[criticalJenn]

Does anyone know if you need things like wood oil to take care of the walnut?

 
No, the wood is lacquered, so you'd have to sand off the lacquer if you wanted to treat it with anything - the lacquer will protect it well, and it shouldn't shrink or dry on you.
Concerns regarding longevity and quality of the wood cups here should be a non-factor, they're treated well.
 
Still wish Fostex would use a better interior design though, but with the 610 this is much less of a factor than the previous iterations, the drivers being dampened and all fixes a lot of the problems in my experience.

 

[brintamatic]

I love the look of the 610s. I'm not into shiny things - the matte wood look comes off as a more refined version of its siblings. To all the 900 lovers - please forgive me, I appreciate the amount of craftsmanship that goes into those cups but personally, I would still pick the look of the 610s.

 

[Flex2d]

Okay guys 610's arrived! Boom 30 mins of playing and  trying figure if i like these things .. How will the sound mature over the next couple days? It interesting as i kind of feel the bass is a little lacking? will this mature and become more predominant?
 
I am running this from Spotify premium to Little Dot Mk2 valve amp with Mullard M8100
 
Wondering what improvements i can expect in the sound quality?
 
Thanks
 
Daniel

 

[canthearyou]

I really can't wait to get these. A more refined and less bassy TH-X00 are what I want.

 

[Flex2d]

Is it just me or is the Mids seriously taking centre stage with these cans.
 
Really not sure about these, female vocal seems recessed.
 
Bass seems a little light as well.. hmm not sure i get the hype.
 
What does everyone else think?
 
Thanks

 

[George Taylor]

  Is it just me or is the Mids seriously taking centre stage with these cans.
 
Really not sure about these, female vocal seems recessed.
 
Bass seems a little light as well.. hmm not sure i get the hype.
 
What does everyone else think?
 
Thanks

Can I ask you what amp you're running them out of? I have been running mine out of a Valhalla 2, and the bass was plentiful. However I had a new solid state amp come in today and hooking them up to it has been eye opening to say the least. They are much more balanced, and the lush, smooth darkness I had with the tubes is not there. Maybe that's the difference you're experiencing?

 

[Flex2d]

 
Can I ask you what amp you're running them out of? I have been running mine out of a Valhalla 2, and the bass was plentiful. However I had a new solid state amp come in today and hooking them up to it has been eye opening to say the least. They are much more balanced, and the lush, smooth darkness I had with the tubes is not there. Maybe that's the difference you're experiencing?
 

I have them going through a Little Dot Mk2 had to change the tubes to most neutral to get anything kind of pleasing .. I then spend a good 7 hours with a mac book pro ( work) and just yeah mids way to dominant. Not sure why. I ran the bass test which Z Reviews goes on about ( video on youtube ) and was getting the same response from my bose AE v1 as to the th610's.. so not sure what is going on to be honest. Maybe they are slightly faulty or something.. Also the female voice is very recessed in them. male voices sounded great.. Mids again. 
 
I have returned them as i just couldn't love them for the price tbh. so in the market for a top notch pair. but just not sure what..
 
Any pointers would be great.. i know this is a TH 610 thread, sorry for asking
 
Cheers
 
Daniel

 

[Taylor Smith]

  I have them going through a Little Dot Mk2 had to change the tubes to most neutral to get anything kind of pleasing .. I then spend a good 7 hours with a mac book pro ( work) and just yeah mids way to dominant. Not sure why. I ran the bass test which Z Reviews goes on about ( video on youtube ) and was getting the same response from my bose AE v1 as to the th610's.. so not sure what is going on to be honest. Maybe they are slightly faulty or something.. Also the female voice is very recessed in them. male voices sounded great.. Mids again. 
 
I have returned them as i just couldn't love them for the price tbh. so in the market for a top notch pair. but just not sure what..
 
Any pointers would be great.. i know this is a TH 610 thread, sorry for asking
 
Cheers
 
Daniel

Hey Daniel, 
 
The mids are an interesting character on this headphone. My personal listening, on different sets of tubes and solid state amplifiers, show my ears that the mids are ever so slightly recessed between the bass and treble. These headphones can become bright sounding in recordings, I also find the lows can be less present when a recording calls for it. However, I have always found the mids consistent in any recording, regardless of where they fall between the low and highs. The thing with the 610's is that they do not have one area they excel in, being very balanced. One of the most balanced headphones Fostex has released in recent years. 
 
