more &  heads and ears are incessantly bruised but never bloodied ... i say cut him a little slack, after all, how many have purchased thunderpants, hd800s, lcd-2s, he-5s, he-6s, or t50rps, etc. unseen and unheard?  so... t50rp modders with a track record, step up to the plate & give yon 'franklyshankly' a hand. 

Don't get me wrong--I'd be happy to help someone out with something like this.  For Canadians especially, I'd be happy to mod up a pair for the cost of shipping and materials, but doing it yourself really teaches you a lot. (even for those of us that don't know that terribly much).

 

[b0wl1ng]

Quote:

What mods?

What mods?, you name it I,ve tried it LoL, have now super glued the pads onto the housing as I am now completely happy with the awesome sound signature, super tight bass , warm liquid honeyed mids, crisp sparkling highs and precision detail.  
My final mod was quite, basic, plenty of mass in the back of the cup (cotton wool) a nice thick piece of felt glued across the entire driver,  I removed all of the plastacine from the baffles, this markedly improved the detail and soundstage, no resonance issues whatsoever.
I replaced all of the original felts on the damping as well, I am now done, the sound is far superior to all of my other headphones, they love more power and a quality solid state amp .I will not be looking to purchase anymore headphones , I have always loved ortho,s and have had magnepans in the past, but these drivers really are something special for their size and would scale Mount Everest.
For me the key is a nice piece of black felt (1/16" max) over the driver and plenty of mass in the back of the cup, the material used is not critical , the best result I have had is with plain old cotton wool.  
 

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

Quote:

It's something relatively solid--the function is to reflect treble back over the driver.  Since bass waves are longer, they will just keep bouncing around until they hit the ear eventually (this is hugely oversimplified).  Treble waves disperse quickly, but a disc covering part of the back of an ortho driver really increases treble response.
 
That's why you can't use the SFI drivers that don't have openings on both sides--it would be like having a giant reflex dot over the whole back of the driver (all treble, no bass).
 

 What produces the best effect?  Felt dot, rubber dot, or...?  So the reflex dot should be mounted to the center square on the back of the driver? I wonder if the effect increases treble or reduces bass.
 
 

 

[AnotherN00b]

Wow -- this is a really unique approach that flies in the face of the conventional wisdom here! I don't know that anyone's tried modding these without adding mass to the baffles as that was one of the original mods. Stock these had all sorts of plastic resonances and I assumed it was the modeling clay/plasticine that removed that so it's interesting to hear that you tried that but like the results better without it. Did you try the akasa foam mod too? I'm assuming you removed the white stock material on the back of the driver and put your black felt in its place? Is that wool felt or craft felt? Anyone else try similar mods with no mass loading? I don't think I'm going to start over but it's interesting (and vexing) to hear of another completely different approach!
 
Quote:

What mods?, you name it I,ve tried it LoL, have now super glued the pads onto the housing as I am now completely happy with the awesome sound signature, super tight bass , warm liquid honeyed mids, crisp sparkling highs and precision detail.  
My final mod was quite, basic, plenty of mass in the back of the cup (cotton wool) a nice thick piece of felt glued across the entire driver,  I removed all of the plastacine from the baffles, this markedly improved the detail and soundstage, no resonance issues whatsoever.
I replaced all of the original felts on the damping as well, I am now done, the sound is far superior to all of my other headphones, they love more power and a quality solid state amp .I will not be looking to purchase anymore headphones , I have always loved ortho,s and have had magnepans in the past, but these drivers really are something special for their size and would scale Mount Everest.
For me the key is a nice piece of black felt (1/16" max) over the driver and plenty of mass in the back of the cup, the material used is not critical , the best result I have had is with plain old cotton wool.  
 

