Shroune
Head-Fier
Introduction
Established in 1949, Fostex is a reputable company in the audio world. From making pro-grade recording equipment to high-fidelity audio consumer gear, Fostex is certainly experienced in this domain. With the release of their TH-900, they blew away bass-heads by making one of the cleanest dynamic driver bass in a headphone. Now, a couple years later, they collaborated with massdrop by attempting to make a semi closed-back headphone that redefines price-to-performance. Using, once again, biodynamic drivers to continue Fostex’s sound signature in yet another headphone. They released three wood types: ebony, purpleheart and mahogany. They’re all within a 100$ price difference, the lowest being the Mahogany and the most expensive is ebony. Priced at 470$ USD (TR-X00) the purpleheart is the one that I personally chose because of its v-shaped signature.
Build & comfort
The build is actually very good for a headphone because they used a magnesium-alloy frame. The cups are the stars of the show. They just look phenomenal and just by looking at them, you know that you have a luxury item. They used leatherette as the material of choice for the headband and the cups. I don’t have any problems with the headband even if it doesn’t have any padding. I do have a problem with the pads like most people because leatherette doesn’t breathe very well so it makes your ears very hot like earmuffs would. Also, a big design flaw with this particular structure is that if you twist the cups outwards with a little too much force, the hinges are known to give out and snap, leaving you with a detached cup in your hands. I tried pad-rolling these because my ears would get hot after 10 minutes and my experience with other pads was awful.
Pad rolling
This headphone is by no stretch of the imagination a good pad roller. I tried most of ZMF’s offerings in terms of pads (sheepskin) and all of them boosted the highs and lowered the bass which made it painful to listen to. Now, I also heard through the community that all dekoni pads made them worse in terms of sound too. So, if you really love the way they sound but hate the comfort, there’s not much to do unfortunately. There’s one alternative though. I bought a pair of TH-610 pads off moon-audio.comwhich costed me an arm and a leg and made a significant improvement in terms of sound quality and comfort. By looking at the changes on a graph, I can say that the mids were brought up by about 3dB from 50Hz all the way to 500Hz. It also lowered the 5000Hz by 2dB. What I saw on the graph was consistent with my hearing. Basically, everything stayed the same and distant vocals were now a little more forward. Comfort was also improved as they breathed more, and I had a little more space as the holes for the ears were a little bigger.
Highs
The treble on the PH’s weren’t bothersome at all. In fact, they are quite nice for the price. It isn’t particularly resolving like my Focal Elex’s but it manages to pick out small details that couldn’t be heard with cheaper headphones. I did hear a slight elevation around the 10k region and a slight dip at 8k. However, this headphone had lots of air. The only issue I had with this headphone’s treble was the slight graininess. It wasn’t as smooth as I wanted it to be. I can’t do too much critique on it though because it’s a sub 500$ can.
Midrange
This is the part I dislike about these. On the original pads, mids sounded distant and lacked detail, because of how recessed they are. This is due to their v-shaped nature. If you only listen to pop or very vocal-oriented genres, you won’t like these at all. Although, with the TH-610 pads, vocals came much more forward and sounded much better. This isn’t a very resolving headphone, but if you come from something like beats, it’ll blow your mind. You will hear parts of your music that you had never heard before.
Bass
This is what Fostex is known for, particularly in the sub-bass region. If you listen mostly to electronic and rap, this headphone is what you want to buy. Not a lot of headphones can extend down to the 20Hz and below range while still being very audible. These do it effortlessly. They punch hard and extend unbelievably low. At times, the bass can bleed into the mids, but it wasn’t too bothersome to me. The bass and sub-bass might be too much for some and for those who do, I’ll advise looking into the ebony or mahogany variants. Otherwise, the drivers are fast and deliver clean bass like I’ve never heard before. TH-900 is the only headphone I heard that can beat these in terms of cleanliness for bass.
Soundstage & imaging
TH-X00 purpleheart is a very intimate headphone. Sounds don’t disperse far out, they sound relatively close to you, just like Hd-6xx. They do have one trick up their sleeve. These do something that I have yet to hear on another headphone: 3D sound. What do I mean by that? While everything sounds close to you, imaging will be perfect and will go from side to side and from front to back. The thing is, that when sounds are coming from far in front of you and far in back of you, they won’t sound distant at all, but instead, they will physically move from front to back within the cup. It almost sounds like there’s another driver at times inside the cup. It’s truly mind-blowing.
Dynamics
It’s descent for its price. No concerns in this department considering it’s not the most dynamic headphone in the world. I’d say it’s where it should be for its price.
Amp pairing
Don’t be fooled by their low impedance rating of 32 ohms. They are not very efficient, so they do require a little power. A phone will do the trick, although they will benefit from a portable amp/dac. Other than that, I didn’t hear much changes in sound from one amp/dac to another.
Conclusion
Fostex really did wonders with this headphone. Now that it comes with detachable cables, you can’t really ask for more. If you’re into bass, and don’t want to spend over 1k$, there isn’t much that will beat these for a dynamic set of semi-closed back headphone.