I also am not sure the 610's would be a good match for the little dot mkII due to its low impedance and sensitivity.  The little dot I+ is a better match for lower impedance headphones. 
 
If you want to look at the fostex family still, I would look at the TH-600's if you're looking for a little more response from the low end.

 

[Flex2d]

  Hey Daniel, 
 
The mids are an interesting character on this headphone. My personal listening, on different sets of tubes and solid state amplifiers, show my ears that the mids are ever so slightly recessed between the bass and treble. These headphones can become bright sounding in recordings, I also find the lows can be less present when a recording calls for it. However, I have always found the mids consistent in any recording, regardless of where they fall between the low and highs. The thing with the 610's is that they do not have one area they excel in, being very balanced. One of the most balanced headphones Fostex has released in recent years. 
 
I also am not sure the 610's would be a good match for the little dot mkII due to its low impedance and sensitivity.  The little dot I+ is a better match for lower impedance headphones. 
 
If you want to look at the fostex family still, I would look at the TH-600's if you're looking for a little more response from the low end.

​Thanks for the reply.. Yeah I think maybe mine might have been slightly faulty then.. I had a couple of colleague try them and they were on the same line of thinking as myself without mentioning it prior..
I think there might have been an issue then. as they were very mid heavy. I tried the head phones on the little dot mk2 on its lowest impeadance and the headphones would not respond correctly.. they gave some strange effect where you could hardly hear the sound and the treble sounded like crackling.. had to set LD mk2 to medium impedance to get them sounding ok..
 
but like I said I spent a good 7 hours without the LD mk2 attached and they sounded the same very bloated mids..
 
I was thinking of maybe the Mass drop thx000 as they apparently have more bass. now you got me thinking it might of just been my pair of cans..
 
Best
 
Daniel

 

[Taylor Smith]

 
​Thanks for the reply.. Yeah I think maybe mine might have been slightly faulty then.. I had a couple of colleague try them and they were on the same line of thinking as myself without mentioning it prior..
I think there might have been an issue then. as they were very mid heavy. I tried the head phones on the little dot mk2 on its lowest impeadance and the headphones would not respond correctly.. they gave some strange effect where you could hardly hear the sound and the treble sounded like crackling.. had to set LD mk2 to medium impedance to get them sounding ok..
 
but like I said I spent a good 7 hours without the LD mk2 attached and they sounded the same very bloated mids..
 
I was thinking of maybe the Mass drop thx000 as they apparently have more bass. now you got me thinking it might of just been my pair of cans..
 
Best
 
Daniel

I'd like to hope you were one of the rare few who had an error with your pair. With that said, it could be that the sound just isn't for you haha. I felt the Oppo PM-3 were 'bad enough that they felt defective' and it just happened to be that I couldn't stand how boring they were. Since you switched from using the little dot for many hours, that would eliminate the hybrid setup from the cause. 
 
Looking at the TH-X00 vs the TH-600's, the 600's are going to have a more treble, sometimes getting into splashy territory, but also felt more airy. TH-X00's seem to have a less bright treble. I also felt as if the 600's had a little more mid bass than the Mahogany TH-X00's I tried, but their sub bass extension was pretty much the same. The TH-X00's punchy a little harder. Mids are fairly even on both cans, a little recessed, but not extremely V Shaped. 

 

[George Taylor]

 
​Thanks for the reply.. Yeah I think maybe mine might have been slightly faulty then.. I had a couple of colleague try them and they were on the same line of thinking as myself without mentioning it prior..
I think there might have been an issue then. as they were very mid heavy. I tried the head phones on the little dot mk2 on its lowest impeadance and the headphones would not respond correctly.. they gave some strange effect where you could hardly hear the sound and the treble sounded like crackling.. had to set LD mk2 to medium impedance to get them sounding ok..
 
but like I said I spent a good 7 hours without the LD mk2 attached and they sounded the same very bloated mids..
 
I was thinking of maybe the Mass drop thx000 as they apparently have more bass. now you got me thinking it might of just been my pair of cans..
 