 

 

[b0wl1ng]

Very dense black wool type felt 1/16" thick, almost the same type that is on the front of the cups, I have tried many varieties of acoustic foams including Alaska.The first thing I did was to add mass to the baffles, 1st blue tac which I later replaced with plasticine.
I have left the stock material on the driver and glued the felt on top of it, to be honest I removed the plasticine on a whim as I intended to close them permanently and was very suprised by the results, no resonance, no plasticky sound and a benefit of improvement in detail.
I did try various felt types and thickness before settling with the above,
 
 
Quote:

Wow -- this is a really unique approach that flies in the face of the conventional wisdom here! I don't know that anyone's tried modding these without adding mass to the baffles as that was one of the original mods. Stock these had all sorts of plastic resonances and I assumed it was the modeling clay/plasticine that removed that so it's interesting to hear that you tried that but like the results better without it. Did you try the akasa foam mod too? I'm assuming you removed the white stock material on the back of the driver and put your black felt in its place? Is that wool felt or craft felt? Anyone else try similar mods with no mass loading? I don't think I'm going to start over but it's interesting (and vexing) to hear of another completely different approach!
 


 

 

 

[unchain]

Just modded mine. Mind = blown. This is ridiculous and amazing, and I will be back in here with a better description, but I need to get back to jamming Zeppelin IV.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

I did A/B testing today with my wife blinded to stock T50RP and my modded T50RP described in an earlier post. I played Patricia Barber's "Too Rich For My Blood" because it's one of her favorites she knows well. Neither of us looked at one another during the tests repeated five times per set. For each test, I went through the motions of unplugging and plugging even when the same set of cans was played back to back. She was allowed to listen for as long as she wanted which was usually about one minute and she could also go back and listen to any section within each trial. After each A/B cycle, she gave me her predictions which I recorded. I gave no verbal and no non-verbal feedback when she gave her responses to randomized trials. I used nothing more than my MacBook analog out.

She scored 100% correct. I asked her to describe what she heard. She said the modded set was more detailed and integrated with complex bass, very nice mids, and clear highs. She said the stock set was like listening to three separate speakers, each playing only one set of frequencies. The stock set also sounded blurred to her.

Not double blinded but interesting. I want to repeat this experiment using my Dacmini and serve as the test subject.

 

[bluemonkeyflyer]

Just modded mine. Mind = blown. This is ridiculous and amazing, and I will be back in here with a better description, but I need to get back to jamming Zeppelin IV.

What did you do? Pix would be interesting.

 

[mrspeakers]

Quote:

Wow -- this is a really unique approach that flies in the face of the conventional wisdom here! I don't know that anyone's tried modding these without adding mass to the baffles as that was one of the original mods. Stock these had all sorts of plastic resonances and I assumed it was the modeling clay/plasticine that removed that so it's interesting to hear that you tried that but like the results better without it. Did you try the akasa foam mod too? I'm assuming you removed the white stock material on the back of the driver and put your black felt in its place? Is that wool felt or craft felt? Anyone else try similar mods with no mass loading? I don't think I'm going to start over but it's interesting (and vexing) to hear of another completely different approach!
 

Why would you be vexed?  You probably have an extremely excellent set of phones by now for a ridiculously low price and a little fun and exploration.  I had several configs that I liked a lot before I got the Rastapants version done, and only then did I have the "wow, this is like a little brother to the LCD-2" moment...  You could try this and maybe it will sound better to you, maybe not, having not heard it I can't say...
 
I can say, though, in my experience unloading the mass of the front baffle definitely changes the sound to me; it negatively restores the plasticy sound of the original.  But that's my rig.  It'd be cool for someone with two to compare the mods, but my next project is woodies.
 
 

 

[chrislangley4253]

I'm trying to decide which mods i want to do first. Guess I'm going to mass load the baffles, but can't decide if i'll use plasticine or dynamat. I would think dynamat would be better, but much more difficult to work with and remove later. I'm going to duplicate what monkey did with the acoustic foam.. any advice as far as putting some dynamat in the cup, or should I not even bother?