Established in 1949, Fostex is a reputable company in the audio world. From making pro-grade recording equipment to high-fidelity audio consumer gear, Fostex is certainly experienced in this domain. With the release of their TH-900, they blew away bass-heads by making one of the cleanest dynamic driver bass in a headphone. Now, a couple years later, they collaborated with massdrop by attempting to make a semi closed-back headphone that redefines price-to-performance. Using, once again, biodynamic drivers to continue Fostex’s sound signature in yet another headphone. They released three wood types: ebony, purpleheart and mahogany. They’re all within a 100$ price difference, the lowest being the Mahogany and the most expensive is ebony. Priced at 470$ USD (TR-X00) the purpleheart is the one that I personally chose because of its v-shaped signature.
Build & comfort
The build is actually very good for a headphone because they used a magnesium-alloy frame. The cups are the stars of the show. They just look phenomenal and just by looking at them, you know that you have a luxury item. They used leatherette as the material of choice for the headband and the cups. I don’t have any problems with the headband even if it doesn’t have any padding. I do have a problem with the pads like most people because leatherette doesn’t breathe very well so it makes your ears very hot like earmuffs would. Also, a big design flaw with this particular structure is that if you twist the cups outwards with a little too much force, the hinges are known to give out and snap, leaving you with a detached cup in your hands. I tried pad-rolling these because my ears would get hot after 10 minutes and my experience with other pads was awful.
Pad rolling
This headphone is by no stretch of the imagination a good pad roller. I tried most of ZMF’s offerings in terms of pads (sheepskin) and all of them boosted the highs and lowered the bass which made it painful to listen to. Now, I also heard through the community that all dekoni pads made them worse in terms of sound too. So, if you really love the way they sound but hate the comfort, there’s not much to do unfortunately. There’s one alternative though. I bought a pair of TH-610 pads off moon-audio.comwhich costed me an arm and a leg and made a significant improvement in terms of sound quality and comfort. By looking at the changes on a graph, I can say that the mids were brought up by about 3dB from 50Hz all the way to 500Hz. It also lowered the 5000Hz by 2dB. What I saw on the graph was consistent with my hearing. Basically, everything stayed the same and distant vocals were now a little more forward. Comfort was also improved as they breathed more, and I had a little more space as the holes for the ears were a little bigger.
Highs
The treble on the PH’s weren’t bothersome at all. In fact, they are quite nice for the price. It isn’t particularly resolving like my Focal Elex’s but it manages to pick out small details that couldn’t be heard with cheaper headphones. I did hear a slight elevation around the 10k region and a slight dip at 8k. However, this headphone had lots of air. The only issue I had with this headphone’s treble was the slight graininess. It wasn’t as smooth as I wanted it to be. I can’t do too much critique on it though because it’s a sub 500$ can.
Midrange
This is the part I dislike about these. On the original pads, mids sounded distant and lacked detail, because of how recessed they are. This is due to their v-shaped nature. If you only listen to pop or very vocal-oriented genres, you won’t like these at all. Although, with the TH-610 pads, vocals came much more forward and sounded much better. This isn’t a very resolving headphone, but if you come from something like beats, it’ll blow your mind. You will hear parts of your music that you had never heard before.
Bass
This is what Fostex is known for, particularly in the sub-bass region. If you listen mostly to electronic and rap, this headphone is what you want to buy. Not a lot of headphones can extend down to the 20Hz and below range while still being very audible. These do it effortlessly. They punch hard and extend unbelievably low. At times, the bass can bleed into the mids, but it wasn’t too bothersome to me. The bass and sub-bass might be too much for some and for those who do, I’ll advise looking into the ebony or mahogany variants. Otherwise, the drivers are fast and deliver clean bass like I’ve never heard before. TH-900 is the only headphone I heard that can beat these in terms of cleanliness for bass.
Soundstage & imaging
TH-X00 purpleheart is a very intimate headphone. Sounds don’t disperse far out, they sound relatively close to you, just like Hd-6xx. They do have one trick up their sleeve. These do something that I have yet to hear on another headphone: 3D sound. What do I mean by that? While everything sounds close to you, imaging will be perfect and will go from side to side and from front to back. The thing is, that when sounds are coming from far in front of you and far in back of you, they won’t sound distant at all, but instead, they will physically move from front to back within the cup. It almost sounds like there’s another driver at times inside the cup. It’s truly mind-blowing.
Dynamics
It’s descent for its price. No concerns in this department considering it’s not the most dynamic headphone in the world. I’d say it’s where it should be for its price.
Amp pairing
Don’t be fooled by their low impedance rating of 32 ohms. They are not very efficient, so they do require a little power. A phone will do the trick, although they will benefit from a portable amp/dac. Other than that, I didn’t hear much changes in sound from one amp/dac to another.
Conclusion
Fostex really did wonders with this headphone. Now that it comes with detachable cables, you can’t really ask for more. If you’re into bass, and don’t want to spend over 1k$, there isn’t much that will beat these for a dynamic set of semi-closed back headphone.