Best
 
Daniel

Do you have the ability to try out anything before buying where you live? Any stores nearby? I know I'm stuck with the choice of either drive several hours, or ordering blind online. Anyway, if you do have the chance to try things in store before hand I'd suggest trying the Nighthawks or maybe the DT 770s. They both have decent bass imo. But then again I feel that way about the 610s, so maybe I'm not a good person to follow on this opinion. I'm sorry that they didn't work out for you, but some of the things you're describing does make it sound like there's more going on than just they don't suit you. Better luck in the future!

 

[BearMonster]

​Thanks for the reply.. Yeah I think maybe mine might have been slightly faulty then.. I had a couple of colleague try them and they were on the same line of thinking as myself without mentioning it prior..
I think there might have been an issue then. as they were very mid heavy. I tried the head phones on the little dot mk2 on its lowest impeadance and the headphones would not respond correctly.. they gave some strange effect where you could hardly hear the sound and the treble sounded like crackling.. had to set LD mk2 to medium impedance to get them sounding ok..
 
but like I said I spent a good 7 hours without the LD mk2 attached and they sounded the same very bloated mids..
 
I was thinking of maybe the Mass drop thx000 as they apparently have more bass. now you got me thinking it might of just been my pair of cans..
 
Best
 
Daniel

 


I'm not actually sure a otl amp is the best idea for something like the fostex. I'm not very sure what the headphone output impendance is either but reading from the little dot mk2 it sends 100mw into 32ohms which is ok as the fostex are amp friendly enough to be played on the phone. One thing to mention is that otl amp give bass bloom compared to the bass slam which solid state give. Some otl amps can give the slam but you might have to travel much higher up the price.

You mention messing around with the impendance switch but to be more accurate it is actually a gain switch looking at the little dot mk 2 manual what you wrote kind of confuses me? Factory setting A is the default setting which is for high impendance headphones, setting B is for medium & setting C & D is for low impendance. In truth you should either be using setting C or D as the fostex are low impedance & high sensitive. I'm not sure why you are getting the crackling noise as there could be loads of reasons for that.

By the way have you tried using the fostex out of your phone does it give the same kind of sound you hear from your little dot mk 2.

 

[Flex2d]

Hi thanks for chiping in, Yeah ran it on my phone for couple hours and on macbook pro for 7 plus hours.. i think there might have been something wrong with them.. just verybloated mids.. was strange to be honest. 
I think there must of been something wrong with them.
 
Yeah i think from what you are saying in regards to  Little Dot mk2 i tried D and set it to C. 
 
I dont think it was the amp.. as it was consistent sound on mac, iphone 7 and pc.. 
 
odd
Thanks
 
Daniel

 

[BearMonster]

Hi thanks for chiping in, Yeah ran it on my phone for couple hours and on macbook pro for 7 plus hours.. i think there might have been something wrong with them.. just verybloated mids.. was strange to be honest. 


I think there must of been something wrong with them.


 


Yeah i think from what you are saying in regards to  Little Dot mk2 i tried D and set it to C. 


 


I dont think it was the amp.. as it was consistent sound on mac, iphone 7 and pc.. 


 


odd


Thanks


 


Daniel

 


interesting to hear. But from what i hear is the fostex headphone actually need to be burnt in, some say you should give them 150hr. I'm guessing the bio celluse is the part that needs to be burnt in.

 

[Flex2d]

 

  Hi thanks for chiping in, Yeah ran it on my phone for couple hours and on macbook pro for 7 plus hours.. i think there might have been something wrong with them.. just verybloated mids.. was strange to be honest. 
  I think there must of been something wrong with them.
   
  Yeah i think from what you are saying in regards to  Little Dot mk2 i tried D and set it to C. 
   
  I dont think it was the amp.. as it was consistent sound on mac, iphone 7 and pc.. 
   
  odd
  Thanks
   
  Daniel

 


interesting to hear. But from what i hear is the fostex headphone actually need to be burnt in, some say you should give them 150hr. I'm guessing the bio celluse is the part that needs to be burnt in.

KK, i was under the impression the 12hrs or so would suffice. Hence my conclusion .. also several other colleagues stated the same about them in regards the mids. So kind of wanted to make sure im not loosing the plot ! then thought i would ask the community about them. So either they are slightly faulty.. or im going bonkers along with my colleagues  
Thanks for the input though, appreciated!